THE REAL PUNTA BANDA STORY

THE REAL PUNTA BANDA STORY

Several years ago residents of a small section of a development called Punta Banda were evicted from their homes by court order. You may have read about it. It certainly made headlines in the U.S..

The sad fact is that many people don't buy land in Mexico because of the fear of their land being taken from them. But the true story of Punta Banda is really a reassuring one and when you know what happened, you will feel very confident about buying real estate in Mexico.

Punta Banda was part of a huge agricultural land grant (ejido). But a portion of the ejido along the ocean was useless for agriculture, yet perfect for home sites overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The ejido owners were given permission to lease this part of their land to an American developer who subdivided it and he began marketing the lots. Almost immediately, a very small parcel of the leased land was disputed by people who claimed they owned that particular parcel and not the ejido. They filed a lawsuit in court. The developer disclosed this information to potential buyers, but people leased anyway.

The Mexican courts carefully heard this case. After years of litigation, they determined through older maps that the ejido did not own that particular parcel and that people who lived there would have to renegotiate their leases with the rightful owners. Those who refused to renegotiate their leases were eventually evicted. It wasn't pretty. It hurt a lot of people, especially the residents, but it was the right thing to do. To put it simply, the developer was selling property that he didn't own and the Mexican courts were not going to allow someone to steal another's land and develop it, which is exactly what was happening. In the end, it was determined that a survey map had been tampered with and an investigation into who tampered with the map is underway. The bottom line is that the government of Mexico did not take Americans' property from them.

Here are the lessons to be learned. First, the Mexican government doesn't just go and confiscate land. Land and property rights are sensitive issues in Mexico and the courts were very careful. Second, a proper title search would have avoided most of the problems, but it wasn't done. Third, people let greed get the best of them.