Title insurance is an American creation which has made its way into the Costa Rican real estate market because of the custom and habit of the American consumer using it in the United States. Costa Rica has a national property recording system which assigns each property a title number and then records against that title number any affectations such as liens, mortgages, encumbrances, easements against title.
Any individual can view the title report for a property via the online database of the National Registry. Since Costa Rica follows the doctrine of first in time first in right which means that documents that were not recorded against title at the time you purchase a property cannot be charged upon an innocent buyer who purchased in good faith.
When purchasing title insurance in Costa Rica just be sure to read the exceptions to coverage for the particular property that you are purchasing to ensure that there will be coverage for those events that you are purchasing coverage for.
