Everyone who comes to Costa Rica has a story to tell. Some are escaping from their home country because they are criminals or do not fit in.
Many are sick and tired of the “world gone nuts” and hope to find solace here.
Others are explorers looking for the treasure in a good land purchase.
Crossing the border into Costa Rica in the late 60s or early 70s was truly a breathtaking experience.
Old timers with over 30 years living in the country remember the days when Costa Rica was truly a paradise.
Back then, it was very rare indeed to see the police with guns. They carried only a screwdriver and pliers. They used the tools to confiscate the license plates of drivers in violation of the law. Security guards were also an uncommon sight, nothing like today, where they are everywhere.
There were potholes 30 years ago, much like today, but there were also fewer roads. It took longer to get everywhere. Beaches were barren. Few tourists visited the country in those days.
Land was cheap, with most of it still unregistered. The Instituto de Tierras y Colonización or the land reform and settlement agency of Costa Rica started officially colonizing the country in 1961.
This colonizing took place in the United States and Canada in the 1800s.
This fact is one of the reasons speculators still flock to Costa Rica to find land. There are still many parcels granted to locals years back with the original plat maps given to them by the institute, which is known today as the Institute of Agrarian Development.
This agency created maps for the peasants who homesteaded land in return for ownership. Many of the homesteaders sold their land to others over the years without making a new plat map or registering a transfer deed.
Today land buyers must research property starting with the creation of the parcel — in other words going back to the Instituto de Tierras y Colonización and following all the maps and deeds forward to present.
Land buyers must take special note of the maps and the deeds. A plat is a map of a property serving as a drawing for land registration, and it is referred to as a catastro in Spanish.
Plat maps do not generate a deed in Costa Rica. There may be many maps over one property and only one deed. In some cases, the deed has nothing to do with the map or maps over the property.
It was not until 1998 when there was a major change to the notary law did a deed have to be associated with a catastro. Even today, a new map is not required, and an old Instituto de Tierras map is valid, if one exists. Those maps, often, were done with equipment of years past, and are not accurate.
Today, a bigger problem is the Institute of Agrarian Development, other governmental institutions, original landowners and neighbors to property boundaries who dispute some original maps and any deeds associated with them.
When many plat maps exist over a parcel of land and there is no logical reason for them, a savvy land purchaser should track down the people who made the maps and ask why they made them.
Explorers and adventurers still have a place in Costa Rica and can still find hidden treasures in the land. Instituto de Tierras parcels still abound. However, the homework and legal work necessary to acquire one without issues is far more complex than it was years ago.
This is the adventure, full of exploration, delving into the investigative research to find how a piece of land was born and following it through its life of ownership.
A word of wisdom: Do not leave these tasks up to lawyers and surveyors alone. Land purchasers should get someone who knows what they are doing to lead the expedition.
Article first published in A.M. Costa Rica on August 21, 2006.
