Puerto Rico Property Taxes

Good morning!

How is your week going? I hope everything is great!

Puerto Rico Property Taxes, here you have more information on this wild subject, I hope it clears information for you and helps you!

Truly yours,

Santiago Lampón

Puerto Rico Property Taxes – Transcript 

Hello and welcome to Puerto Rico legal blog. My name is Santiago Lampón, a real estate lawyer and notary in Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico Property Taxes. When people hear property taxes they run away, they get scared. I understand it. Sometimes I do myself because of the way Puerto Rico property taxes work or should I say do not work. I am going to clear some of the misunderstandings in the few short minutes with you.

Number one: The records for Puerto Rico property taxes are separate, are independent from title. So you have the Puerto Rico property registry for titles and the Puerto Rico property authority or agency for property taxes. They are separate records. They are now trying to talk to each other but it is not working perfectly yet. So the number one thing that you have to understand when dealing with Puerto Rico property taxes is that what you file, or someone files on your behalf for closing at the Puerto Rico property registry they didn’t necessarily make it into the property tax agency. Or if it made it maybe it was not handled properly. There are times and they are a lot of times when they records at the property tax authority are perfect. Why? In recent years with new programs and systems that they have been establishing, is getting a lot better. But still there are some things that need to be fixed. The other thing you need to understand is that in Puerto Rico unfortunately the property tax authority or agency is not necessarily as proactive in getting things done as you are probably used to where you come from.

Take for example the state of Florida. In the state in Florida the property tax is “chuf”. The property changes values “chuf”. They are maybe a little bit slow in coming down but it is more fluent with market changes. In Puerto Rico it isn’t like that. In Puerto Rico we are using market values for many, many years. You still, I like the way it is done in the United States, people really pay attention to the property taxes, that the information is correct, that the information is properly recorded, that your name is there, that all accounts are up to date and that is the way it should be done. That is the way I encourage my clients to do it, that is the way we handle it when we handle closings. So if you have issues with property taxes in Puerto Rico I understand, you must be concerned. I would be too. I just want to give you a little bit of hope and understanding that it is manageable. Again thank you for watching this video. Again my name is Santiago Lampón; I am a real estate lawyer and notary in Puerto Rico. If you have any questions, send me an email, give me a phone call and I hope you have a great day.

Puerto Rico Property Taxes

Good morning!

I hope you have a tremendous week!

I wanted to share this new video with you, with more information on Puerto Rico Property taxes. Watch it and let me know if you have any questions or if you need any help.

Truly yours,

Santiago Lampón

Fundamentals of a Real Estate Closing in Puerto Rico

Good morning!

Here is the transcript for my newest video so you can have it!

I hope you enjoy it and find it very useful and clears up the fundamentals in Real Estate Closing.

Continue to have an amazing week!

Very truly yours,

Santiago Lampón

 

Fundamentals of a Real Estate Closing in Puerto Rico- Transcript 

 

Hello my name is Santiago Lampón and I am a notary and a lawyer in Puerto Rico. I work in real estate. I’m going to discuss briefly as best as I can in a short few minutes the fundamentals of a real estate closing in Puerto Rico. Now, Puerto Rico, a lot of people don’t know or are not aware that Puerto Rico was for over 500 years; Puerto Rico has been a colony. I am going to say under control or influence of other countries. Everything started with Spain. So Puerto Rico legal traditions come from Spain. As you probably know, Spanish is our main language, our number one language.

 

The reason I state this is because the practice of real estate in Puerto Rico is highly influenced if not totally based on Spanish law. So when we practice real estate in Puerto Rico we have a different point of view or different approach on how real estate transactions are done. When you compare it to how it is done in the United States, how they are done in Canada, how they are done in other places etc. For example: Latin American. So it is fundamentally important that you understand that difference. Why? Because it opens the door to understanding that you are going to have to familiarize yourself with something new. Of Course that is part of my job, familiarize you with that which is new for you, which is not new for me.

 

The other thing, which is also fundamental, is that you understand that even though the system is different the results are exactly the same, recordable, marketable, clean, clear title. What I like about our system is that it works really, really, it works. Let me tell you one of the things I do. All of the documents that we prepare for our real estate closings when the person is coming from the United States or Canada or elsewhere, we do them in their language, we do them in English. Because even though it is Spanish, our main language is Spanish, the system tolerates and welcomes documents in English. So why not prepare them in English. You see? The other thing is that though we have formats for documents which are significantly difficult to what you may be used to across the United States and Canada again, when you look at the document and you study it and we take you through the document and we show you the different sections, you start going ah. When you are done you really understand the transaction. Then you become very happy. Again my name is Santiago Lampón, I am a real estate lawyer and notary in Puerto Rico. Send me an email, give me a phone call, if you have any questions and I hope you have a great day.

Fundamentals of a Real Estate Closing in Puerto Rico

Hello !

I hope you had a fantastic weekend.

I leave you here this video with very useful information.

I hope you have an amazing and productive week!

Wills in Puerto Rico – Why they work?

Good morning!

I hope you are having a fantastic week.

Here  I am giving you the transcript of my latest video, so it is clearer to you or  to a friend, so everyone who needs it can have this information.

Expect more videos and useful information very soon!

Truly yours,

Santiago Lampón

Wills in Puerto Rico – Why they work? – Transcript 

 

Hello my name is Santiago Lampón. I am real estate lawyer and notary in Puerto Rico and welcome to Puerto Rico legal blog. I am going to discuss in this episode wills in Puerto Rico. I have other videos about wills not made or not created in Puerto Rico. But I want you to see the other side of the coin through this video that I am going to share in this few minutes.

 

Wills in Puerto Rico are very formal. When I say very formal they have to be the most formal and also formidable wills on the whole planet. I may be exaggerating it, the whole Spanish system meaning Spain and the one that was developed across Latin America is very similar to Puerto Rico but I am not exaggerating when I say it is formidable. You have to be very specific, it has to be drafted with certain wording, it has to follow certain pattern. There are certain requirements to make sure that the person who is signing the will is in fact the person that the notary is saying is the person signing it. It’s almost like fraud proof, it is iron clad drafting and execution because the formalities not only include what is inside the will it also includes how the will is prepared.

 

My point about this is if you are going to do a will in Puerto Rico, very good. I actually like it. Because as a notary, I and other notaries have to be very thorough about what is asked and what is said and how it is stated in the will. This of course applies, once the will is executed usually you file it, you have to file it, there is a registry for wills, you complete the process but it is not until years later that somebody is going to take a close look at what the notary did and what the party signed and how the deed, because it is a deed, it is a very formal deed. Look for my video about the forms of deeds in Puerto Rico and you will understand, how the deed was executed, how it was prepared and I like it because even though it is very formal it calls for a very specific product. It makes it very clear cut of what should be there and it is there. But there is one thing I want to make clear. It is very important, that the person wanting to do the will goes into very direct and very frequent and specific communication with the notary handling it for him or for her. Don’t assume anything. Make sure that you discuss it in detail with the notary and make sure that you read it with sufficient time and that you understand the process, otherwise you are going to be wondering and wondering, and it is going to be too worry some for you.

 

If you have any questions about this or any other subjects or other videos, send me an email or give me a phone call. Again my name is Santiago Lampón, a real estate lawyer and notary in Puerto Rico. I hope you have a great day.

Wills in Puerto Rico – Why they work?

Good morning!

I hope you are having a wonderful week. I have new videos coming up and this is one of them.

This is about wills in Puerto Rico, so you are more familiar with them!

I hope you enjoy!

Truly yours,

Santiago Lampón

Filing a Deed at the Puerto Rico Property Registry

Good morning!

I am glad you are following this episodes. This is a VERY important one. So take a look and if you have any questions or need any help do not hesitate to email me, give me a call or post the question on this page.

Continue to do great!

Very truly yours,

Santiago Lampón

Filing a Deed at the PR Property Registry – Transcript

Hello my name is Santiago Lampón, I am a lawyer and a notary in Puerto Rico and welcome to Puerto Rico Legal Blog. In this episode I am going to show you only one document but it is a very basic and important document that I want you to ask from your notary every time you perform a real estate transaction.

The number 1 and number 2 item that people ask me about is how do I find my title, how do I find my deed after I do a closing. I am doing a series of episodes that are associated with the format or the form of a deed in Puerto Rico. If you go through the blog and you search the word deed, you are going to find the episodes, which I deal with that subject. Because a deed is the document that collects all the information, it’s the document that actually represents a real estate transaction in Puerto Rico. If you want to do a purchase and sale you need a deed. If you are going to do a donation you need a deed. If you are going to do a mortgage or cancel the mortgage you need a deed. The deed is the most important form of any other forms in Puerto Rico. For example wills have to be done through a deed. The most useful and generally used form of a will in Puerto Rico.

Now once the deed is done with regards to real estate properties, that deed has to be filed under property registry. Assuming the property is registered at the property registry. We have covered before that some properties are not at the properly registry that’s why I do videos on untitled properties. That’s another subject. Let’s stick to deeds. Once the deed is filed at the property registry the property registry issues a formal and very specific document that in Spanish, if you look at time you have minutes, sixty seconds. The word minute, which is also a document used in corporate law but at the end the letter “e” is substituted by the letter “a” and you have a “minuta”. In this screen I have a “minuta” which shows and what it represents and means is, something that happened at a given time. So let’s look at a document. Because after you are done with the closing ask for your “minuta” from your notary.

Now the “minuta” has a title of the property registry where it belongs to, you know where it is being registered and it also shows you the name of the registrar, the address and the phone number. So at the beginning you already have some very important information. Where you deed was registered, who is the registrar, the address and the phone number. Now, the book is organized by diaries. The document is in Spanish so I am going to translate as best as I can. “Entrada” means entry. Which is just a numerical sequence and “asiento” is chair but it actually translating to English, is “where it sits”. Since they have so many transactions coming in everyday they have to subdivide the numbers. So you have the diary, which in this case was 260,the entry number and the seating number. Those are the three numbers you need to find on the deed while it is pending recording. This one was presented on 4/3/2014 which means the 4th of
March 2014 (its in Spanish, if it were it English it would be 4th of march 2014) at military time, I don’t know why, 1:45 in the afternoon which is 13:45 for the year 2014. The person who present it, the name is called Coralis Rivera Alvarado she works for me. We handle our fillings ourselves. We want to make sure they are done on time. Then the person interested is the person who actually wants this deed to be filed at the property registry and whatever the deed represents registered. It is a public deed. This one was a mortgage cancellation and as I covered in another episode you have to file them at the property registry. It was deed number “blank” (again not disclosing private information) of the 28th of February of 2014. So it shows you when the deed was executed and it shows you when the deed was filed. So this was executed on the 28th of February of 2014 and it was filed on the 4th of March, 4 days later of 2014.

Now it says the notary in Santiago Lampón Gonzalez, yours truly. It has the address and it has the rights that were paid in conjunction or any other documents that were filed in conjunction with the deed. This is a “minuta de presentacion.” A minute of filing at the property registry and it is the document that I recommend that you obtain from your notary after closing is done. Down here has the seal of the property registry. It shows that your deed was actually filed. Like I said before in this case if the cancellation of mortgage is not filed at the property registry it doesn’t serve its purpose.

Again my name is Santiago Lampón. I am a lawyer and notary in Puerto Rico. I hope you have found this episode useful. Remember you can email me your quotations or post them right here on this page and I will look forward to be in communication with you. I hope you have a great day.

Releasing a mortgage (LIEN) in Puerto Rico

Hello!

I hope you are doing great! This video is excellent and can help you very much. Let me know if you need any help or have any questions.

Truly yours,

Santiago Lampon

Releasing a mortgage (LIEN) in Puerto Rico

Hello and welcome to this episode of Puerto Rico Legal Blog. My name is Santiago Lampon and I am lawyer and notary in Puerto Rico.

In this episode I am going to show you, I am going to cover a subject that sometimes baffles people who own property outside of Puerto Rico and do not know what exactly to do with their promissory notes once a mortgage has been paid. Mortgage by definition is something that is tied up to a property. You have the note (which is a promissory note) you promise to pay someone. Once that note is paid for, then you get that note back from the bank or the lender if it is a private loan. The important thing is that at the property registry, if it is a mortgage note, the mortgage is the guarantee of the note. It is not the note. It is not the debt. The mortgage is a recording done at the property registry to tie up your land, the title with the land, with the promissory note, so that you are unable to sell the land without paying the note. So once you pay it out and you get your note back you have to cancel that note at the notary’s office so that the notary can record the cancellation of the note and cancel the mortgage at the property registry.

They are two separate things. So you do the promissory note, you pay it out. The lender has to hold the note and when you pay the lender, the lender gives you the note and you say fine, I got the note. Believe me I have seen this many times. This has happened many times. That’s why I’m doing this video. They take the note and they shove it. Some people leave it in the I envelope and put it somewhere and then years later when they want to sell the property the notary says “where is the promissory note?” ” I don’t remember, I don’t remember the note.” And you find it, and what do I do with it and that’s what I’m going to show you. What do with that note?

Now I have here in this screen what is called a deed for the cancellation of a mortgage note. Now remember the promissory note has to have a mortgage associated with it. As I have covered in other videos the notaries practicing in Puerto Rico is very formal and it can only be done by lawyers. So you have here what was my deed number 21, it’s actually a sample. I took out the names and for example I put John Doe so I don’t disclose the name of the client. I also don’t disclose what the property is or anything like that but this was a deed, my deed number 21 and each deed for each year is sequential in number. This was done on the 25th of January of 2012. The person who had the note because the person paid out the mortgage, came to me, I identified the person and the person delivered to me the mortgage note so that I can have it cancelled and then I performed a certain action required on the law so that the note is duly cancelled and the note is attached to this deed.

Now what I do is, I prepare a certified copy of the deed as shown in this little note in the corner and I took that certified copy and send it to the property registry. The registrar looks at the deed and says this has been cancelled, goes to the official records, cancels the mortgage and then the property is free and clear of any liens.

Now it is very important in this regards that if you have a note you take it to a notary, the notary performs the requirements under applicable law, cancels the note and sends the notice to the registry so that your mortgage is cancelled. Otherwise you are going to have problems when you are going to sell the property.

If you have any questions you can send me an email or post it on this page. Again my name is Santiago Lampon. I am a lawyer and a notary in Puerto Rico. I hope you have enjoyed this episode and I hope you have a great day.

Why Talk To a Lawyer Before Purchasing Property in Puerto Rico

Hello!

Nice to know you are watching and reading this. Today I am providing you some information on why and how it is useful to talk to a lawyer BEFORE purchasing property in Puerto Rico specifically.

I hope this is useful to you and share it with more and more people that could use the information.

Hope you have a fantastic day and week!

Truly yours,

Santiago Lampón

Why talk to a Lawyer before purchasing property in Puerto Rico – Transcript

Hello my name is Santiago Lampón. I am a lawyer and a notary here in Puerto Rico and I welcome you to this episode of Puerto Rico Legal Video Blog. I am going to cover why you should engage or contact a real estate lawyer before performing your real estate transaction in Puerto Rico.

That before is what I want to clarify. I want to give you a few ideas of why it is important that you do. The before that I mean is, that you have the agreement, you discuss the terms of the agreement with your seller. A broker may be involved but you have an understanding of the kind of deal you want to do, what the purchase price is, what the property is and then you are going to receive a draft of what is normally called a purchase and sales agreement though it is really an option agreement and at that point in time you should have your lawyer review that document. It is going to be prepared by a broker, if there is a broker involved. It may be prepared by the sellers’ lawyer, but there are some items that you should be aware of and you have to make sure yourself with the help of a lawyer that they are included in your contract and I will give you an idea.

The way contracts are drafted and the contents of the contract in Puerto Rico is different, markedly different than to many of the states in the United States, Canada and some other areas. We are more similar to Spain. Louisiana could be an exception but the idea is a contract that you are applying for financing, lets say you need to get financing done to have that contract, that actual closing happen. There is a specific clause that has to be included in that agreement or the agreement is null and void. If the closing is good but it is not correctly drafted you may not receive the adequate notice of which are your rights in the event that you don’t have that finance approved or even if you have it approved what are your duties in order to push the closing forward and that has to be included in the contract. You also have the right if a broker is involved to an inspection of the property performed by someone who is licensed to do that inspection. But you could also plead that right even if a broker is not involved but the difference is: is it included? Is it not included? Does it make it null and ineffective? Or does it make it a valid contract even though it is not in there? There are a few complexities but once you get through them with the help of your lawyer you will be ok.

Again my name is Santiago Lampón. I am a lawyer and notary in Puerto Rico. If you have any questions, send me an email to the address that appears on the screen or give me a phone call or you can write your questions in this page. I hope you have a great day and I am looking forward to seeing you again here in Puerto Rico Legal Video Blog.

State Insurance Fund – A Potential Liability Part 2

Hello!

I hope you had an incredible weekend.

As I promised, here is part 2 on State Insurance Fund, so you can have more information on this subject. I hope you have a great week.

Yours,

Santiago Lampón

State Insurance Fund – A Potential Liability Part 2

Hello my name is Santiago Lampón, I am lawyer and notary in Puerto Rico and welcome to Puerto Rico Legal Video Blog. This is part 2 of a 2-part series regarding workmen comp in the real estate environment. What this means is that you are the owner of a given property here in Puerto Rico and you hire an outside firm or builder or company to do some kind of work on your property. I used as an example in the previous video a builder but it refers to anything.

You need to watch the first video because otherwise what I am going to give you now is going to be incomplete. Now let’s say you have someone coming in to your property to perform work and that someone has the workmen comp state certificate. By the way it is FONDO del seguro del estado, It is going to appear in the screen before. The short is the FSE.

Let’s say you have the FSE coverage, the workmen comp state coverage and your builder (which is the example that I have been using) has the coverage as well. The next question is, is the kind of work that you are performing in your property included in that workmen comp. In other words, did you tell the FSE, that what that guy is going to do, is report it to them, so that they can charge you the adequate premium for that work.

Let say you are building a pool and the guy walks in to build the pool. But you report or for whatever reason the category selected is: “Oh, is going to do windows” and an employee has an accident you are not covered. He is not covered either but you are not covered. See the thing is that what we are looking at protecting here is you as a property owner. The FSE is going to look at whether the guy, his boss, has workmen comp. If he does, fine. Now they are going to look at you as a property own if you have workmen comp, if you do, fine, if you don’t you are in problems.

Make sure you look at this for whatever services are going to be rendered inside your property since you are a real estate property owner, which is why you are watching this video. My name is Santiago Lampón, a lawyer and a notary in Puerto Rico and I thank you for watching. Please send me any question you might have by email or post them on this page. Have a great day.