Plano

The plano is a legal document that is the official survey of your property.  If the property has not changed ownership for a long time, it is possible that no plano exists. In this instance the property will be described by an escritura. An escritura is a verbal description of the property and will probably have an estimate of the total area.  Take this guesstimate with a grain of salt! People always think their property is bigger than it really is.

If no plano exists, one will have to me ordered. A topographer will survey the property and prepare a plano to be recorded at the Registro Nacional.

In addition, you may need a topographical map of the property. This is a map that shows the natural contours of the property and will be required if you need to put in any roads and to make sure you have proper drainage.  The Ministerio de Obras Publicas y Transportes (MOPT) will have a topographical map that includes your area. The question will be to what scale.  I suggest checking with them before you spend $1,000 or more for your topographer to prepare a topo map for you.

One note on topographers:  There is an official organization that covers topographers, civil engineers and architects. They publish guidelines on what each specialty should charge for each type of work.  The published charges are ridiculously high and almost every topographer, engineer and architect will discount his price. If you are not happy with the price then shop around.

This is what the property portion of our plano looks like. The full copy has official stamps at the top and a block at the bottom of the page that states the owner, topographer and where the property is located. The dotted line represents a dirt road, not a servidumbre.