La Manzanilla Mexico Ejido Notes

Fedicomiso notes

Fideicomiso: fideicomiso (pronounced Fee-deh-com-ee-so),

Even in non-restricted areas, the fideicomiso may be used by foreigner landowners and Mexicans alike for the same reasons that trusts are created in this country.

1972- The government of Mexico initiated a legal process of entitlement to protect foreign purchasers known as the fideicomiso.

1993 Mexico amends the constitution to allow foreigners to purchase real estate within the restricted zone by means of a fideicomiso (bank trust).

SUMMARY? This chapter presents a discussion on real estate trusts over immovable assets in Mexico’s "Restricted Zone," called Fideicomisos.

Fideicomiso corresponds to the U.S. legal notion of a trust and was first introduced in Mexico in its Credit Institutions Act of 1924.

However, it was not until 1932, in the General Act on Negotiable Instruments and Credit Operations (Ley General de Títulos y Operaciones de Crédito or LGTOC), that it was recognized as a valid, autonomous legal transaction.

Article 27 of the Constitution of Mexico enunciates in its first paragraph an outright prohibition directed against foreigners acquiring ownership of lands, waters and their accessions, or to obtain concessions for the exploitation of mines and waters.

Fideicomiso provides foreign investors with a legal and practical avenue which allows them to acquire the beneficiary use only of real estate located within the Restricted Zone.

This is done through a fiducaria (trust company); an authorized fiduciary institution or Mexican bank. The Mexican bank holds title to the property "in trust" for the benefit of the foreign investor and is required to carry out specific duties with regard to the property in question.

The LGTOC prohibits three types of Fideicomisos:

1) Secret

2) When the benefit is bestowed upon several successive individuals who must be substituted by the death of the preceding individual.

3) Those in excess of 30 years (but only in the case of Mexican mercantile societies, Article 359).

Additionally, Mexico’s current Foreign Investment Act of 1993 (Ley de Inversión Extranjera de 1993 or FIA) provides that a permit from the Secretariat of Foreign Affairs (SRE) is required for many types of fideicomisos.

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Today, as in 1972, any type of residential property within the prohibited zone can only be acquired by foreigners (non-Mexicans) with title being held in a fifty year renewable bank trust whereby the purchasers have a recorded beneficiary interest to the property.

In essence, foreign buyers have the right to use, develop, mortgage and enjoy the property like in the United States, but legal ownership is vested in a federally chartered Mexican bank that holds title to the real estate as trustee for the beneficiary.

A Fideicomiso (trust) is required to own property near the beach. Foreigners cannot hold property near the Mexican coast in their name.

To handle this problem, the major banks provide a trust service for which the buyer pays an initial fee of about US $2,000 to $4,000 and annual fees of $150 to $500, depending on the price of the property and upon the bank. These are very rough estimates; the fees change all the time. The bank then holds the deed in trust for a specified time. This can be renewed or terminated for a fee.

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NOTE: At the January meeting in Manzanillo the following figures were quoted by Trust expert Magarite Martinez Gonzoles.

The cost of the process are (Pesos)

1) Acceptance fee $ 3500

2) Renewal fee (each year) $3500

3) Authorization $8500 to the foreign ministry (agreement?)

4) Filing fee $1840

Her phone number is 01-362-616064 (013?)

Email is Ghernandea@mjail.serfin.com.mx

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The banks examine the legal paperwork very carefully, hence the usual Acta de Posesión that most of the natives have (the unregistered document issued by a local elected commission) is not acceptable to the bank.

Nor is the somewhat more formal Escritura Privada where the property has at least been registered with a county judge.

Only the Escritura Publica, a grand document researched and written by a Notaria Publica, is acceptable.

Only with the Escritura Publica are you sure that you have a free and clear title.

Since there are many stories of land being sold multiple times, in my opinion the Escritura Publica, held by the bank in a Fideicomiso, is well worth the money.


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