• Nine buildings zoned for commercial use in the beach community of Puerto Viejo could soon be demolished by order of the government.
• Sala Cuarta (Constitutional Hall) orders Fuerza Publica to prevent evictions of squatters in Los Chiles in 2011, only to have a lower court continue the eviction process months later.
• A multifaceted expat businessman fighting a complex land grab case spends 40 years in court trying to remove rich squatters.

The three situations above are unrelated, but they serve as cautionary tales to everyone who wishes to acquire land in Costa Rica. Our courtrooms are filled with land disputes, many of them with high degrees of complexity and intricacy that will challenge even the most seasoned attorneys.

Demolitions in Puerto Viejo

The eye-grabbing headline in the daily newspaper Diario Extra reads: “Tourism and Commerce Face Demolition Danger!” Such appears to be the case in Cahuita, Cocles and Puerto Viejo, all three located in the Talamanca canton near the southern tip of the Limon province and close to our southern border with Panama.

According to Diario Extra, nine buildings lack the required commercial permits and cannot operate in the Maritime-Terrestrial Zone per Article 17 of Law number 6043. That law is titled “Ley sobre la Zona Maritimo Terrestre” (Maritime Zoning Law – PDF in Spanish), and the article in question states that any activity or enterprise that threatens the ecosystem of the maritime-terrestrial zone cannot be granted a permit for construction or development. The National Comptroller is looking into the matter and could announce even more demolitions.

One of the buildings slated for demolition later this year is partly owned by Khalil Chapman, who contacted The Costa Rica Star in this matter. Chapman explained:

“I am a co-owner of The Lazy Mon Beach Bar. Me and my partners consist of friends and family members from the U.S. and Canada who decided to chase our dreams and open up a bar/restaurant in a place that we had grown to love over the past 7-8 years.”

“We found out less than a week ago that our location was placed on a demolition list, due to the Costa Rica Maritime Laws. There are 9 businesses and residences scheduled for the first demolition and another list of 76 properties to be destroyed in the near future! Due to the way that Puerto Viejo was built, these demolitions would destroy most of the town and also destroy a whole society of people that have built their lives here for generations!”

Business owners and the community in the areas to be affected by the demolitions have come together to protest the Comptroller’s investigation and actions. The Mayor of the Talamanca canton is against the extreme actions of the government, mainly because the last round of demolitions left behind a pile of debris that was never picked up, and the municipality does not have the budget to clean up the mess left by the government.

Those affected and against the demolitions have set up a Facebook page to raise awareness and coordinate their fight.

Forced Evictions in Los Chiles

The community of Medio Queso in the Los Chiles canton in the Alajuela province has been transformed into a legal and civil battleground, at some time involving 300 squatters, many of them families with young children. These would-be homesteaders, who have been evicted four times in the last 12 months, are caught in the middle of a land dispute between the absent Dutch landowners and a local farmer who is trying to lay a claim to the land via agrarian justice.

According to an article written by Hulda Miranda and Carlos Hernandez of La Nacion, the land in question is called Naranjales Holandeses (Dutch Orange Groves), and belongs to owners from the Netherlands who years ago stopped taking care of it. Squatters quickly moved in under certain legal protections afforded to them when it comes to abandoned land. This is because of property rights given to those who make good use of land that is otherwise uncultivated or unprotected.

The case of the Dutch Orange Groves has unfolded in agrarian court for the last two years and continues. The parties are the Dutch owners and a Tico farmer who at one point leased the land. In 2010 he filed suit against the owners after his option-to-purchase was declined and he was told to vacate the property. The basis for his agrarian complaint is that he acquired right to possession based on unpaid improvements made to the land; an agricultural Mechanic’s Lien, so to speak.

The squatters moved in about a year ago, after the farmer obeyed the owner’s instructions to vacate and once again the land was left abandoned. The farmer’s attorney has stated that the squatters are not destitute farmers, but rather part of an organized group of land-grabbers who claim rights to possession and offer lease contracts to tenants while the cases slowly move forward in the courts. In the meantime, the squatter families are camping out on the side of the road.

The 40-year old Land Grab Case in Playa Herradura

Sheldon Haseltine is an expat businessman of British and American ancestry who is party to a murky case currently being fought in agrarian court in Puntarenas. The case involves squatters, alleged document forgeries, attorneys with questionable backgrounds, and conflicting stories.

According to a 2008 article in Forbes magazine,

“In the 1970s Herradura was just farmland near a pristine beach. Then expats, mainly from California, bought 60 or so 12-acre lots for around $30,000 apiece. The land was supposed to be cultivated as a giant mango and avocado cooperative, but that didn’t happen. Many original buyers stopped visiting; some never did. In 1989 squatters appeared, planted their own crops and started raising families.”

Diario Extra offers additional background, describing the project as a real-life Farmville long before Facebook, whereupon Tico farmers would cultivate the land and send photos of the land and crops to foreign owners via airmail. An agrarian complaint fell flat at the time since a Jaco Beach businessman appeared with evidence of having farmed the land for ten years.

The case got even more complicated later when the original squatters sold land rights to new squatters with deep pockets, who now claim title to the former farming project. Forbes magazine described how the surrounding community changed:

“Over the last decade sprawling developments like Los Sueños Resort & Marina, where even the stop signs are in English, have mushroomed. A 5,000-square-foot house recently sold for $1.3 million. Everything but the cemetery seems to be for sale. Hillsides have been razed for residential and commercial projects; strip malls bulge with U.S. franchises like Pizza Hut.”

Would-be real estate investors in Costa Rica, foreigners and nationals alike, have two major lessons to learn from the three situations above:

1. It pays to retain adequate counsel to not only search the title chain and history of the land, but to also check how our different laws may affect possession, use and enjoyment of the land. Any number of issues, from zoning to environmental protection could encroach upon title if they are not carefully reviewed beforehand.
2. Land must never be left unattended or abandoned for long periods of time, and thus it may not pay to be an absentee landlord in Costa Rica.