Decreto 44647 — General Regulation of the Real Estate Registry

Recalling that Control F is an option that allows you to search the entire text General Regulations of the Real Estate Registry No. 44647 - MJP THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC AND THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE AND PEACE Based on 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 Law of Public Administration, 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 concordant articles of the Commercial Code, Law 3284 of April 30, 1964; 254, 255, 259, 267, 268, 270, 301, 409 to 440, 448 to 479 and concordant 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, Creating the National Registry, and Law 6545, National Cadastre Law; 1, 2, 3 to 15, 18 to 22 and 27 to 33 of the Law on 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, 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 Observance of Intellectual Property Rights, Law 8039 of October 12, 2000; 1 and 2 of Executive Decree 41795-MP-MEIC of June 19, 2019 "Streamlining of Procedures in Public Entities through the Use of Sworn Declarations"; in their 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 the Strengthening of Real Estate Registry Security, Law 9602 of August 13, 2018; the Law Regulating 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 Law on Possessory Information, Law 139 of July 14, 1941; the Forestry 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 Concession and Operation of Tourist Marinas and Berths, 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 Tax on Legal Entities, Law 9428 of March 21, 2017.

I.That in the interest of executing 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 they must complete at the Real Estate Registry.

II.That for the purposes of streamlining and improving the public services rendered 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 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 Law of Public Administration establishes that the activity of public entities shall be subject as a whole to the fundamental principles of public service, to ensure its continuity, efficiency, adaptation to any change in the legal regime or in the social need they satisfy, and equality in the treatment of the recipient, user, or beneficiary persons.

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

V.That Law 8710 of February 3, 2009 amended article 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 under a single direction, namely, the Real Estate Registry, and its sole transitory provision establishes that the Executive Branch shall regulate the norms 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 thus 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 property, mortgages, mortgage bonds, 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; therefore, by virtue of these last three cases, the need arises to harmonize and regulate by developing the substantive norms, the documentary formalities, and substantive requirements of the documents presented for registration in those 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 for the construction of organizational charts are provided, indicating that when administrative units are established by legal provision, the Institution shall only submit a justification referencing the normative antecedent.

IX.That, to improve and streamline the cadastral, registration, maintenance, and cadastral map cartography procedures, 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 procedures for the qualification and registration of plans against the formalized cadastral information and the maintenance of the cadastral map cartography is required; providing in turn an additional period of time to the entry into force of this norm under the terms established in Transitory Provision V so that the cadastral survey procedure with the formalized cadastral map of the entire national territory may be completed, and both professional surveyors and users of the cadastral information adjust to the changes derived from those 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, regulated in the previous Regulations to the National Cadastre Law, Law 6545, is required, with the purpose of simplifying the certification processes by 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 is the official authority of the State in cartographic, geophysical, geodetic, geographic, and related matters, which is established through Law 59, which creates it and defines its organization; subsequently, through the approval of Law 8905, article 2 of Law 5695, which is the Creation of the National Registry, is amended, and Law 59, Creation and Organization of the National Geographic Institute, is modified; providing in January 2012 the transfer of the National Geographic Institute from the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation to the National Registry. Law 8905 reaffirms the subject-matter competence of the National Geographic Institute as the scientific and technical agency governing national cartography, destined for the execution of the official base map, the basic geographic description of Costa Rica, and the development of national policies of a cartographic, geographic, geodetic, geophysical, and similar nature that are related to such works. For its part, it is the competence of the Assistant Directorate of Cadastre to determine the technical specifications of the basic stages of the formation of the cadastral map and its execution, which refer to the establishment of geodetic control, taking of aerial photography, photogrammetric control, creation of orthophotos and digital photogrammetric maps, and the elaboration of the final cadastral map, and at the same time to 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 there is a defined framework of competencies between the Assistant Directorate of Cadastre and the National Geographic Institute; therefore, with respect to the provisions of articles 60 subsection 1º and 62 of the General Law of Public Administration, in the interest of achieving greater efficiency, speed, and operational functionality, as well as avoiding duplication of activities, it is provided that the Cadastral Maintenance Department of the Assistant Directorate of Cadastre shall coordinate with the National Geographic Institute the procedures concerning geodetic control, the taking of aerial photography, photogrammetric control, the creation of orthophotos and digital photogrammetric maps, and the elaboration of the final map required for the formation of the cadastral map and its execution.

XII.That it is essential for real estate registry publicity that the registrations be complete and in the form prescribed by the laws and regulations, and since there still exist registrations recorded 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 perform that task, for the proper legal traffic of the publicized property and rights.

XIII.That in the interest of complying with the provisions of the second paragraph of article 468 of the Civil Code, amended by article 178 of the Notarial Code, Law 7764, regarding the computation of the expiration term for complex documents presented 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 Law Regulating Condominium Property, Law 7933, provides for the obligation of the National Registry to legalize 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 is necessary to simplify and guarantee the integrity and security of the books for condominium administration.

XV.That the Law for the Strengthening of 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 property transactions, and its main objective is to delimit the functions and competences of the Real Estate Registry in the matter of cancellation of provisional or definitive entries, without prejudice 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 for 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 proposed regulation is in conformity 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 Regulations, Executive Decree 37045-MPMEIC.

General Regulations of the Real Estate Registry

WHEREAS

Therefore,

DECREE:

Title One: General Provisions of the Real Estate Registry

Chapter One: Preliminary Provisions

These regulations govern the administrative activities and the substantive aspects entrusted by the legal system to the Real Estate Registry, with the aim of strengthening real estate registry security, through the legal effects of its substantive publicity, attending to the efficacy and efficiency in the processing of submitted documents.

Article Details

For the purposes of these regulations, the following common definitions shall be used:

1st.- Access: Existing public road or roads fronting the real property and allowing entry to or exit from it.

2nd.- Cadastral activity: Encompasses the actions to form, update, and maintain the cadastre.

3rd.- Registry activity: Encompasses the actions required for the registration of cadastral and registry entries of real property.

4th.- Updating and maintenance of cadastral information: Continuous procedure through which the graphic and legal data of the cadastral map are preserved and updated.

5th.- Notation: Procedure through which a technical or legal situation incorporated into a document is recorded provisionally in the cadastral or registry entry, for the knowledge of third parties.

6th.- Area of the survey polygon: Result of the calculation derived from the data of the boundary description and the coordinate list.

7th.- Presentation entry: Preliminary or preparatory entry for the definitive registration entry, identifiable by the presentation citations formed by the volume and entry, generated in numerical, chronological order, or a combination of both.

8th.- Real property entry: Description of a real property, according to the legal, graphic, alphanumeric data and the cadastral survey data of the parcel; which are recorded in the databases of the Real Estate Registry.

9th.- Registry entry: Act of registration through which the public information of a registered property or right is disclosed, in order to produce the legal effects derived from registry publicity regarding third parties; the content and form in which they may be consulted are determined by the Directorate of this Registry. In the Real Estate Registry, it refers to the entry containing the legal information of a publicized real right.

10th.- Cadastral entry: Entry containing the graphic and technical information publicized in a cadastral plan.

11th.- Irregular entry: Registry entry in which, for its provisional notation, constitution, cancellation, or modification, a notarial testimony that is not recorded in the corresponding original instrument served as the means of rogation; or such testimony contains substantial differences, in relation to the substantive or material effects, from the original deed.

12th.- Database: Constitutes the set of historical and updated information relating to the registry and cadastral entries, which is generated and modified through electronic data processing.

13th.- Cadastral certificate: Document issued by the National Registry that publicizes the graphic and literal information of parcels located in formalized zones, supported by the geometric and literal description thereof.

14th.- Concessionaire: Natural or legal person holding or promoting a concession right.

15th.- Legal-cadastral conciliation: The technical study through which the conformity between the physical, cadastral, and registry reality of a real property is analyzed and verified.

16th.- Urban quadrant: The urban area or territorial scope of development of a population center, where most of the 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, an urban quadrant shall be considered.

17th.- Body of the survey plan: The free-format space for drawing the surveyed polygon, showing its location, the lotization or subdivision, the site design, and the necessary technical notes.

18th.- Boundary description: Set of mathematical and geometric data that define the perimeter of the polygon of a real property and the area of the survey polygon.

19th.- Reference system epoch: Refers to the epoch in which a measurement is made, which has a direct link to the most current realization of the ITRF (International Terrestrial Reference Frame); it is necessary to incorporate it for purposes of considering the variation of its position over time due to variations caused by plate tectonics or local deformations.

20th.- Original deed: Protocol document issued before a notary public, in accordance with the provisions of the Notarial Code.

21st.- Accuracy and precision: Accuracy is the indicator of the quality of results, derived from measurements, and precision is a concept associated with the instrumental aspect, given by the degree of concordance between repeated measurements.

22nd.- Public exhibition: Stage of the cadastral survey whose objective is the exhibition of the data gathered in the formation of the cadastral map, so that they may be analyzed, verified, and accepted by the titleholders.

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

24th.- Georeferencing: Technical process through which the position of the vertices of real property is defined in the official reference system of the country in order to incorporate the description of the real property into the cadastral map.

25th.- Administrative proceeding: Administrative procedure of a special nature, through which the existence of a registry or cadastral inaccuracy (inexactitud) is made known to interested or affected third parties, with the purpose of making the correction with their due consent or proceeding with the recordation of the precautionary measure in the registry entries or in the cadastral plans.

26th.- Encumbrance (Gravamen): Charge or obligation recorded on a registered property or right in the Real Estate Registry.

27th.- Parcel identifier of real property: Set of unique numerical or alphanumeric characters assigned to each parcel within the cadastral map.

28th.- Substantive inaccuracy (inexactitud de fondo): An inaccuracy that alters the will of the parties and modifies the essence of the act or contract.

29th.- Inmatriculation (Inmatriculación): Original registration of a registered property in the Real Estate Registry, to which a numerical or alphanumeric identifier is assigned, containing all the information concerning the registrable real right.

30th.- Immobilization (Inmovilización): Precautionary measure recorded in the cadastral and/or registry entries, when, upon concluding the administrative proceeding, the correction of the inaccuracies in the real estate registry publicity cannot be made, due to opposition from the interested or affected parties, or when the rectification could eventually cause harm to third parties who acquired in good faith based on the real estate registry publicity.

31st.- Real property (Inmueble): For cadastral purposes, a portion of land, whether registered or not in the Real Estate Registry.

32nd.- Legitimation (Legitimación) in the registry context: The ownership relationship existing between the parties and the substantial interest invoked in registry procedures and in inaccuracies, in accordance with the entries and the publicity of the registry.

33rd.- 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.

34th.- Coordinate list: Set of pairs of values coherently ordered in a Cartesian system (planimetric East and North) that define the perimeter of a geometry associated with a parcel, lot, or registered property; which must be associated with the official national coordinate system in the projection and epoch defined for its publication.

35th.- Books: The three books of the condominium legalized in the Condominium Property Section of the Real Estate Registry, namely: assembly minutes book, cash book, and board of directors minutes book when such exists, which may be physical or digital.

36th.- Cadastral map: Organizing instrument that graphically shows the official location and boundaries of the parcels and their associated literal information, as well as their inconsistencies.

37th.- Map of municipal public roads: Digital file comprising all those roads, accesses, and streets that the municipality determines as public within its jurisdiction.

38th.- Legal framework for registry qualification: The current technical and legal framework governing the qualification of the document submitted for registration, and is composed of the Political Constitution, codes, laws, and regulations.

39th.- Cadastral mosaic: Information layer containing the georeferenced cadastral plans associated with the parcels of the cadastral map.

40th.- Administrative warning note: Precautionary measure recorded in the registry and/or cadastral entries for the purpose of providing notice publicity, while an administrative proceeding is in progress.

41st.- Cadastral warning note: Precautionary measure recorded in the cadastral and/or registry entries for the purpose of providing notice publicity regarding the inconsistencies detected in the cadastral survey, updating, and maintenance of the cadastral information.

42nd.- Registry block note: Precautionary measure recorded in the registry entries in the presence of an inaccuracy of extra-registry origin. For its recordation, 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 note.

43rd.- Prevention note of inaccuracy of extra-registry origin: Precautionary measure recorded in the registry entries in the presence of a potential inaccuracy of extra-registry origin, solely for the purposes of mere notice publicity.

44th.- Book legalization number: 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.

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

46th.- Cadastral plan: Survey plan, physical or in electronic format, that has been registered in the Real Estate Registry and defines the parcel graphically, mathematically, and unequivocally, for publicity purposes.

47th.- Survey plan: Plan, physical or in electronic format, that represents a real property graphically and mathematically.

48th.- Possessor (Persona poseedora): Natural or legal person who lacks a registered title in the Real Estate Registry.

49th.- Registered owner (Persona propietaria registral): Natural or legal person holding a registered property or right in the Real Estate Registry.

50th.- Parcel (Predio): Cadastral and physical unit represented by one or several portions of land.

51st.- Electronic data processing: Technical means of registration, by which the cadastral and registry information contained in the respective databases is introduced, processed, updated, and archived.

52nd.- Validation process: Phase of cadastral activity consisting of the verification of the products of the cadastral survey so that they may be individualized and included in the cadastral map.

53rd.- Surveyor's protocol: The physical or digital book where the records of professional activities of persons authorized by law to practice surveying (agrimensura) are entered.

54th.- Notary's protocol: 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 juridical facts submitted to their authorization.

55th.- Projection: Bijective mathematical function between the points of a sphere or ellipsoid and their corresponding point on the Cartesian plane.

56th.- Large survey plan projects: Projects corresponding to subdivisions (fraccionamientos), subdivisions under urbanization, urbanizations, cemeteries, and condominiums, where the number of assigned survey plans exceeds that which the registrar can process within a term of eight calendar days, which must be related to a single survey and contract number from the Federated College of Engineers and Architects.

57th.- Formal publicity: Refers to all the technical and technological procedures used to process and publicize registry information.

58th.- Substantive publicity: The set of substantive effects and legal protections derived from publicity that is enforceable against third parties.

59th.- Real estate registry publicity: Consists of 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.

60th.- Notice publicity: Information publicized in the registry or cadastral entries, through the recordation of cadastral warning notes, administrative warnings, and prevention notes, the sole effect of which is to inform about the existence of an administrative procedure.

61st.- Formal claim: Challenge to the cadastral information that may be made by the titleholder, possessor, concessionaire, or their legal representative, during the public exhibition of the data gathered for the formation of the cadastral map.

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

63rd.- Remediation (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 these regulations.

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

65th.- Information System of the Real Estate Registry (SIRI): System that comprises the information from the databases, the cadastral map, and the photogrammetric inputs; to administer, maintain, and update the real property entries.

66th.- Registry Information System (SIRE): Registry Information System that publicizes the legal and literal information of all registered properties within the national territory.

67th.- Reference system: The set of conventions, values, formulas, and concepts that define the framework from which position values can be determined.

68th.- Protected registry third party: Any person who has constituted, modified, or acquired a registrable real right, based on the content of registry publicity, for valuable consideration, in good faith, and who has requested the protection of such right through formal submission to the Registry of the authentic document containing it, for its due registration.

69th.- Cadastral map tolerance: The maximum permissible error between the measured value and the true value of a magnitude.

70°_ Verified: Condition granted to a cadastral entry (asiento catastral) that is compatible with the geometry of the officialized cadastral map (mapa catastral oficializado).

71°_ Approval (Visado): Approval granted by the competent institution required for the registration of the survey plan (plano de agrimensura).

72°_ Cadastral Zone (Zona catastrada): That part of the national territory where the cadastral survey (levantamiento catastral) has been concluded and officialized.

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

Chapter Two: General Provisions

The Real Property Registry (Registro Inmobiliario) is a unit of the National Registry (Registro Nacional) that integrates cadastral and real property registration functions, maintaining the division of functions, processes, and procedures, respecting the principle of specialty of each organizational unit.

The Real Property Registry (Registro Inmobiliario) has the purpose of strengthening real property registration security, through the legal effects of its material publicity, attending to the effectiveness and efficiency in the processing of the documents presented.

For the fulfillment of its purposes, the functions of the Real Property Registry (Registro Inmobiliario) shall be the following:

a)Real property registration 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 registrars who, when qualifying and registering the documents submitted for their study, shall do so attending to the provisions established in the current legislation and in accordance with the qualification criteria issued by the Directorate of the Real Property Registry (Dirección del Registro Inmobiliario).
b)Cadastral registration function: It consists of managing the qualification and registration of the plans surveyed by the surveyors, and the partial or total updating of the cadastral map (mapa catastral), which allows for the legal and technical control of the parcel status of the national territory. This function corresponds to the registrars, who, when qualifying and registering the survey plans (planos de agrimensura) submitted for their study, do so in attention to the provisions established in the current legislation and in accordance with the qualification criteria issued by the Directorate of the Real Property Registry (Dirección del Registro Inmobiliario), in order to provide the information generated by real property changes for the maintenance of the cadastral map (mapa catastral), and to guarantee registration publicity and strengthen the security of real 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 (mapa catastral), a task that includes the definition of the technical processes of the cadastral survey (levantamiento catastral), its execution, the implementation of the maintenance and updating actions, through the appropriate scientific and technological procedures, in accordance with the current legislation and the guidelines established by the Directorate of the Real Property Registry (Dirección de Registro Inmobiliario); in pursuit of the sanitation of the cadastral and registration entries (asientos catastrales y registrales), and the purification of the geospatial information.

The director of the Real Property Registry (Registro Inmobiliario) is the hierarchical superior in substantive and administrative matters, who has under their competence everything referring to real estate property, both cadastral and registration. They shall have two deputy directors; one who has under their competence matters referring to the cadastral area and the other shall have as responsibility matters pertaining to real estate property in the registration area. Both deputy directors shall assume all their own attributions and duties in the absence of the director. Both the director and the deputy directors, in coordination, shall ensure the observance of the laws, regulations, and other norms that regulate the functioning and organization of the Directorate of the Real Property Registry (Dirección del Registro Inmobiliario). Likewise, the Directorate of the Real Property Registry (Dirección del Registro Inmobiliario) shall have, at the support level, a Legal Advisory Office (Asesoría Legal), which shall attend to legal matters and collaborate in the functions of the Directorate, Deputy Directorates, and the organizational units. At the operational level, it shall have organizational units where the operations of the Real Property Registry (Registro Inmobiliario) shall be executed.

The Real Property Registry (Registro Inmobiliario) at the operational level is constituted by the following departments: Cadastral Registration Department (Departamento Catastral Registral), Real Property Registration Department (Departamento Inmobiliario Registral), Cadastral Maintenance Department (Departamento de Mantenimiento Catastral), Technical Standardization Department (Departamento de Normalización Técnica).

Likewise, it has a Legal Advisory Office (Asesoría Legal) as an advisory body to the Directorate of the Real Property Registry (Dirección del Registro Inmobiliario).

The Directorate of the Real Property Registry (Dirección del Registro Inmobiliario) may evaluate the realization of technical studies for the creation or suppression of bodies it deems necessary, in fulfillment of the objectives, functions, processes, and procedures, following the legal and administrative process.

Chapter Three: Competences of the organizational units

The person holding the position of head of the Cadastral Registration Department (Departamento Catastral Registral) reports directly to the cadastral deputy director, and shall have group coordinators and registrars.

In this department, the process of qualification and registration of survey plans (planos de agrimensura) is carried out, in accordance with the technical and legal order, reconciling and purifying the real property information, as an instrument that contributes to guaranteeing publicity and strengthening real property registration security.

The person holding the position of head of the Real Property Registration Department (Departamento Inmobiliario Registral) reports directly to the registration deputy director, and shall have group coordinators and registrars.

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 accordance with the legal and technical guidelines for their registration, guaranteeing real property registration publicity.

The person holding the position of head of the Cadastral Maintenance Department (Departamento de Mantenimiento Catastral) reports directly to the cadastral deputy director, and shall have group coordinators and cadastral officials.

In this department, the procedures for compiling and analyzing background information; delineation in the field; surveying of boundaries; legal-cadastral conciliation, validation, and sanitation of the cadastral and registration entries (asientos catastrales y registrales); elaboration of the official cadastral map (mapa catastral oficial); elaboration of the cadastral registry; public exhibition; signing of minutes of identification of location and boundaries; and updating and maintenance of the cadastral work are carried out.

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

The person holding the position of head of the Technical Standardization Department (Departamento de Normalización Técnica) reports directly to the director, and shall have registration and cadastral officials.

This department has competence to assist in the legal-registration management, and to attend to the internal and external needs of the Directorate of the Real Property Registry (Dirección del Registro Inmobiliario), guaranteeing the continuous improvement of the service through the electronic data processing information systems and strengthening real property registration 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 of 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 (Registro Inmobiliario), in order to supervise and control each of the different profiles of the officials; 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 (Registro Inmobiliario) to each of the users, whether internal or external; to manage sanitation requests associated with registration inaccuracies, identifying the eventual existence of inaccurate information; to execute sanitation requests derived from a registration inaccuracy in the absence of the official responsible for the registration or the transfer of information; and to attend to inquiries from internal and external users in relation to the procedures proper to the process of information reconstruction.

The Real Property Registry (Registro Inmobiliario) has a Legal Advisory Office (Asesoría Legal), specialized in the matters proper to its competence, which reports directly to the director and is constituted by a coordinator and the legal advisors.

The Legal Advisory Office (Asesoría Legal) has as its main function to provide advisory services on registration legal aspects to the Directorate of the Real Property Registry (Dirección del Registro Inmobiliario), the Deputy Directorates, and other organizational units, based on the current laws and regulations that govern the professional activity.

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

The Directorate of the Real Property Registry (Dirección del Registro Inmobiliario) may request the support staff 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 (Dirección del Registro Inmobiliario) has competence to administer the technical and administrative activities and responsibilities that influence decision-making with institutional and/or national impact and transcendence, and the fulfillment of the strategic objectives and plans.

It corresponds to the director of the Real Property Registry (Registro Inmobiliario):

a)To order, suspend, or deny the registration of documents subject to registration, when resolving appeals (ocursos) and administrative proceedings.
b)To supervise the fulfillment of the tasks and obligations of the officials of the Real Property Registry (Registro Inmobiliario).
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 over the Deputy Directorates, the Legal Advisory Office (Asesoría Legal), and the remaining organizational units, in pursuit of the adequate functioning of the Real Property Registry (Registro Inmobiliario).
e)To plan, coordinate, direct, and supervise the technical and administrative activities.
f)To issue and approve reports, regulations, instructions, circulars, or other technical instruments in pursuit of there being a unity of administrative and registration criteria.
g)To establish and supervise the functions of the Technical Standardization Department (Departamento de Normalización Técnica) and the Legal Advisory Office (Asesoría Legal).
h)To exercise disciplinary competence so that all officials strictly fulfill their functions and obligations.
i)To designate, in their absence, the deputy director who will replace them and the respective term.
j)To propose the appointment and removal of the officials of the Real Property Registry (Registro Inmobiliario).
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 (Registro Inmobiliario).
m)To hear the cancellation of entries and other procedures established in the Law for the Strengthening of Real Property Registration Security, Ley 9602.
n)To authorize the procedure for the refund of the National Registry (Registro Nacional) fee when it is appropriate.
o)To authorize or reject the restitution of information in the registration entries (asientos registrales) of incomplete or deteriorated registrations.
p)To establish the technical or technological procedures necessary for registration and determine the content of the registration entries (asientos registrales) and the manner in which the cadastral and registration information shall be publicized.
q)To maintain contact with the institutions related to the Real Property Registry (Registro Inmobiliario) on legal and cadastral aspects, in order to standardize policies and procedures between those institutions and the Real Property Registry (Registro Inmobiliario).
r)To determine the technical and technological means necessary for the presentation of survey plans (planos de agrimensura).
s)To determine the complex nature of a document so that it has a differentiated qualification and registration procedure.

The Cadastral Deputy Directorate has competence to administer the technical-administrative tasks that are developed in the Cadastral Registration Department (Departamento Catastral Registral) and in the Cadastral Maintenance Department (Departamento de Mantenimiento Catastral) of the Real Property Registry (Registro Inmobiliario), in which survey plans (planos de agrimensura) are qualified and registered, and activities related to the cadastral map (mapa catastral) are carried out.

It corresponds to the cadastral deputy director of the Real Property Registry (Registro Inmobiliario):

a)To exercise the direction and coordination of the Cadastral Registration Department (Departamento Catastral Registral) and the Cadastral Maintenance Department (Departamento de Mantenimiento Catastral).
b)To order, suspend, or deny the registration of documents subject to registration and 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 (Registro Inmobiliario).
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 (mapa catastral) and the information processing systems.
g)To propose to the Directorate of the Real Property Registry (Dirección del Registro Inmobiliario) registration qualification criteria for the documents submitted for registration and technical criteria in cadastral matters.
h)To coordinate with the registration deputy director everything necessary to guarantee the adequate functioning of the Real Property Registry (Registro Inmobiliario).
i)To ensure the observance of the laws, regulations, and norms that regulate both the functioning and the organization of the Real Property Registry (Registro Inmobiliario), in coordination with the director.
j)To assume all the attributions and duties proper to the director, in the event of the absence of that position.
k)To collaborate with the Directorate of the Real Property Registry (Dirección del Registro Inmobiliario) in the formulation of plans, projects, drafting of cadastral circulars and directives, as well as in the orientation and training tasks for cadastral personnel.
l)To collaborate with the discipline of the personnel and the smooth running of the technical and administrative tasks of the Real Property Registry (Registro Inmobiliario).
m)To form cartography for cadastral purposes through the available scientific and technological procedures.
n)To order ex officio the realization of cadastral technical studies that serve its purposes, in accordance with the provisions of the National Cadastre Law, Ley 6545, and in this regulation.
ñ)To request ex officio the realization of cadastral technical studies for the State, its institutions, and the jurisdictional authorities, only in officialized territories.
o)To determine the technical specifications of the basic stages of the conformation of the cadastral map (mapa catastral) and its execution.
p)To analyze and order the cancellation of the provisionality or the return of the validity of cadastral plans, in cases submitted for its consideration.
q)To authorize or reject the restitution of information in the registration entries (asientos registrales) of incomplete or deteriorated registrations, in cases submitted for its consideration.
r)To determine the procedure for verifying the authorizations and approvals (visados) granted by the competent institutions, which are required for the registration of survey plans (planos de agrimensura).
s)To determine the complex nature of a document so that it has a differentiated qualification and registration procedure.

The Registration Deputy Directorate has 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 Registration Department (Departamento Inmobiliario Registral) of the Real Property Registry (Registro Inmobiliario), in which documents that constitute, modify, declare, or extinguish real rights over real property matters are qualified and registered.

It corresponds to the registration deputy director of the Real Property Registry (Registro Inmobiliario):

a)To exercise the direction and coordination of the Real Property Registration Department (Departamento Inmobiliario Registral).
b)To order, suspend, or deny the registration of documents subject to registration and 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 (Registro Inmobiliario).
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 registration 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 (Dirección del Registro Inmobiliario) registration qualification criteria for the documents submitted for registration.
h)To coordinate with the cadastral deputy director everything necessary to guarantee the adequate functioning of the Real Property Registry (Registro Inmobiliario).
i)To ensure the observance of the laws, regulations, and norms that regulate both the functioning and the organization of the Real Property Registry (Registro Inmobiliario), in coordination with the director.
j)To assume all the attributions and duties proper to the director, in the event of the absence of that position.
k)To collaborate with the Directorate of the Real Property Registry (Dirección del Registro Inmobiliario) in the formulation of plans, projects, drafting of registration circulars and directives, as well as in the orientation and training tasks for registration personnel.
l)To collaborate with the discipline of the personnel and the smooth running of the technical and administrative tasks of the Real Property Registry (Registro Inmobiliario).
m)To hear the cancellation of entries and other procedures established in the Law for the Strengthening of Real Property Registration Security, Ley 9602.
n)To analyze and order the cancellation of the provisionality or the return of the validity of cadastral plans, in cases submitted for its consideration.
ñ)To authorize or reject the restitution of information in the registration entries (asientos registrales) of incomplete or deteriorated registrations, in cases submitted for its consideration.
o)To determine the complex nature of a document so that it has a differentiated qualification and registration procedure.

The Cadastral General Coordination has competence to plan, direct, coordinate, supervise, and control the activities of the registrars that are developed in the Cadastral Registration Department (Departamento Catastral Registral), with the objective of centralizing the information referring to the qualification and registration of survey plans (planos de agrimensura) presented for registration.

It corresponds to the general coordinator of the Cadastral Registration Department (Departamento Catastral Registral):

a)To assign, supervise, control, and evaluate the professional tasks proper to the process of qualification and registration of survey plans (planos de agrimensura).
b)To control and ensure the adequate development of the function of registration of survey plans (planos de agrimensura) by the officials of the Cadastral Registration Department (Departamento Catastral Registral).
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 registrars' coordinations the functioning of the Cadastral Registration Department (Departamento Catastral Registral).
f)To collaborate with the director or cadastral deputy director 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 other tasks entrusted by the director or cadastral deputy director.

The coordinations of the registrars of the Cadastral Registration Department (Departamento Catastral Registral) have competence to supervise the fulfillment in efficiency and quality of the registration procedures, optimally administering the totality of the resources assigned to their charge, through controls that allow them to guarantee the correct execution of the registration task.

It corresponds to the coordinations of the registrars of the Cadastral Registration Department (Departamento Catastral Registral):

a)To ensure the good functioning of the groups of registrars under their charge in both cadastral and administrative disciplinary matters.
b)To attend to and resolve inquiries related to a survey plan (plano de agrimensura) in the process of registration.
c)To attend to and resolve verbal and written inquiries presented by their hierarchical superiors, subordinates, and professional surveyors.
d)To supervise and oversee that the officials under their charge process the documents in accordance with the current legislation and 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 forward the document to the cadastral deputy director 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 registration, cadastral, or administrative nature issued by the director or cadastral deputy director.
h)To carry out all other tasks entrusted by their hierarchical superiors.

The registrars of the Cadastral Registration Department (Departamento Catastral Registral) have competence to execute professional activities oriented to the qualification and registration of the survey plans (planos de agrimensura) submitted for their study, which they shall do by the means available to them in coordination with the Directorate of the Real Property Registry (Dirección del Registro Inmobiliario), in order to guarantee publicity and strengthen real property registration security.

It corresponds to the registrars of the Cadastral Registration Department (Departamento Catastral Registral):

a)To verify that the survey plans (planos de agrimensura) 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 (planos de agrimensura), checking that they comply with the parameters of exactitude and precision of the cadastral map (mapa catastral) 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 (planos de agrimensura), verifying or ruling out the existence of inconsistencies that affect the certainty of the real property entries (asientos inmobiliarios).
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 (planos de agrimensura), in accordance with the cadastral and registration entries (asientos catastrales y registrales), and the established legal order.
f)To authorize the registration of the survey plans (planos de agrimensura) submitted for their study, through the means established by the Directorate of the Real Property Registry (Dirección del Registro Inmobiliario), and to immediately update the information in the databases, so that it can be consulted by the users.
g)To respond to the inquiries formulated by their hierarchical superiors regarding the survey plans (planos de agrimensura) submitted for their study.
h)To comply with the provisions issued by their hierarchical superiors.

The Registration General Coordination has competence to plan, direct, coordinate, supervise, and control the activities of the registrars that are developed in the Real Property Registration Department (Departamento Inmobiliario Registral), with the objective of centralizing the information referring to the qualification and registration of documents presented for registration.

It corresponds to the general coordinator of the Real Property Registration Department (Departamento Inmobiliario Registral):

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 function of document registration by the officials of the Real Property Registration Department (Departamento Inmobiliario Registral).
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 registrars' coordinations the functioning of the Real Property Registration Department (Departamento Inmobiliario Registral).
g)To collaborate with the director or registration deputy director 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 registration process.
j)To carry out all other tasks entrusted by the director or registration deputy director.

The coordinations of the registrars of the Real Property Registration Department (Departamento Inmobiliario Registral) have competence to supervise the fulfillment in efficiency and quality of the registration procedures, optimally administering the totality of the resources assigned to their charge, through controls that allow them to guarantee the correct execution of the registration task.

It corresponds to the coordinations of the registrars of the Real Property Registration Department (Departamento Inmobiliario Registral):

a)To ensure the good functioning of the groups of registrars under their charge in both registration and administrative disciplinary matters.
b)To attend to and resolve registration inquiries related to a document in the process of registration.
c)To attend to and resolve verbal and written inquiries presented by their hierarchical superiors, subordinates, and notary public professionals.
d)To supervise and oversee that the officials under their charge process the documents in accordance with the current legislation and 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 forward the document to the registration deputy director 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 registration, cadastral, or administrative nature issued by the director or registration deputy director.
h)To carry out all other tasks entrusted by their hierarchical superiors.

The registrars of the Real Estate Registration Department are competent to execute professional activities aimed at the qualification and registration of documents submitted for their examination, inherent to the process of registering documents in which real property rights are constituted, modified, declared, or extinguished, which they shall carry out through the means available to them in coordination with the Directorate of the Real Estate Registry, in order to guarantee publicity and strengthen real estate registration security.

It is the responsibility of the registrars of the Real Estate Registration Department to:

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

The General Coordination of the Cadastral Maintenance Department is competent 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.

It is the responsibility of the general coordinator of the Cadastral Maintenance Department to:

a)Assign, supervise, control, and evaluate the tasks inherent to the validation process, cadastral survey (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 attend to and resolve inquiries 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)Attend to and resolve verbal and written inquiries presented by their hierarchical superiors, subordinates, and the general public.
f)Provide advisory services within the expertise of cadastral work.
g)Coordinate with the Instituto Geográfico Nacional on matters relating 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 assigned by the cadastral director or deputy director.

The coordinations of the officials of the Cadastral Maintenance Department are competent to supervise compliance with efficiency and quality in technical procedures, optimally managing all the resources assigned to their charge, through controls that allow them to guarantee the correct execution of the assigned tasks.

It is the responsibility of the coordinations of the officials of the Cadastral Maintenance Department to:

a)Ensure the proper functioning of the human team under their charge.
b)Attend to and resolve verbal and written inquiries presented by their hierarchical superiors, subordinates, and legal advisors.
c)Communicate to the personnel under their charge the decisions of a registration, cadastral, or administrative nature 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 surveying plans (planos de agrimensura).
f)Provide advisory services within the expertise of cadastral work.
g)Issue opinions before the competent authorities on the preparation of the public road map (municipalities and/or Ministerio de Obras Públicas y Transportes) in districts subject to cadastral survey (levantamiento catastral).
h)Attend to and resolve verbal and written inquiries presented by their hierarchical superiors, subordinates, and the general public.
i)Attend to inquiries from officials related to the administrative management of documents referring to properties (predios) contained in the cadastral map.
j)Carry out the stages of the cadastral survey (levantamiento catastral) aimed at concluding and maintaining the cadastral work (obra catastral) with national coverage.
k)Develop the logistics associated with the public exhibitions for districts subject to cadastral survey (levantamiento catastral).
l)Manage the methodologies and technical criteria regarding the cadastral map.
m)Perform all other tasks assigned by their hierarchical superiors.

The officials of the Cadastral Maintenance Department are competent to execute professional tasks aimed at providing inputs for the issuance of technical opinions and provisions, as well as geodetic and cadastral measurements, surveying 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 (levantamientos catastrales), and to advisory services, issuance of technical opinions and guidelines, and resolutions of inaccuracies in complex cadastral surveys, with the aim of strengthening the country's land-use planning (ordenamiento territorial).

It is the responsibility of the officials of the Cadastral Maintenance Department to:

a)Carry out studies of registration and cadastral entries (asientos registrales y catastrales), verifying that they comply with the tolerances and parameters established in the 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, only in officially established territories.
c)Analyze the conformity of boundaries (linderos), location, area, shape, and dimensions of properties (fincas) described through surveying plans (planos de agrimensura) and registered in the cadastre, 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 regarding specific situations with properties (predios) on the cadastral map, in order to provide elements that contribute to its updating and maintenance.
h)Keep the databases related to the cadastral work (obra catastral) updated for the consultation and qualification of surveying plans (planos de agrimensura).
i)Attend to and resolve inquiries and procedures made 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 is competent to evaluate the functioning and maintenance of 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 Estate Registry; proposing reform plans and programs to their hierarchical superiors to improve automated systems, through the appropriate use of databases for all authorized users, with the aim of strengthening registration security in the information included in the computer systems.

It is the responsibility of the head of the Technical Standardization Department to:

a)Advise the Directorate of the Real Estate Registry on the adaptation of electronic data processing systems that affect registration management in accordance with the applicable legal regulations.
b)Make adaptations to electronic data processing systems in accordance with binding regulations.
c)Foresee risks and propose reforms and improvements to the programs and technological infrastructure of electronic data processing systems.
d)Manage with the Information Technology Directorate the implementation of improvements or requirements that affect automated systems.
e)Apply improvements to electronic data processing systems, in accordance with 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 that affect the registration process in compliance with current regulations.
h)Act as a liaison between external institutions and the Directorate of the Real Estate 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)Prepare guidelines on the creation of user profiles, assignment of passwords, and workstations for the Real Estate Registry.
k)Authorize the delivery of security tickets to State institutions that require them.
l)Perform all other tasks assigned by the respective director or deputy director.

The officials of the Technical Standardization Department are competent to assess and resolve requests regarding eventual inconsistencies or registration errors, as well as to carry out the verification and remediation (saneamiento) of information in the electronic processing systems of the Real Estate Registry databases, with the 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 estate registration security.

It is the responsibility of the officials of the Technical Standardization Department to:

a)Monitor the proper functioning and maintenance of 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 Estate Registry.
d)Assist the Information Technology Directorate in optimizing the functioning of 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, by instruction of the Directorate of the Real Estate Registry, non-existent, deteriorated, or deteriorating registration entries (asientos registrales) in the databases of automated systems, regarding information contained in volumes (tomos) that is required to be transferred to the automated system, guaranteeing real estate registration publicity.
g)Ensure the proper functioning of improvements or new products related to the registration function, by carrying out tests in the development environments of automated systems.
h)Ensure that acts subject to registration are contained in the systems for calculation and collection of fees, 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 Estate Registry and the different institutions.
k)Provide consultation services to internal and external users, related to the functioning of automated systems.
l)Manage the delivery of security tickets to notaries public 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 registration or correction processes in the electronic processing systems of the databases.
p)Comply with the provisions issued by their hierarchical superiors.

The Coordination of the Legal Advisory Unit is competent to advise the director, deputy directors, and personnel of 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 carried out in the Legal Advisory Unit of the Real Estate Registry.

It is the responsibility of the coordinator of the Legal Advisory Unit to:

a)Provide legal and registration advice to the director, deputy directors, and personnel of the other organizational units, through the study of the various regulations, jurisprudence, and doctrine governing registration and cadastral activity.
b)Attend to and resolve inquiries presented by their hierarchical superiors, collaborators, and the general public on matters relating to the procedures processed in the Legal Advisory Unit.
c)Issue opinions and reports on legal aspects within their competence, with the objective of standardizing the application of the regulations and procedures managed in the Legal Advisory Unit.
d)Join commissions and attend meetings with hierarchical superiors where policies related to optimizing the processes and procedures processed in the Legal Advisory Unit are raised and analyzed.
e)Prepare circulars or directives analyzing the issue in question and the pertinent regulations, with the purpose of informing 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 Estate Registry on legal aspects, in order to standardize policies and procedures between those institutions and the Real Estate Registry.
g)Rule on the appropriateness of opening administrative management procedures.
h)Determine the complex nature of a document so that it may have a differentiated qualification and registration procedure.
i)Perform all other tasks assigned by the respective director or deputy director.

The legal advisors are competent to provide advice to the director, deputy directors, and other personnel of the organizational units on legal and registration aspects in the Legal Advisory Unit of the Real Estate Registry, based on the laws and current regulations governing their professional activity.

It is the responsibility of the legal advisors to:

a)Advise the respective director and deputy director in all their functions, issuing opinions, reports, and providing jurisprudence and doctrine on the aspects submitted to their knowledge.
b)Process the administrative procedures handled in the Legal Advisory Unit and any other that the Directorate of the Real Estate Registry deems pertinent.
c)Advise the registrars and the coordinations of the registrars on the qualification of documents in the registration process and on 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 ordered in the administrative procedures processed in the Legal Advisory Unit and any other registration ordered by the respective director or deputy director.
e)Certify the administrative files requested by the various judicial or administrative authorities that require them.
f)Certify registration entries (asientos de inscripción) and the documents required to attend to the procedures processed in the Legal Advisory Unit. Certification of documents whose competence corresponds to the Directorate of Registry Services shall not be appropriate.
g)Formalize agreements reached by the legitimized parties in pursuit of the remediation (saneamiento) of inconsistencies investigated in the administrative procedures processed in the Legal Advisory Unit.
h)Issue interlocutory resolutions and those designated by the respective director or deputy director in the administrative procedures processed in the Legal Advisory Unit.
i)Join commissions and work teams when required by their hierarchical superiors, in order to assist in inquiries or procedures that must be attended to 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 block of current legality; therefore, the qualification of documents presented for registration must be duly substantiated.

The Real Estate Registry processes only the documents that are presented for registration, and the formal presentation of the document constitutes the request for registration.

In documents presented for registration in the Real Estate Registration Department, all acts or contracts contained therein and referring to registrable real property rights are considered petitioned (rogados), unless otherwise indicated from the first submission of the document.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Real Estate Registry has specialized competence regarding the registration of real estate 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 include all defects that the document has at that time and that imply its suspension, and the legal or technical basis on which each defect is based must be recorded in the qualification minute (minuta de calificación).

Under no circumstance does 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 corrected (subsanación) in order to authorize registration.

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 new data incorporated.

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

Likewise, in the Cadastral Registration Department, those defects that arise from attending to an opposition to the qualification or from maintenance of the cadastral map are not a violation of the principle of unitary qualification.

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

The data contained in the cadastral map are continuous, spatial, and temporal; consequently, properties (predios) that do not have a registered titleholder 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 Estate Registry to whom they are assigned, and that official 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 in the qualification of documents subject to registration, and which shall be mandatory for registrars in analogous cases.

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

When the authorizing professional of the document disagrees with the defects noted by the registrar, or with the cancellations of provisional entries (asientos provisionales) carried out, 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 presented for registration before the Cadastral Registration Department, the authorizing professional must additionally present the legal-cadastral reconciliation (conciliación jurídica catastral) and/or the corresponding evidence. If this requirement is not met, the coordinations of the registrars shall be empowered to deny the consultation.

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

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

In the case of cancellation of the provisional entry (asiento provisional), the coordinations of the registrars of the Real Estate Registration Department may determine the appropriateness of the proceeding for which the provisional entry (asiento provisional) was cancelled, for which the authorizing professional or the user must submit the document with new presentation entries (citas de presentación).

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

Consultations shall be attended to solely and exclusively when requested by the authorizing professionals, and restricted to resolving doubts regarding the qualification of the document.

The coordinations of the registrars may not indicate the methods for correcting (subsanación) the defects noted on the document or resolve consultations of any other type, since advice regarding the formulation of acts and contracts, and also regarding the preparation of surveying plans (levantamiento de los planos de agrimensura), is exclusively the responsibility of the responsible professionals.

If the responsible professional disagrees with the qualification made by the registrar, they may file, as the first formal recourse, the opposition to the qualification, which must meet the following requirements:

a)Submit a reasoned written request citing the legal norms 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 defects not appealed must have been corrected, in application of the principle of unitary qualification. An exception to the foregoing is the request for approvals (visados) in the case of documents presented for registration before the Cadastral Registration Department.
c)When the opposition to the qualification refers to the notation of defects in documents presented for registration before the Real Estate Registration Department, the request must be filed before the Directorate of Services of the Registro Nacional, jointly with the document, within the validity period of the provisional presentation entry (asiento de presentación provisional).
d)When the opposition to the qualification refers to the notation of defects in the Cadastral Registration Department, the request must be filed in the computer system for plan reception, within the validity period of the provisional presentation entry (asiento de presentación provisional). If the defects being challenged refer to parcel contradictions, the responsible professional must present the technical and/or legal evidence supporting their argumentation.
e)In the case of cancellations of the provisional entry (asiento provisional) in documents presented for registration before the Real Estate Registration Department, the opposition to the qualification must be filed attached to the originally cancelled document with new presentation entries (citas de presentación); and the deputy registration director may resolve to proceed with the qualification of the document or with the ratification of the cancellation of the provisional entry (asiento provisional).

Upon receiving the document with the opposition to the qualification, the registrar shall evaluate it again and determine whether to uphold the defects noted, in which case they shall transfer it to the respective coordination.

The coordinating registrar may revoke the defect noted and order, under their responsibility, the respective registration, or may confirm the defect, in which case they must transfer the document to the competent assistant director.

In the Cadastral Registry Department, the coordinating registrar, upon confirming the defect, must issue a technical determination prior to transferring the document to the cadastral assistant director.

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

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

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The time limit for resolving the opposition to the determination shall be up to two months, counted from the filing of the formal appeal, and shall suspend the period of validity of the respective provisional entry, in accordance with the provisions set forth in Article 468, subsection 5, of the Civil Code.

To support the decision, the framework for registry and cadastral determination regulated in Article 27 of the Law on the Registration of Documents in the Public Registry, Law 3883, may be expanded.

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If the responsible professional does not agree with the resolution issued by the competent assistant director in the formal appeal opposing the determination, they may file the curso as a second formal instance.

When the curso concerns defects noted in documents filed for registration with the Real Estate Registry Department, the application must be filed with the Directorate of Services of the National Registry, together with the document, within the validity period of the provisional entry, stating the grounds and the legal or technical reasons on which it is based.

When the curso concerns defects noted in documents filed for registration with the Cadastral Registry Department, the application must be filed through the computerized plan submission system, within the validity period of the provisional entry, stating the grounds and the legal or technical reasons on which it is based.

If the defects being challenged refer to parcel contradictions, the legal-cadastral reconciliation or the relevant evidence supporting the argument must be submitted.

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The registrar, upon receiving the document with the curso, shall transfer it to the Directorate of the Real Estate Registry. The curso proceedings shall be processed in an administrative case file, and due process must be observed. Hearings shall be granted to third-party annotators with a legitimate interest in the content of the document subject to the curso, and, when appropriate, also to the responsible professional.

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Once the curso application is 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 in 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 curso applicant, as well as to any other interested persons who have appeared.

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

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Once the Administrative Registry Tribunal’s decision has been communicated to the Directorate of the Real Estate Registry, the appeal file must be incorporated into the curso proceedings case file within five business days, counted from the receipt of the case file by the Directorate.

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

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Chapter seven: Processing of complex documents

A complex document is one that cannot be examined together with the group of documents that are regularly and routinely assessed, because, due to its legal or cadastral content, the registrar must refer it for consultation to the Legal Advisory Office of the Real Estate Registry to evaluate drafting and contractual clauses, conduct studies, analyses of parcel effects, studies regarding the legalization of condominium books, or examine how fees and stamps should be assessed or the type of registration that must be carried out, or to conduct an administrative comparison.

A document is also considered complex when the number of assigned transactions, number of properties, plans to be modified, or large surveying plan projects exceeds what the registrar can process within eight calendar days, or when an appearance before an administrative body is necessary to remedy the defect noted by the registrar.

When a technical study must be requested from the Cadastral Maintenance Department to resolve an opposition to the determination of documents or to determine the correction of inaccuracies in real estate registry publicity for the purpose of authorizing the lifting of precautionary measures, the document related to such actions is considered complex.

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

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The status of complex document must be approved by the coordinators of the registrars, by the coordinator of the Legal Advisory Office, by the respective director or assistant director, and recorded in the registry or cadastral database, as applicable.

In the case of documents filed for registration with the Real Estate Registry Department, the registrar or the legal advisor, as applicable, must publicize the classification as a complex document in the database, using the same citations as the provisional entry.

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

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

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Title two: Documents registrable in the Cadastral Registry Department

Chapter one: Documents constituting the cadastre

The cadastre is composed of the following documents:

a)Cadastral maps.
b)The cadastral database.
c)Cadastral survey plans (planos catastrados).

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The primary purpose of the cadastral survey plan (plano catastrado) is to contribute to the establishment, improvement, and maintenance of the cadastral map, to graphically, mathematically, and unequivocally define the property, 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 Directorate of Services of the National Registry shall attest to their content and prove that such information originates from the Real Estate Registry.

Only surveying plans (planos de agrimensura) registered with the Cadastral Registry Department shall produce legal effects. Cadastral registration does not validate documents that are null or voidable under the law, nor shall it remedy their defects.

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For the execution of the cadastre, all work performed or antecedents appearing in the Real Estate Registry shall be used and leveraged, as well as any prior surveys conducted by other public institutions that may be obtained.

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Immovable properties shall be delimited on the cadastral map, taking into account the registered titles and the cadastral information of the Real Estate Registry.

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

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

a)Establishment of cadastral geodetic control.
b)Acquisition 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 antecedents.
e)Legal-cadastral conciliation (conciliación jurídica-catastral).
f)Creation of property case files.
g)Survey and compilation of field information.
h)Preparation of the provisional cadastral map and mosaic.
i)Public exhibition and signing of certificates of conformity (actas de conformidad).
j)Preparation of the definitive map.
k)Updating and maintenance of cadastral information.
l)Declaration of data finality.
m)Declaration of a cadastral zone (zona catastrada).

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The call to the public exhibition must be published in the Official Gazette La Gaceta Digital and in a nationally circulated media outlet. The Directorate of the Real Estate Registry may use local media outlets it deems appropriate to invite interested persons to appear at the place where the public exhibition is to be held, to examine the cadastral record there and sign the certificate of conformity (acta de conformidad).

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 identical warnings shall be issued. If there is disagreement with the data, the formal written claim must be filed before the cadastral assistant director within fifteen business days following the last day of the public exhibition, in accordance with the terms set forth in Article 20 of the National Cadastre Law, Law 6545; the assistant director shall examine any timely objections and resolve them within one month.

Upon expiration of the one-month period, the cadastral assistant director shall declare the data final and certain, and subsequently the cadastral zone (zona catastrada) shall be formalized by executive decree.

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Once a cadastral zone (zona catastrada) is declared, the cadastral information data are considered certain and definitive, being challengeable only through judicial channels.

By virtue of data formalization, in those cases where the location of immovable properties is questioned at the judicial level, officials of the Cadastral Subdirectorate shall issue reports only in formalized zones. When the questioning is in a non-formalized zone, the corresponding technical study shall be performed by a surveyor, duly registered with the Federated College of Engineers and Architects, and the officials of the Cadastral Subdirectorate are precluded from issuing opinions in such cases.

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The claim challenging the cadastral map must be filed with the Directorate of the Real Estate Registry and meet the following requirements:

a)File a written claim signed by the registered titleholder or whoever has standing, setting forth the reasons why they do not agree with the formation and the inconsistencies shown 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, Law 8687.
c)Provide the corresponding technical studies.
d)If the existence of inconsistencies in the questioned properties is verified, the procedure for administrative management or for publicizing the inconsistencies detected in the survey, updating, and maintenance of cadastral information shall be applied, as appropriate.

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Certificates of conformity (actas de conformidad), as well as acts of demarcation and identification (actas de deslinde y de identificación), form part of the cadastral map formation process.

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When property maintenance must be performed on the cadastral map, the following shall be taken into account:

a)Update and maintain the formation of the cadastral map, through the real estate entries, determining, for this purpose, whether the property meets or does not meet the relative and absolute accuracies.
b)Determine the relationship between the cadastral survey plan (plano catastrado) and the registry entry.
c)Formation of the property on the cadastral map.
d)Updating of the cadastral map attributes and maintenance reports.
e)Correction of properties on the cadastral map.
f)Improve the formation.
g)Determination of inconsistencies of properties on the cadastral map.
h)Locate and georeference the real estate entries.
i)Define the harmonization of properties.
j)Reconfigure the map geometry when necessary.
k)Make improvements to properties on the cadastral map that are directly or indirectly carried out to increase and improve precision and accuracy.
l)Respect the polygon geometry of the cadastral survey plan (plano catastrado).

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

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

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

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The cadastral registrar, when assessing the surveying plan (plano de agrimensura) in a formalized zone, shall examine it and grant it the status of verified. Cadastral survey plans (planos catastrados) that do not contain the verification may be granted the same, provided they are congruent with the geometry of the cadastral map.

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Chapter two: Surveying of surveying plans

For the purposes of the National Cadastre Law, Law 6545, and this regulation, it is required that measurement work and the preparation of surveying plans (planos de agrimensura) be carried out by professionals authorized by the Federated College of Engineers and Architects.

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The data relating to the boundary description (derrotero) or the coordinate list, area, and location of the surveying plan (plano de agrimensura) are backed by the public faith held by surveyors, in accordance with the provisions of the Law on the Practice of Topography and Surveying, Law 4294. For these purposes, the scope of this public faith shall not be questioned, except for contradictions with the cadastral map or with cadastral survey plans (planos catastrados) that have generated a registry entry.

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Surveyors shall be responsible for the data entered in the plans, files, and annexed documents, not only those supported by public faith, but also those other data recorded in the document, in accordance with the provisions of Article 12 of the Organic Law of the Federated College of Engineers and Architects, Law 3663.

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Prior to the survey, the responsible professional must conduct research at the Real Estate Registry on the registry and cadastral entries; verify the existence of precautionary measures on the real estate entries; obtain the necessary information from the competent institutions 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 (conciliaciones jurídicas-catastrales) and overlays; and provide them when opposing cadastral actions.

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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 accuracy and precision established by the Real Estate Registry and the inputs available for linking to the official national coordinate system.

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Surveying shall be performed using methods appropriate to its needs. The precision of the geodetic or topographic instruments used in the survey shall be consistent with the relative and absolute accuracy required by the Real Estate Registry. In accordance with the provisions of Article 1 of Executive Decree 30106-J, which established that all cantons of the national territory were declared a cadastral zone and Executive Decree 40962-MJP, which declares the CR-SIRGAS system, CRTM05 Transverse Mercator Projection, official for Costa Rica, documents for immovable properties surveyed in cadastral zones, and in those areas where orthophotos exist or where it is possible to link by geodetic or topographic methods to geodetic vertices, densifications of geodetic networks carried out by public institutions and endorsed by the National Geographic Institute, or with the GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) Station Network of the National Registry administered by the National Geographic Institute, even if located outside the declared cadastral zone, must be duly georeferenced and must also comply with all legal and technical provisions established in the National Cadastre Law, Law 6545.

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

The required accuracy for surveys for cadastral application, regarding the absolute accuracy of the coordinates of the control points that will serve to link them to the National Coordinate System, obtained by using coordinates of points fully identifiable on the available cartography or digital orthophoto, shall be, in areas with 1:1000 scale cartographic coverage, ± 20 cm accuracy, and in areas with 1:5000 scale cartographic coverage, ± 1 m accuracy.

The required accuracy for surveys for cadastral application, regarding the absolute accuracy of the coordinates of the control points that will serve to link them to the National Coordinate System, obtained by using conventional topographic and geodetic methods, shall be, in areas with 1:1000 scale cartographic coverage, ± 5 cm accuracy, and in areas with 1:5000 scale cartographic coverage, ± 10 cm accuracy.

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

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Chapter three: Cadastral technical studies rendered by surveyors

Surveyors are authorized to render legal-cadastral conciliations (conciliaciones jurídicas-catastrales) in administrative proceedings, appeals, and oppositions, for which purpose they must technically comply with the provisions of this regulation. In administrative proceedings, the endorsement of the registered titleholders shall be required.

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

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Cadastral technical 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 CR-SIRGAS National Horizontal Reference Geodetic Network, CRTM05 Transverse Mercator Projection, as provided by Executive Decree No. 40962-MJP.
c)Overlay in digital format.

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Chapter four: Submission and content of surveying plans

Surveying plans (planos de agrimensura) submitted for their proper determination through the computerized plan submission system shall be processed in the 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 perform the determination, respecting the order regarding the submission date, may not alter said sequence, and must set the group of plans for processing by date worked.

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Provisional entries of surveying plans (planos de agrimensura) whose defects have not been remedied within one year, counted from their receipt, shall be considered expired in accordance with the provisions of Article 468, subsection 5) of the Civil Code.

Likewise, the provisional entry shall be canceled when all registry fees have not been paid and three months have elapsed, counted from the submission date, in accordance with Article 3 of the Law on Public Registry Fees, Law 4564. Fees used for surveying plans (planos de agrimensura) whose submission is requested to be canceled, or those to which expiration has been applied, may be used again provided it is for the same document.

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Surveyors must submit surveying plans (planos de agrimensura) in digital format for their determination and registration, except for construction plans, general plans, or site designs for developments and cemeteries, which, exceptionally and with prior authorization from the Directorate of the Real Estate Registry, may be submitted in physical format before the Directorate of Services of the National Registry.

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Surveying plans (planos de agrimensura) must meet the following requirements for submission:

a)Be georeferenced, with the exception of vertical condominium plans.
b)Attach digital files in the format designated by the Directorate of the Real Estate Registry.
c)Be digitally signed by the surveyor.
d)Enter the data corresponding to the literal information into the document intake platforms, which must correspond in full to the information contained in the image, each time the document is resubmitted.
e)Provide proof of having paid the corresponding fees or rates. The responsible professional must indicate the bank payment number on the surveying plan (plano de agrimensura) in the space assigned for seals.
f)Be approved by the Inspectorate of the Federated College of Engineers and Architects.
g)Comply with the frame dimensions of the surveying plan (plano de agrimensura), as defined in Article 85 of this regulation, considering the reservation of a free space of 3 cm wide by 6 cm long from the upper left margin of the document for the registration seal.
h)Distribute the content of the surveying plan (plano de agrimensura) as follows:

1. Space for seals and bank payment number.

2. Space for the body of the plan.

3. Space for general data (title block).

4. Space for the registration statement.

5. Space for the boundary description (derrotero) in vertical condominium plans.

i)Indicate the following information in the title block of the surveying plan (plano de agrimensura):

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 metric system and comply with the tolerance parameters established by the Directorate of the Real Estate Registry.

4. Numerical scale: Numerical scales that may be used include multiples and submultiples of 10.

5. Geographic location: The geographic location of the immovable property must be consistent with the Administrative Territorial Division of Costa Rica, updated as of the plan submission date, 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, and any other notes the responsible professional deems necessary, in accordance with the provisions set forth in Articles 90, 91, and 92 of this regulation.

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The following frame formats for the surveying plan (plano de agrimensura) shall be used:

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The information that surveying plans (planos de agrimensura) must contain shall be the following:

a)Vertices: The vertex of the polygon referred to in Article 87 of this regulation must be designated with the number 1 and shall be indicated with a circle of approximately 2 mm in diameter. In addition, the value of its coordinates must be indicated.
b)Adjoining property owners: In cadastral zones, the titleholder shall be indicated, and if the document borders rivers, canals, public streets, and bodies of water, the name thereof shall be indicated if so recorded in the official cartography issued by the National Geographic Institute. When such adjacencies occur in a cadastral zone (zona catastrada), 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 Instituto Geográfico Nacional as the governing body on the matter.
d)Details: Without the need to conduct the respective survey, the plan must graphically and literally indicate the physical features found, such as canals, rivers, streams (quebradas), irrigation ditches (acequias), lakes, reservoirs (embalses), estuaries (esteros), mangroves, salt flats (salinas), quarries (tajos), tunnels, bridges, dikes, dams (represas), sewer systems (alcantarillados), landfills (vertederos), curbs (cordones), ditches (cunetas), shoulders (espaldones), roadways (calzadas), easements (servidumbres), exceptional accesses for residential use, and any other similar features, except when they border or cross the boundary, in which case a detailed survey will be necessary. Likewise, the use or uses of the parcel and existing constructions must be indicated.
e)Accesses: These are normally public streets and highways. Exceptionally, they are navigable rivers, the sea, passage easements (servidumbres de paso) recorded in the registry entry, exceptional accesses for residential use, rights of way, and private roads recorded in the registry entries. All fronts of the properties and their accesses must be indicated, and when they exist, the widths of sidewalks, green zones, shoulders (espaldones), roadways (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 (embalses) and dams (represas), railways, water, electric, and telephone easements (servidumbres), or parcels for the expansion of the State's Natural Heritage may be registered without indicating an access, but if one exists, it must be noted on the plan.

The list of coordinates 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 shall be derived from the digital file provided by the responsible professional person.

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.

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

The registrar must qualify the survey plans by verifying that the geometric figure and the area coincide with those generated from the information on the value of the coordinates provided. Such information shall be displayed in the document once it is returned to the surveyor, whether designated as defective or registered in the plan information system.

The area indicated in the general data must coincide with the area derived from the digital file provided by the surveyor, who shall be responsible for the consequences arising from any inaccuracy between the list of coordinates 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 published in the entry.

In those cases where there is a change in the geographic situation due to an update of the Administrative Territorial Division, the Directorate of the Registro Inmobiliario shall be empowered 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 this regulation, 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 epoch of the reference system: "Época 2014.59, sistema CR-SIRGAS, Proyección CRTM05." b) If orthophoto points are used for the survey and/or linkage, indicate the following: "Data taken from the official orthophoto CR-SIRGAS, época 2014.59"; it shall comply with absolute and relative accuracies (exactitudes).
c)If the survey and/or linkage is carried out 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 (exactitudes) of this survey must be less than or equal to those taken from the orthophoto.
d)The scale of the orthophoto and/or cadastral map shall likewise correspond to the respective one according to the official cartography and the location of the parcel.
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 reason for registration indicated by the documents, the following notes must be indicated, which shall be recorded under the responsibility of the surveyor.

1. In area corrections, the reason for registration must be indicated as: "To correct 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 Law of Possessory Information, Ley 139, or in Article 22 of the National Cadastre Law, Ley 6545.

2. In the event that the area increase exceeds the percentage regulated in Article 22 of the National Cadastre Law, Ley 6545, the following note must be indicated: "I certify that this survey complies with the provisions of Article 13 of the Law of Possessory Information." 3. In those cases where the area correction is a decrease, no note is included, and the entry shall be made, leaving remainder parcels (restos de finca), provided that the Urban Planning Law, Ley 4240, is not violated.

4. In area corrections by possessory information, when the surveyed area exceeds the percentages provided by the Law of Possessory Information, Ley 139, with respect to the area indicated in the registry entry, the plan shall be registered provided that the reason for registration is indicated as: "For area correction by possessory information." 5. In titling procedures, the reason for registration must be indicated as: "For possessory information," adding: "In possession of ... " indicating the name of the titleholder and their identification number.

6. In usucapion proceedings, the reason for registration must be indicated as: "For usucapion," adding "Owned by ... " indicating the titleholder's name, identification number, and the farm number, "In possession of ... " indicating the name of the usucapient and the identification number.

7. In concessions, the reason for registration must be indicated as: "For Concession," adding: "Administered by ... " indicating the municipality and the legal identification number, and "Concessioned to ... " indicating the name of the concessionaire and the identification number.

8. For use permits, the reason for registration must be indicated as: "State Property," indicating the legal identification number, adding: "Administered by ... " indicating the corresponding institution with its legal identification number, and "For use permit of ... " indicating the name of the permit holder and the identification number.

9. For right locations, the reason for registration must be indicated as: "To locate right," whether in part or in whole, as well as the proportion that must be consistent with the registry entry.

10. In survey plans located in territories under the administration of INDER in the northern and southern border zones, the reason for registration must be indicated as: "State Heritage, under administration of INDER" and "For concession ... " indicating the name of the concessionaire and the identification number.

11. When there are bodies of water that cross or border the survey polygon, the surveyor must indicate the note of affectation of the Ley Forestal, Ley 7575, and/or the Water Law, Ley 276.

12. In marinas, docks, and piers: In documents corresponding to concessions for marinas or tourist docks, which include maritime-terrestrial zone areas, adjacent areas permanently covered by the sea, areas of lakes, rivers, reservoirs (embalses), 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 of: Waters, Public Roads, Zona Marítimo Terrestre, 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: "The access for this plan is by waterway."

Chapter Five: Qualification and registration of survey plans

It consists of the examination, review, or verification of the legality of the submitted plans that the registrar must carry out, 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 Registro Inmobiliario.

The registrar shall qualify the documents in accordance with the provisions of this regulation, current legislation, the information available to the Registro Inmobiliario, and the cadastral qualification guide. When the survey plans comply with the adopted provisions, methods, procedures, and specifications, the entry shall be made; otherwise, the procedure shall be as indicated in the following articles.

The return of plans to the responsible professional person shall be done in the following manner: with clear and concise indications of all the defects they contain, with the corresponding technical or regulatory basis; whether registered or canceled.

Cancellation of the presentation entries of survey plans is appropriate in the following cases:

a)When the corporation holding title to the survey plan under analysis is in default of payment of the tax under the Corporate Tax Law, Ley 9428, upon the first submission of the document.
b)When the survey plan has not corrected the defects within one year of presentation, by application of the expiration period established in Article 468, subsection 5), of the Civil Code.
c)When the registry fees have not been paid within a term of three months, counted from the date of presentation of the document, as established in Article 3 of the Public Registry Fee Law, Ley 4564.
d)At the request of the professional person 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 re-submission means.

In the Departamento Catastral Registral, the registration of survey plans that describe portions of land that are 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 celerity, taking into account the public interest they represent.

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

In the Departamento Catastral Registral, a new plan shall be registered, even if it contradicts one or more registered plans, when it corrects survey, location, situation and geographic location errors, or errors in the registry entry data. In those cases where registration is appropriate, only the modification of the documents must be indicated in accordance with the principle of sequential tract (tracto sucesivo) and the corresponding cadastral legal reconciliation. The following cases are excepted from the foregoing:

a)When the legal-cadastral reconciliation shows that the survey plan to be qualified affects the parcel status (estado parcelario).
b)When plans for properties that originally bordered the zona marítimo terrestre and the new survey affects the public domain lands.
c)When plans were located within national areas and reserves and the new survey intends to move them outside these areas or vice versa.
d)In plans to request concessions, with a different titleholder than the one indicated in the plan to be modified, registration shall be feasible provided that the submitted document contains approval from the local government stating its consent to the registration.
e)When plans submitted for qualification describe holders of use permits or possessors with titleholders different from the overlapping plans, and when the sequential tract (tracto sucesivo) has not been proven or the overlap has not been ruled out, registration shall be permitted, provided that the submission indicates that it modifies the previously registered plan with respect to the titleholder, with the name of the same necessarily indicated on the new plan, a note that must be included by the professional person responsible for the document. The same analysis and treatment shall be followed for plans for usucapion or adverse possession (prescripción positiva) that indicate different possessors.

The registration of survey plans shall be carried out by the registrar, using the technical and technological means established by the Registro Inmobiliario, in order to guarantee formal publicity. Once the survey plan is registered, the Registro Inmobiliario shall issue a receipt or registration stamp.

Unregistered withdrawals 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 Registro Nacional.

When unregistered withdrawal procedures for survey plans are requested by the professional persons in this field, they must be carried out using the form made available for such purpose by the Colegio de Ingenieros Topógrafos, resubmitting it by cancellation, as the front side, in the plan reception computer system.

When unregistered withdrawal procedures for survey plans are requested by the owners or possessors, they must be carried out by public deed, indicating the name, identity card number, and license number of the professional person responsible for the document, as well as the volume and the presentation entry to be canceled or the plan to be withdrawn without registration, and must satisfy the payment obligations, in the same amount required for the registration of the plan, in the event that the presentation entry is still in effect.

In the Departamento Catastral Registral, only plans that comply with the legal provisions expressly admitted by the respective municipality and the Instituto Nacional de Vivienda y Urbanismo shall be registered, by means of the corresponding approval (visado), in accordance with the following general indications:

a)Approvals (visados) shall not be required when the plans to be registered correspond to whole farms, area corrections, or possessory rights.
b)The authorization or approval (visado) of a survey plan, when required, must be prior to registration in the Departamento Catastral Registral.
c)Every subdivision (fraccionamiento) requires approval from the respective municipality, regardless of the area of the survey.

Approvals (visados) in subdivisions (fraccionamientos) and urbanizations must comply with the following specific indications:

a)In the case of urbanizations, the approval (visado) of the Instituto Nacional de Vivienda y Urbanismo and the respective municipality shall be required.
b)In the case of subdivisions (fraccionamientos), the approval (visado) of 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 the prior approval (visado) of the Instituto Nacional de Vivienda y Urbanismo is required.
d)In the case of subdivisions (fraccionamientos) with exceptional access for residential use, the approval (visado) of the Instituto Nacional de Vivienda y Urbanismo 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.
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, the approval (visado) of the respective municipality shall be required if it pertains to the cantonal road network, and the approval (visado) of the Ministerio de Obras Públicas y Transportes shall be required if it pertains to the national road network.
f)In the case of subdivisions (fraccionamientos) with agricultural, ecological, or forest easements (servidumbres), municipal approval (visado) for the subdivision shall be required.
g)In the case of subdivisions (fraccionamientos) with access by passage easement (servidumbre de paso) that is not constituted in the registry entries, municipal approval (visado) shall be required, which must expressly indicate that the easement indicated as access conforms to the current regulatory plan (plan regulador).

In accordance with the competencies, hierarchies, and coordination and control relationships established in the Urban Planning Law, Ley 4240, the granting of the 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 requirements for each type of subdivision (fraccionamiento), which includes the approval (visado) of the competent institutions according to the matter. Due to the foregoing, the following requirements must be met:

a)Comply with the provisions of Articles 84 and 86 of this regulation.
b)In the case of a subdivision (fraccionamiento) of farms registered in the Registro Inmobiliario, it must indicate the cadastre plan number of the mother farm, if any, and its registry area.
c)In the case of urbanizations, a general plan, duly georeferenced and signed by the professional surveyor, approved (visado) by the Instituto Nacional de Vivienda y Urbanismo and the respective municipality, shall be required, indicating: the distribution of lots, their corresponding numbering, and all necessary information that clearly and concretely allows the stakeout (replanteo) of each of the lots to be subdivided (fraccionar). Additionally, when it refers to urban development projects, the official name of the urbanization must be indicated.
d)In the case of subdivisions (fraccionamientos) for urban development purposes, the provisions of Article 103, subsection c), of this regulation shall apply.

For any urban development process, prior to its approval in the Departamento Catastral Registral, the general plan or site design and its modifications must contain the approval of the Directorate of Urban Planning of the Instituto Nacional de Vivienda y Urbanismo and the respective municipality, regardless of the existence of a regulatory plan (plan regulador), for which purpose it must be accompanied by the digital file, 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 this regulation.
b)Indicate the full name of the owner and the official name of the urbanization.
c)Provide the digital signature of the professional person responsible for the topographic and measurement works of the urbanization, clearly indicating their full name, professional title, and license number.
d)Indicate the cadastre plan number of the urbanized farm.
e)Indicate the geographic situation of the urbanization, specifying the locality, 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 the adjoining persons or parcel identifiers.

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

g)Mention the names of water bodies, easements (servidumbres), and restrictions affecting the urbanization, if any.
h)Graphically indicate the distribution of the lots with their corresponding numbering; all their fronts, depths, areas, and proposed use, layout and width of streets, sidewalks, and green zones; as well as the size and shape of the blocks. For which purpose it must be accompanied by the digital file, so that it is incorporated into the spatial reference information systems.
i)Include all urbanization measurement and topography operations that must be referenced to a single system of permanent horizontal and vertical control points linked to the national geodetic network, linked to the National Official Coordinate System, and also comply with the precisions and accuracies (exactitudes) established in this regulation.
j)Provide the authorizations of the Instituto Nacional de Vivienda y Urbanismo and the respective municipality, as well as the seal of the Colegio Federado de Ingenieros y de Arquitectos.
k)Indicate the volume and folio number of the protocol where the survey and stakeout (replanteo) of the urbanization are recorded.

The individual plans for each of the urbanization lots must meet the following requirements:

a)Comply with the provisions of Articles 84 and 86 of this regulation.
b)Indicate the cadastre plan number of the mother farm.
c)Indicate the numbers of each of the adjacent lots or the parcel identifier.
d)Provide the site design of the urbanization with its respective official name, at a technically adequate scale, showing the lot presented in the plan. When there is no sheet of the urbanization design approved by the Registro Inmobiliario, the approvals (visados) of the respective municipality and the Instituto Nacional de Vivienda y Urbanismo must be provided.
e)When the urbanization lots are consistent with the site design, it will not be necessary for the individual plans to contain the approvals (visados) if these are found in that design.

In the Departamento Catastral Registral, no urbanization lot plan that affects the general plan of the same shall be registered; any variation in this regard will require approval from the local government and the Instituto Nacional de Vivienda y Urbanismo in the submission, regardless of whether whole farms are involved.

In the case of projects that include niches, tombs, and graves, a general design signed by the professional surveyor, approved by the Colegio Federado de Ingenieros y de Arquitectos, and approved (visado) by the Ministry of Health and the respective municipality shall be required at the Departamento Catastral Registral; for these purposes, the following requirements must be met:

a)Comply with the provisions of Article 84 of this regulation.
b)Indicate the official name of the project.
c)Indicate the cadastre plan number of the mother farm.
d)Indicate the geographic situation of the project, specifying the locality, neighborhood or hamlet, name and number of the district, canton, and province; all in accordance with the Administrative Territorial Division of Costa Rica in effect at the time of document submission.
e)Mention the full name of the adjoining persons or parcel identifiers. When there are natural or artificial boundaries such as rivers, canals, streams (quebradas), roads, highways, or streets, their names shall be recorded. If the property is located in official districts, it shall provide the parcel identifier numbers of the adjoining properties.
f)Mention the names of water bodies, easements (servidumbres), and restrictions affecting the project, and their respective affectation notes.
g)Graphically include the geometric distribution of the niches, tombs, and graves with their corresponding numbering, layout and width of streets, sidewalks, and green zones; as well as the size, shape, row numbers, and name of the blocks or gardens that make up the project. Also include the tables of dimensions, quantities, and numbering of the niches, tombs, and graves with their corresponding area table.

For which purpose it 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 system of permanent horizontal and vertical control points linked to the national geodetic network, linked to the National Official Coordinate System, and comply with the precisions and accuracies (exactitudes) established in this regulation.

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

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

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

j)Attach a sworn statement from the responsible professional person, declaring under oath that the Área Rectora de Salud granted the corresponding approval. The document must contain the full name and qualifications of the responsible professional person; the date on which the Área Rectora de Salud granted authorization for the project in question; the name and signature of the official granting it; and/or the approval official communication number with which it was granted, if any.
k)With respect to the municipal approval (visado) and/or authorization, these may be contained in the general plans submitted for analysis, or alternatively, a sworn statement may be provided under the terms indicated in the preceding subsection.
l)Mention the volume and folio number of the protocol where the survey and/or stakeout (replanteo) of the development are 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 ash burial sites (cenizarios), a general plan signed by the professional surveyor, approved by the Colegio Federado de Ingenieros y de Arquitectos, and approved (visado) by the Ministry of Health and the respective municipality shall be required at the Departamento Catastral Registral.

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 this regulation.
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, in effect at the time of submission of the document.
e)Mention the full name of the adjoining owners. When natural or artificial boundaries exist, such as rivers, canals, streams, paths, highways, or streets, the name of these shall be recorded. If the property is located in officialized districts, the parcel identifier numbers of the adjoining properties shall be provided.
f)Mention the names of the bodies of water, the easements (servidumbres), and restrictions affecting the project, and their respective encumbrance notes.
g)Include in graphic form the geometric distribution of the ash-niche plots (cenizarios) with their corresponding numbering, layout and width of streets, sidewalks, green zones, and all necessary information that permits, in a clear and concrete manner, the location and staking out of each one; as well as the size, shape, number of rows, and name of the blocks or gardens (jardines) that make up the project. Also include tables of dimensions, quantities, and numbering of the ash-niche plots (cenizarios) with their respective area tables.
h)Include a single system of permanent horizontal and vertical control points tied to the national geodetic network, linked to the National System of Official Coordinates, and comply with the precisions and accuracies established in this regulation.

Must also provide the coordinate table of 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 cases where the development is carried out in stages, the approval (visado) of the competent institutions must indicate that said stage is duly completed.
j)Attach the sworn statement (declaración jurada) of the responsible professional person, stating under oath, that the Área Rectora de Salud granted the corresponding approval (visado).

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

k)With regard to the municipal approval (visado) and/or authorization, the same may be contained within the general plans submitted for analysis, or alternatively, a sworn statement (declaración jurada) may be provided in the terms indicated in the preceding subsection.
l)Mention the volume (tomo) and folio (folio) number of the protocol where the survey and/or staking out of the development is recorded.
m)Indicate "ash-niche plot (cenizario)" as the use.
n)Include the geometric detail with the dimensions of the ash-niche plots (cenizarios).

General plans that include combinations of gardens (jardines) containing distributions of niches, tombs or graves, and ash-niche plots (cenizarios) may be accepted, provided they are presented at the scale indicated in Article 84, subsection i), point 4, of this regulation, and that they permit the corresponding legibility of the document with respect to each ash-niche plot (cenizario).

The survey plans (planos de agrimensura) that describe the gardens (jardines) and/or blocks with respect to niches, tombs, graves, and ash-niche plots (cenizarios) must meet the following requirements:

a)Comply with the provisions of Articles 84 and 86 of this regulation.
b)Indicate the cadastral plan number of the parent property.
c)Indicate the name of the gardens (jardines), blocks, and rows where the graves, tombs, or niches and/or ash-niche plots (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 according to that prescribed in Article 84, subsection i), point 4), of this regulation, showing the property presented in the document.
e)The general plan must contain the corresponding approvals (visados); it is not necessary for the individual plans to contain them.
f)Indicate the nature of the individual plan.
g)Be in accordance with the accuracies and precisions defined in this regulation.
h)When a group of ash-niche plots (cenizarios) is located within a circular garden (jardín), must additionally provide at least three data points of the circumference where these are located.

The survey plans (planos de agrimensura) shall be assessed 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 change the use and nature of niches, tombs, and graves to ash-niche plots (cenizarios). Any variation from the general plan will imply a new approval (visado) from the competent institutions on the documents to be registered.

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

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

Any plan submitted for properties created prior to October 28, 1982, may be registered even if no general plan of the cemetery exists.

All cemeteries that have generated registered properties (inmuebles registralmente) without general plans or site designs must submit the general sheets describing the niches or tombs that have been segregated in order to initiate the rectification process and publicize them in the databases. Once said sheets are incorporated into the formal publicity system, the registration of plans corresponding to properties indicating a nature of tombs and niches will be permissible, provided the individual plans coincide with the sheet provided.

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

a)Comply with the provisions of Articles 84 and 86 of this regulation.
b)Indicate that it is a subsidiary property (finca filial).
c)Mention the numbers of the parent property or properties (finca matriz) and the subsidiary property (filial), with their respective areas according to the registry; the name of the condominium, building number or name, the level or floor number where the subsidiary property (filial) is located.
d)Indicate the purpose (destino) of the subsidiary property (filial).
e)Indicate the OC code.
f)In the case of vertical condominiums, present the boundary description (derrotero) with the outline of each polygon contemplated in the plan, clearly indicating the numbers of the vertices that determine each straight line, bearings (rumbos) or azimuths (acimutes) expressed in sexagesimal or centesimal system units, and the distance in meters and fractions thereof. The vertices of the surveyed polygon must be numbered and each shall be indicated with a circle 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 tie (acote) from the subsidiary property (finca filial) to permanent points or vertices external to said subsidiary property (filial), located in common areas on the same level. At least 2 vertices of the main building must also be dimensioned to points on the boundary of the parent property (finca madre) where the parent property (finca matriz) is located.

In every survey plan (plano de agrimensura) of subsidiary properties (fincas filiales), a schematic design must be included showing the architectural layout of the floor or level where the subsidiary property (finca filial) is located. In this design, the location of the subsidiary property (finca filial) to be cadastrally surveyed must be highlighted by shading.

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

The registration of documents that consolidate (reúnan), rectify (rectifiquen), or subdivide (fraccionen) subsidiary properties (fincas filiales) shall be feasible, provided that 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 to the areas indicated in the plans of subsidiary properties (fincas filiales) to have legal effect in the registry entries, 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 cases where there are no construction plans describing the condominium, the cadastral entry may be made, taking into consideration that the responsibility for any encumbrance (afectación) on the common areas shall be attributable to the responsible professional person of 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 in the case of lands belonging to the State or its institutions; and only plans corresponding to possessions that conform to the legal provisions expressly admitted in said law shall be registered, provided they meet the following requirements:

a)Comply with the provisions of Article 84 of this regulation, with the exception of subsection i) point 6); and also with Article 86 of this regulation.
b)In the case of plans describing alleged possessory rights and which are located within a cadastral zone, the parcel identifier number assigned on the cadastral map must be indicated. Furthermore, the responsible professional person shall indicate the name of the possessor with their identification number, whether the parcel is located inside or outside a cadastral zone.
c)In accordance with the principle of successive tract (principio de tracto sucesivo) and the corresponding legal-cadastral reconciliation, it is not permissible to indicate modifications, in these submissions, to plans referring to registered properties or concessions. In those cases where registered plans in the name of other holders different from those indicated in the submission are being modified, registration shall proceed provided the modification note regarding the holder is indicated.

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

In the Departamento Catastral Registral, plans may be registered without the approval (visto bueno) of the Dirección del 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, the authorization of the Dirección del Instituto Geográfico Nacional shall be requested, as stipulated 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 and that modify other cadastral plans indicating a different concessionaire shall proceed, provided the municipality approves that entry in the presentation book.

When the concession is registered, the corresponding citations shall be indicated, whether it is part of a property or a complete property. 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 in the document, and the Ley de Planificación Urbana, Ley 4240, and the Reglamento de Fraccionamiento y Urbanizaciones shall not apply.

Regarding registered properties that incorporate lands of the maritime-terrestrial zone, the registration of survey plans (planos de agrimensura) shall proceed, provided there are no warning annotations (marginales de advertencia) or immobilizations in the registry entries that question the validity and effectiveness of the entries with respect to those public domain areas (áreas demaniales), verifying that the document conforms to the description in the cadastral plan used in the origination 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 be applicable to registered properties that were legitimately created prior to the enactment of said Regulation, and the document presented is congruent with the title plan.