It has been a few weeks since I wrote the second part of this series on due diligence when purchasing a home. Here is Part 3: To briefly review Part 2 , after you have done an Online Search for a property by finca number on the Registro Nacional’s (National registry or Hall of Records) Web site www.registronacional.go.cr and checked the following: Naturaleza (This section simply describes the property and its use), Linderos (This section describes what the property borders), Mide or property measurements (given in square meters and written out in words rather than numerals), Antecedentes de la finca (This, in a nutshell, is the history of the property), Valor fiscal (The registered value of the property), Propietario (The name of the property owner), Anotaciones (Technically, annotations to alert the viewer to the existence of an ongoing process) and Gravámenes (Liens). Then If everything goes well with the online search and you still want the property, your attorney’s next step will be to drop by the National Registry. Every property in the country is registered in two places in the National Registry: The registry, which is a written description of the property, its history, and its ownership; and the cadastre, which includes a map of the property, its limits, and how it fits together with neighboring properties. In the registry, your attorney will be researching the property’s ownership history. He or she will be making sure that there are no unresolved claims or property line disputes. Possession claims are a problem that pops up quite a bit, especially in rural land that hasn’t been in great demand until recently. Essentially, this is land that is perhaps owned by someone by possession, but the person has never formally registered ownership. This is not uncommon, as lawyers are expensive for humble farmers, and until now it hasn’t really been necessary. This is just one reason why your lawyer will have to research the entire history of the property, not just recent ownership, and the recent owners may have acquired the land illegally, voiding their titles. Your lawyer will also be looking up the background of any court cases associated with the property, as well as checking to see if the property has any history with special regimens, like IDA, the maritime zone, or the national park system. In the cadastre, the first thing you attorney will do is check the size of the property as registered there with the size in the registry. Since the two systems have evolved independent of one another, some discrepancies are practically inevitable, but any large differences should raise a red flag. Your attorney will also check property lines and how they compare with the property lines of the properties registered around this one. Much of the land in Costa Rica that people today are buying for residential developments and home has in the past never been anything but farmland. Hence, it never needed precise property lines, and much of the property found in the National Registry overlaps substantially. Large overlaps discovered by your attorney could mean a lengthy court battle, while smaller overlaps can often be negotiated with neighbors. The end goal of this part of the process is to figure out exactly what it is the seller is trying to sell you. How big is it in the registry? Will there be disputes with neighbors? Are there already disputes that have yet to be resolved? What are the chances that a lawsuit from 10 years ago comes back to haunt you? Take this part of due diligence seriously and it will make your life a lot easier in the future. One final note: If the property is owned by a corporation, your lawyer will need to look into that corporation’s makeup and ownership at the National Registry. Specifically, he or she will be looking into whether the person you are negotiating with has the authority to sell the property. Try to avoid buying the property through buying shares of the corporation that owns it. Especially with older corporations, you have no way of guaranteeing that forgotten debts or obligations won’t come back to haunt you after the transfer.