Environment ministry about to show its muscles

By: Garland M. Baker B.

Exclusive to A.M. Costa Rica

Editor's Note: While this article was accurate at the time of publication, some information may now be outdated. We are currently preparing a comprehensive update. Sign up for our Alerts to be notified as soon as the revised content is live!

The environmental ministry is about to specify where construction can go within the borders of beach concessions.

Even though an individual or a firm may already have an approved concession, the ministry is ready to rule out construction in forest land, land with steep slopes and wetlands.

And the ministry may initiate destruction of structures that have already been built on land that is now being declared off limits. In some concession areas, 60 to 70 percent of the land is being safeguarded by the environmental ministry.

What is involved is a reevaluation of the rules that govern the maritime zone, the 200 meters above mean high tide. Anything built illegally — from small structures to hotels — can be in the way of the law.

Legal battles can postpone the inevitable, but not delay fate forever. The Mar y Sombra restaurant bit the dust in August after a lengthy, futile legal battle due to its location in the maritime zone, although that was a municipal case.

SURPRISE! They're selling your property!

By: Garland M. Baker B.

Exclusive to A.M. Costa Rica

Editor's Note: While this article was accurate at the time of publication, some information may now be outdated. We are currently preparing a comprehensive update. Sign up for our Alerts to be notified as soon as the revised content is live!

A fantastic scam unfolded in the past two weeks. Events surprised the buyer as well as the owner of a unique beach view property.  

Quick thinking and a nearly unknown legal maneuver locked and saved the property before the Registro Nacional closed Friday, even though the institution again refused to take immediate administrative action in a suspected property fraud case.

The purchasers did not know they were buying something the true owner had no intention of selling.  The intermediaries involved would have received millions in the transaction.  Where the money would have gone is anyone’s guess. Scammers are scheming, crafty, aggressive and malicious people.