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At Sur Terras, we work hand in hand with a law firm located in the regional capital city of Puerto Montt:

Fuchslocher, Bogdanic & Asociados A law firm whose main offices are located in the cities of Puerto Montt and Osorno of the Lakes Region, the gateway to Patagonia, and one of the fastest growing regions in South America. Their mission is to provide legal advice to companies and individuals who are developing businesses in the South of Chile. Their practice includes specialized lawyers and legal experts; trained in the best Chilean universities.  Their assembled multidisciplinary team, allows them to deliver more than just legal advice, but comprehensive solutions for their clients.

The law firm regularly provides our clients with advice and services in the following areas, among others:

1] Contracts and Legal Agreements: Drafting of Agreements of Purchase and Sale for private transactions. For example: Contrato de Compraventa de Bienes Raíces.

2] Title Inspection / Title Searches: To discover and ensure buyers that there are no third-party claims or encumbrances on the property they intend to buy. This can include researching previous water rights claims and mineral rights claims (recorded by the Chilean Geological Survey (SernaGeomin) that might involve the property, if requested.

3] General and Limited Powers of Attorney: Can be created for those who can’t be in Chile for the entire purchase process and want to authorize a third-party individual to legally act on their behalf during the transaction process.

4] Advice regarding Water Rights Applications: Normally petitions for “Derechos de Agua” can be can made by the landowner directly with the La Dirección General de Aguas (DGA), but more complicated cases may need legal input and advice. 

5] Advice about Rezoning / Land Use Re-designations: In Chile land is designated into categories like urban, rural, agricultural etc., by the Servicio Agrícola y Ganadero (SAG). In some cases, individuals want to buy a land tract that is designated as agricultural and use it for tourism. In these cases, our legal team is available to guide our clients through this process. The process is called: Cambio de Uso de Suelo.

6] Property Access Agreements: In Chile all property owners are entitled to legally access and connect their properties to the publicly owned infrastructure (like transportation, water sources and electricity). Where no public road or access point is available, semi-private access agreements are reached with existing landowners. These are known as “servidumbres”.  Numerous types and classes of servidumbres exist and our legal team is available to help our clients through this process.

7] Conservation Easements: In 2016 the Chilean government passed a new law (Ley N° 20.930 – el derecho real de conservación Ley de DRC.) which allows property owners to conserve the environment of their properties by forming or joining “land trusts”. This allows owners to put conservation easements (servidumbres de conservación) on their land, thus safeguarding it from future development.  Our legal team can give you the best advice on how to implement this new law on your property, should you so desire.

8] Mineral Rights Concessions: In Chile, while an individual owns the “superficial” property, they are not the owners of the mineral resources located under the property. These are considered to be the property of the Chilean government and are administered under the Chilean Mining Code of 1983 (Código de Minería de Chile: Ley N° 18248) by the Servicio Nacional de Geología y Minería (SernaGeomin). Property owners are entitled to petition the government for two types of mining concessions: exploration and exploitation. While most real estate transactions in Patagonia don’t involve mining, some buyers my be interested in knowing how the Chilean Mining Code might affect the present value and future valuation of their property. 

9] Financial Advice and Financing: Many real estate transactions are simple and can be managed privately, however in more complicated cases, individuals and corporations may need advice about how to minimize their exposure to unnecessary taxes and transaction fees. Our legal team has extensive expertise in Chilean tax law and practical experience working with the Internal Revenue Service of Chile (Servicio de Impuestos Internos: SII) Our legal team can also provide advice about obtaining financing from third-party lenders (like hipotecas from banks) and even grants from the Chilean government. For certain projects in Chile, depending on the type of project and property, the Chilean government often allocates “matching funds” to developers interested in developing projects that the Chilean government deems beneficial to certain areas. Our legal team can help buyers find and obtain these alternate sources of financing.

10] Legal Document Translation Services: Legal language can be difficult to comprehend in any language. Understanding this, the law firm Sur Terras works with can obtain professional level translations of legal documents from translators experienced with real estate law and its specialized vocabulary. 

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