The new law for titling coastal and island right of possession properties (which started out as Ley 71 before it morphed into Ley 80) was signed into law by President Martinelli on the last day of 2009.
In my humble opinion, Law 80 is much inferior to Law 23, which the previous Torrijos administration passed into law only a few months before leaving office. However, Torrijos used Law 23 to title a number of huge properties at remarkably low prices for some of his friends, before ordinary people were allowed to title anything, and that gave the Martinelli government an excuse to kill Law 23 and bring in their own titling legislation.
Though far from perfect, Law 80 is better than nothing, and nothing is exactly what we have had for several years in Panama with respect to titling right of possession properties.
The major points in Law 80 are these:
- Anyone owning RoP can get 5 hectares titled free.
- The law draws no distinction between RoP owned by individuals and corporations.
- You must own the RoP for 5 years before you can apply to have it titled.
- Fees ranging from $0.10 per sq. meter to $37.00 per sq. meter will be charged after the first 5 hectares are titled for free. There is one set of fees for property up to 30 hectares and another set for over 30 hectares, the latter being more expensive. The legislation includes a price chart for various regions of the country.
If the Martinelli government ever gets around to drafting regulations for Law 80, that may resolve a few questions not dealt with in the statute — e.g, if you own, say, 50 hectares of RoP, who decides which 5 hectares get titled free?
Whatever its flaws, and they are many, Law 80 at least offers some hope, after many years of waiting, that progress can finally be made toward titling island and coastal properties, thereby providing thousands of RoP owners with peace of mind and security of tenure.
(Anyone wanting a copy of Law 80, with price chart, should email me — allen@chiriquicoastal.com)
Allen
