Real Estate & Legal Services

Whether you are buying a property, starting a new development, applying for a visa, or dealing with the legal issues of an existing business... whatever the problem or endeavor you are facing, our team at Yucatan Lawyers has the experience and knowledge in Mexico to understand the issues. We know how to analyze the situation and then present you with your options. We are also careful about following through with the necessary services to get the business done.

Professional Expertise and Personal Attention

We understand how difficult it can be sometimes to understand and excel in business dealings in a country where the laws and customs are different. We pride ourselves on providing our clients with the sophisticated and professional expertise they are accustomed to receiving in their own countries, while maintaining a level of personal attention, cost efficiency and follow through that is often ignored by larger law firms.
We believe that with our special attributes, we can offer clients the type of legal security and comfort that they want and need to be successful in their activities in Mexico.

When it comes to investing in Real Estate, we understand that legal protection is very important, that is why we also offer Title Insurance and Escrow Services. Whatever your motivation for purchasing property in the States of Yucatan, Campeche and Quintana Roo, we are here to assist you.

Areas of Practice

• Real Estate Law
• Immigration Law
• Corporate Law
• Notary Public Services
• Contracts and negotiations
• Federal Zone Concessions
• Environmental law
• Intellectual Property
• Litigation and Mediation
• Extended Services

Real Estate Law
We can provide legal advice in the following areas:

• Contracts
• Due Diligence
• Title Search
• Title Insurance
• Closing
• Fideicomiso set up

Contracts

• Negotiation and Preparation of Sales Contracts
• Negotiation and Preparation of Purchase Contracts
• Negotiation and Preparation of Leasing Documents

Due Diligence: We are acutely aware of our responsibility to assist our clients in the due diligence which is necessary on their part in connection with the acquisition or purchase of real property.

Title Search:Title search involves an extensive search of the public records to determine that there are no adverse claims to our client's interests. If we find there adverse claims or other defects in title, we will seek to eliminate them prior to closing.

Title Insurance: We can also obtain title insurance for our residential and commercial clients. The title insurance policy protects the purchaser of real estate and the holder of mortgage against loss from defective titles, liens, and encumbrances. Since title insurance, like other forms of insurance, is a risk assumption, the title insurer will work to eliminate risk and prevent losses caused by defects in title arising from events that may have happened in the past.

Closing: We will guide the client through their due diligence and contractual responsibilities concerning the purchase and/or sale of real property. We will also prepare and/or review all the closing documents and other matters necessary to secure a successful closing.

Trusts (fideicomisos)
Trusts in Mexico are principally used by foreigners to acquire rights to property in Mexico’s restricted zone (50 kilometers from beach and 100 kilometers from borders) for residential use and lending agreements.

Immigration Law (FM2 – FM3 Visas)If you are a foreigner and going to live and/or work in Mexico, you will need to have the necessary immigration documentation. Mexico offers several types of working and non-working visas. Before you choose a visa you should know what the pros and cons are of each type. We can assist you with selecting and acquiring the type of visa that best fits your needs.

Corporate Law
We offer of full range of corporate law services including setting up corporations, partnerships, non-profit and charitable organizations, registration of minutes and minutes book maintenance, annual and extraordinary meetings, board meetings and minutes, granting of powers of attorney, government filings and permits, as well as any other administrative assistance needed to maintain a Mexican corporation in good standing.

Notary Services
We have established specific alliances with all the major Notaries in the States of Yucatan, Campeche and Quintana Roo in order to provide full legal services that require any services of a Notary Public.

Federal Zone Concessions
If you have land that borders on a federal zone (beaches, rivers, lakes, creeks, highways or lagoon) you need to be aware of your rights and obligations to use that land. You should also be aware of the rights of third parties to use and enjoy that land even if you own the land bordering it.
Mexico’s federal government will grant concession rights to exclusively use and enjoy certain types of federal zone properties. Acquiring the concession to use the federal land that borders your property is an easy way to increase the value of your land and reduce the risk of someone else using this land for purposes that will reduce your property value.

Contracts and Negotiations
An improperly executed agreement is the biggest cause of civil litigation and/or loss of investment in Mexico. The best advice we give our clients it to make sure their agreement takes into consideration the legal aspects of the business at hand. Too many times foreigners will sign agreements in Spanish without fully understanding the legal implications of what they are signing. When this happens, the outcome of the agreements is often not favorable for the investor.
We recommend that any time you sign an agreement in a foreign country you understand the intent of the agreement as well as the legal ramifications of the entire agreement.

Environmental Law
In today’s world, environmental law affects just about every type of investment. Making sure your investment complies with these laws is important in order to avoid fines, delays and even criminal prosecution. We can assist you in determining how the environmental laws of Mexico will affect your business and assist you in acquiring the necessary permits and entitlements to carry out your operations.
If the environmental authority takes action against you, we can also defend you and your investment from improper application of the law.

Intellectual Property
Counsel on intellectual property includes drafting, filing and follow-up of applications for the granting of patents, registration of trademarks, utility models, industrial designs, advertisements and publications of corporate names, as well as copyright of original works of authorship before the National Copyright Institute of the Department of Public Education.

Litigation and MediationOur team of lawyers can provide litigation and mediation services in all major practices. Please contact us for more detailed information.

Extended Services

• Land Surveys
• Structural Inspections
• Environmental Inspections
• Architecture
• Engineering
• Accounting 
• Property Management: Payment of Real Estate Property Tax and Trustee´s annuities.
  
  • Option 1: Basic Property Oversight and Bill Payment. This also includes 2 visits per month to perform a walk-through inspection, collect and pay all bills and report any problems.
  • Option 2: Caretaking/Management Service. This also includes home oversight, opening/airing out home, gardening and cleaning service, bill payments, other services as needed. (Prices dependent on the property).
  • Option 3: Rental Service/Property Management. This also includes promotion and management of your rental property

For more information please Contact us

What are Yucatan people like?

What are Meridians like? Please understand that what we share with you is just our interpretation coming from the American culture. In no way do we judge or make fun of the people here, they just do some things differently than we are used to. They can be very kind and gracious most of the time and at other times can appear to be rude, but only by American standards.

Our first few days in Merida have been spent running around shopping to set up our home. Even here Wal-mart does seem to have the best prices on many items along with some sort of warranty or decent return policy. While at the check-out counter at the nearest WM Supercenter, Jay, myself and the boys were waiting as the cashier totaled our purchase & out of the blue comes a woman with her children cutting right in front of us to address an issue with our cashier. She never looked at us or acknowledged us, & as we walked away with our cart, she continued her conversation very focused on the issue she was trying to resolve. On another occasion, while standing in line at Costco to get the boys some pizza, Jay experienced a woman cutting in front of him three different times within a span of 3 minutes for three different issues. She only acknowledged him on her third cut-in with a “perdon” when she physically had to move him to get to the counter.

 What we have been told though is this culture is very social and likes close physical contact, so if you are used to having your space, well…..don’t always expect that to be the case, especially with the lower social class in Meridian society! With the upper more educated class you will not experience this. Some people down here do not respect personal space as in the states & in fact if you leave any space between you and the counter, some people assume you are not really trying to wait in a line and have no problem moving in front of you.

Now for the gracious & kind side of the people here. We have been so blessed to have new friends and helpers here in Merida. Francisco, Sebastian, Arleta, Javier, Claudette, Larry & Tammy….We have been given people to lean on for small things. Jay tried to pay our landlord’s son-in law to help us set up utilities and he refused payment. On another day Jay ran into a local Baptist pastor while they were both looking at weedeaters at Home Depot. Larry and his wife Tammy and their 4 sons are originally from Decatur, Alabama. They have been in Merida for 10 years and pastor a Baptist church here of about 175 people. Fransisco, pictured to Jay's left in the photo, is our attorney and now friend. Arleta is his business partner and our realtor.

The list goes on. Javier was the one that built the home we rent. He came over at 8:30 PM one night at the drop of a hat to fix our water tank when the depth sensor stopped working and we ran out of water. He had us up and going again in 15 minutes so we could all take showers before going to bed. (In this climate you need to take showers before you go to bed all 365 days of the year.) When I told he and Sebastian we could just fix the water tank the next day they absolutely refused to let it wait and insisted they come over and fix the problem right away. Juakin (pronounced “wa-keen”) our next door neighbor is extremely laid back and easy to talk to although he travels on business most of the week and we almost never see him. All of these people are extremely educated, bilingual and very friendly. Our realtor and friend Arlette was previously a dentist and learned how to speak English by watching American television shows. WOW! That is a smart girl.

One thing that is very unique about the Meridian culture is that, at least among the middle to upper classes, men and women greet each other with with a handshake AND a kiss on the cheek. Men greet each other with hugs at times minus the smooch or just the simple handshake but for some reason it has become customary for men and women to at least push their cheeks together and make the sound of a kiss.

Yucatecans and Non-Yucatecans: This are two terms that you here from time to time in the Yucatan. Basically the people of the Yucatan are a proud people. Their language, although Spanish, is spoken with a Yucatecan dialect. If you are of Latin heritage, speak Spanish and show up here, you won't be able to hide the fact that you are not Yucetacan. The dialect is different, the slang is unique, and if you don't grow up here you can't hide the fact that you didn't. 

All in all our experiences have been very blessed. We have run into several Canadians and Americans while here, many of whom have lived in other cities in Mexico. And everyone of them says the same thing: "Merida is considered the safest, easiest, most convenient place to live in all of Mexico....especially for people from other countries.

Casa De Blackshear

One of the first things you will notice about our new home here is the amount of natural light that comes in through windows and skylights. This brand new home seems to have been built for energy efficiency with lots of natural lighting, insulated windows and concrete construction, which helps keep homes cooler & more structurally sound during hurricanes. We only have to turn our lights on in the evenings. Electricity can be expensive if you are not careful. The floors are all tiled as carpet is not used here. Area rugs are used on tile living spaces.

If you cannot afford a washing machine for your clothes, you are provided with an outdoor wash basin (see left) This is placed in an outdoor room off of the porch area. We do have a washer, but the homes are built with cold water spigots only & most appliances here are in spanish. Clothes dryers are expensive here. For a clothes dryer we use plastic racks from WM of course with a fan blowing on them. Many people just use clothes lines.

Dishwashers are an item of luxury here and only afforded by the wealthy. We do not have a dishwasher, we have become “The Dishwasher.” The amount of water and electricity usage from dishwashers can be pretty consuming.

We have air-conditioning only in the upstairs bedrooms and use a fan at the bottom of our stairs for our living room and kitchen. They do not have standard HVAC systems like you see in America. Gas stoves are preferred as natural gas costs much less than electricity.

We opted for a smaller refrigerator for two reasons, first and most important was that the front door entrance to your Casa may not be wide enough for a regular size refrigerator and secondly, the smaller refrigerator uses less energy. This forces us to shop a little more often as we have several grocery stores near us. However, this gets us in front of people more often for more social contact. Several friends have asked us what it really costs to live here. I will put that in a later post as we are still waiting on our first round of utility bills. We will have a better idea in a couple months. I can definately tell you we are paying less to live here than we did in San Antonio.

We run into Americans from time to time. Here is a picture of a group of American teenagers from a boarding school in New Jersey. They are here for the summer as foreign exchange students. We saw them at the mall near our house and were immediately curious about them. We approached them and struck up a conversation with them and asked them if we could take a picture. They of course happily agreed. We asked them if they spoke any Spanish and the answer from them was pretty much "no." We then asked them if their host families spoke any English and the answer was again "no." Nothing like lots of hand gestures and a hard core crash course in language studies.

The weather here is pretty much the same every day during the rainy season. Light cool breezes in the early part of the day and the early evenings. Potential for rain almost every day. The picture to the right is of the skies over the southern part of Merida moving into the southern part of the Gulf of Mexico. High's are usually around 95 degrees from May through September. It's no worse to us than Dallas or San Antonio, TX. In fact, I would say it is probably a little cooler than Dallas but the increase in humidity makes up for the lower temperatures making it feel hotter more often. I, Jay, went for a jog last week and found out the hard way you don't want to be out jogging past 10AM. The humidity can hit you pretty hard if you are not used to it.

This is a picture of a palm tree in our neighbors yard. I am not sure what kind of palm this is but you see them everywhere down here. You can see a palm branch fell off and onto our fence. This particular tree is about 30 feet tall. I would describe them as having a very "majestic" appearance. Their trunks are as hard as concrete. Also, as you can see from the picture, most fences around peoples homes are fairly tall. Talk about privacy. Most people have fences that are anywhere from 8 to 15 feet high. We have a certain kind of lizard down here that we were told is called a Toloc that you will see crawling on top of these fences from time to time for a good sunbath.  It looks like a small iguana. We looked out our second story bedroom windows today and saw two of them crawling on our neighbors fences. One of them looked like it was almost 2 feet long. They are afraid of humans and will run off if they see you coming. If we can get a picture of one we will post it. We asked Javier, the man who built the house we rent, what they taste like and of course he said "chicken"

What do I bring?

This is not a simple question and it will vary depending on the person or family. Our family of four had begun a downsizing journey in the States, 5 years before we actually made the move to Merida. After much research coupled with our budget info, we decided to sell everything except what we could fit into 8 check on bags (2 per person) & 8 carry on bags (2 per person) and what we were able to fit in the cab of our truck that my husband drove down. We flew on Mexicana airlines, but as they are going through financial difficulties, Continental will be your next choice & you need to check their baggage guidelines. We were allowed two carry on bags per person & 2 of those bags were our 2 laptops we were bringing. If you are bring in any new items, make sure you have a receipt when declaring them.

Read this guideline sponsored by the TSA (Transportation Security Administration), but you must also abide by the Mexican import laws, so check out Continental Airlines guidelines for what you are allowed to bring into Mexico. Make sure your luggage fits the sizing guidlines. We were on a tight budget, but we found great luggage deals at Wal-Mart. Our 8 check in bags cost us about $15.00 each. We used various backpacks and bags for our 8 carry on bags.

We did pretty good research before hand when deciding what to bring, but in hindsite, after being here awhile, we wished we would have brought a few more items. Here is what we found out before we left. Bring only Summer clothes as most months here are warm. You will only have a few months, December & January, that get a little cooler. Some of the expats think it is funny to see the locals in sweaters during those months as they say it really is not cold enough for them. If you need warmer clothes once you get here, Wal-Mart is still the lowest price, but if you have fancy taste, you will definately pay more for the various Shopping Malls here. If you prefer Organics, in your shampoos, toothpaste & Toiletries-grab these before you go as they are rare to find here and pretty expensive when you do. We stuffed a few bottles of everything into each check in bag without any problems. Remember to seal them in ziploc bags to prevent leakage.

If you have children, you are allowed to fly in with one full bag of used toys. My strong recommendation is that you work with your kids before you pack to find the most important toys to them and stuff in as much as you can. Toys are very expensive here, almost double in some stores. Super Wal-Marts here are not like the States, they are not stuffed full of choices & some items are more expensive than the States.

You cannot bring food items into Mexico. There are many supermarkets here in Merida, including Sams Club, Costco & a variety of local chains. You can get some organics at Costco here, but there will be some items you cannot get anywere here that you can typically find in the states. Our biggest hurdle was "Goldfish", our boys favorite snack is not stocked here, but they got over it.

Last but not least! If you have children-I cannot stress enough the importance of making sure you have brought favorite items for them. Moving to a foreign Country can be stressful for kids, so you need to make sure they have comfort items. Favorite blanket, pillow, book, stuffed toy, dolls. The very first room to set up in your new home should be the children's rooms. They need to feel secure in this big move you have made. This is probably the best decision we made when we moved here. We immediately got bunk beds, unpacked toys and set up there room first & it has been easy going ever since! I have heard stories about families moving without planning ahead for their kids and the result was not pretty.

Driving To Mexico

There goes my brave husband, driving our truck from San Antonio, TX to Merida, Yucatan, Mexico. He crossed the border in Brownsville were it is still safe to cross. It took him about 3 days to make the drive, with a sleep stop in Tampico and one more in Campeche.

Jay said the best part was the change in scenery as you go from texas flat to palm trees and some mountaineous terrain in the distance, very tropical. Some of the prettiest scenery you will ever see.

He said the stressful part initially was getting over the border and through the various checkpoints he drove through down the coast line as you never know when the rules will change or when someone will want to search your truck. That is why you will see in the picture, he had very little in the truck as we were advised by our Mexican National friends to not bring attention to the truck .
All and all he had alot of grace on him to make the drive.

He can laugh now at the strange reactions he would get from the border guards when they saw a cage with gerbils sitting on the front seat next to my husband. One even joked with Jay about sticking his hand in the cage. Not a great idea as gerbils have a pretty nasty bite. You can bring your pets into Mexico, just make sure you read their regulations first.

Jay found some great detailed driving info on the web. If you want to see what the drive is like, This site  gave the best detailed information on driving from Brownsville to Merida. Make sure to obtain Mexican Vehicle Insurance well in advance of your trip.

Garage Sales

When you move to another Country, you have to decide whether to ship your stuff with you at a pretty high cost, or sell it all. We decided to sell it all, not that selling all mean't much to as as we had already been downsizing for several years in preparation for this move. As A family of 4, we downsized in steps from a 2500 sq ft home in the Dallas area to a 1200 sq ft home in San Antonio.

This is where Craiglist & Garage sales become important. We started by Craigslisting our biggest items & then went through 5 garage sales to clear out most items.

The trickiest items were the refridgerator, washer and dryer as we needed those until last & selling our Chevy Van. So we collected phone numbers from interested parties and let them know when we would be ready to sell.

We just finished our last garage sale, so now I go to my other favorite site Freecycle, a great place to just donate stuff to other people who like to recycle items.

It is easy and safe to use. Alway request and do porch pick ups. Never let someone in your house.

Looks like we are just about ready to go. My Husband Jay will drive our truck down to Merida next week and fly back to pick us up, then we will fly down as a family.

Stay tuned for our next update!