Costa Rica Expertise: 2007

Monday, December 10, 2007

Judges are a girl's best friend when extortion's afoot

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Editor's Note: While this article was accurate at the time of publication, some information may now be outdated.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 second part of a true story of an expat's agony and defeat is supposed to end today. The Gringo has to pay his girlfriend to get his house back.

Monday, November 26, 2007

Sometimes mandato is just a power to skin expats

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Editor's Note: While this article was accurate at the time of publication, some information may now be outdated.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!

Powers of attorney are one of the leading causes of property and other kinds of fraud in Costa Rica.  The cases surrounding stealing through a power of attorney are also the hardest ones to fight and win.  Judges rulings abound where they tell plaintiffs they are out of luck because they gave someone else permission to steal from them.  Expats can lose everything to a power of attorney.

Monday, November 12, 2007

Company ownership a loophole for having a gun

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Editor's Note: While this article was accurate at the time of publication, some information may now be outdated.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!

In Costa Rica, the law is explicit: tourists should not carry guns or other weapons, even though many would like to do so.

Monday, October 29, 2007

Market appraisal is sure cure for blue sky syndrome


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Editor's Note: While this article was accurate at the time of publication, some information may now be outdated.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!

Today, many property owners seem to be drunk on blue sky.  

Blue sky is not a brand of guaro — an alcohol derived from pure sugar cane — or other intoxicating beverage, but an addiction to the recent skyrocketing prices of real estate prices.  Most are familiar with the term.  It means the intangible portion of a price above what is reasonably supported by the current market.

Those with real estate training use the term to represent the difference between the price a seller puts on their property and what the market probably will bear in price.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Mortgage money available, but foreclosure complex

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!

Mortgages are becoming more and more available in the local market for expats who want to borrow money to buy property.  There is a lot of money available for financing from local financial institutions.  Private parties also have money to lend, but usually the interest rates are higher.

What most foreigners do not know about borrowing money in Costa Rica is how the foreclosure process works if one should default on a loan.  Unscrupulous private lenders, attorneys, and real estate people take advantage of the ignorance of homebuyers and, in some cases, use this knowledge to steal back properties they have sold.

Monday, October 1, 2007

Curve ball from Registro makes this man a hostage

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!

In more and more cases, buying property in Costa Rica can hold an innocent property buyer hostage for years, bankrupt them and even kill them with stress and strain.

Only a few years ago, it was rare to read about property fraud in the local press.  Nowadays, it is probably one of the most important topics of the news.  Sometimes even a legally perfect property can carry hidden problems.  Costa Ricans and savvy expats can use these complications to sour even the best and honest real estate transaction.

Monday, September 17, 2007

Some women swindle with domestic violence law

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!

Women are kicking their mates out of the house in record numbers in Costa Rica.  Some of them are enjoying it and using the law designed to protect women against domestic violence to swindle expats.  Many expats come to Costa Rica searching for a relationship and end up shooting themselves in the foot by making bad choices.

Monday, September 3, 2007

Sala IV likely to ashcan discriminatory beach rule

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!

Legal circles are buzzing with the expectation that the Sala IV will soon open up the Zona Maritima Terrestre — the maritime zone — to foreigners.  They may soon be able to hold and develop public land next to the beach without making under-the-table deals.

Monday, August 20, 2007

Cutting through that jungle of carbon neutrality

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!

What does it mean to be carbon negative or carbon positive?  What does it mean to be carbon responsible?  The country aims for carbon neutrality by the year 2021.  Expats living in Costa Rica can be part of the solution instead of part of the problem.

Carbon may also be good business for Costa Rica.  The country’s carbon real estate business is still in its development stages, but it's heating up fast.  There are also ways to use the Costa Rican civil code to build carbon responsible communities.

Carbon buzzwords are important in this day and age.  Nature Air, an airline based in Costa Rica, is advertising heavily, stating the company is the world's first and only carbon-neutral airline.

Many people confuse the terms carbon negative with carbon positive, much as they do with the commonplace expression, a glass half empty or half full.

Monday, August 6, 2007

Marriage and family law blindsides unwary expats

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!

Shooting oneself in the foot is a common practice in Costa Rica.  Eye candy overwhelms some expats — men and women alike — into making bad decisions that affect their lives forever.

Many men and some women come to Costa Rica in search for love.  They come here because they could not find love at home.

Others come to the country just for the sexual adventure.  Costa Rica is considered one of the top sex tourism destinations of the world.  Amazingly, the current president admitted this fact in a news conference recently. Many past presidents have ignored the reality.

Problems arise for an expat when he or she meets the wrong mate.   Usually, this happens because the expat is seeking love in all the wrong places.    Local men and women are everywhere, and they come in all varieties — straight, gay, and bisexual — looking to latch onto a foreigner.

Some of them really want to make a good wife, husband, or mate.  Many of them just see dollar signs and a way to make extra money for bad habits like drugs or for their umpteen kids at home.

Professional lovers — prostitution is legal in Costa Rica, pimping is not — are great actors.

Monday, July 23, 2007

Digital procedures will change face of the country

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!

Expats need to prepare themselves for Costa Rica’s Gobierno Digital and Notaría Digital.

The digital government is slowly but surely taking over tasks that were once terribly inefficient.   Two examples are the issuing of drivers licenses and passports.  The Banco de Costa Rica, a key player in Costa Rica’s digital government, has begun taking over both.  As of July 1, the bank had given out 10,500 appointments for renewing driver’s licenses and passports.

The transportation ministry estimates there are 400,000 driver’s licenses and 45,000 passports needing renewal.  The Banco de Costa Rica currently has the capability of handling 1,000 appointments per day.

The banking authority’s digital system is running full blast, much to the chagrin of those trying to hide money in the country.

Monday, July 9, 2007

Notaries are told to spill beans on buyers and sellers

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!

Notaries who handle property transactions have been told that they must register and provide reports to the nation's financial watchdog. The order means that information about purchasers and sellers will be more widely available.

Resolution number 814-2007 of the Notary Directorate, published June 22, advises that all notaries dealing in financial transactions must register with the Superintendencia General de Entidades Financieras.  This includes, but is not limited to, purchase and sale contracts, mortgages, liens, and trusts.

This institution is the one that is supposed to oversee financial organizations.  It is the one that is getting so much flak for not doing its job regarding the Brothers Villalobos, the collapsed Banco Elca, among others.

This news is bad for expats buying property in Costa Rica and trying to hide the transaction from their home country’s tax authorities.  This mandate means notaries will need to register as any bank or financial house would and turn in all their paperwork regarding financial transactions — with names, addresses, and phone numbers — for review and entry into a database.

Monday, June 25, 2007

Sluggish prosecutors are the criminal's best friend

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!

Costa Rica is experiencing a meltdown in its court system.  This is especially true in the criminal courts. Many cases are lapsing and are in mora judicial, judicial neglect.

Calling or writing officials regarding a case is a joke. 

An answer to a written pronto despacho, an immediate attention request, last week was horrifying.  The prosecutor in charge of an obvious stolen property case stated she is overwhelmed and asked that victims respect her predicament.

Threatening to file an amparo or request for help from the Sala IV met with the statement “Go ahead, I will put it on the stack of them I already have.”

Monday, June 11, 2007

This secret tip will help keep new neighbors in line

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!

People move to Costa Rica for a variety of reasons.  Some come to join communities, others to build them.

Some expats are leaving the United States or planning to leave because laws, politics and Big Brother have them crazy.  Others leave because they are wanted by the law or unwanted by society. 

Whatever the reasons, Costa Rica is filling up with foreigners.  Some of these outlanders are making small communities or sustainable developments — little utopias.

However, these groups have a problem.  How do they restrict their utopia to similar type people?   Most lawyers and other professionals state the only way to do it is through the condominium law.  

Anyone who has ever owned a condo or belonged to a homeowners' association is familiar with covenants, conditions, and restrictions.

Monday, May 28, 2007

New rule allows fast shuffle with company books

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!

What is Tributación Directa doing?  One does not know whether to get drunk, curse, or cry.

Tributación is the tax collecting agency.

Last year, taking company books to be legalized was a long process in San José.  A registrant had to fill out a form, play musical chairs, and then leave the five or six books for over a month.

In February, the tax department decided to become efficient. The first thing officials did was make a new rule that made all unused, printed legal books currently existing obsolete.  They wanted the first page of any book they legalized to have imprinted on it a special form.

Thousands upon thousands of legal books printed over the years that were sitting in warehouses all over Costa Rica instantly became nothing more than trash.  This fact meant thousands of trees had been chopped down, made into paper for use in these books needlessly.  Complaints to the workers at Tributación Directa met with blank faces.  It was their way or no way — meaning they would not certify any books without the form.   Registration and certification of books is required in Costa Rica for any company. One reason is to avoid fraud.

Monday, May 14, 2007

A real estate checklist for AFTER the purchase

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!

Real estate buyers need a good checklist to stay out of trouble when buying property in Costa Rica.  However, most people forget about what needs to happen afterwards.   Here is a checklist for after the closing.

Monday, April 30, 2007

Country just sets itself up for one crisis after another

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 rule of thumb in Costa Rica is when you cannot plan — or do not plan — panic.

This malady is part of the culture.  People in the campo, the rural areas, learn this from childhood.  Parents instruct kids sent to the pulperia, the corner mom-and-pop grocery, to buy one egg for breakfast.  Not two, one for breakfast and one for lunch, or three, one for breakfast, one for lunch and one for dinner.  Just one.  One for breakfast.

Why, because the parents were not taught to plan and organize by their parents, so they do not teach their kids to do so.  

What happens?  The kids grow up into adults and this happens:

Monday, April 16, 2007

Burden of evidence is on those seeking a U.S. visa

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 trip to the U. S. Embassy before Semana Santa proved very interesting and enlightening. The visit shed light on a long-standing irritation for Costa Ricans.

An expat asked an embassy worker how he could expedite his Tica girlfriend’s tourist visa application, so she would not have to wait in line.  There were at least 100 visa applicants waiting to speak with a consular officer that morning.  The embassy worker asked him if he wanted to speak with a senior consular officer.  He said yes and sat down to wait.

The embassy was busy that day, but after about an hour, the man’s number came up, and he went to the appropriate window.

Overhearing the conversation, what the senior official told the man was a surprise.  He said that the immigration law has something in it called the “presumption of immigration” and the man’s girlfriend was just going to have to follow the same procedures as everyone else in applying for a tourist visa.  A tourism visa is a class B1/B2 visa for a temporary visitor to enter the United States on business or pleasure.

The “presumption of immigration?” What is that?

Monday, April 2, 2007

You can't take it with you, so don't leave a big mess

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!

Can loved ones afford an expats death in Costa Rica?  Are they ready for what they find here?  

Recently, a man died, and his sister had to drop everything — all her responsibilities in the States — and hop a plane to Costa Rica.  He died of natural causes, not as a victim of a crime or accident.  She was the only family member who could afford the trip.  No doubt, it was going to be expensive.

She arrived and was lost.  She tried to piece her brother’s life together from recounts of friends.  And, much to her surprise, her brother’s young woman friend.

Monday, March 19, 2007

Lack of regulations turning immigration into circus

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!

Immigration law in Costa Rica is currently a circus.  Peoples’ tempers are raging.

Immigration employees do not know the answers to questions.  If one is lucky to get an appointment, it could be so far into the future one seriously wonders if he will be around to use it.  There is a moratorium on renewing foreigner identification cards until July because the renewal system has disintegrated.

One of the many problems is there are no rules for the new immigration law which came into effect in December 2005.   

Laws are like policy, a course of action.  For example, “honesty is the best policy.”  However, laws like policy do not set out rules or procedures to follow.   Laws are sometimes vague and need step-by-step instructions.  This is especially true in Costa Rica, where the rule is “if something is not prohibited, it is permitted.”  Ethics and honesty be damned.

Monday, March 5, 2007

The legal right to steal A valid power of attorney

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 U.S. citizen returned to Costa Rica in February 2003 to find his lawyers living in his Pacific coast villa.  They had taken all his possessions and burned them to complete the takeover.

A criminal court case ensued, and the lawyers won.  They got away with transferring millions of dollars in real estate to different companies to cover their tracks of plunder.

The shysters had so much audacity they offered the U.S. citizen a mere pittance to drop his case during the proceedings. They said they had buyers for his property and if he did not accept, he would get nothing in the end.

They were correct.  He did not accept the absurd offer and now has nothing to show for his investment in Costa Rica.

How is this possible?  How did the lawyers win?

Monday, February 19, 2007

Online money transfers here now well worth doing

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!

Electronic banking in Costa Rica has grown up.  It is now easy, fast, and efficient.

Transfers from Interfin last week to the national banks, Banco Nacional, Banco de Costa Rica and Banco Crédito Agrícola de Cartago, worked easily.  Transfers from the Banco de Costa Rica to the private banks Interfin, Banco San José, Scotia Bank, and Cuscatlan worked just as flawlessly.  All banks in Costa Rica are currently interconnected.  Transfers can be made in either U. S. dollars or Costa Rican colons.

The Central Bank of Costa Rica moved its interbank payments and transaction system called the Sistema Interbancario de Negociación y Pagos Electrónicos to Microsoft’s .NET technologies at the end of 2002.  Carlos Arraya, the CEO of ArtinSoft, a Costa Rican company, worked closely with Microsoft to migrate and improve the system over the past five years.   The ArtinSoft founder and CEO was chosen as one of the most successful and respected executives in Central America by SUMMA Magazine in June 2006 for his work on this and other projects.

Making a transfer is easy.  However, the various banks use different terminology to refer to the electronic transfers. And you have to know and use a 17-digit number for the receiving account.

Monday, February 5, 2007

Clues in land fraud cases gaining more importance

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 good detective can catch crooks in Costa Rica.  The court now voids contracts, deeds, documents and deceptive acts more than before based on mere indications and clues of wrongdoing.  Good thing too because day by day the wicked get worse and believe that they can get away with anything here.  

Even expats get caught up in stealing property and other assets that are not theirs because they believe they will not get caught by the law.  It is true the judicial system is slow and inefficient at times, but it is equally true the country is striving to improve it.  

Legal issues in Costa Rica involving theft and fraud usually form a triangle of players: the victim or plaintiff, the defendant and a third party.  For example, in property fraud, the victim represents the true owner, the defendant is the crook, and the third party the person who bought land from the crook.

Monday, January 22, 2007

Court auctions are slick way to buy property here

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!

There still are opportunities in real estate and real bargains for those people with patience and tenacity.

One possibility is the judicial auction.

The Boletín Judicial publishes information on properties going to auction in almost every edition.  Buying real estate at auction is easy. One just needs to know the rules and have persistence.  It is common to go to 10 or more auctions to find a deal.

Any creditor can exercise rights under the law and go to public auction when a borrower fails to pay.

A lawyer for the creditor files a collection lawsuit against a debtor in default. If the paperwork is prepared correctly, a date for a public auction is set. Collections are executive type cases and are expedited by the courts. 

Anyone can bid at an auction. This includes foreigners as well as locals and companies.   Often, few bidders participate in auctions because most people do not know where to find the details regarding them and that they have the right to bid.

Monday, January 8, 2007

You can loan money there and secure property here

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!

Can a person or institution lend money anywhere in the world in any currency and tie up assets here?

The answer is yes, and it is not hard to do, but a little technical.

If the money is lent in a country where attorneys can be notaries, and they have notary books, called protocol books, as they do in Costa Rica, the process is simple. 

The security interest is recorded in the official book. The notary then creates an affidavit and gets his or her signature authenticated by the Costa Rican consulate of the country where the act takes place. That signature then gets authenticated by the office of the Minister of Exterior Relations here in Costa Rica and then files the document with the National Registry. 

The key is the notary book because any document written in one makes it public.  Article 28 of the Civil Code requires all security interests to be public in nature to be valid in Costa Rica.