The following advice titled LAND CERTIFICATE was sent to me by a website owner that I am in contact with but he does not know any lawyers who can take care of getting a land certificate for me for the piece of property on Ambergris Caye that I have a deed of conveyance for.

1.
If I go to Ambergris Caye personally I can get this LAND CERTIFICATE by visiting which office in which city? Does anyone know? I can do it without a lawyer if I am there personally?

2.
If I do not go to Ambergris Caye to get it done personally then who is the least expensive para-legal in Belize who can take care of it for me from afar? What do they charge? $200?

3.
Are there any areas of the island that are outside of the registered area requiring a land certificate before a property can be sold? If so, what areas are outside the registered area?

4.
After reading the material below it seems that it is only a matter of time before all of Belize property will be required to be held using a land certificate before it can be sold. Do you agree?


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LAND CERTIFICATE


The entirety of San Pedro has been "Registered" thus the need to convert to Land Certificate. If not, unscrupulous people can steal your land. Plus you can only sell land on the island with Land Certificate.

Some notes to pass on about forms of title here:

Deeds of Conveyance
The oldest form of title ownership is by a Deed of Conveyance.
Ownership by way of conveyance is a registered right to ownership of property. Ownership by conveyance can be converted to a Certificate of Title by way of an application for first registration. Any successive buyer is issued a Transfer Certificate of Title. A Deed of Conveyance is a valid legal title once a lawyer has confirmed that the seller has good title to the property.

A Transfer of Certificate
A Transfer Certificate of Title is a physical title to a particular tract of land. This type of ownership is secure. It is more costly and time consuming to transfer title on a Transfer Certificate of Title than on a Deed of Conveyance.

A Land Certificate
A Land Certificate is an absolute title and applies to property purchases in new or specially designated areas. The Government is in the process of re-registering all freehold lands under the Registered Land Act of 1987 to achieve an eventual uniform system of nationwide land ownership.

In any purchase in Belize, make sure you employ a good, independent lawyer to oversee the purchase, more than anything to make sure the property has clean and clear title before you transfer funds.

When purchasing property in Belize, title insurance is not
obligatory and closing costs are very nominal as there is no
capital gains tax. The taxes in place for buying a property in
Belize are small compared to other countries in the region.
Transfer or Stamp tax is due only on properties valued at more than US$10,000, and at a rate of five per cent above this level, at the time of transfer of title.