Decreto Ejecutivo 44647 — General Regulation of the Real Property Registry

[Start of translation] throughout the entire text - Complete Text of Regulation 44647 General Regulation of the Real Estate Registry N° 44647 - MJP THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC AND THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE AND PEACE Pursuant to articles 9, 11, 45, 50, 140 subsections 3) and 18) and 146 of the Political Constitution and its amendments; 4, 11, 16, 25 subsection 1 ), 27 subsection 1 ), 28 subsection 2) paragraph b) and 269 subsection 1) of the General Public Administration Law, Law 6227 of May 2, 1978 and its amendments; 10, 18, 19, 31, 32, 79, 214, 219, 633, 635, 637, 639, 643, 648, 662, 708 and related articles of the Commercial Code, Law 3284 of April 30, 1964; 254, 255, 259, 267, 268, 270, 301, from 409 to 440, from 448 to 479 and related articles of the Civil Code, Law 63 of September 28, 1887 and its amendments; 1 and 2 of the Law Creating the National Registry, Law 5695 of May 28, 1975 and its amendments; 1 and 2 of Law 8710 of February 3, 2009, Amending Law 5695, which creates the National Registry and Law 6545, National Cadastre Law; 1, 2, from 3 to 15, from 18 to 22 and from 27 to 33 of the Law on the Registration of Documents in the Public Registry, Law 3883 of May 30, 1967 and its amendments; 7, 40, 73, 76, 79, 83, 84, 85, 88, 90, 98, 105, 110, from 114 to 119, 123, 126, 129 and 135 of the Notarial Code, Law 7764 of April 17, 1998 and its amendments; 1 to 12 of the Law on Certificates, Digital Signatures and Electronic Documents, Law 8454 of August 30, 2005; 1, 4 and 12 of the Law for the Protection of Citizens from Excessive Administrative Requirements and Procedures, Law 8220 of March 4, 2002; 25 and 26 of the Law on Procedures for the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights, Law 8039 of October 12, 2000; 1 and 2 of Executive Decree 41795-MP-MEIC of June 19, 2019 "Streamlining Procedures in Public Entities through the Use of the Affidavit"; in its entirety the National Cadastre Law, Law 6545 of March 25, 1981; the Law on Public Registry Tariffs, Law 4564 of April 29, 1970; the Law for Strengthening Real Estate Registry Security, Law 9602 of August 13, 2018; the Regulatory Law on Condominium Property, Law 7933 of October 28, 1999; the Organic Law of the Federated College of Engineers and Architects, Law 3663 of January 10, 1966; the Municipal Code, Law 7794 of April 30, 1998; the Possessory Information Law, Law 139 of July 14, 1941; the Forest Law, Law 7575 of February 13, 1996; the Water Law, Law 276 of August 27, 1942; the Urban Planning Law, Law 4240 of November 15, 1968; the Law on the Maritime-Terrestrial Zone, Law 6043 of March 2, 1977; the Law Regulating the Execution of the Papagayo Tourism Project, Law 6758 of June 4, 1982; the Law on the Concession and Operation of Tourist Marinas and Docks, Law 7744 of December 19, 1997; the Law for the Practice of Topography and Surveying, Law 4294 of December 19, 1968; and the Law on the Tax on Legal Entities; Law 9428 of March 21, 2017.

I.That in order to execute regulatory improvement actions in the public services provided by the Real Estate Registry, and by virtue of the provisions of the Law for the Protection of Citizens from Excessive Administrative Requirements and Procedures, Law 8220, it is necessary to provide real estate registry security to the administered parties in relation to the procedures and requirements that must be completed in the Real Estate Registry.

II.That for the purpose of streamlining and improving the public services provided by the Real Estate Registry and in compliance with the provisions of articles 458 of the Civil Code and articles 2 and 32 of the Law on the Registration of Documents in the Public Registry, Law 3883, it is necessary to establish updated legal mechanisms that allow this Institution to fulfill that objective.

III.That article 4 of the General Public Administration Law establishes that the activity of public entities shall be subject, as a whole, to the fundamental principles of public service, to ensure its continuity, its efficiency, its adaptation to any change in the legal regime or in the social need they satisfy, and equality in the treatment of the target, user, or beneficiary persons.

IV.That with regard to administrative procedure, procedures relating to Public Registries are excepted from the application of the General Public Administration Law, as indicated in subsection f) of article 367 of said law.

V.That Law 8710 of February 3, 2009 reformed numeral 2 of the Law Creating the National Registry in order to create the Real Estate Registry, whose main objective is to effectively and efficiently materialize the coordination and integration of the functions of the National Cadastre and the Public Registry of Real Property into a single registry and under a single direction, namely, the Real Estate Registry, and its sole transitory provision establishes that the Executive Branch must regulate the rules and procedures that consolidate the operations of the Real Estate Registry.

VI.That the creation of the Real Estate Registry responds to the need to fully match the graphic information contained in the cadastre with the literal information of the Real Property Registry and in this way have a registry with unequivocal graphic and legal information, for which reason the directorates of the Cadastre and the Real Property Registry were unified under a single one, maintaining the division of functions, processes, and procedures according to the specialty of each subject matter.

VII.That subsection a) of article 2 of the Law Creating the National Registry, Law 5695, establishes that the Real Estate Registry comprises real estate property, mortgages, mortgage notes, condominium property, and the National Cadastre, in addition to the concessions of the maritime-terrestrial zone, concessions of the Gulf of Papagayo, and tourist marinas, for which reason, by virtue of these last three cases, the need arises to harmonize and regulate, developing the substantive rules, the documentary formalities, and substantive requirements of the documents submitted for registration in said special registries, in adherence to the constitutional, legal, and also regulatory provisions that govern them.

VIII.That through Executive Decree 33713 MP-PLAN-MTSS, it is agreed in article 2, that the approval of an administrative organization shall be the exclusive competence of the institutional head, and for which general guidelines are established for the construction of organizational charts, where it is indicated that when administrative units are established by provision of law, the Institution shall only submit a justification referencing the regulatory background.

IX.That, in order to improve and streamline the cadastral, registration, maintenance, and cartography procedures of the cadastral map, which allow the Real Estate Registry to achieve its objectives within the framework of the National Cadastre Law, Law 6545, the gradual updating of the qualification and registration procedures for plans (planos) against the officialized cadastral information and the maintenance of the cartography of the cadastral map is required; in turn, providing an additional period of time following the entry into force of this regulation in the terms established in Transitory V so that the cadastral survey procedure concludes with the officialized cadastral map of the entire national territory and both professional surveyors and users of cadastral information adjust to the changes derived from these actions.

X.That in application of the Law for the Protection of Citizens from Excessive Administrative Requirements and Procedures, Law 8220, the updating of the requirements for the registration of survey plans (planos de agrimensura), regulated in the previous Regulation to the National Cadastre Law, Law 6545, is required, with the purpose of simplifying the registration processes by the registry officials, facilitating the procedures carried out by surveyors, and achieving greater efficiency, speed, and functionality in cadastral registration.

XI.That the National Geographic Institute (IGN) is the official authority of the State in cartographic, geophysical, geodetic, geographical, and related matters, which is established through Law 59, which created it and defined its organization; subsequently through the approval of Law 8905, article 2 of Law 5695, which is the Creation of the National Registry, is reformed, and Law 59 Creation and Organization of the National Geographic Institute is modified; providing in January 2012 for the transfer of the National Geographic Institute from the Ministry of Public Works and Transport to the National Registry. Law 8905 reaffirms the subject-matter competence of the National Geographic Institute as the scientific and technical dependency governing national cartography, intended for the execution of the official base map, the basic geographical description of Costa Rica, and the development of national policies of a cartographic, geographical, geodetic, geophysical, and similar nature related to said works.

For its part, it is the competence of the Cadastral Subdirectorate to determine the technical specifications of the basic stages of the conformation of the cadastral map and its execution, which refer to the establishment of geodetic control, aerial photography, photogrammetric control, creation of orthophotos and digital photogrammetric maps, and the elaboration of the definitive cadastral map, and at the same time administer the technical-administrative tasks carried out in the Cadastral Registry Department and in the Cadastral Maintenance Department. This situation generates a functional technical relationship of coordination of common interests, in which a defined framework of competencies exists between the Cadastral Subdirectorate and the National Geographic Institute, therefore, regarding the provisions of articles 60 subsection 1° and 62 of the General Public Administration Law in order to achieve greater efficiency, speed, and operational functionality, as well as to avoid duplication of activities, it is provided that, it shall be the responsibility of the Cadastral Maintenance Department of the Cadastral Subdirectorate to coordinate with the National Geographic Institute the procedures related to geodetic control, aerial photography, photogrammetric control, creation of orthophotos and digital photogrammetric maps, and the elaboration of the definitive map required for the conformation of the cadastral map and its execution.

XII.That it is essential for real estate registry publicity that the registrations are complete and in the form provided by the laws and regulations, and by virtue that there still exist registrations contained in the volumes that are incomplete or deteriorated, which do not have sufficient and suitable information supported by the electronic data processing systems of the databases, agile and current provisions are required that allow the Real Estate Registry to carry out this work, for the due legal traffic of the publicized properties and rights.

XIII.That in order to comply with the provisions of the second paragraph of article 468 of the Civil Code reformed by article 178 of the Notarial Code, Law 7764, regarding the computation of the expiration period in complex documents submitted for registration, it is necessary to establish regulatory mechanisms that allow the Real Estate Registry to comply with said regulation.

XIV.That article 32 bis of the Regulatory Law on Condominium Property, Law 7933, provides the obligation of the National Registry for the legalization of the books for condominium administration, and given the need to implement the technological tools that the Government of the Republic has been promoting through Digital Transformation 4.0, which seeks the consolidation of a digital government, the issuance of a legalization procedure that allows simplifying and guaranteeing the integrity and security of the books for condominium administration is necessary.

XV.That the Law for Strengthening Real Estate Registry Security, Law 9602, aims to strengthen the administrative response that the Real Estate Registry offers against the scourge of fraud in real estate transactions, and its main objective is to delimit the functions and competencies of the Real Estate Registry regarding the cancellation of provisional or definitive entries (asientos), without detriment to the jurisdictional protection thereof; and in application of article 5, first paragraph of Law 9602, the regulation of the cases, procedures, and requirements for the cancellation of provisional or definitive entries in the cases provided in the Real Estate Registry is necessary.

XVI.That in accordance with the provisions of report DMR-DAR-INF-142-2024 of June 27, 2024, issued by the Department of Regulatory Analysis of the Directorate of Regulatory Improvement of the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Commerce, the present proposed regulation is in accordance with the terms established in the Law for the Protection of Citizens from Excessive Administrative Requirements and Procedures and its amendments, Law 8220; as well as its Regulation, Executive Decree 37045-MPMEIC.

THEY DECREE:

General Regulation of the Real Estate Registry

CONSIDERING

Therefore,

Title One: General Provisions of the Real Estate Registry

Chapter One: Preliminary Provisions

This regulation governs the administrative activities and the substantive aspects entrusted by the legal system to the Real Estate Registry, in order to strengthen real estate registry security, through the legal effects of its material publicity, attending to the efficacy and efficiency in the processing of the submitted documents.

For the purposes of this regulation, the following common definitions shall be used:

1°- Access (Acceso): Existing way or ways of a public nature fronting the property and that allow entry to or exit from it.

2°- Cadastral Activity (Actividad catastral): Encompasses the actions to form, update, and maintain the cadastre.

3 °- Registry Activity (Actividad registral): Encompasses the actions required for the registration of the cadastral and registry entries (asientos catastrales y registrales) of real properties.

4°- Updating and Maintenance of Cadastral Information (Actualización y mantenimiento de la información catastral): Continuous procedure through which the graphic and legal data of the cadastral map are preserved and updated.

5°- Annotation (Anotación): Procedure through which a technical or legal situation incorporated in a document is recorded in the cadastral or registry entry (asiento catastral o registral), and in a provisional form, for the knowledge of third parties.

6°- Area of the Survey Polygon (Área del polígono del levantamiento): Result of the calculation derived from the boundary description (derrotero) data and the coordinate list.

7°- Presentation Entry (Asiento de presentación): Preliminary or preparatory entry of the definitive registration entry, identifiable by the presentation citations consisting of the volume and the entry, generated in numerical, chronological order or a combination of both.

8°- Real Estate Entry (Asiento inmobiliario): Description of a property, according to the legal, graphic, alphanumeric data and the cadastral survey data of the plot (predio); which are recorded in the databases of the Real Estate Registry.

9°. Registry Entry (Asiento registral): Act of registration through which the public information of a registered property or right is made known, in order to produce the legal effects derived from the registry publicity with respect to third parties; whose content and form in which they can be consulted are determined by the Directorate of this Registry. In the Real Estate Registry, it refers to the entry that contains the legal information of a publicized real right.

10°- Cadastral Entry (Asiento catastral): Entry that contains the graphic and technical information publicized in a cadastral plan (plano catastrado).

11°- Irregular Entry (Asiento irregular): Registry entry in which, for its provisional annotation, constitution, cancellation, or modification, there existed as a means of request (rogación) a notarial testimony that is not recorded in the corresponding original document (documento matriz); or that such testimony contains substantial differences, in relation to the material or substantive effects, with the original deed (escritura matriz).

12°. Database (Base de datos): Constitutes the set of historical and updated information relating to the registry and cadastral entries, which is generated and modified through electronic data processing.

13°- Cadastral Certificate (Certificado catastral): Document issued by the National Registry that publicizes the graphic and literal information of plots (predios) located in officialized zones, supported by the geometric and literal description thereof.

14°_ Concessionaire (Concesionario): Natural or legal person holding or promoting a concession right...

15°- Legal-Cadastral Conciliation (Conciliación jurídica-catastral): It is the technical study through which the conformity between the physical, cadastral, and registry reality of a property is analyzed and verified.

16°- Urban Quadrant (Cuadrante urbano): It is the urban area or territorial scope of development of a population center, where the majority of goods and services, the road structure, and its immediate area of influence are located; the urban quadrants are located within the urban districts. For purposes of the application of Article 40 of the Urban Planning Law, the quadrant of the city is considered the urban quadrant.

17°- Body of the Survey Plan (Cuerpo del plano de agrimensura): It is the free-format space to draw the surveyed polygon, showing its location, the lotting or subdivision (fraccionamiento), the site design, and the necessary technical notes.

18°- Boundary Description (Derrotero): Set of mathematical and geometric data that allow defining the contour of the polygon of a property and the area of the survey polygon.

19°- Epoch of the Reference System (Época del sistema de referencia): It refers to the epoch in which a measurement is made that has a direct link to the most current realization of the ITRF (International Terrestrial Reference Frame); it is necessary to incorporate it in order to consider the variation of its position over time due to variations from plate tectonics or local deformations.

20°- Original Deed (Escritura matriz): Protocol document executed before a notary public, in accordance with the provisions of the Notarial Code.

21°- Accuracy and Precision (Exactitud y precisión): Accuracy is the indicator of the quality of results, derived from measurements, and precision is a concept associated with the instrumental part, given by the degree of concordance between repeated measurements.

22°- Public Display (Exposición pública): Stage of the cadastral survey whose objective is the display of the data collected in the conformation of the cadastral map, so that they are analyzed, verified, and accepted by the titleholders.

23°. Property (Finca): Property registered in the Real Estate Registry as a legal unit through a numerical or alphanumeric identifier that individualizes it.

24°. Georeferencing (Georreferenciación): Technical process through which the position of the vertices of the properties is defined in the official reference system of the country in order to incorporate the description of the property into the cadastral map.

25°- Administrative Management (Gestión administrativa): Special administrative procedure, through which the existence of a registry or cadastral inaccuracy (inexactitud) is made known to interested or affected third parties, for the purpose of making the correction with their due consent or proceeding with the recording of the precautionary measure in the registry entries (asientos registrales) or in the cadastral plans (planos catastrados).

26°. Lien (Gravamen): Charge or obligation that appears on a good or right registered in the Real Estate Registry.

27°. Property Identifier (Identificador predial de inmueble): Unique numerical or alphanumeric character set that is assigned to each plot (predio) within the cadastral map.

28°. Substantive Inaccuracy (Inexactitud de fondo): It is that inaccuracy that alters the intent of the parties and modifies the act or contract in its essence.

29°. Initial Registration (Inmatriculación): Original registration of a property (finca) in the Real Estate Registry, to which a numerical or alphanumeric identifier is assigned that contains all the information concerning the registrable real right.

30°. Immobilization (Inmovilización): A precautionary measure recorded in the cadastral and/or registry entries, when upon concluding the administrative management procedure, the correction of the inaccuracies in the real estate registry publicity cannot be carried out, due to opposition from the interested or affected persons, or when the rectification would eventually cause some harm to third parties who acquired in good faith based on the real estate registry publicity.

31°. Immovable Property (Inmueble): For cadastral purposes, it is the portion of land registered or not in the Real Estate Registry.

32°. Legitimation in the Registry Context (Legitimación en el ámbito registral): Relationship of ownership existing between the parties and the substantial interest invoked in the registry processes and in the inaccuracies, according to the entries and the publicity of the registry.

33°. Cadastral Survey (Levantamiento catastral): Activity required for the formation of the cadastre, consisting of the technical-legal tasks that must be carried out in the field, in order to guarantee the correct formation of the cadastral map.

34°. Coordinate List (Listado de coordenadas): Set of pairs of values coherently ordered in a Cartesian system (Planimetric East and North) that define the contour of a geometry associated with a plot (predio), parcel, or property (finca); these must be associated with the official national coordinate system in the projection and epoch defined for their publication.

35°. Books (Libros): Three books of the condominium that are legalized in the Condominium Property Section of the Real Estate Registry, namely: minutes book (libro actas de asamblea), cash book (libro caja), and board of directors minutes book (libro de actas de Junta Directiva) when it exists, which may be physical or digital.

36°. Cadastral Map (Mapa catastral): Organizing instrument that shows in graphic form the official location and boundaries of the plots (predios) and their associated literal information, as well as their inconsistencies.

37°. Map of Municipal Public Roads (Mapa de vías públicas municipales): Digital file comprising all those roads, accesses, and streets that the municipality determines as public within its jurisdiction.

38°- Legal Framework for Registry Qualification (Marco jurídico de calificación registral): Current technical and legal system governing the qualification of the document submitted for registration, and is comprised of the Political Constitution, codes, laws, and regulations.

39°. Cadastral Mosaic (Mosaico catastral): Layer of information containing the georeferenced cadastral plans (planos catastrados) associated with the plots (predios) of the cadastral map.

40°- Administrative Warning Notice (Nota de advertencia administrativa): Precautionary measure recorded in the registry and/or cadastral entries for the purpose of providing notice publicity, while an administrative management procedure is pending.

41°- Cadastral Notice (Nota de aviso catastral): Precautionary measure recorded in cadastral and/or registry entries for the purpose of providing notice publicity, regarding the inconsistencies detected in the survey, updating, and maintenance of cadastral information.

42°- Registry Block Notice (Nota de bloqueo registral): Precautionary measure recorded in the registry entries in the presence of an inaccuracy of extra-registry origin. For its recording, the existence of fraud must be demonstrated through objective evidence. Its strength lies in the effect publicity (immobilization) attributed to it and constitutes an effective response when there are affected third parties, surpassing the scope of mere notice publicity of the prevention notice (nota de prevención).

43°. Prevention Notice for Inaccuracy of Extra-Registry Origin (Nota de prevención de inexactitud de origen extra registral): Precautionary measure recorded in the registry entries in the presence of an eventual inaccuracy of extra-registry origin, exclusively for purposes of mere notice publicity.

44°. Book Legalization Number (Número de legalización de libros): Alphanumeric element through which the legalization of the condominium books will be authorized and which will be composed of the elements determined by the Directorate of the Real Estate Registry.

45°- Motion (Ocurso): Appeal filed before the Directorate of the Real Estate Registry against oppositions to formal qualifications.

46°. Cadastral Plan (Plano catastrado): Survey plan (plano de agrimensura), physical or in electronic format, that has been registered in the Real Estate Registry and defines the plot (predio) in a graphic, mathematical, and unequivocal manner, for publicity purposes.

47°. Survey Plan (Plano de agrimensura): Physical plan or in electronic format, that represents a property in graphic and mathematical form.

48°. Possessing Party (Persona poseedora): Natural or legal person who lacks a title registered in the Real Estate Registry.

49°. Registered Property Owner (Persona propietaria registral): Natural or legal person holding title to a good or right registered in the Real Estate Registry.

50°. Plot (Predio): Cadastral and physical unit represented by one or several portions of land.

51°. Electronic Data Processing (Procesamiento electrónico de datos): Technical means of registration, by which the cadastral and registry information contained in the respective databases is introduced, processed, updated, and archived.

52°. Validation Process (Proceso de validación): Phase of the cadastral activity consisting of the verification of the products of the cadastral survey so that they are individualized and included in the cadastral map.

53°. Protocol of the Surveyor (Protocolo de la persona agrimensora): It is the physical or digital book where the records of professional activities of the persons authorized by law for the practice of surveying are noted.

54°- Protocol of the Notary (Protocolo de la persona notaria): It is the set of books or volumes ordered numerically and chronologically, in which the notary public must record the public instruments containing respectively the acts, contracts, and legal facts submitted to their authorization.

55°- Projection (Proyección): Biunique mathematical function between the points of a sphere or ellipsoid with its corresponding point in the Cartesian plane.

56°- Large Survey Plan Projects (Proyectos grandes de planos de agrimensura): Projects corresponding to subdivisions (fraccionamientos), subdivisions in the process of urbanization, urbanizations, cemeteries, and condominiums, whose number of assigned survey plans is greater than what the registry official can process within a period of eight calendar days, which must be related to the same survey and contract number of the Federated College of Engineers and Architects.

57°- Formal Publicity (Publicidad formal): Refers to all the technical and technological procedures used to process and publicize the registry information.

58°- Material Publicity (Publicidad material): It is the set of substantive effects and legal protections, derived from the publicity enforceable against third parties.

59°- Real Estate Registry Publicity (Publicidad registral inmobiliaria): It is constituted by the information contained in the volumes, electronic data processing systems, digitization, and microfilming, which are considered reciprocal and complementary auxiliaries, in order to guarantee the unity, security, and consistency of the registry information.

60°- Notice Publicity (Publicidad noticia): Information publicized in the registry or cadastral entries, through the recording of cadastral notices, administrative warnings, and prevention notices, whose sole effect is to inform about the existence of an administrative procedure.

61°- Formal Claim (Reclamo formal): Questioning of the cadastral information that may be made by the titleholder, possessor, concessionaire, or their legal representative, during the public display of the data collected for the conformation of the cadastral map.

62°- Registration (Registración): Activity that involves the qualification of the content of the documents submitted to the Real Estate Registry and their materialization in a cadastral or registry entry.

63°- Rectification (Saneamiento): Administrative activity aimed at correcting registry or cadastral inaccuracies, based on the real estate registry publicity and the information provided by the interested parties in the procedures established in this regulation.

64°- Plan Information System (SIP) (Sistema de Información de Planos): Information System of the Real Estate Registry, through which the consultation, qualification, and registration of survey plans are carried out.

65°— Real Property Registry Information System (Sistema de Información del Registro Inmobiliario, SIRI): System that integrates the information from the databases, the cadastral map, and the photogrammetric inputs; to administer, maintain, and update the real property entries.

66°— Registry Information System (Sistema de Información Registral, SIRE): Registry Information System that publicizes the legal and literal information of all parcels within the national territory.

67°— Reference system (Sistema de referencia): It is the set of conventions, values, formulas, and concepts that define the framework from which position values can be determined.

68°— Protected registry third party (Tercero registral protegido): Any person who has constituted, modified, or acquired a registrable real right, based on the content of the registry publicity for valuable consideration, in good faith, and who has requested the protection of such right, through the formal submission to the Registry of the authentic document that contains it, for its due registration.

69°— Cadastral map tolerance (Tolerancia del mapa catastral): It is the maximum error allowed between the measured value and the true value of a magnitude.

70°— Verified (Verificado): Condition granted to a cadastral entry that is compatible with the geometry of the officialized cadastral map.

71°— Approval (Visado): Approval granted by the competent institution required for the registration of the survey plan.

72°— Cadastral zone (Zona catastrada): That part of the national territory where the cadastral survey has been concluded and officialized.

73°— Cadastral zone (Zona catastral): The entirety of the national territory where the cadastral survey is carried out.

Chapter Two: General Provisions

The Real Property Registry is a dependency of the National Registry that integrates cadastral and real property registry functions, maintaining the division of functions, processes, and procedures, respecting the principle of specialty of each organizational unit.

The purpose of the Real Property Registry is to strengthen real property registry security, through the legal effects of its material publicity, attending to the effectiveness and efficiency in the processing of submitted documents.

To fulfill its purposes, the functions of the Real Property Registry shall be the following:

a)Real property registry function: It consists of managing the qualification, registration, maintenance, and updating of titles referring to all categories of real rights and personal rights susceptible to registration. This function corresponds to the registrar persons, who, when qualifying and registering the documents submitted for their study, shall do so in accordance with the provisions established in the current legislation and in conformity with the qualification criteria issued by the Directorate of the Real Property Registry.
b)Cadastral registry function: It consists of managing the qualification and registration of plans surveyed by surveyor persons, and the partial or total updating of the cadastral map, which allows for the legal and technical control of the parcel status of the national territory. This function corresponds to the registrar persons, who, when qualifying and registering the survey plans submitted for their study, do so in accordance with the provisions established in the current legislation and in conformity with the qualification criteria issued by the Directorate of the Real Property Registry, with the purpose of providing the information generated by real property changes for the maintenance of the cadastral map, and to guarantee registry publicity and strengthen the security of real estate property in the national territory.
c)Cadastral maintenance function: It consists of managing the conformation, updating, and maintenance of the cartographic inputs of the cadastral map, a task that includes the definition of the technical processes of the cadastral survey, its execution, the implementation of maintenance and updating actions, through adequate scientific and technological procedures, in accordance with current legislation and the guidelines established by the Directorate of the Real Property Registry; in pursuit of the sanitation of cadastral and registry entries, and the purging of geospatial information.

The director person of the Real Property Registry is the hierarchical superior in substantive and administrative matters, who has under their competence everything related to real estate property, both cadastral and registry. This person shall have two sub-director persons; one who has under their competence matters related to cadastral matters and the other, whose responsibility shall be matters pertaining to real estate property in registry matters. Both sub-director persons shall assume all corresponding attributions and duties, in the absence of the director person. Both the director person and the sub-director persons, in coordination, shall ensure the observance of laws, regulations, and other norms that regulate the operation and organization of the Directorate of the Real Property Registry. Likewise, the Directorate of the Real Property Registry shall have, at the support level, a Legal Advisory unit, which shall attend to legal matters and collaborate in the functions of the Directorate, Sub-Directorates, and organizational units. At the operational level, it shall have organizational units where the operations of the Real Property Registry shall be executed.

The Real Property Registry at the operational level is constituted by the following departments: Cadastral Registry Department, Real Property Registry Department, Cadastral Maintenance Department, Technical Standardization Department.

Likewise, it has a Legal Advisory unit as an advisory body to the Directorate of the Real Property Registry.

The Directorate of the Real Property Registry may assess the undertaking of technical studies for the creation or suppression of bodies it deems necessary, in compliance with the objectives, functions, processes, and procedures, following the legal and administrative process.

Chapter Three: Competencies of the organizational units

The person holding the position of head of the Cadastral Registry Department reports directly to the cadastral sub-director person, and shall have group coordinator persons and registrar persons.

In this department, the process of qualification and registration of survey plans is carried out, in conformity with the technical and legal order, reconciling and purging real property information, as an instrument that contributes to guaranteeing publicity and strengthening real property registry security.

The person holding the position of head of the Real Property Registry Department reports directly to the registry sub-director person, and shall have group coordinator persons and registrar persons.

In this department, the process of qualification and registration of documents is carried out, in which real rights over real property matters are constituted, modified, declared, or extinguished, in conformity with the legal and technical guidelines for their registration, guaranteeing real property registry publicity.

The person holding the position of head of the Cadastral Maintenance Department reports directly to the cadastral sub-director person, and shall have group coordinator persons and cadastral official persons.

In this department, the procedures for background compilation and analysis are carried out; delineation in the field; boundary survey; legal-cadastral conciliation, validation, and sanitation of cadastral and registry entries; elaboration of the official cadastral map; elaboration of the cadastral registry; public exposition; signing of acts of identification of the location and boundaries; and updating and maintenance of the cadastral work.

It also corresponds to this department to reconcile and purge real property information, as an instrument that contributes to guaranteeing publicity and strengthening real property registry security; to keep updated the real property entries that make up the cadastral map, information that is contained in the computer system to the official horizontal reference system of Costa Rica; and to develop the technical and administrative activities regarding the planning, pre-analysis, measurement, calculation, and adjustment of cadastral surveys to strengthen the territorial planning of the country.

The person holding the position of head of the Technical Standardization Department reports directly to the director person, and shall have registry and cadastral official persons.

This department has the competence to assist in the legal-registry management, and to attend to the internal and external needs of the Directorate of the Real Property Registry, guaranteeing the continuous improvement of the service through the electronic data processing information systems and strengthening real property registry security.

It corresponds to this department to monitor the adequate functioning and maintenance of the electronic data processing systems, as well as to design and request the necessary improvements to the different systems used for qualification, registration, and verification, according to each of the different functions of the personnel; to administer all the systems and software of the Real Property Registry, with the purpose of supervising and controlling each of the different profiles of the official persons; to ensure the correct maintenance, backup, security, and integrity of the information safeguarded in the databases of said systems; to provide guided support and constant follow-up on the use of the different systems of the Real Property Registry to each of the user persons, whether internal or external; to manage requests for sanitation associated with registry inaccuracies, identifying the eventual existence of inaccurate information; to execute the requests for sanitation derived from a registry inaccuracy in the absence of the official person responsible for the registration or the transfer of the information; and to attend to inquiries from internal and external user persons in relation to the procedures inherent to the information reconstruction process.

The Real Property Registry has a Legal Advisory unit, specialized in the matters proper to its competence, which reports directly to the director person and is constituted by a coordinator person and the legal advisor persons.

The Legal Advisory unit’s main function is to provide advice on legal-registry aspects to the Directorate of the Real Property Registry, the Sub-Directorates, and other organizational units, based on the laws and current regulations that govern the professional activity.

The Directorate and its dependencies shall have the support team to carry out the administrative, registry, secretarial, resolution notification, and correspondence delivery tasks.

The Directorate of the Real Property Registry may request the support personnel it deems necessary for the fulfillment of the objectives, functions, processes, and procedures, following the corresponding legal and administrative process.

Chapter Four: Duties and attributions of the organizational units

The Directorate of the Real Property Registry has the competence to administer the technical and administrative activities and responsibilities that impact decision-making of impact and transcendence at the institutional and/or national level, and the fulfillment of the objectives and strategic plans.

It corresponds to the director person of the Real Property Registry:

a)To order, suspend, or deny the registration of documents subject to registration, by resolving the appeals and administrative proceedings.
b)To supervise the fulfillment of the tasks and obligations of the official persons of the Real Property Registry.
c)To present the ordinary and extraordinary budget project, as well as the Institutional Operational Plan, to the General Directorate and control its execution.
d)To exercise direction and coordination duties over the Sub-Directorates, Legal Advisory unit, and the remaining organizational units, in pursuit of the adequate functioning of the Real Property Registry.
e)To plan, coordinate, direct, and supervise technical and administrative activities.
f)To issue and approve reports, regulations, instructions, circulars, or other technical instruments in pursuit of a unity of administrative and registry criteria.
g)To establish and supervise the functions of the Technical Standardization Department and the Legal Advisory unit.
h)To exercise disciplinary competence so that all official persons strictly fulfill their functions and obligations.
i)To designate, in their absence, the sub-director person who will replace them and the respective term.
j)To propose the appointment and removal of the official persons of the Real Property Registry.
k)To approve or determine the distribution of personnel.
l)To establish the guidelines for the implementation of the annual vacation plan for the personnel of the Real Property Registry.
m)To be cognizant of the cancellation of entries and other procedures established in the Law for the Strengthening of Real Property Registry Security, Law 9602.
n)To authorize the return process of the National Registry fee when applicable.
o)To authorize or reject the restitution of information in the registry entries of incomplete or deteriorated registrations.
p)To establish the necessary technical or technological procedures for registration and to determine the content of the registry entries and the manner in which the cadastral and registry information will be publicized.
q)To maintain contact with the institutions that relate to the Real Property Registry in legal and cadastral aspects, in order to standardize policies and procedures between those institutions and the Real Property Registry.
r)To determine the technical and technological means necessary for the presentation of survey plans.
s)To determine the complex nature of a document so that it has a differentiated qualification and registration procedure.

The Cadastral Sub-Directorate has the competence to administer the technical-administrative tasks that are developed in the Cadastral Registry Department and in the Cadastral Maintenance Department of the Real Property Registry, in which survey plans are qualified and registered, and the activities related to the cadastral map are carried out.

It corresponds to the cadastral sub-director person of the Real Property Registry:

a)To exercise the direction and coordination of the Cadastral Registry Department and the Cadastral Maintenance Department.
b)To order, suspend, or deny the registration of documents subject to registration and to resolve administrative proceedings in accordance with the law.
c)To execute the provisions agreed upon by the Directorate for the good service of the Real Property Registry.
d)To attend to and resolve verbal and written inquiries presented by their hierarchical superiors, subordinates, and the general public.
e)To supervise that the documents prepared and processed in their dependency under their responsibility are technically elaborated in accordance with the law.
f)To develop the cadastral activity for the conformation, maintenance, and updating of the cadastral map and the information processing systems.
g)To propose to the Directorate of the Real Property Registry registry qualification criteria for the documents submitted for registration and technical criteria in cadastral matters.
h)To coordinate with the registry sub-director person everything necessary to guarantee the adequate functioning of the Real Property Registry.
i)To ensure the observance of laws, regulations, and norms that regulate both the functioning and the organization of the Real Property Registry, in coordination with the director person.
j)To assume all the attributions and duties proper to the director person, in case of absence from this position.
k)To collaborate with the Directorate of the Real Property Registry in the formulation of plans, projects, the drafting of circulars and cadastral directives, as well as in the orientation and training tasks of cadastral personnel.
l)To collaborate with the discipline of the personnel and the good progress of the technical and administrative tasks of the Real Property Registry.
m)To conform a cartography for cadastral purposes through the available scientific and technological procedures.
n)To instruct ex officio the undertaking of technical cadastral studies that serve its purposes, in conformity with the provisions established in the National Cadastre Law, Law 6545, and in the present regulation.
o)To request ex officio the undertaking of technical cadastral studies for the State, its institutions, and jurisdictional authorities, only in officialized territories.
p)To determine the technical specifications of the basic stages of the conformation of the cadastral map and its execution.
q)To analyze and order the cancellation of the provisionality or the return of validity of cadastral plans, in the cases submitted to its knowledge.
r)To authorize or reject the restitution of information in the registry entries of incomplete or deteriorated registrations, in the cases submitted to its knowledge.
s)To determine the procedure to verify the authorizations and approvals (visados) granted by the competent institutions, which are required for the registration of survey plans.
t)To determine the complex nature of a document so that it has a differentiated qualification and registration procedure.

The Registry Sub-Directorate has the competence to participate and collaborate in the planning, direction, programming, coordination, and supervision of the professional, technical, and administrative activities that are developed in the Real Property Registry Department of the Real Property Registry, in which documents that constitute, modify, declare, or extinguish real rights over real property matters are qualified and registered.

It corresponds to the registry sub-director person of the Real Property Registry:

a)To exercise the direction and coordination of the Real Property Registry Department.
b)To order, suspend, or deny the registration of documents subject to registration and to resolve administrative proceedings in accordance with the law.
c)To execute the provisions agreed upon by the Directorate for the good service of the Real Property Registry.
d)To attend to and resolve verbal and written inquiries presented by their hierarchical superiors, subordinates, and the general public.
e)To supervise that the documents prepared and processed in their dependency under their responsibility are legally elaborated in accordance with the law.
f)To develop the registry activity for the maintenance and updating of the registered real rights and the information processing systems.
g)To propose to the Directorate of the Real Property Registry registry qualification criteria for the documents submitted for registration.
h)To coordinate with the cadastral sub-director person everything necessary to guarantee the adequate functioning of the Real Property Registry.
i)To ensure the observance of laws, regulations, and norms that regulate both the functioning and the organization of the Real Property Registry, in coordination with the director person.
j)To assume all the attributions and duties proper to the director person, in case of absence from this position.
k)To collaborate with the Directorate of the Real Property Registry in the formulation of plans, projects, the drafting of circulars and registry directives, as well as in the orientation and training tasks of registry personnel.
l)To collaborate with the discipline of the personnel and the good progress of the technical and administrative tasks of the Real Property Registry.
m)To be cognizant of the cancellation of entries and other procedures established in the Law for the Strengthening of Real Property Registry Security, Law 9602.
n)To analyze and order the cancellation of the provisionality or the return of validity of cadastral plans, in the cases submitted to its knowledge.
o)To authorize or reject the restitution of information in the registry entries of incomplete or deteriorated registrations, in the cases submitted to its knowledge.
p)To determine the complex nature of a document so that it has a differentiated qualification and registration procedure.

The General Cadastral Coordination has the competence to plan, direct, coordinate, supervise, and control the activities of the registrar persons that are developed in the Cadastral Registry Department, with the objective of centralizing the information referring to the qualification and registration of the survey plans submitted for registration.

It corresponds to the general coordinator person of the Cadastral Registry Department:

a)To assign, supervise, control, and evaluate the professional tasks proper to the process of qualification and registration of survey plans.
b)To control and ensure the adequate development of the survey plan registration function by the official persons of the Cadastral Registry Department.
c)To train, instruct, and evaluate the work performed by the personnel under their charge, as well as to attend to and resolve the inquiries derived from the execution of the process.
d)To authorize the reassignment of documents that, in accordance with the law, and under their criteria and responsibility, they determine.
e)To coordinate and periodically review with the coordinations of the registrar persons the functioning of the Cadastral Registry Department.
f)To collaborate with the director person or cadastral sub-director person in the elaboration of plans and projects.
g)To attend to and resolve verbal and written inquiries presented by their hierarchical superiors, subordinates, and the general public.
h)To carry out all those other tasks entrusted by the director person or cadastral sub-director person.

The coordinations of the registrar persons of the Cadastral Registry Department have the competence to supervise the fulfillment in efficiency and quality of the registry procedures, optimally administering all the resources assigned to their charge, through the controls that allow them to guarantee the correct execution of the registry task.

It corresponds to the coordinations of the registrar persons of the Cadastral Registry Department:

a)To ensure the good functioning of the groups of registrars under their charge, both in cadastral and in disciplinary administrative matters.
b)To attend to and resolve inquiries relating to a survey plan in the process of registration.
c)To attend to and resolve verbal and written inquiries presented by their hierarchical superiors, subordinates, and professional surveyor persons.
d)To supervise and inspect that the official persons under their charge process the documents in accordance with the legislation and current provisions.
e)To resolve, in the first instance, the opposition to the qualification. They may revoke the defect and order the processing of the document, which shall be done under their responsibility, or they may confirm the defect, in which case they must refer the document to the cadastral sub-director person for qualification.
f)To determine the complex nature of a document so that it has a differentiated qualification and registration procedure.
g)To communicate to the group of registrars under their charge, the decisions of a registry, cadastral, or administrative nature issued by the director person or cadastral sub-director person.
h)To carry out all those other tasks entrusted by their hierarchical superiors.

The registrar persons of the Cadastral Registry Department have the competence to execute professional activities oriented to the qualification and registration of the survey plans submitted for their study, which they shall do by the means available to them in coordination with the Directorate of the Real Property Registry, with the purpose of guaranteeing publicity and strengthening real property registry security.

It corresponds to the registrar persons of the Cadastral Registry Department:

a)To verify that the survey plans that are submitted for qualification and registration comply with the formal and legal requirements for their registration.
b)To verify the surveys contained in the survey plans, checking that they comply with the accuracy parameters, precision of the cadastral map, and with the requirements established in the current regulations.
c)To analyze and verify the dimensions, area, and georeferencing provided in the presentations of the survey plans, verifying or discarding the existence of inconsistencies that affect the certainty of the real property entries.
d)To qualify within the legal deadlines, under their strict responsibility and in accordance with the order of presentation, all the documents that correspond to them.
e)To proceed with the registration or return of defective survey plans, in accordance with the cadastral and registry entries, and the established legal order.
f)To authorize the registration of the survey plans submitted for their study, by the means established by the Directorate of the Real Property Registry, and to immediately update the information in the databases, so that it can be consulted by user persons.
g)To evacuate the inquiries formulated by their hierarchical superiors regarding the survey plans submitted for their study.
h)To abide by the provisions issued by their hierarchical superiors.

The General Registry Coordination has the competence to plan, direct, coordinate, supervise, and control the activities of the registrar persons that are developed in the Real Property Registry Department, with the objective of centralizing the information referring to the qualification and registration of documents submitted for registration.

It corresponds to the general coordinator person of the Real Property Registry Department:

a)To assign, supervise, control, and evaluate the professional tasks proper to the process of qualification and registration of documents.
b)To control and ensure the adequate development of the document registration function by the official persons of the Real Property Registry Department.
c)To train, instruct, and evaluate the work performed by the personnel under their charge, as well as to attend to and resolve the inquiries derived from the execution of the process.
d)To authorize the reassignment of documents that, in accordance with the law, and under their criteria and responsibility, they determine.
e)To authorize the joint registration of documents that, in accordance with the law and under their criteria and responsibility, they determine.
f)To coordinate and periodically review with the coordinations of the registrar persons the functioning of the Real Property Registry Department.
g)To collaborate with the director person or registry sub-director person in the elaboration of plans and projects.
h)To attend to and resolve verbal and written inquiries presented by their hierarchical superiors, subordinates, and the general public.
i)To authorize the use of security slips for the purpose of entering documents into the registry stream.
j)To carry out all those other tasks entrusted by the director person or registry sub-director person.

The coordinators of the registrars of the Real Property Registration Department have the authority to supervise the efficient and high-quality fulfillment of registration procedures, optimally managing all resources assigned to their charge, through controls that allow them to guarantee the correct execution of registration work.

The following corresponds to the coordinators of the registrars of the Real Property Registration Department:

a)Ensure the proper functioning of the groups of registrars under their charge, in both registration and administrative-disciplinary matters.
b)Address and resolve registration-related queries concerning a document in the process of registration.
c)Address and resolve verbal and written queries submitted by their hierarchical superiors, subordinates, and legal and notarial professionals.
d)Supervise and oversee that the officials under their charge process documents in accordance with current legislation and provisions.
e)Resolve, in the first instance, the opposition to the qualification (calificación). They may revoke the defect and order the processing of the document, which shall be done under their responsibility, or they may confirm the defect, in which case they must refer the document to the deputy director of registration for its qualification.
f)Determine the complex nature of a document so that it may have a differentiated qualification and registration procedure.
g)Communicate to the group of registrars under their charge the registration, cadastral, or administrative decisions issued by the director or deputy director of registration.
h)Perform all other tasks entrusted by their hierarchical superiors.

The registrars of the Real Property Registration Department have the authority to execute professional activities oriented toward the qualification and registration of documents submitted for their study, inherent to the process of registering documents in which real rights over immovable property are constituted, modified, declared, or extinguished, which they shall do through the means available to them in coordination with the Directorate of the Real Property Registry, in order to guarantee publicity and strengthen real property registration security.

The following corresponds to the registrars of the Real Property Registration Department:

a)Verify that the documents submitted for qualification and registration comply with the formal and legal requirements for their registration.
b)Conduct a prior examination of the documents submitted for registration, with the purpose of ensuring that only those that are valid and perfect are registered, and verify the legality of said titles before proceeding to their registration.
c)Qualify all documents assigned to them within the legal deadlines, under their strict responsibility, and in accordance with the order of presentation.
d)Authorize the registration of the documents submitted for their study, through the means established by the Directorate of the Real Property Registry, and immediately update the information in the databases so that it can be consulted by users.
e)Respond to queries formulated by their hierarchical superiors regarding the documents under study.
f)Comply with the provisions issued by their hierarchical superiors.

The General Coordination of the Cadastral Maintenance Department has the authority to execute activities related to the planning, organization, coordination, supervision, control, and evaluation of the work processes and administrative and substantive activities carried out in the Cadastral Maintenance Department.

The following corresponds to the general coordinator of the Cadastral Maintenance Department:

a)Assign, supervise, control, and evaluate the tasks inherent to the validation process, cadastral surveying (levantamiento catastral), topography and surveying (topografia y agrimensura), digital cartography for cadastral application, as well as technical cadastral studies.
b)Train, instruct, and evaluate the work performed by the personnel under their charge, as well as address and resolve queries arising from the execution of the process.
c)Coordinate and periodically review, with the coordinations under their charge, the functioning of the Cadastral Maintenance Department.
d)Collaborate with the cadastral director or deputy director in the preparation of plans and projects.
e)Address and resolve verbal and written queries submitted by their hierarchical superiors, subordinates, and the general public.
f)Provide advisory services inherent to the expertise of cadastral work (obra catastral).
g)Coordinate with the Instituto Geográfico Nacional (IGN) on matters related to cadastral application in procedures and tasks linked to the establishment of geodetic control, aerial photography, photogrammetric control, creation of orthophotos, digital geographic layers, and digital photogrammetric maps.
h)Perform all other tasks entrusted by the cadastral director or deputy director.

The coordinations of the officials of the Cadastral Maintenance Department have the authority to supervise the efficient and high-quality fulfillment of technical procedures, optimally managing all resources assigned to their charge, through controls that allow them to guarantee the correct execution of the assigned tasks.

The following corresponds to the coordinations of the officials of the Cadastral Maintenance Department:

a)Ensure the proper functioning of the human team under their charge.
b)Address and resolve verbal and written queries submitted by their hierarchical superiors, subordinates, and legal advisors.
c)Communicate to the personnel under their charge the registration, cadastral, or administrative decisions issued by the cadastral director or deputy director.
d)Collaborate with the cadastral director or deputy director in the preparation of plans and projects.
e)Update the cadastral reference databases for the consultation and qualification of survey plans (planos de agrimensura).
f)Provide advisory services inherent to the expertise of cadastral work (obra catastral).
g)Issue an opinion before the competent authorities regarding the preparation of the public roads map (municipalities and/or Ministerio de Obras Públicas y Transportes) in districts subject to cadastral surveying (levantamiento catastral).
h)Address and resolve verbal and written queries submitted by their hierarchical superiors, subordinates, and the general public.
i)Address queries from officials related to the administrative management of documents referring to properties contained in the cadastral map.
j)Carry out the stages of cadastral surveying (levantamiento catastral) aimed at completing and maintaining the cadastral work (obra catastral) with national coverage.
k)Develop the logistics associated with the public exhibitions for districts subject to cadastral surveying (levantamiento catastral).
l)Manage the methodologies and technical criteria regarding the cadastral map.
m)Perform all other tasks entrusted by their hierarchical superiors.

The officials of the Cadastral Maintenance Department have the authority to execute professional tasks oriented toward providing inputs for the issuance of technical opinions and provisions, as well as geodetic and cadastral measurements, land surveys (levantamientos de agrimensura), and drawing of plans for registration; and to execute professional tasks related to the planning, analysis, measurement, calculation, adjustment, and correction of cadastral surveys, and to the advisory, issuance of technical opinions and guidelines, and resolutions of inaccuracies in complex cadastral surveys, in order to strengthen the country's land-use planning (ordenamiento territorial).

The following corresponds to the officials of the Cadastral Maintenance Department:

a)Conduct studies of registration and cadastral entries (asientos registrales y catastrales), verifying that they comply with the tolerances and parameters established in current regulations to develop the corresponding legal-cadastral reconciliation (conciliación jurídica-catastral).
b)Draft and sign the technical cadastral studies requested by the State, its institutions, and jurisdictional authorities, exclusively in officially designated territories.
c)Analyze the conformity of boundaries, location, area, shape, and dimensions of properties described through survey plans (planos de agrimensura) and cadastral records, to maintain the cadastral work (obra catastral) with national coverage.
d)Execute the process of updating and maintaining the cadastral map, to guarantee its validity and permanence over time.
e)Participate in the preparation of technical guidelines for the generation, implementation, and use of cadastral information.
f)Manage the correction of inaccuracies generated in the electronic data processing systems, seeking the correction and updating of the published information.
g)Coordinate, supervise, and direct field visits, on specific situations with properties in the cadastral map, seeking to provide elements that contribute to its updating and maintenance.
h)Keep updated the databases related to the cadastral work (obra catastral), for the consultation and qualification of survey plans (planos de agrimensura).
i)Address and resolve queries and procedures formulated by their hierarchical superiors, officials, other entities, or users.
j)Comply with the provisions issued by their hierarchical superiors.

The head of the Technical Standardization Department has the authority to evaluate the functioning and maintenance of the electronic data processing systems, proposing changes, adjustments, and solutions; coordinating the activities carried out and contributing to the achievement of the objectives of the Real Property Registry; proposing reform plans and programs to their hierarchical superiors to improve the automated systems, through the appropriate use of databases for all authorized users, in order to strengthen registration security in the information included in the computer systems.

The following corresponds to the head of the Technical Standardization Department:

a)Advise the Directorate of the Real Property Registry on the adaptation of electronic data processing systems that affect registration management in accordance with applicable legal regulations.
b)Make adaptations to electronic data processing systems in accordance with binding regulations.
c)Foresee risks, propose reforms and improvements to the programs and technological infrastructure of the electronic data processing systems.
d)Manage with the Information Technology Directorate the implementation of improvements or requirements that affect the automated systems.
e)Apply improvements to the electronic data processing systems, according to the needs of internal and external users in legal-registration matters.
f)Administer the automated systems involved in the registration function.
g)Coordinate with other information-generating institutions the transmission of data affecting the registration process in compliance with current regulations.
h)Act as a liaison between external institutions and the Directorate of the Real Property Registry, through technical and business support regarding the different services and procedures.
i)Facilitate the implementation of registrations of legal acts through digital applications, in compliance with applicable regulations.
j)Develop guidelines on the creation of user profiles, assignment of passwords, and workstations for the Real Property Registry.
k)Authorize the delivery of security slips (boletas de seguridad) to State institutions that so require.
l)Perform all other tasks entrusted by the respective director or deputy director.

The officials of the Technical Standardization Department have the authority to assess and resolve requests regarding potential inconsistencies or registration errors, as well as to perform the verification and correction (saneamiento) of information in the electronic processing systems of the Real Property Registry databases, with its consequent correction and execution in the computerized system, in order to guarantee the continuous improvement of the service through the systems that support it and to strengthen real property registration security.

The following corresponds to the officials of the Technical Standardization Department:

a)Monitor the proper functioning and maintenance of the electronic data processing systems.
b)Carry out the inclusion, modification, or deletion of information contained in the databases, as well as execute the requirements related to the applications of the different automated systems.
c)Administer user profiles and access control of the automated systems under the charge of the Directorate of the Real Property Registry.
d)Assist the Information Technology Directorate in optimizing the functioning of the automated systems, when codes, functions, and new applications are generated to execute registration processes.
e)Assign, in the automated registration systems, the document classes, groups, and specialties to which a registrar belongs so that they have access to the daily entry and dispatch distributions.
f)Transfer, upon instruction from the Directorate of the Real Property Registry, non-existent, deteriorated, or deteriorating registration entries (asientos registrales), into the databases of the automated systems, regarding information contained in the volumes (tomos) that is required to be transferred to the automated system, guaranteeing real property registration publicity.
g)Ensure the proper functioning of improvements or new products related to the registration function, conducting tests in the development environments of the automated systems.
h)Ensure that acts subject to registration are contained in the fee calculation and collection systems, complying with the guidelines established by the legal system.
i)Develop studies, research, and technical-legal reports in their field, when so required by the respective director or deputy director.
j)Ensure effective communication connectivity between the automated systems of the Directorate of the Real Property Registry and the various institutions.
k)Provide query assistance service to internal and external users, related to the functioning of the automated systems.
l)Manage the delivery of security slips (boletas de seguridad) to notaries or their authorized representatives.
m)Execute complex modifications or registrations ordered by the respective director or deputy director.
n)Manage with the registrars the correction of registration errors requested by users.
o)Collaborate with the registrars, advising them on the processes of registration or correction in the electronic database processing systems.
p)Comply with the provisions issued by their hierarchical superiors.

The Coordination of the Legal Advisory Office has the authority to advise the director, deputy directors, and persons from the other organizational units on legal and registration aspects, and to execute tasks related to the direction, organization, supervision, control, and evaluation of the functions performed in the Legal Advisory Office of the Real Property Registry.

The following corresponds to the coordinator of the Legal Advisory Office:

a)Provide legal and registration advice to the director, deputy directors, and persons from the other organizational units, through the study of the various regulations, jurisprudence, and doctrine governing registration and cadastral activity.
b)Address and resolve queries submitted by their hierarchical superiors, collaborators, and the general public on matters related to the procedures processed in the Legal Advisory Office.
c)Issue opinions and reports on legal aspects within their competence, with the objective of standardizing the application of regulations and procedures managed in the Legal Advisory Office.
d)Join committees and attend meetings with hierarchical superiors where policies are proposed and analyzed with the aim of optimizing the processes and procedures processed in the Legal Advisory Office.
e)Prepare circulars or directives analyzing the issue in question and the pertinent regulations, in order to inform about the various reforms or situations that must be observed by the officials under their charge.
f)Maintain contact with institutions related to the Real Property Registry on legal aspects, in order to standardize policies and procedures between those institutions and the Real Property Registry.
g)Rule on the admissibility of opening administrative management processes.
h)Determine the complex nature of a document so that it may have a differentiated qualification and registration procedure.
i)Perform all other tasks entrusted by the respective director or deputy director.

The legal advisors have the authority to provide advice to the director, deputy directors, and other persons from the organizational units, on legal and registration aspects within the Legal Advisory Office of the Real Property Registry, based on the laws and current regulations governing their professional activity.

The following corresponds to the legal advisors:

a)Advise the respective director and deputy director in all their functions, issuing opinions, reports, and providing jurisprudence and doctrine on aspects submitted to their knowledge.
b)Process the administrative procedures carried out in the Legal Advisory Office and any other that the Directorate of the Real Property Registry deems pertinent.
c)Advise the registrars and the coordinators of the registrars on the qualification of documents in the registration process and on the procedures for correcting inaccuracies, in cases where such correction harms third interested parties and the administrative management procedure must be applied.
d)Register the precautionary measures (medidas cautelares) ordered in the administrative procedures processed in the Legal Advisory Office and any other registration ordered by the respective director or deputy director.
e)Certify the administrative files (expedientes administrativos) requested by the various judicial or administrative authorities that require them.
f)Certify the registration entries (asientos de inscripción) and the documents required to address the procedures processed in the Legal Advisory Office. Certification of documents whose competence corresponds to the Directorate of Registry Services shall not proceed.
g)Formalize agreements reached by the legitimate parties seeking the correction (saneamiento) of inconsistencies investigated in the administrative procedures processed in the Legal Advisory Office.
h)Issue interlocutory resolutions and those designated by the respective director or deputy director, in the administrative procedures processed in the Legal Advisory Office.
i)Join committees and work teams when required by their hierarchical superiors, in order to assist in the queries or procedures that must be addressed by the respective director or deputy director.
j)Comply with the provisions issued by their hierarchical superiors.

Chapter Five: Registration Principles

The cadastral and registration activity must be in accordance with the current body of legality; therefore, the qualification of documents submitted for registration must be duly substantiated.

The Real Property Registry processes only those documents that are submitted for registration, and the formal presentation of the document signifies the request for registration.

In documents submitted for registration with the Real Property Registration Department, all acts or contracts contained therein and referring to registrable real rights are considered petitioned, unless otherwise indicated from the first entry of the document.

Priority between two or more documents subject to registration is established by the order of presentation before the Directorate of Services of the National Registry. If they are mutually exclusive, the document presented first in time shall have priority. Registration priority is determined by the presentation citations (citas de presentación) assigned to the document.

In the registration entries (asientos registrales), there must be a perfect sequence and correlation between the registrations, modifications, cancellations, or extinctions.

For the qualification of survey plans (planos de agrimensura), in addition to the above, a legal-cadastral reconciliation (conciliación jurídica-catastral) is carried out.

The information in the registration and cadastral entries (asientos registrales y catastrales) is public and, consequently, opposable to third parties.

Public faith in the registry operates based on legal presumptions for the benefit of the registered titleholders, as well as third-party registrants and the security of trade in goods and rights. Its effects are closely related to the protection of the acquirer's right under the protection of real property registration publicity, which is presumed true and accurate.

Specificity refers to the determination of the ownership, characteristics, and other registrable conditions of the real right in accordance with the law.

The Real Property Registry has specialized competence regarding the registration of real property rights; therefore, no document may be registered in another Registry that operates with a different functional specialty.

The registration qualification is unitary and must encompass all defects that the document has at that moment and that imply its suspension, and the legal or technical basis on which each defect is grounded must be recorded in the qualification report.

Under no circumstances shall the principle of unitary qualification prevail over the principle of legality; therefore, if the existence of a substantial defect in the document is determined after the first qualification, it must be rectified before registration can be authorized.

It is not considered a violation of the principle of unitary qualification when the authorizing professional has included, for any reason, new information in the document, if that defect originates from the newly incorporated data.

In documents submitted for registration with the Cadastral Registration Department, it is not considered a violation of the principle of unitary qualification when the authorizing professional has included new information for any reason, has omitted information in the submitted plan, or there is a variation in the information available to the Real Property Registry due to subsequent movements, and the new defect originates from that new information.

Likewise, in the Cadastral Registration Department, defects arising from the attention of an opposition to the qualification (calificación) or from the maintenance of the cadastral map do not constitute a violation of the principle of unitary qualification.

This refers to the true concordance between the physical reality, the cadastral entry, and the registration entry, which must exist when documents are qualified for registration with the Cadastral Registration Department, in the procedures for updating and maintaining the constitutive documents of the cadastre, and in the procedures for the correction (saneamiento) of cadastral and registration entries.

The data contained in the cadastral map are continuous, spatial, and temporal; consequently, properties that do not have a registered owner must contain a property identifier (identificador predial).

The means of access to the database are for the sole and exclusive use of the official of the Real Property Registry to whom they are assigned, who shall be responsible for their irregular use.

Chapter Six: Challenge to the Qualification of Documents

The respective director or deputy director shall communicate the registration criteria derived from administrative precedents on specific cases, which are applicable and pertinent to the qualification of documents subject to registration, and which shall be mandatory for registrars in analogous cases.

Resolutions regarding oppositions to the qualification (calificación), appeals (ocursos), final resolutions of administrative proceedings, or others, shall be considered registration criteria applicable by registrars for analogous cases, as long as they are communicated in the manner provided in this article.

When the authorizing professional of the document does not agree with the defects recorded by the registrar, or with the cancellations of provisional entries made, they may consult, in person or through authorized digital means, the analysis of these by the coordinations of the registrars.

In the case of documents submitted for registration with the Cadastral Registration Department, the authorizing professional must additionally present the legal-cadastral reconciliation (conciliación jurídica catastral) and/or the corresponding evidence. If the foregoing requirement is not met, the coordinations of the registrars shall be empowered to deny the query.

The coordinations of the registrars may revoke the queried defects under their responsibility, recording their decision in the respective database.

In the case of cancellation of the provisional entry, the coordinations of the registrars of the Cadastral Registration Department shall assess and, if appropriate, reactivate the presentation citations (citas de presentación), so that the authorizing professional resubmits the document by appeal, for its prioritized processing.

In the case of cancellation of the provisional entry, the coordinations of the registrars of the Real Property Registration Department may determine the admissibility of the procedure for which the provisional entry has been canceled, for which the authorizing professional or the user must enter the document with new presentation citations (citas de presentación).

Once the document has been resubmitted, the coordinations of the registrars shall ensure its prioritized processing.

Queries shall be addressed solely and exclusively when requested by the authorizing professionals, and restricted to the resolution of doubts regarding the qualification of the document.

The coordinators of the registrars may not indicate how to cure the defects noted on the document or respond to consultations of any other type, since advice regarding the drafting of acts and contracts, and also the preparation of survey plans (planos de agrimensura), is the sole responsibility of the responsible professionals.

If the responsible professional does not agree with the qualification made by the registrar, they may file, as a first formal remedy, the opposition to the qualification, which must meet the following requirements:

a)Submit a substantiated written request citing the legal rules and/or providing the technical studies applicable to the specific case.
b)At the time of filing the opposition to the qualification of the document, all non-contested defects must have been corrected, applying the principle of unitary qualification. An exception to the foregoing is the request for approvals (visados), in the case of documents submitted for registration with the Cadastral Registry Department (Departamento Catastral Registral).
c)When the opposition to the qualification refers to the notation of defects in documents submitted for registration with the Real Property Registry Department (Departamento Inmobiliario Registral), the request must be filed with the National Registry's Directorate of Services (Dirección de Servicios del Registro Nacional), jointly with the document, within the validity period of the provisional presentation entry.
d)When the opposition to the qualification refers to the notation of defects in the Cadastral Registry Department, the request must be filed in the computerized plan reception system, within the validity period of the provisional presentation entry. If the defects being challenged refer to parcel contradictions (contradicciones parcelarias), the responsible professional must submit the technical and/or legal evidence supporting their argument.
e)In the case of cancellations of the provisional entry in documents submitted for registration with the Real Property Registry Department, the opposition to the qualification must be filed attached to the originally canceled document with new presentation citations; and the deputy registrar (persona subdirectora registral) may order that the qualification of the document proceed or that the cancellation of the provisional entry be ratified.

When the registrar receives the document with the opposition to the qualification, they shall reassess it and determine whether to maintain the noted defects, in which case they shall forward it to the respective coordination.

The coordinator of the registrar may revoke the noted defect and order, under their responsibility, the respective registration, or may confirm the defect, in which case they must forward the document to the competent deputy director.

In the Cadastral Registry Department, the coordinator of the registrar, upon confirming the defect, must issue a technical qualification, prior to forwarding the document to the cadastral deputy director.

The competent deputy director may revoke the noted order for suspension of registration, ordering the registration of the document by means of a duly reasoned resolution.

Otherwise, the competent deputy director may confirm the defect or defects noted.

The deadline to resolve the opposition to the qualification shall be up to two months, counted from the filing of the formal remedy, and shall suspend the validity period of the respective provisional entry, in accordance with Article 468, subsection 5, of the Civil Code (Código Civil).

To substantiate the decision, the framework for registry and cadastral qualification regulated in Article 27 of the Law on the Registration of Documents in the Public Registry, Ley 3883, may be extended.

If the responsible professional does not agree with the resolution issued by the competent deputy director in the formal remedy of opposition to the qualification, they may pursue the course as a second formal instance.

When the course refers to the notation of defects in documents submitted for registration with the Real Property Registry Department, the request must be filed with the National Registry's Directorate of Services, jointly with the document, within the validity period of the provisional presentation entry, setting forth the reasons, legal or technical grounds on which it is based.

When the course refers to the notation of defects in documents submitted for registration with the Cadastral Registry Department, the request must be filed in the computerized plan reception system, within the validity period of the provisional presentation entry, setting forth the reasons, legal or technical grounds on which it is based.

If the defects being challenged refer to parcel contradictions, the legal-cadastral conciliation (conciliación jurídica-catastral) or the corresponding evidence supporting the argument must be submitted.

The registrar, upon receiving the document with the course, shall forward it to the Directorate of the Real Property Registry (Dirección del Registro Inmobiliario). The course proceedings shall be processed in an administrative file (expediente administrativo), and due process must be observed. Hearings shall be granted to third-party annotators with a legitimate interest regarding the content of the document being subjected to the course, and where applicable, also to the responsible professional.

Once the course request has been received and the hearings have concluded, the director shall decide by means of a duly reasoned resolution, indicating the legal and technical grounds, on the defects noted on the document or on the cancellation of the provisional entry. The director must issue the resolution within one month following the conclusion of the granted hearings. This resolution shall be notified to the course filer, as well as to any other interested persons who have appeared.

The resolution by the director may be appealed before the Administrative Registry Tribunal (Tribunal Registral Administrativo), as a third formal remedy. This must be filed with the Directorate, within five business days following notification of the final resolution issued in the course proceedings.

Once the resolution by the Administrative Registry Tribunal has been communicated to the Directorate of the Real Property Registry, the appeal dossier must be incorporated into the course proceedings file, within a period of five business days, counted from receipt of the file at the Directorate.

The registrar responsible for the document must execute the resolution of the Administrative Registry Tribunal with priority, within a period of three business days, counted from the return of the document in the electronic data processing system.

Chapter seven: Processing of complex documents

A complex document is one that cannot be studied together with the group of documents that are regularly and routinely qualified, because, due to its legal or cadastral content, the registrar needs to refer it for consultation to the Legal Advisory Office of the Real Property Registry (Asesoría Legal del Registro Inmobiliario), to assess drafting and contractual clauses, conduct studies, analysis of parcel effects (afectaciones parcelarias), studies regarding the legalization of condominium books, or examine the manner in which rights and stamp duties should be assessed or the registration modality to be carried out, or else, to perform an administrative collation.

Also considered complex is any document where the number of assigned operations, number of properties, plans to modify, or large survey plan projects exceeds what the registrar can process within a period of eight calendar days, or when an appearance before an administrative body is necessary to cure the defect noted by the registrar.

When it is necessary to request a technical study from the Cadastral Maintenance Department (Departamento de Mantenimiento Catastral) to resolve an opposition to the qualification of documents or to determine the rectification (saneamiento) of inaccuracies in real property registry publicity, in order to authorize the lifting of precautionary measures, the document related to such proceedings is considered complex.

The classification of a complex document must be made within a term of eight calendar days, counted from the date of the presentation entry.

The nature of a complex document must be approved by the coordinators of the registrars, by the coordinator of the Legal Advisory Office, by the respective director or deputy director, and noted in the registry or cadastral database, as appropriate.

In the case of documents submitted for registration in the Real Property Registry Department, the registrar or the legal advisor, as appropriate, must publicize in the database the classification of the complex document, using the same presentation entry citations.

The registrar must qualify and return the complex document to the user within a maximum period of three months, counted from the date of the presentation entry.

The calculation of the expiration period for the complex document shall be six months counted from the date of the presentation entry, if defects of a tax nature are noted on the document; and one year and three months, counted from the date of the presentation entry, if any other defect preventing its registration is noted on the document.

Title two: Documents registrable in the Cadastral Registry Department

Chapter one: Documents constituting the cadastre

The cadastre is composed of the following documents:

a)Maps for cadastral purposes.
b)The cadastral database.
c)The cadastral plans (planos catastrados).

The main objective of the cadastral plan is to contribute to the establishment, improvement, and maintenance of the cadastral map, to define the property in a graphic, mathematical, and unequivocal manner, and to publicize its boundaries, guaranteeing to the State and to the titleholders the exact location of the property.

Documents containing cadastral information issued by the National Registry's Directorate of Services shall attest to their content and prove that this information originates from the Real Property Registry.

Only survey plans registered in the Cadastral Registry Department shall have legal effects. Cadastral registration does not validate documents that are null or voidable according to law, nor shall it cure their defects.

For the execution of the cadastre, all prior works or records appearing in the Real Property Registry and any surveys previously carried out by other public institutions that can be obtained shall be used and leveraged.

Properties shall be delimited on the cadastral map taking into account the registered titles and the cadastral information of the Real Property Registry.

In order to proceed with the formation of the cadastral map, local governments are obliged to submit the public roads of the canton, in the digital format indicated by the Directorate of the Real Property Registry.

The formation of the cadastral map shall comprise the following basic stages:

a)Establishment of the cadastral geodetic control.
b)Taking or procurement of aerial photography, photogrammetric control and creation of orthophotos, digital geographic layers and digital photogrammetric maps.
c)Supplementary surveys.
d)Compilation of cadastral and registry records.
e)Legal-cadastral conciliation.
f)Formation of property files (expedientes prediales).
g)Survey and compilation of field information.
h)Preparation of the provisional cadastral map and mosaic.
i)Public exhibition and signing of conformity certificates (actas de conformidad).
j)Preparation of the definitive map.
k)Updating and maintenance of cadastral information.
l)Declaration of finality of the data.
m)Declaration of a cadastral zone (zona catastrada).

The call for the public exhibition must be published in the Official Gazette La Gaceta Digital and in a national circulation media outlet. The Directorate of the Real Property Registry may use local media outlets it deems convenient, to invite interested persons to attend the place where the public exhibition is to be held, so that they may examine the cadastral registry there and sign the conformity certificate.

The exhibition period shall be eight calendar days in person and may be extended up to two consecutive times, in which case new publications and an identical warning shall be made. If there is disagreement with the data, a formal written claim must be filed before the cadastral deputy director, in accordance with Article 20 of the National Cadastre Law, Ley 6545, within a period of fifteen business days counted from the last day of the public exhibition; the latter must examine the objections timely made and resolve them within a period of one month.

Once the period of one month has elapsed, the data shall be declared final and certain by the cadastral deputy director, and subsequently the cadastral zone shall be made official by executive decree.

Once a zone is declared cadastral, the cadastral information data are deemed certain and definitive, being challengeable only through judicial channels.

By virtue of the officialization of the data, in those cases where the location of properties is questioned at the judicial level, the officials of the Cadastral Subdirectorate (Subdirección Catastral) shall issue reports only in officialized zones. When the questioning occurs in a non-officialized zone, the corresponding technical study shall be performed by the surveyor, duly registered with the Colegio Federado de Ingenieros y de Arquitectos, and the officials of the Cadastral Subdirectorate shall be precluded from issuing criteria in these cases.

The claim contesting the cadastral map must be filed before the Directorate of the Real Property Registry, and must meet the following requirements:

a)File a written claim signed by the registry titleholder or whoever has standing, by means of which the reasons why they do not agree with the formation are set forth, as well as the inconsistencies displayed by the properties on the cadastral map.
b)Indicate a means for receiving notifications, whether electronic or any other permitted by the Judicial Notifications Law, Ley 8687.
c)Provide the corresponding technical studies.
d)Should the existence of inconsistencies in the contested properties be proven, the procedure for administrative management or publicity of the inconsistencies detected in the survey, updating, and maintenance of cadastral information shall apply, as appropriate.

Conformity certificates, as well as boundary marking (deslinde) and identification certificates, form part of the process of forming the cadastral map.

When maintenance of the properties on the cadastral map must be performed, the following must be taken into account:

a)Update and maintain the formation of the cadastral map, by means of real property entries, determining for this purpose whether the property complies or not with relative and absolute exactitudes.
b)Determine the relationship between the cadastral plan and the registry entry.
c)Formation of the property on the cadastral map.
d)Updating the attributes of the cadastral map and maintenance reports.
e)Rectification of properties on the cadastral map.
f)Improve the formation.
g)Determination of inconsistencies of properties on the cadastral map.
h)Locate and georeference real property entries.
i)Define the compatibilization of properties.
j)Reconfigure the map geometry when necessary.
k)Make improvements to the properties on the cadastral map that are directly or indirectly carried out to increase and improve precision and exactitude.
l)Respect the polygon geometry of the cadastral plan.

For properties with areas equal to or less than 5000 m2, the exactitudes corresponding to scale 1:1000 shall apply.

If in cartographic updating, cartography at scale 1:1000 is available, even if the cadastral map in that sector was made at scale 1:5000, the tolerances required in that case shall be those of scale 1:1000. If the plan was registered prior to having the input at scale 1:1000, in the plan verification process, the tolerances of scale 1:5000 shall apply.

In the formation of the cadastral map, the tolerance value at scale 1:1000 shall be ± 0.85 m., and the tolerance value at scale 1:5000 shall be ± 4.25 m.

The cadastral registrar, at the time of qualifying the survey plan in an officialized zone, shall examine it and grant it the status of verified. Those cadastral plans that do not contain the verification may be granted the same, provided they are congruent with the geometry of the cadastral map.

Chapter two: Survey of plans (levantamiento de los planos de agrimensura)

For the purposes of the National Cadastre Law, Ley 6545, and this regulation, it shall be necessary that the measurement works and preparation of survey plans be carried out by professional personnel authorized by the Colegio Federado de Ingenieros y de Arquitectos.

Data relating to the traverse (derrotero) or coordinate list, area, and location of the survey plan are backed by the public attestation held by surveyors, in accordance with the provisions of the Law on the Practice of Topography and Surveying, Ley 4294. For these purposes, the scope of such public attestation shall not be questioned, except for contradictions with the cadastral map or with cadastral plans that have generated a registry entry.

Surveyors shall be responsible for the data inserted in the plans, files, and attached documents, not only those backed by public attestation, but also those other data recorded in the document, in accordance with Article 12 of the Organic Law of the Colegio Federado de Ingenieros y Arquitectos, Ley 3663.

Prior to the survey, the responsible professional must carry out, in the Real Property Registry, an investigation of the registry and cadastral entries; verify the existence of precautionary measures in the real property entries; gather from the competent institutions the information necessary to carry out their professional work; verify the existence of regulatory plans in the sector where the survey is being conducted; perform legal-cadastral conciliations and overlays (montajes); and provide them when opposing cadastral actions.

The surveyor shall be responsible for defining the methodology used for the survey, as well as for linking to the coordinate network; for this purpose, they must consider the characteristics of the terrain and the constructions, as well as the exactitude and precision established by the Real Property Registry and the inputs available for linking to the official national coordinate system.

The surveying of plans shall be carried out by means of methods appropriate to its needs. The precision of the geodetic or topographic instruments used in the survey shall be in accordance with the relative and absolute exactitude required by the Real Property Registry. In accordance with Article 1 of Decreto Ejecutivo 30106-J, which provided that all cantons of the national territory were declared a cadastral zone, and Decreto Ejecutivo 40962-MJP, which declares the CR-SIRGAS system, CRTM05 Transverse Mercator Projection official for Costa Rica, documents for properties surveyed in cadastral zones, and in those where orthophotos exist or there are facilities for linking by geodetic or topographic methods to geodetic vertices, densifications of geodetic networks carried out by public institutions and endorsed by the Instituto Geográfico Nacional or with the GNSS Stations Network (Sistema Global de Navegación por Satélite) of the National Registry administered by the Instituto Geográfico Nacional, even if they are outside the zone declared cadastral, must be duly georeferenced and also comply with all legal and technical provisions established in the National Cadastre Law, Ley 6545.

The exactitude required for cadastral application surveys, regarding the relative exactitude of the coordinates of the vertices of the properties, using conventional topographic or geodetic survey methodology, and at the discretion of the surveyor, shall be in cartographic coverage zones at scale 1:1000, ± 3 cm exactitude, and in cartographic coverage zones at scale 1:5000, ± 10 cm exactitude.

The exactitude required for cadastral application surveys, regarding the absolute exactitude of the coordinates of the control points that will serve to link them to the National Coordinate System, obtained through the use of coordinates of points fully identifiable on the available digital cartography or orthophoto, shall be in cartographic coverage zones at scale 1:1000, +/- 20 cm exactitude, and in cartographic coverage zones at scale 1:5000, +/- 1 m exactitude.

The exactitude required for cadastral application surveys, regarding the absolute exactitude of the coordinates of the control points that will serve to link them to the National Coordinate System, obtained through the use of conventional topographic and geodetic methods, shall be in cartographic coverage zones at scale 1:1000, +/- 5 cm exactitude, and in cartographic coverage zones at scale 1:5000, +/- 10 cm exactitude.

Officials of the Cadastral Subdirectorate are prohibited from engaging in surveying, with direct or indirect participation, in the preparation of plans or in their submission for registration, in participating in the drafting of appeals, oppositions, administrative proceedings, and in the preparation of technical cadastral studies, a competence that shall be assumed by private professionals. Likewise, said officials are precluded from conducting surveys for the State and its institutions.

Chapter three: Technical cadastral studies rendered by surveyors

Surveyors are authorized to render legal-cadastral conciliations in administrative proceedings, appeals, and oppositions, for which they must technically comply with the provisions of this regulation. In administrative proceedings, it shall be necessary to have the endorsement of the registry titleholders.

Technical cadastral studies, by virtue of having been prepared and signed by surveyors, have implicit the public attestation that assists them, in that sense, these documents acquire an expert character, being vested with legal technical validity, and the responsibility for the matters arising from them shall be attributable to the responsible professional.

Technical cadastral studies rendered by surveyors must meet the following requirements:

a)Digital signature of the responsible professional.
b)Overlays of cadastral entries must be referenced to the system constituted by the National Geodetic Network Horizontal Reference CR-SIRGAS, CRTM05 Transverse Mercator Projection, as provided in Decreto Ejecutivo Nº40962-MJP.
c)Overlay in digital format.

Chapter four: Presentation and content of survey plans

Survey plans submitted for their proper qualification before the computerized plan reception system shall be processed in order of their submission and shall be returned to the interested person within a period not exceeding eight calendar days. The registrar shall proceed to qualify them, respecting the order regarding the submission date, may not alter said sequence, and must put for dispatch the group of plans by worked date.

Presentation entries for survey plans whose defects have not been cured within a period of one year, counted from their receipt, shall be considered expired in accordance with Article 468, subsection 5), of the Civil Code.

Likewise, the presentation entry shall be canceled when all registry tariffs have not been satisfied and three months have elapsed, counted from the submission date, in accordance with Article 3 of the Law on Tariffs of the Public Registry, Ley 4564. Tariffs used for survey plans whose submission is requested to be canceled or those to which expiry was applied may be used again, provided it is the same document.

Surveyors must submit survey plans in digital format for their qualification and registration, except for constructive plans, general plans or site designs for developments (urbanizaciones) and cemeteries, which exceptionally and with prior authorization from the Directorate of the Real Property Registry, may be submitted in physical format before the National Registry's Directorate of Services.

Survey plans, for their submission, must meet the following requirements:

a)Be georeferenced, with the exception of vertical condominium plans.
b)Attach the digital files in the format designated by the Directorate of the Real Property Registry.
c)Be digitally signed by the surveyor.
d)Enter the data corresponding to the literal information in the document intake platforms, which must correspond entirely to the information contained in the image and each time the document is re-entered.
e)Provide proof of having paid the corresponding fees or charges. The responsible professional must indicate on the survey plan the bank deposit number in the space designated for stamps.
f)Be approved by the Legal Department (Fiscalía) of the Federated College of Engineers and Architects (Colegio Federado de Ingenieros y de Arquitectos).
g)Comply with the dimensions of the survey plan frame, defined in Article 85 of these regulations, considering reserving a free space of 3 cm wide by 6 cm long from the upper left margin of the document for the registration stamp.
h)Distribute the content of the survey plan as follows:

1. Space for stamps and bank deposit number. 2. Space for the body of the plan. 3. Space for general data (title block / cajetín). 4. Space for the registration statement (razón de inscripción). 5. Space for the boundary description (derrotero) on vertical condominium plans.

i)Indicate the following information in the title block (cajetín) of the survey plan:

1. Surveyor's protocol: The volume and folio number of the protocol where the survey is recorded. 2. Survey date. 3. Area and dimensions: Must be expressed in the decimal metric system and comply with the tolerance parameters established by the Directorate of the Real Property Registry (Dirección del Registro Inmobiliario). 4. Numerical scale: The numerical scales that may be used include multiples and submultiples of 10. 5. Geographic location: The geographic location of the property must be consistent with the Administrative Territorial Division of Costa Rica, updated to the date of submission of the plan, distributed as follows: the names and numbers of the districts, cantons, and provinces. 6. The registration citations of the property or properties.

j)Include technical notes regarding georeferencing, the registration statement (razón de inscripción), and any other notes the responsible professional considers necessary, in accordance with the provisions of Articles 90, 91, and 92 of these regulations.

The following formats shall be used for the survey plan frame:

The information that survey plans must contain is as follows:

a)Vertices: The vertex of the polygon referred to in Article 87 of these regulations must be marked with the number 1 and indicated with a circle of approximately 2 mm in diameter. Furthermore, the value of its coordinates must be indicated.
b)Adjoining property owners: In a cadastral zone, the titleholder shall be indicated, and if the document adjoins rivers, canals, public streets, and bodies of water, their names shall be indicated if they appear on the official cartography issued by the National Geographic Institute (IGN). When these adjacencies occur in a cadastral zone, the corresponding property identifier shall be indicated.
c)Locations: All survey plans submitted for proper qualification and registration must be georeferenced and correspond to surveys that have been linked to the Official Reference System for Costa Rica, CRTM05 Projection. The parameters and methods required to perform the coordinate transformation to the indicated epoch shall be those officialized by the National Geographic Institute (IGN) as the governing body on the matter.
d)Details: Without needing to perform the respective survey, the plan must graphically and literally indicate the physical features found, such as canals, rivers, streams (quebradas), irrigation ditches (acequias), lagoons, reservoirs, estuaries, mangroves, salt flats, open-pit mines (tajos), tunnels, bridges, dikes, dams, sewers, landfills, curbs, ditches (cunetas), road shoulders (espaldones), roadbeds (calzadas), easements (servidumbres), exceptional accessways for residential use, and any other similar features, except when they adjoin or cross the boundary line, in which case a detailed survey will be necessary. Likewise, the use or uses of the property and existing constructions must be indicated.
e)Accessways: Typically these are public streets and highways. Exceptionally, these are navigable rivers, the sea, rights-of-way (servidumbres de paso) registered in the registry entry, exceptional accessways for residential use, rights of way, and private roads registered in the registry entries. All fronts of the properties and their accessways must be indicated, and when they exist, the widths of sidewalks, green zones, road shoulders (espaldones), roadbeds (calzadas), or the total width of the existing right-of-way must be dimensioned. The drawing of the right-of-way may be shown schematically. Survey plans corresponding to highways, canals, hydroelectric reservoirs and dams, railways, water, electrical, and telephone easements, or properties for the expansion of the State's Natural Heritage may be registered without indicating an accessway, but if one exists, it must be indicated on the plan.

The coordinate list shall not be incorporated into the body of the plan; rather, it shall be extracted from the polygon vertices in the Official Reference System and the Official Projection for Costa Rica CR-SIRGAS-CRTM05, which will be derived from the digital file provided by the responsible professional.

The surveyor must indicate, in the plan reception computer system, the East and North coordinate values of the initial point of the polygon represented on the front side.

When the plan contains more than one polygon, the pair of initial coordinates of any of the polygons must be indicated, provided there is consistency between the coordinates entered in the plan reception computer system and the information on the initial point contained in the survey plan.

The registrar must qualify the survey plans by verifying that the geometric figure and the area match those generated from the information on the coordinate values provided. Such information shall be displayed on the document once it is returned to the surveyor, either marked as defective or registered in the plan information system.

The area indicated in the general data must match the area derived from the digital file provided by the surveyor, who shall be responsible for the consequences arising from any inaccuracy between the coordinate list and the indicated area.

When the document submitted for scrutiny indicates two different provinces, the plan must be registered where the largest portion of land is located. When two cantons and two districts are indicated, both must be publicized in the registry entry.

In those cases where a change in geographic location occurs as a result of an update to the Administrative Territorial Division, the Directorate of the Real Property Registry (Dirección del Registro Inmobiliario) shall be authorized to update the cadastral and registry entries ex officio.

The technical notes incorporated into the survey plan must be written in clear, legible, and unmistakable characters, and the font size must be consistent with the numerical scale regulated in Article 84, subsection i), point 4, of these regulations, in order to standardize the presentation of plans and also to guarantee their legibility and reproduction.

For survey plans in national coordinates, the following technical notes must be indicated:

a)Indicate the following note related to the reference system epoch: "Epoch 2014.59, CR-SIRGAS system, CRTM05 Projection".
b)If orthophoto points are used for the survey and/or linkage, the following shall be indicated: "Data taken from the official CR-SIRGAS orthophoto, epoch 2014.59"; it shall comply with absolute and relative accuracies.
c)If the survey and/or linkage is performed with GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) equipment, the georeferencing methodology linked to the official reference system shall be indicated by note. The absolute and relative accuracies of this survey must be less than or equal to those obtained from the orthophoto.
d)The scale of the orthophoto and/or cadastral map shall also correspond respectively to the official cartography and the property's location.
e)In the event of migration or change of epoch, reference system, or projection, the notes must be adapted to these changes.

According to the registration statement (razón de inscripción) indicated by the documents, the following notes shall be indicated, which will be recorded under the responsibility of the surveyor.

1. In area rectifications, the following must be indicated as the registration statement (razón de inscripción): "To rectify area". In these cases, the area according to the registry entry must be indicated. It is the surveyor's responsibility to verify the percentages and studies referred to in Article 13 of the Possessory Information Law, Law 139, or in Article 22 of the National Cadastre Law, Law 6545. 2. In the event that the area increase exceeds the percentage regulated in Article 22 of the National Cadastre Law, Law 6545, the following note must be indicated: "I certify that this survey complies with the provisions of Article 13 of the Possessory Information Law". 3. In those cases where the area rectification is a reduction, no note is included, and the registry entry shall be made, leaving property remnants, provided that the Urban Planning Law, Law 4240, is not violated. 4. In area rectifications by possessory information, when the surveyed area exceeds the percentages established by the Possessory Information Law, Law 139, with respect to the area indicated in the registry entry, the plan shall be registered provided the following is indicated as the registration statement (razón de inscripción): "For area rectification by possessory information". 5.

In titling processes (titulaciones), the following must be indicated as the registration statement (razón de inscripción): "For possessory information", adding: "In possession of ..." indicating the titleholder's name and identification number. 6. In usucapion (usucapiones), the following must be indicated as the registration statement (razón de inscripción): "For usucapion" (Para usucapión), adding "In ownership of ..." indicating the titleholder's name, identification number, and property number, "In possession of ..." indicating the name of the adverse possessor and identification number. 7. In concessions, the following must be indicated as the registration statement (razón de inscripción): "For Concession", adding: "In administration of ..." indicating the municipality and its legal identification number, and "In concession for ..." indicating the name of the concessionaire and identification number. 8.

For use permits, the following must be indicated as the registration statement (razón de inscripción): "State Property", indicating the legal identification number, adding: "In administration of ..." indicating the corresponding institution with its legal identification number, and "For use permit of ..." indicating the name of the permit holder and identification number. 9. For right locations, the following must be indicated as the registration statement (razón de inscripción): "To locate right", whether in part or in whole, as well as the proportion which must be consistent with the registry entry. 10. On survey plans located in territories under the administration of INDER in the northern and southern border zone, the following must be indicated as the registration statement (razón de inscripción): "State Heritage, under INDER administration" and "For concession ..." indicating the name of the concessionaire and identification number. 11.

When there are bodies of water that cross or adjoin the survey polygon, the surveyor must indicate the affectation note regarding the Forest Law, Law 7575, and/or the Water Law, Law 276. 12. In marinas, docks, and piers: In documents corresponding to concessions for tourist marinas or docks, which include the maritime-terrestrial zone areas, adjacent areas permanently covered by the sea, areas of lakes, rivers, reservoirs, and navigable canals, the following note must be recorded: "This plan is registered without prejudice to the rights of the State for all purposes of the limitations established by the laws on: Water, Public Roads, Maritime-Terrestrial Zone and Concession and Operation of Marinas, and other applicable laws". 13. In those cases where access is by waterway, the following note must be indicated: "Access to this plan is by waterway".

Chapter Five: Qualification and Registration of Survey Plans

This consists of the examination, scrutiny, or verification of the legality of the submitted plans that the registrar must perform, before proceeding with registration, with the authority to suspend, cancel, or deny those that do not comply with the provisions of the legal and technical system and the information available to the Real Property Registry.

The registrar shall proceed to qualify the documents in accordance with the provisions of these regulations, current legislation, the information available to the Real Property Registry, and the cadastral qualification guide. When the survey plans comply with the adopted provisions, methods, procedures, and specifications, the registry entry shall be made; otherwise, the procedure shall be as indicated in the following articles.

The return of plans to the responsible professional shall be done as follows: with clear and concise indications of all the defects they contain, with the corresponding technical or normative basis; whether registered or canceled.

The cancellation of the presentation entries of survey plans is applicable in the following cases:

a)When the corporate entity holding the survey plan under analysis is in default of payment of the tax under the Corporate Entities Tax Law, Law 9428, upon the document's first filing. b) When the survey plan has not rectified its defects within one year of presentation, due to application of the expiration period established in Article 468, subsection 5), of the Civil Code. c) When the registration fees have not been paid within three months, counted from the date of document presentation, as established in Article 3 of the Public Registry Fee Law, Law 4564. d) At the request of the professional responsible for the survey or the titleholder of the property to which the document refers.

In any of the above cases, the deputy cadastral director may not grant legal effects to those documents again.

Once corrected, survey plans must be resubmitted through the plan reception computer system, using the corresponding resubmission means.

In the Registry Cadastral Department, the registration of survey plans that describe portions of land already contained in other submissions shall be suspended; in such cases, the defect shall be noted.

Documents processed that are of interest to the State, municipalities, and decentralized institutions shall be qualified with special speed, taking into account the public interest they represent.

The provisions of Article 33 of the Urban Planning Law, Law 4240, shall not apply to plans in which the State (Central Government) or the municipalities where the property is located are directly a party or have an interest, in accordance with the provisions of Article 34 of that same law.

In the Registry Cadastral Department, a new plan shall be registered, even if it contradicts one or more registered plans, when it corrects survey errors, location, geographic situation and placement, or data from the registry entry. In those cases where registration is appropriate, only the modification of the documents must be indicated in accordance with the principle of successive tract and the corresponding cadastral legal reconciliation. The following cases are exceptions to the above:

a)When it is evident from the legal-cadastral reconciliation that the survey plan being qualified affects the parcel status. b) When plans for properties that originally adjoined the maritime-terrestrial zone and the new survey affects public domain lands. c) When plans were located within national areas and reserves and the new survey intends to displace them outside these areas, or vice versa. d) In plans to request concessions, with a titleholder different from the one indicated on the plan to be modified, registration shall be feasible provided the submitted document contains approval from the local government stating its consent to the registration. e) When plans submitted for qualification describe use permit holders or possessors with titleholders different from the plans they overlap, and when the successive tract has not been proven or the overlap ruled out, registration shall be allowed, provided the submission indicates that it modifies the previously registered plan as to the titleholder, and the name must necessarily be indicated on the new plan, a note that the professional responsible for the document must include. The same analysis and treatment shall be followed for usucapion or adverse possession plans that indicate different possessors.

The registration of survey plans shall be performed by the registrar, using the technical and technological means established by the Real Property Registry, in order to guarantee formal publicity. Once the survey plan is registered, the Real Property Registry shall issue a proof or registration stamp.

Withdrawals without registration of survey plans may be requested by surveyors through the plan reception computer system, or by the legitimate user, before the Directorate of Services of the National Registry.

When requests for withdrawal without registration of survey plans are made by professionals in this field, they must be submitted using the form made available by the College of Topographical Engineers (Colegio de Ingenieros Topógrafos) for that purpose, resubmitting it for cancellation as the front side in the plan reception computer system.

When requests for withdrawal without registration of survey plans are made by the owners or possessors, they must be submitted via public deed, indicating the name, identification number, and professional license number of the professional responsible for the document, as well as the volume and the presentation entry to be canceled or the plan to be withdrawn without registering, and must satisfy the payment obligations, in the same amount required for the plan registration, if the presentation entry is still valid.

In the Registry Cadastral Department, only plans that comply with the legal provisions expressly accepted by the respective municipality and the National Institute of Housing and Urbanism (INVU) through the corresponding approval (visado) shall be registered, in accordance with the following general indications:

a)Approvals (visados) shall not be required when the plans to be registered correspond to entire properties, area rectifications, or possession rights. b) The authorization or approval (visado) of a survey plan, when required, must be obtained prior to registration in the Registry Cadastral Department. c) All subdivisions (fraccionamientos) require approval (visado) from the respective municipality, regardless of the survey area.

Approvals (visados) for subdivisions (fraccionamientos) and urban developments must adhere to the following specific indications:

a)In the case of urban developments, approval (visado) from the National Institute of Housing and Urbanism (INVU) and the respective municipality shall be required. b) In the case of subdivisions (fraccionamientos), approval (visado) from the respective municipality shall be required. c) In the case of subdivisions (fraccionamientos) for urban development purposes, municipal approval (visado) shall be required, and it shall be the responsibility of the local government where the respective property is located to determine if prior approval (visado) from the National Institute of Housing and Urbanism (INVU) is required. d) In the case of subdivisions (fraccionamientos) with exceptional access for residential use, approval (visado) from the National Institute of Housing and Urbanism (INVU) shall be required, prior to the respective municipal approval (visado). In those cases where the subdivision (fraccionamiento) is located within an urban quadrant or expansion area, the municipality must indicate this condition in its approval (visado). e) When the plan indicates the existence of a public road that does not appear in the official cartography or in the cadastral and registry records, approval (visado) from the respective municipality shall be required if it concerns a cantonal road network, and approval (visado) from the Ministry of Public Works and Transport (MOPT) if it concerns the national road network. f) In the case of subdivisions (fraccionamientos) with agricultural, ecological, or forest easements, municipal approval (visado) for the subdivision shall be required. g) In the case of subdivisions (fraccionamientos) with access by right-of-way (servidumbre de paso) that is not established in the registry entries, municipal approval (visado) shall be required, which must expressly state that the easement indicated as access is in accordance with the current regulatory plan.

In adherence to the competencies, hierarchies, and coordination and control relationships established in the Urban Planning Law, Law 4240, the granting of approval (visado) for subdivisions (fraccionamientos) corresponds to the municipality where the respective property is located. Furthermore, the municipality shall assume responsibility for verifying compliance with the requirements for each type of subdivision (fraccionamiento), which includes the approval (visado) of the competent institutions according to the subject matter. Due to the above, the following requirements must be met:

a)Comply with the provisions of Articles 84 and 86 of these regulations. b) In the case of the subdivision (fraccionamiento) of properties registered in the Real Property Registry, indicate the cadastral plan number of the parent property, if available, and its registered area. c) In the case of urban developments, a general plan shall be required, duly georeferenced and signed by the professional surveyor, approved (visado) by the National Institute of Housing and Urbanism (INVU) and the respective municipality, indicating: the layout of the lots, their corresponding numbering, and all necessary information that clearly and concretely allows for the staking out of each of the lots to be subdivided. Furthermore, when referring to urban development projects, the official name of the urban development must be indicated. d) For subdivisions (fraccionamientos) for urban development purposes, the provisions of Article 103, subsection c), of these regulations shall apply.

For any urban development process, it is necessary, prior to its approval in the Registry Cadastral Department, that the general plan or site design and its modifications contain the approval of the Urban Development Directorate of the National Institute of Housing and Urbanism (INVU) and the respective municipality, regardless of the existence of a regulatory plan, for which purpose the digital file must be attached, so that it is incorporated into the spatial reference information systems.

The general plan or site design must contain the following requirements:

a)Comply with the provisions of Article 84 of these regulations. b) Indicate the full name of the owner and the official name of the urban development. c) Provide the digital signature of the professional responsible for the topographic and survey work of the urban development, clearly indicating their full name, professional title, and license number. d) Indicate the cadastral plan number of the urbanized property. e) Indicate the geographic location of the urban development, specifying the place, neighborhood or hamlet, district, canton, and province, all in accordance with the current Administrative Territorial Division of Costa Rica. f) Indicate the full name of adjoining property owners or property identifiers.

When there are natural or artificial boundaries such as rivers, canals, streams (quebradas), paths, highways, or streets, their names shall be recorded. In the case of paths, their destination, and in urban areas, the number of avenues and streets.

g)Mention the names of bodies of water, easements, and restrictions affecting the urban development, if any. h) Graphically indicate the layout of the lots with their corresponding numbering; all their fronts, depths, areas, and proposed use, the layout and width of streets, sidewalks, and green areas; as well as the size and shape of the blocks. For which purpose the digital file must be attached, so that it is incorporated into the spatial reference information systems. i) Include all urban development survey and topography operations, which must be referenced to a single system of permanent horizontal and vertical control points linked to the national geodetic network, connected to the Official National Coordinate System, and also comply with the precisions and accuracies established in these regulations. j) Provide the authorizations from the National Institute of Housing and Urbanism (INVU) and the respective municipality, as well as the stamp of the Federated College of Engineers and Architects. k) Indicate the volume and folio number of the protocol where the survey and staking out of the urban development are recorded.

The individual plans for each of the lots in the urban development must meet the following requirements:

a)Comply with the provisions of Articles 84 and 86 of these regulations. b) Indicate the cadastral plan number of the parent property. c) Indicate the numbers of each of the adjacent lots or the property identifier. d) Provide the site design of the urban development with its respective official name, at a technically adequate scale, showing the lot presented on the plan. When there is no sheet of the urban development design approved by the Real Property Registry, the approvals (visados) from the respective municipality and the National Institute of Housing and Urbanism (INVU) must be provided. e) When the lots of the urban development are consistent with the site design, it shall not be necessary for the individual plans to contain the approvals (visados) if these are found in that design.

In the Registry Cadastral Department, no urban development lot plan shall be registered that affects the general plan thereof; any variation in that sense shall imply an approval from the local government and the National Institute of Housing and Urbanism (INVU) in the submission, without it being of importance whether entire properties are involved.

For projects that include niches, tombs, and graves, a general design signed by the professional surveyor, approved by the Federated College of Engineers and Architects, and approved (visado) by the Ministry of Health and the respective municipality shall be required in the Registry Cadastral Department; for this purpose, the following requirements must be met:

a)Comply with the provisions of Article 84 of these regulations. b) Indicate the official name of the project. c) Indicate the cadastral plan number of the parent property. d) Indicate the geographic location of the project, specifying the place, neighborhood or hamlet, name and number of the district, canton, and province; all in accordance with the Administrative Territorial Division of Costa Rica, current at the time of document submission.
e)Mention the full name of the adjoining persons or property identifiers. When natural or artificial boundaries exist such as rivers, canals, streams, roads, highways, or streets, the name of these shall be recorded. If the property is located in officialized districts, it shall provide the property identifier numbers of the adjoining properties.
f)Mention the names of bodies of water, the easements (servidumbres) and restrictions that affect the project and their respective affectation notes.
g)Include in graphic form the geometric distribution of the niches, tombs, and graves with their corresponding numbering, layout and width of the streets, sidewalks, and green areas; as well as the size, shape, row numbers, and name of the blocks or gardens that make up the project. The dimension, quantity, and numbering tables for the niches, tombs, and graves shall also be included, with their respective corresponding area table.

This must be accompanied by the digital file, so that it is incorporated into the spatial reference information systems. This general plan may be developed by gardens and/or blocks.

h)Have a single unique system of permanent horizontal and vertical control points linked to the national geodetic network, tied to the National System of Official Coordinates, and comply with the precisions and accuracies established in these regulations.

It must also provide the coordinate table for the reference points, indicating the type of monumentation.

i)Attach the approvals of the construction plans by the Colegio Federado de Ingenieros y de Arquitectos, the Ministry of Health, and the respective municipality.

In those cases where the development occurs in stages, the approval (visado) of the competent institutions must indicate that the stage is duly completed.

j)Attach the sworn statement (declaración jurada) of the responsible professional, declaring under oath that the Área Rectora de Salud granted the corresponding approval (visado). The document must contain the full name and professional qualifications (calidades) of the responsible professional; the date on which the Área Rectora de Salud granted the authorization for the project in question; the name and signature of the granting official; and/or the approval official communication number (número de oficio de aprobación) with which it was granted, if any.
k)Regarding the municipal approval (visado) and/or authorization, these may be contained in the general plans submitted for analysis, or the sworn statement (declaración jurada) may be provided under the terms indicated in the preceding subsection.
l)Mention the volume (tomo) and folio (folio) number of the protocol where the survey (levantamiento) and/or layout (replanteo) of the development is recorded.
m)Indicate the use (niche, grave, or tomb).
n)Include the geometric detail with the dimensions of the niches, tombs, and graves.

In the case of projects that include columbaria (cenizarios), a general plan signed by the professional surveyor (persona profesional en agrimensura), approved by the Colegio Federado de Ingenieros y de Arquitectos, and approved (visado) by the Ministry of Health and the respective municipality, shall be requested in the Catastro Registral Department.

The general plan may be developed by gardens and/or blocks and must contain the following requirements:

a)Comply with the provisions of Article 84 of these regulations.
b)Indicate the official name of the project.
c)Indicate the cadastral plan number of the parent property.
d)Indicate the geographical location of the project, specifying the place, neighborhood or hamlet, name and number of the district, canton, and province; all in accordance with the Administrative Territorial Division of Costa Rica, in force at the time of document submission.
e)Mention the full name of the adjoining persons. When natural or artificial boundaries exist such as rivers, canals, streams, roads, highways, or streets, the name of these shall be recorded. If the property is located in officialized districts, it shall provide the property identifier numbers of the adjoining properties.
f)Mention the names of bodies of water, the easements (servidumbres) and restrictions that affect the project and their respective affectation notes.
g)Include in graphic form the geometric distribution of the columbaria (cenizarios) with their corresponding numbering, layout and width of the streets, sidewalks, green areas, and all the necessary information that allows, in a clear and concise manner, the location and layout (replanteo) of each one of them; as well as the size, shape, row numbers, and name of the blocks or gardens that make up the project. Dimension, quantity, and numbering tables for the columbaria (cenizarios) shall also be included, with their respective corresponding area table.
h)Have a single unique system of permanent horizontal and vertical control points linked to the national geodetic network, tied to the National System of Official Coordinates, and comply with the precisions and accuracies established in these regulations.

It must also provide the coordinate table for the reference points, indicating the type of monumentation.

i)Attach the approvals of the construction plans by the Colegio Federado de Ingenieros y de Arquitectos and the respective municipality. In those cases where the development occurs in stages, the approval (visado) of the competent institutions must indicate that the stage is duly completed.
j)Attach the sworn statement (declaración jurada) of the responsible professional, declaring under oath that the Área Rectora de Salud granted the corresponding approval (visado).

The document must contain the full name and professional qualifications (calidades) of the responsible professional; the date on which the Área Rectora de Salud granted the authorization for the project in question; the name and signature of the granting official; and the approval official communication number (número de oficio de aprobación) with which it was granted, if any.

k)Regarding the municipal approval (visado) and/or authorization, the same may be contained in the general plans submitted for analysis, or a sworn statement (declaración jurada) may be provided under the terms indicated in the preceding subsection.
l)Mention the volume (tomo) and folio (folio) number of the protocol where the survey (levantamiento) and/or layout (replanteo) of the development is recorded.
m)Indicate as use "columbarium (cenizario)".
n)Include the geometric detail with the dimensions of the columbaria (cenizarios).

General plans that include combinations of gardens containing distributions of niches, tombs or graves, and columbaria (cenizarios) may be accepted, provided they are presented at the scale indicated in Article 84, subsection i), point 4, of these regulations, and that allows the corresponding legibility of the document with respect to each columbarium (cenizario).

The survey plans (planos de agrimensura) that describe the gardens and/or blocks regarding niches, tombs, graves, and columbaria (cenizarios) must meet the following requirements:

a)Comply with the provisions of Articles 84 and 86 of these regulations.
b)Indicate the cadastral plan number of the parent property.
c)Indicate the name of the gardens, blocks, and rows where the graves, tombs, or niches and/or columbaria (cenizarios) are located, as well as the corresponding number of each one, at a scale suitable for reading.
d)Include in graphic form the general plan of the project with its respective official name, using a scale in accordance with the provisions of Article 84, subsection i), point 4), of these regulations, showing the property presented in the document.
e)The corresponding approvals (visados) shall be recorded on the general plan, it not being necessary for the individual plans to contain them.
f)Indicate the nature of the individual plan.
g)Conform to the accuracies and precisions defined in these regulations.
h)When a set of columbaria (cenizarios) is located within a circular garden, it must additionally provide at least three data points of the circumference where they are located.

The survey plans (planos de agrimensura) shall be qualified in accordance with the distribution and dimensions established in their general plans. The use, numbering, quantity, and nature of the properties may not be varied, much less changing the use and nature of niches, tombs, and graves to columbaria (cenizarios). Any variation from the general plan shall require a new approval (visado) from the competent institutions on the documents to be registered.

In these cases, the plans submitted for qualification must be consistent with the distribution and dimensions established in the general construction plans of these developments.

In these cases, the plans submitted for qualification must be consistent with the distribution and dimensions established in the general construction plans of these developments (if they exist), and with the cadastral plans of the block or garden to which they refer.

Any plan submitted for properties created before October 28, 1982, may be registered even if there is no general plan for the cemetery.

All cemeteries (camposantos) that have generated registered properties without general plans or site designs must submit the general sheets describing the niches or tombs that have been segregated, to begin the sanitation (saneamiento) process and publicize them in the databases. Once these sheets are incorporated into the formal publicity, the registration of plans corresponding to properties that indicate tombs and niches as their nature will be admissible, provided the individual plans coincide with the provided sheet.

The survey plan (plano de agrimensura) for subsidiary properties (fincas filiales) in condominium property must contain the following requirements:

a)Comply with the provisions of Articles 84 and 86 of these regulations.
b)Indicate that it is a subsidiary property (finca filial).
c)Mention the numbers of the parent property or properties (finca or fincas matrices) and of the subsidiary property (filial), with their respective areas according to registry; the name of the condominium, number or name of the building, the level or floor number where the subsidiary property (filial) is located.
d)Indicate the designated use (destino) of the subsidiary property (filial).
e)Indicate the OC code.
f)In the case of vertical condominiums, present the bounding description (derrotero) with the outline of each polygon contemplated in the plan, clearly indicating the numbers of the vertices that define each straight line, bearings or azimuths (rumbos o acimutes) expressed in units of the sexagesimal or centesimal system, and the distance in meters and their fractions. The vertices of the surveyed polygon must be numbered, and each shall be indicated with a circle of approximately 2 mm in diameter; the lines between vertices shall completely cover the space between them.
g)In the case of vertical condominiums, indicate at least one dimension (acote) from the subsidiary property (finca filial) to permanent points or vertices external to said subsidiary property (filial), located in common areas of the same level. At least 2 vertices of the main building must also be dimensioned (acotar) to points on the boundary (lindero) of the parent property (finca madre), where the parent property (finca matriz) is located.

In every survey plan (plano de agrimensura) for subsidiary properties (fincas filiales), a schematic design must be included with the architectural distribution of the floor or level on which the subsidiary property (finca filial) is located. In that design, the location of the subsidiary property (finca filial) to be cadastrally surveyed (catastrar) must be highlighted with shading.

When the registration of a survey plan (plano de agrimensura) for a subsidiary property (finca filial) is requested, the registrar (persona registradora) shall proceed with its registration even if there are differences between the registered area, polygon shape, adjoining properties (colindancias), and numbers of subsidiary properties (filiales) in the construction plans, and the area, polygon shape, adjoining property (colindancias) information, and numbers of the subsidiary properties (filiales) in the survey plan (plano de agrimensura) intended for registration.

Registration of documents that consolidate (reúnan), rectify (rectifiquen), or subdivide (fraccionen) subsidiary properties (fincas filiales) shall be feasible, provided those proposals do not affect, alter, or modify the common areas, in which case their registration shall be subject to the regulations established in Article 87 of the Reglamento a la Ley Reguladora de la Propiedad en Condominio, Ley 7933.

For modifications of the areas indicated in the plans of subsidiary properties (fincas filiales) to have legal effects in the registry entries (asientos registrales), the formalities established in Article 450 of the Civil Code and the approvals required in Article 27 of the Ley Reguladora de la Propiedad en Condominio, Ley 7933, must be complied with.

In those cases where there are no construction plans describing the condominium, the cadastral entry (asiento catastral) may be made, taking into consideration that the responsibility for the affectation of common areas shall be attributable to the professional responsible for the document.

The registration of survey plans (planos de agrimensura) corresponding to parent properties (fincas matrices) shall not proceed, nor shall the consolidation (reunión) of a parent property (finca matriz) with a common property (finca común).

For the purposes of the Ley de Informaciones Posesorias, Ley 139, plans with areas exceeding three hundred hectares shall not be registered, except if they involve State lands or lands of its institutions; and only plans corresponding to possessions that conform to the legal provisions expressly admitted in said law, and that meet the following requirements, shall be registered:

a)Comply with the provisions of Article 84 of these regulations, with the exception of subsection i) point 6); and also with Article 86 of these regulations.
b)In the case of plans that describe alleged possessory rights and that are located within a cadastral zone, the property identifier (identificador predial) number assigned on the cadastral map must be indicated. In addition, the responsible professional shall indicate the name of the possessor (persona poseedora) with their identification number, when the property is located inside or outside a cadastral zone.
c)In accordance with the principle of successive tract (tracto sucesivo) and the corresponding legal-cadastral reconciliation (conciliación jurídica-catastral), it is not permissible in these submissions to indicate modification of plans that refer to registered properties (fincas inscritas) or concessions. In those cases where registered plans in the name of titleholders other than those indicated in the submission are modified, registration shall proceed, provided the modification note (nota de modificación) regarding the titleholder is indicated.

Plans for concessions in the maritime-terrestrial zone must comply with the provisions of Articles 84 and 86 of these regulations.

In the Catastro Registral Department, plans may be registered without the approval (visto bueno) of the Directorate of the Instituto Geográfico Nacional regarding the delimitation of the public zone, when that Directorate has officialized and incorporated the digital survey of the delimitation into the geographic information systems. When such information is not available, authorization from the Directorate of the Instituto Geográfico Nacional shall be requested, as indicated in Article 63 of the Reglamento a la Ley sobre la Zona Marítimo Terrestre, Ley 6043.

Likewise, the registration of documents describing alleged concession rights that do not refer to registered properties (fincas) and that modify other cadastral plans indicating a different concessionaire (persona concesionaria) shall proceed, provided the municipality approves that presentation entry (asiento de presentación).

When the concession is registered, the corresponding citations (citas) shall be indicated, whether for a portion of a property (parte) or a complete property (finca completa). When the area recorded in the survey plan (plano de agrimensura) differs from the registered area, the note: "to modify area" (para modificar área) shall be indicated on the document, and the Ley de Planificación Urbana, Ley 4240, and the Reglamento de Fraccionamiento y Urbanizaciones shall not apply.

Regarding registered properties (fincas inscritas) that incorporate lands of the maritime-terrestrial zone, the registration of survey plans (planos de agrimensura) shall proceed, provided there are no cautionary marginal notes (marginales de advertencia) or immobilizations (inmovilizaciones) in the registry entries (asientos registrales) that question the validity and effectiveness of the entries with respect to those public domain areas (áreas demaniales), verifying that the document conforms to what is described in the cadastral plan used in the origin of the title and to its technical notes.

The provisions of Article 4 of the Reglamento a la Ley sobre la Zona Marítimo Terrestre, Ley 6043, shall not apply to registered properties (fincas inscritas) that were legitimately created prior to the promulgation of said Regulation, and the submitted document is consistent with the title plan.