Title Insurance in Panama |
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| Written by Matt |
| Wednesday, 04 April 2007 10:08 |
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Because Panama is so new to the real estate and investment markets there has, up until recently, been a lack altogether of title insurance agencies. With more and more foreigners coming in though, expecting the same services they use at home, there has been an opening for equity providers (since the banks here haven't yet ventured into those waters). So, if the title insurance industry in Panama hasn't developed fully yet, does that mean you should neglect it as well?
What is title insurance? Title insurance is different from your everyday insurance. All common insurance (from car insurance to life insurance) is known, in the industry, as casualty insurance, meaning title insurance is essentially a business of its own. In the US or more developed countries, there doesn't exist a public registry system for the entire country. There do exist however different jurisdictions. So, in such developed countries, title plans have been created in all the public registries, so that it becomes easy to search titles nation-wide. Dually, this nation-wide search can insure the history and the legitimacy of a title. Meaning, that structurally, your money will be protected. In Panama, such a system does not yet exist. Unlike the US, in Panama you don't need to create title claims because in a way the Public Registry does that work for you. In Panama, there's a gamut of other resources through which you must look, such as the water company, judicial system, Catastro, amongst others. You must search all these outlets to determine the status of a title which, for the fanny pack-wearing newbie in you, can be a daunting task. The most important document when it comes to title insurance is a public registry document with full history of the finca (or piece of land) as well as the property's full legal description. This simple document, when presented to a title insurance company, will allow a commitment to be produced. A commitment is just what it sounds like: it's when a title insurance company is, in effect, committing themselves to, under certain terms, issuing a policy. What usually follows are two documents called “SCHEDULE A†which is basically describing the property that is to be insured and “SCHEDULE B†which is made up of exceptions or contingencies. (An example of an exception might depend on a soon-to-be done survey.) In this process you may hear your attorney or title insurance agency use the phrase “going to policy†which is just their way of saying the point at which you pay your premium and all the requirements have been fulfilled. Before we go into the real details and guts of this subject, keep in mind that there do exist certain types of properties on which you cannot get title insurance. Those would be properties that... *****THE REMAINDER OF THIS REPORT, AS WELL AS SEVERAL OTHERS, WILL BE AVAILABLE IN THE PANAMA REAL ESTATE REPORT, THE MOST RELIABLE INVESTMENT TOOL IN PANAMA, COMING OUT LATER THIS YEAR*****
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| Last Updated on Monday, 11 August 2008 20:55 |
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