Chile Forum: Unoccupied land or property Chile : Chile Real Estate ...

You know I was thinking about this some more this morning.

In the thousands of titles we have examined over the years, I can not recall one verified and documented case of an outright theft of property using this law. We have come across legit, ethical, and proper uses of that law to obtain or settle a title. We have come across just about every other thing that could possibly go wrong with a title. However, none that were real squatter thefts.

The one case we did come across where it seems that is exactly what happened on the surface, we in fact did not have reason to do a full title search. It was just a case of an owner showing us a property for sale, where he mentioned he had lost a strip of land along a road to several houses (that had been there a very long time). There might have been a lot more to the story.

What we have repeatedly run in to is rumours that people were steeling land in general or a particular property was being taken using this law, but when examined in detail none of the reasons the land was lost turned out to be related to an outright theft of land. We also have run in to numerous cases where local yokos were trying to convince absent neighbours, gringos, and sometimes even family members living outside the country that their land was lost using that law (in hopes they would not bother coming back, and then could use that law to acquire the land or just keep on using it). Again, not a single one we have ever looked at was true, or at least true in the sense that law was used to take the land. We have seen people loose property for all kinds of other reasons.

More typically what happened is that someone sued someone else with a legit claim over a dispute, and the other party failed to respond to a court summons or otherwise defend themselves. Thus, loosing the property or dispute by default. That of course in the local rumour mill gets turned in to the legend of this law being used by unscrupulous (often the local rich guy) to take land from people.

For example, Douglas Tompkins is repeatedly been accused by the locals near his properties spread around southern chile of having done this, but we know in fact that his organization has a policy of just resigning all rights over any disputed property with neighbours. He owns way too much property to pick a fight over every little property line dispute. We know this because we have had client's with property cross his property, and negotiating with his attorneys to resolve it took all of about 15 mins. Mostly devoted to deciding how best to go about them resigning their rights. They are not spending years trying to weasel a few hectares here and a few hectares there using this law. No major land owner is, and if they are, their lawyers are morons or they are morons. It would just be far too expensive and uncertain a process.

Now, there are cases out there of this happening, and in theory it could happen; however, based on the number of ignorant idiots running around claiming that this can be done in Chile, you would think there would be millions and millions of hectors of land that is being stolen everyday. It is just not the case.

In fact, the next time someone tells someone that, I bet I can describe who it is that is saying that pretty close and where they come from. Lower to bottom income level. little to no education. Likely has never purchased or sold a piece of land themselves (if they own, they were either given it by the government or inherited it from a family member). Probably lives in a rural area, but might also come from the lower end of Santiago or some other urban area. More than likely votes Socialist. The only reason I throw that in, is because local socialist politicians are known to sort of perpetuate that myth or mindset of equating the rights of the government to expropriate private land for public goods with the right of individuals to expropriate private property for their own good (i.e. 'theft is right, because the rich owe you').

So, the answer I would say is more complicated. Yes, in theory it could happen. In practice almost never. If you are worried about loosing your property in Chile, I would say it is almost never on a level that makes it better to spend your time worrying about being struck by an asteroid, being bit by the same shark twice in two different beaches, and so on.

As in better to worry about all the real ways you might loose a property in Chile. Such as not paying your property tax. Failing to get a full title search conducted on the property you buy. Failing to register your title. Failing to have the contracts drafted by YOUR attorney. believing anything that comes out of the mouth of real estate agent without independently verifying it.

As for using this method to acquire property in Chile, don't waist your time. it's not going to happen.

Source: http://www.allchile.net/chileforum/topic9974.html

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