Half of All Real Estate Properties in Baja California Have Defective Titles Fulano - The Fulano Files
go to original April 24, 2014

TIJUANA, Baja California – Half of the occupied properties in Baja California do not have a legal title, 30% is due to ejidos that were subdivided and 15% are federal land that was subdivided clandestinely.

Gilberto Corvelli Gómez, a member of the Commission for the Regularization of Land Ownership in Baja California, said this involves land taken over or sold illegally.

The Mexican federal government owns all the lands in the nation, and the only way that a federal land can be made private, he explained, is with a land title deed issued by one of the federal agencies.

Among the ways to privatize federal land is through ejidos, federal subdivisions, land purchased with private legal funds authorized by municipalities or states for urban development and lot subdivisions.

Baja California, he explained, is one of the states with the most amount of properties lacking legal titles, and he added that in order to comply with the federal program created for horizontal growth of the cities, it is urgent they be legalized.

It a serious problem, he said, without legalizing these properties, electric services, potable water, sewers, pavement, schools and hospitals do not arrive. This causes social problems. Baja California measures 69,000 square kilometers and between legal funds, ejidos, private property and federal lands 62,000 hectares are claimed, which indicates there are many properties with more than one owner, said the official.

According to the Ministry of Territorial and Urban Agrarian Development (SEDATU), there are 74 ejidos in Baja California was large urban settlements and which are growing, many absorbed by the urban sprawl.

THE ORIGIN OF THE PROBLEM

Many of the ejidos sold the lands, the settlers, as are called those who are not ejido members and who live on the ejido, have deed but are not the legal owners.

“Most of these plots do not have a plat map authorized by the municipal property registrar and do not have property parcel numbers, if they do have one, it is only provisional which the municipalities use for property taxes,” said the representative of the Regularization Commission.

There are also lands owned by the federal government, that are on the periphery of the municipalities, that were fenced off by a person who wants but them. The problem comes when they are subdivided and sold illegally.

It is not illegal to take possession of national land as long as it is only being used for productive purposes. Subdividing and selling it is illegal and subject to penalties.

Rosa does not know if the lot purchased with some sacrifice in El Niño is national land or private, she only knows that several different owners have come forward to collect money. “We went to the municipality and they say the land is unregistered, and they cannot give us papers for it. But they come to me to collect money and threaten me, saying if I do not pay they will evict me and I will lose everything I already paid,” she said.

“I keep paying, I want my house, but how am I going to find out who is the true owner,” added the domestic worker who prefers to not give her last name as she fears her complaint will bring reprisals.

In Tijuana, SEDATU estimates that 50% of the homes do not have a property title, and after signing an agreement with the municipal government, they project they will legalize some 15,000 properties.

Among the neighborhoods benefited is a section of 3 de Octubre, Mariano Matamoros, specially the area of Las Torres and colonia El Monumento, at the second entrance to Playas de Tijuana, said Corvelli González.

In Ensenada, Maneadero has almost 80% of the properties under dispute, meanwhile in Mexicali after a census, they located 78,000 homes without property titles, he said.

TITLES VS. DEEDS

A home is not legally owned by a family if it does not have a property title, deeds are a help, but are not a substitute, added the federal official.

“It is perhaps a misunderstanding of the population, who believe that paying property taxes and having a property tax lot number solves their problem, but it does not,” said Diana Nieto Adame, director of the Tijuana Municipal Property Registry.

Property tax lot numbers vary depending upon the zone and are established for tax collection purposes, one still needs to have legal possession to the property, she said.

“Many people come through their leaders and contact the Registrar, on many occasions they have the records, the buy-sell contract among the parties and they give it to us,” even though there is no recorded record that they are owners.

Collecting property taxes, is only for the use of the land and the services provided to the property or in the surrounding area, like highways, street lighting and other things.

See the original at The Fulano Files

Translated by Fulano from an article in Frontera

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