If you have buyer´s agent, make sure he/she is an attorney, or a certified Mexican Realtor. However, nowadays more than ever, owners are selling their properties by themselves and buyers are brave enough to risk their investment buying with no appropriate legal representation.
If you are one of those “brave hearts” mentioned above, this post is for you. I have written this list to help you a little bit, but nothing will substitute legal advice in your particular case.
Anyway, make sure seller provides the following documents:
1.- Certificate of free liens (CLG: certificado de libertad de gravamen)
2. – Predial (yearly taxes) payment receipts for the last 5 years
3. – Water payment receipts for the last 5 years (or a certificate of “no debt”)
4. – Payment receipts for services such as phone line, cable TV, Skype, Dish or similar.
5. – Cancellation letter for any service installed in the house that you don´t wish to continue.
6. – Liquidation letter for each worker of the house, like gardener, house cleaning person, etc.
7. – Certificate of número oficial (if the house number does not match the escritura).
8. – Certificate of IMSS payment (if the house was built within the last 5 years).
9. – Certificate of “terminacion de obra” (if the house was built within the last 3 years).
10. – Builder´s agreement or any other document stating building warranties, no payments owed and so on.
Some of these might not apply to your purchase but better be safe than sorry. Don´t you think?
Finally, my advice on this matter is: get appropriate legal representation please.
