Your Lawyer and Notary

Your lawyer will play an important role in this transaction, and a larger one than is traditional in the United States or Canada. Your lawyer could do any number of the following tasks:

- Title search

- Permitting due diligence

- Sales contract drafting/revision

- Negotiation

- Act as escrow agent

- Certify the deed

- Register the deed

Because the role of the lawyer is so large during a property transaction, it is crucial that you find a trustworthy one. For more detailed advice on how to find one, see the sidebar on finding a lawyer.

Most likely your lawyer will also be a notary. All notaries are lawyers, but not all lawyers are notaries. A notary is basically a lawyer with extra training and, as a public official, authority to draw up deeds and submit them to the National Registry for inscription. Every property transaction in Costa Rica is done through a notary. Whether your lawyer or the seller’s lawyer acts as notary in the transaction depends on who’s taking more risk – for example, if you are paying cash, your lawyer acts as notary, while if the seller is financing the purchase, the seller’s lawyer acts as notary. The dual lawyer/notary role is an awkward system for obvious conflict of interest reasons: Though the public-servant notary is technically supposed to be representing both sides in the transaction, one of the sides in the transaction is paying the notary as a lawyer, for legal advice. But that’s the way it works. Under no circumstances, however, should you and the seller share a single lawyer/notary for the entire transaction. It is occasionally done, and not advisable.