I am with Bob, insist on a survey and know where the pins are. In particular don't trust old fence lines.
We recently bought a piece of land here in Ecuador, it was supposedly surveyed when we bought, but when we went to register the deed we lost more than 1,000 square meters. A math error in the previous deed they said. In addition we found out the old fence was 10 meters over on our land along the whole south boundary effectively giving the neighbor an additional 288 meters *10 meters. 2880 +1000 = 3880 square meters.
That is more than a 1/3 of a hectare, just shy of an acre. (A hectare is 10,000 square meters, approximately 2.47 acres for us Americans who are generally metrically impaired.) When you buy here, you buy by the square meter, so we had the privilege of paying for those 3880 square meters.
When we talked to the neighbor, he starts into an angry rant about how the surveyors don't know anything, and they don't know what they are doing, and my land used to belong to his family, and some so and so from 2 generations ago had stolen this land from his ... and.... and... Umm, but I bought it from a member of his family. Not sure how that worked.
Truth be told, I have 2 members of my family that are surveyors, and they tell me that several times a year they run into errors that were made sometime in the past that have to be mediated and corrected before the deed can be registered. Often/Usually/Sometimes that means going to court.
I don't really like court, or lawyers, particularly in foreign countries. I have enough trouble understanding legalese in my native tongue.
You get the idea. Resolution is still up in the air. We will have to file paperwork with the county to get them to send a county surveyor, (at our expense), to come and mediate the property line. Yuck. That also does not help with local animosity, and bad juju about "those foreigners" who are moving in.
I will also gently suggest that you meet your neighbors before you buy, if you plan to live on the property, and even if they don't live on the property, which this particular neighbor does not. It can be a hassle to find them I know.
On another note, we have been waiting more than six months for a decision from the county government, and finally got approval last Friday afternoon to proceed with our plans. Next we have to get approval from the local indigenous community government for our plans, and then we can truly, actually proceed.
The local power company is coming today to "inspect", and give us a "parts list" of what we need to provide to them, so they can then come and put up a temporary power pole. I think they said it can stay in position for only 3 months, but in the confusion of languages, I may be a little off. Three months seems awfully quick, particularly considering how rapidly most things proceed; perhaps it was 30.
Last week we made an application to the local community for drinking water. I wish I could say it was a formality, since clean drinking water is a "legal right" in the national constitution here, but we still have to make application, wait until the next community water board meeting, and then come and present our case of "why we need water". Some have been turned down, or their flow restricted in the past, but not often.
If that should happen, there is an appeals process, by applying to the national government. Needless to say, no one likes getting the government into their business, but the community can use the process of application to put you off until you can get the attention of the government, and right now the government has their hands full dealing with the earthquake. I am not really expecting a problem, but I am an optimist.
I think we are still at least a month out on that meeting, much less the actual permission process, much less burying pipe, so I expect the we will be carrying water up the mountain to mix concrete. This week we are starting repairs on an old, small watchman's casita at the top of the property. It is about 39 square meters, roughly 390 square feet, and the projection is it will take about 3 months to repair.
I keep reminding myself that this process anywhere takes patience, and here it takes even more patience, since we have the difficulty of language thrown in.
Maybe I am complaining a little, but I would be complaining if I was "back home" as well. I have yet to meet anyone who told me that they liked beaurocracy, just those who understand the need.
Best of luck on your adventure. Your mileage may vary.
Rod
rod
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