BajaNomad

Mexican Attorneys/Fidiecomiso Review

Dianamo - 2-16-2006 at 11:36 AM

Does anyone have experience with a Mexican attorney that they will recommend for Fidiecomiso review?


Has anyone worked with any of these attorneys?:

David W. Connell

PENNER & ASSOCIATES out of Phoenix, Arizona

Don D. Nelson, Attorney and CPA out of Dana Point, CA


Your U2U's or emails will be appreciated.
Thank you,
DianaMo
Diana Morgan
The1DianaMorgan@yahoo.com

oladulce - 2-16-2006 at 12:04 PM

Don Nelson is not a Mexican attorney. He is a tax attorney that is familiar with Mexican laws and is more familiar than most with US tax issues regarding Mexican real estate. He did our taxes last year because of a couple of foreign property sales and purchases we made. His service was not inexpensive.

I'll send an email also.



[Edited on 2-18-2006 by oladulce]

bajajudy - 2-16-2006 at 12:11 PM

Why would you want to pay double attorney fees? Find a good attorney in Mexico to prepare your papers, that you can trust to do it right.
I would not trust a US lawyer to know what goes on here...it is DIFFERENT.

[Edited on 2-16-2006 by bajajudy]

Bruce R Leech - 2-16-2006 at 12:38 PM

ditto

comitan - 2-16-2006 at 12:47 PM

The most important person in a Mexican real estate transaction IMHO is the Notario who is also a lawyer and basically acts as a title company.

oladulce - 2-16-2006 at 02:24 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by bajajudy
Why would you want to pay double attorney fees? Find a good attorney in Mexico to prepare your papers, that you can trust to do it right.
I would not trust a US lawyer to know what goes on here...it is DIFFERENT.



I can see your point BajaJudy, but I think Dianamo just wanted someone to review an already- prepared fideicomiso before it's finalized. It sounds like she already has the purchase prep-work done and has a Notario.

Both David Connell (located in Puerto Vallarta?) and Penner & Assoc. are licensed Mexican attorneys.

Sometimes it's worth an extra fee for the piece of mind of having an outside party review the entire transaction- (and translate the legal-Spanish in to English for you).

You don't need this extra step for all Mexican real estate transactions , but it's reassuring especially when you're going through the many months that most Mexican purchases take and you don't live down there. We have had some errors brought to our attention on both the transaction and the fideicomiso for a more complex purchase we made, although we were comfortable with the La Paz attorney and Notario we used. It was worth every penney of the relatively small fee we paid Penner and Associados for his review of the entire transaction and fideicomiso.

Why would the bank negotiate on their terms?

Dianamo - 2-17-2006 at 09:43 AM

I did not realize that I could have an attorney prepare the Fidiecomiso. I thought that I could only use the Fidi prepared by the bank (Banorte, in my case).:?::?::?:

Thanks to everyone who is helping me understand all this!!!!

DianaMo

pacside - 2-17-2006 at 02:15 PM

the bank with the assistance of the notario i believe is the one to prepare the fide...the attorney can review it though to ensure everything is hunky dory for you.

bajajudy - 2-17-2006 at 02:35 PM

Well for instance.....Our yearly charge for the bank to handle our trust cannot be increased. Our Notario negotiated that feature with the bank.
Most banks want to have a clause that allows a percentage increase, neither of my fideos do.
I will be paying for 50 years the same yearly fee. And I actually caught the bank trying to sneak that clause in my second one. Even with my basic Spanish I could read the % increase that they wanted and balked at that. Of course, since it had to go back to the attorneys, it was 6 more months before I had my fideo. Well worth the wait, I might add.
For ease of mind, many of my friends have hired translators to go to the signing of the book(the register of all deeds in Mexico) with them. BUT trusting your Mexican agent whatever he is called is very important

oladulce - 2-18-2006 at 02:31 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Dianamo
I did not realize that I could have an attorney prepare the Fidiecomiso. I thought that I could only use the Fidi prepared by the bank (Banorte, in my case ) Thanks to everyone who is helping me understand all this!!!!

DianaMo


The Bank that you choose for your fideicomiso will send a "Letter of Instruction" to the Notario which spells out the terms that you and the Bank have agreed upon (such as the annual maintainence fees you'll pay, any penalities, etc) and the Notario creates the actual fideicomiso contract .

The Notario is the official recorder of a land transfer in Mexico and is also responsible for the calculation and collection of taxes resulting from the transaction. He will confirm that all necessary documents have been collected for the title transfer.

There may be other attorneys involved in the sale, (to write a sales contract between buyer and seller,or to handle the dealings with the Bank for you, for example) but a Notario is the one who writes the fideicomiso contract.

Actually it's you, the "buyer", who will be shopping around and attempting (ha ha) to negotiate a good deal with a bank for the annual fee and terms of your fideicomiso as in BajaJudy's example. This is sort of a joke because the banks have little motivation to negotiate their set fees with us since they know we (foreigners) are required to have a Fidei. But the annual fees and terms will vary with each Bank, so it sure pays to shop around.

Pompano - 2-18-2006 at 07:28 AM

Years ago Banco Nacional was the best for trust rates. Today, Banorte is good, and most importantly..efficient.

For a 'good time', ...you know what I mean...date Bancomer.:biggrin:

oladulce - 2-18-2006 at 01:30 PM

Bancomer is two-timing you Pompano because we're getting screwed by them too.

We sold our old place to a friend with Mexican citizenship, and since the Bank will be losing the Fideicomiso, they are not very motivated to release the title so we can finalize the sale. The bank has been sitting on the paperwork for 6 months now.

Oh wait, I think they're claiming they lost the documents again. No, that was last month. Last week they didn't answer the phone at all when the attorney we enlisted and the Notario tried to call them. We began the sale of the property 1? yrs. ago and luckily the buyer is a friend, but even she is starting to get impatient.

I certainly agree- rates are important, but the Bank's efficiency and integrity become paramount when you need their cooperation because we (foreigners in the restricted zone) are pretty much at their mercy in this Fidei scenario.

The problems is that the quality of a Mexican Bank doesn't seem to remain consistent and we've started off with a couple of Banks that seemed OK, only to have them go downhill over the years of having a Fidei with them.