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Folio / What a report found
Real reports · names, numbers and places removed

What a Folio report actually found

A listing tells you what the seller wants you to know. The public record tells you the rest. Here are some examples from real reports, and what each one put in front of the buyer before any deposit.

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Registro Nacional records
Read by a person
Delivered by email
Built in Costa Rica
Why we show this

Sometimes the most useful thing a report can tell you is not to wire the money yet. Sometimes it tells you the title is clean and you can move on to the next question. Either way, you find out before any money goes to the seller.

Examples from real reports

From the record, with the details blacked out

The dark panels show the real registry wording in Spanish, exactly as it appeared. Anything that could identify a lot or a person is hidden.

Registro Nacional, as it read
  1. ANOTACIONES SOBRE LA FINCA: SI HAY
  2. COMPRAVENTA DE LOTE
  3. CITAS: ████-██████-███
  4. PRESENTADA A LAS █████ DEL DIA ██/██/████
  5. OTORGADA A LAS █████ DEL DIA ██/██/████
Sale in the queue

Someone had already signed a sale

What the record showed

A rural farm with no mortgages. The record showed a signed sale deed over the property, filed at the registry and still waiting to be registered. It did not say what was sold or to whom.

The question it left

Was that the whole farm or a lot carved out of it? Until that is answered, what can this seller actually sell you?

Registro Nacional, as it read
  1. ANOTACIONES SOBRE LA FINCA: SI HAY
  2. INMOVILIZACION POR INCONSISTENCIA
  3. VER EXP. ████-███-CATASTRO
  4. DEMANDA ORDINARIA
  5. NUMERO DE EXPEDIENTE ██-██████-████-CI
  6. FINALIZA EL: ██ DE █████ DE ████
Frozen title

The survey was perfect. The title was frozen.

What the record showed

Agricultural land with no mortgages and a survey that matched the registry exactly. The record also showed a registry freeze tied to a cadastral case more than ten years old, and a civil lawsuit annotated on the title for years to come.

The question it left

Can a sale be registered while that freeze stands, and what would it take to lift it?

Registro Nacional, as it read
  1. FINCA FILIAL PRIMARIA INDIVIDUALIZADA ██ APTA PARA CONSTRUIR QUE SE DESTINARA A USO RESIDENCIAL
  2. LA CUAL PODRA TENER UNA ALTURA MAXIMA DE 1 PISO
  3. SERVIDUMBRE SIRVIENTE
  4. SERVIDUMBRE TRASLADADA
  5. SERVIDUMBRE DE PASO
  6. CITAS: ███-█████-██-████-███
Written into the title

One storey, and more than 100 easement entries

What the record showed

A condominium lot, ready to build on. Its title itself sets the limit: residential use, one storey at most. The same record carries more than 100 easement entries.

The question it left

Does the house you have in mind fit on one floor, and which of those easements actually touch your lot?

Registro Nacional, as it read
  1. PROVINCIA: ██████████ FINCA: ██████
  2. SITUADA EN EL DISTRITO █████████
  3. PROVINCIA: ██████████ FINCA: ██████ F
  4. SITUADA EN EL DISTRITO █████████
  5. ANOTACIONES SOBRE LA FINCA: NO HAY
Clean

The right lot, and nothing against it

What the record showed

The finca number on this lot exists twice in the registry: an ordinary lot in one canton and a condominium lot in another. We checked against the map point and reported on the right one. No mortgages, embargos, lawsuits or annotations, at lot level or condominium level.

The question it left

A clean title is an answer too. The next question is what the municipality lets you build there.

Farmland and forest on the Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica, seen from a hillside

None of this shows from the road

A freeze, a queued deed or a court file looks the same as nothing at all when you are standing on the land.

In every report

What gets checked

Who is on the title

The registered owner, and how long they have held it.

What is against it

Mortgages, embargos, lawsuits and annotations on the record.

Where it sits

The maritime zone check and the boundaries around the lot.

Whether the paper agrees

The plano and the registry area, compared.

What a report will not do. We are not a law firm and we do not give legal advice. A report says what the public record shows and which questions stay open, so you can take them to your lawyer. These are examples, not a forecast of what your lot will show.

Find out before the deposit

Search the map or type the finca number. If you have a lot in mind, this is the moment.

Check the lot you are looking at$29 · read by a person · by email within 24 hours
Questions

Frequently asked

Are these real cases?

Yes. Each one comes from a report we delivered. We removed names, finca numbers, amounts and places, and blacked out the registry lines that could identify a lot.

Will my report find something like this?

Every lot is different, and some reports come back clean. That is useful too: it tells you what you no longer need to worry about and what to ask next.

What happened to these buyers?

We do not say. What they decided is their business. This page only shows what the public record showed.

Is this legal advice?

No. Folio reads public records and explains them in plain language. Decisions on a purchase belong with you and your lawyer.

Photos: Z3lvs (CC0); Panegyrics of Granovetter (CC BY-SA 2.0), cropped, colour adjusted.
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