There are a lot of factors that you should take into consideration when it comes to the use and administration of a farm. From legal to recreational aspects should be evaluated to avoid future problems.

A farm makes reference to a property that covers demarcated land and can be divided in three: for production, for development and for conservation. It is important to know how to you want to use your property for the right paperwork procedures.

Estate planning

You may have inherited a farm by previous estate planning or because of the order or priority according to legal succession. The first one refers to the order or inheritance the owner of does.

En case that there ir no estate planning, in other words when the owner passes away without a will, according to the law there is a hierarchy order. In first place, there are the parents, partner for more than three years and children.

If the person did not have any of the previous ones, the next levels will apply as the law says. Grandparents go in second place and siblings in the third. There are six levels total, being the estate of Costa Rica the last one, specifically the educational board from the last residence of the departed.

Title status

Even if you inherited a farm or you acquired it later, the first thing you have to do is to check on how the property is enroll, it could be by a society or individual title of the owner.

This allows you to check that the paperwork can go through. It is important to make sure that it is free from any assessment, that means that payments are up to date and there are no pending debts.

Check the background

You can look for its background directly at the property section of the National Registry. The purpose is to check the succession chain of the title and being certain that it is valid.

Also it allows you to check through a direct inspection that the property is free from third parties that might live on the farm and have some sort of right that might affect your ownership.

Last but not least, make sure that the registered map matches with the real extension of the property. It might happen that the farm went through different segregations and the last owners did not update the map.

When a new map is made, there is an expiry time of a year to enlist that map to the land registry. That map can be liable to observations… in case that the surveyor has to correct it under a year. Once the map is corrected, the owner has one more year to make the registration.

Javier Sauma, attorney at Colbs Legal Studio.

Geographic location

it is very important to know the main characteristics of your farm. It will not only tell you which are the best condition for you to develop certain activities, but the municipal obligations as well.

You must check on which territorial jurisdiction is your property located. In each and every part of the country, you should take into consideration the local government, in order to know if there is an urban regulation plan. If there is one, the farms purpose is strictly attached to the territory conditions. Otherwise, there are more possibilities of different projects to develop.

Keep in mind each and every element that might play a roll into the acquiring of a property of this kind, such as a farm. The best thing you can do is to look for professional advice that will assure you a better process and will avoid future unnecessary head aches.