Bad Agents combined with Bad Lawyers

As I said before most agents have a preferred attorney. Here are some more stories of plain old fraud.  ALWAYS insist on using your own attorney!

• To own land a Costa Rican must own at least XX% of the corporation. This is an outright lie! I could hardly believe that this “Agent” and her “Attorney” would have the nerve to say anything like this.  The “Agent” requires that you use her “Attorney” and they jointly take 10% ownership of each deal she sells. If you want to use your own attorney, she will not do business with you.
• The Disappearing Deposit. One agent gave the investor wiring instructions to her “Attorney’s Escrow Account.”  Big problem - Attorneys here don’t have escrow accounts like they do in the US. The agent then sold the property to someone else and denied that a deposit was ever made.  Where did the $50,000 go?  It was traced to a Costa Rican LLC owned by a Panamanian Corporation. This is pretty much a lost cause unless you have friends in high places and lots of money to follow the trail.
• Buy this little piece while you are at it. One of my clients bought a large lot and wanted to add on what appeared to be an unused adjoining property.  Their “Agent” told my client that there is no need to get a deed or plano to the property as the owner agreed to sell it. The “Agent’s” Attorney stated the same thing.  It turned out that the Attorney was the owner and the property is a servidumbre - (easement) and cannot be sold! The “Agent” and Attorney still insisted that my client could buy it and even tried to make it part of the original purchase contract.

NEVER BUY PROPERTY WITHOUT MAKING SURE THAT YOUR ATTORNEY HAS FULLY INVESTIGATED IT.