moving to mexico -- buying a house

The moment I walked in the front door, I knew she was going to be mine.

In 2006, I decided that I would retire and move to Mexico. Because I am a big believer in the American Dream, my initial instincts were to buy a house before I made the big leap. So, I started scouting.

For reasons unimportant for this essay, after two years of looking for houses to buy, I ended up renting a place for almost eight months on the beach of Villa Obregón. When my stay there was done, I considered some short-term auditions of other towns in Mexico, but I decided to try another six months as a renter on Villa Obregón's laguna. The six-months stretched to five years.

While living there, I looked for houses to buy. I had a permanent resident card in my pocket, and the area where I lived suited me fine. It was time to start erecting tent poles.

The house with no name was not my first house date. I had looked at least a score of other houses and at least five were in the I-can-live-with-this category.

Then true love struck. I say I knew the house would be mine when I walked through the front door. But it actually took fifteen minutes of contemplating the Barragánesque lines to convince me to make an offer on the house.

The asking price was well out of my budget. I had just made an offer for a house that was snatched out from under me, so I had a certain amount of money set aside already. To my surprise, the architect-builder who had constructed the place as her dream house, immediately snatched up my offer and set the closing date a few weeks away.

I saw nothing untoward in the rush. I knew there were some partnership problems the owner needed to clear up, but she assured me they would be resolved by closing.

When I told Christine, my landlady at the Villa Obregón rental, that I would be moving out because I was buying a house, she told me to ensure that I received a finiquito from the buyer --  a document proving the social security assessments from IMSS had been paid for the construction of the house.

A friend of hers had failed to do that and was then involved in a dispute that resulted in more tears than joy. I followed her advice and included the clause in the earnest money agreement.

It turns out to no avail. When my realtor, her assistant, and I drove to Manzanillo to sign the closing papers at the notario's office, a copy of the IMSS document was not part of the paperwork. I went into Full Frontal Lawyer negotiating mode, and said I would not close without the document. I knew the seller was anxious to sell, but I needed the document to ensure there would be no additional costs.

The assistant took me out in the hall to re-direct me. He told me the bank would not issue its trust deed if there were any potential liens outstanding. He had a certain northern logic to his argument. So, we closed.

Of course, that is not the end of the story -- or I would not be writing this essay. Within a year of closing, a fellow claiming to represent IMSS showed up at my house informing me I owed the IMSS assessment because I now owned the house. I contacted the former owner who gave me a song and dance how everything had been resolved; she was just waiting on the paper.

Well, we are both waiting for the paper. And I suspect we will wait for eternity to see it because of the next event in this little drama.

While I was in Manzanillo on Tuesday, someone claiming to be from IMSS served a document on Omar. The current owner of the property ("me") is required to appear in the IMSS office in Puerto Vallarta to show cause why I should not pay the unpaid assessment.

There are some questions whether IMSS can legally recover the assessment after five years. But IMSS certainly claims the authority to summon my presence -- as it has done.

Either today or tomorrow, I am going to see my accountant to enlist his professional skill in resolving what needs to be resolved. If the assessment was not paid by the contractor or the former owner, IMSS is entitled to that amount, an amount that could easily put me in the driver seat of a very nice European sedan. The only question is whether IMSS has acted in a timely fashion.

I will keep you posted on how this develops -- if only to let readers know one of the potential traps in buying a house in Mexico.

What I do know is that if your landlady tells you to do something to protect your interests, do it.