Are you prepared to close the sale of your property?

We present below a guide that facilitates the closing process, recommending you to prepare a folder with the following information:

1. Certificate of tradition and liberty: In many occasions, who solicits it is the buyer that is interested in your property, but it is not too bad to have it already prepared and that it is you who provides it to the buyer as a way to give him security on the business, remember that this document allows to know the legal status of the property through the years, if it has restrictions of use or domain and it’s actual owners. You can obtain it requesting it on the Registry Office of Public Instruments, but if you have the registration number at hand it will take just a few minutes to get it on the website of the Superintendence of Notaries: www.supernotariado.gov.com. The Certificate of tradition and liberty must be up-to-date and actualized, and the expiration date cannot be higher than 30 days.

2. Copy of Deed of Property: Here are consigned the name of the owner and his/her personal information, property limits, characteristics such as: built area, neighbors, parking, among others. If you have the previous purchase deeds, it is important too to include them in your folder; if your property is subjected to the horizontal property regime, you must have the correspondent regulation ready.

3. Cadastral Certificate: Is the record of physical, legal and economic information of a property; which also includes information as: official nomenclature, secondary addresses and previous addresses, cadastral appraisals of the last nine years and areas of land and construction. You can obtain it from the Office of Cadastre of the Mayor’s Office of the city where your property is located, or online on the website of each Mayor’s Office, in the case of Medellin, on the next direction:

www.medellin.gov.co/irj/portal/medellin/ventanilla.

4. Public services and administration: You must also have a file with the receipts that supports the payments of the public services, that is to say, telephone, internet, water, gas and electricity such as property management payments. It is recommendable to request a good standing certificate from the administration. This will give security to the possible buyer of the transparency and seriousness of the negotiation, because nobody wants to acquire a property that has outstanding balances.

5. Taxes: Just at it happens with the payments of the services, it is vital to be up to date with the payments of all the taxes and that you have the documentation that demonstrates it. If it is not clear to you which are the taxes that we referred to, here we leave you a brief summary.

• Property tax: The first of these is the property tax, which is borne by the seller, it is he who must pay for all the time that owns the property. You must request a good standing certificate by concept of property tax in the corresponding City Hall Cadastre or on their website (if you are in Medellín: https://www.medellin.gov.co/irj/portal/medellin/documento-cobro-predial). Remember that if you are in arrears interest are generated, and it is possible that it will be the object of a judicial process for its collection, which could lead to the auction of your property. This is an annual tax that is normally paid on a quarterly basis, so you should keep in mind that when you sell the property you have to cancel it for the whole year and then this payment will be distributed proportionally to the time of possession during the year between seller and buyer.

• Valuation Contribution: It imposes to the owners or holders of those real estate assets that benefits from the execution of works or plans of public interest. The State uses it as a financing instrument that allows the urban and social development of a city. You should check if your property is subject to this tax and if so, ask your situation: 1) if it is solvent, 2) if there are outstanding balances, 3) if the property variables that define the contribution are under review and the value of the contribution may change, and 4) if the collection of the contribution is suspended by review.

If you are solvent you should apply for a good standing certificate at the offices or website of the Urban Development Institute (http://fonvalmed.gov.co/). On the other hand, if there is an outstanding balance or you are in any of the last two situations described above you must agree with the buyer how this tax will be paid. Do not forget that the delay leads to the inscription of restrictions on the property in the property register, so you must be clear about your situation before you put your property up for sale.

• Capital Gains Tax: arises from the additional gain that occurs when the State exercises actions that increase the value of the land, without the owner having intervention in these improvements, when these changes occur, you as owner and/or beneficiary of the improvement must pay an additional value, which is calculated based on the difference between the price of the property before the performance and the value after the performance. Depending on the stratum the fee can vary between 30% and 50% of the value of that benefit. This tax does not apply to all municipalities in the country, so it is necessary that you go to the appropriate City Hall to inform you if it is necessary to make any payment.

6.- Personal documents: you must have the original of your DNI or NIT, plus 2 copies of these at 150% size.

A closing words related to a possible mortgage. Do not forget that the property must be free of all liens, so there is a mortgage on the property, it must be canceled before the sale. This process is simple: the bank or legal person with a mortgage creditor must deliver a bill, which is taken to the notary and is the basis for writing the cancellation, the notary is responsible for sending the deed to the mortgagee for his sign; If the creditor is a natural person, he must go to the notary, request the cancellation and sign the corresponding deed. When the deed is signed by the mortgagee, the notary will deliver the deed and copies of law that must be registered in the Registry of Public Instruments. Once cancellation of this assessment, your property is ready to be put up for sale.

On the other side there is the possibility of negotiating with the buyer the transfer of the mortgage to his name, and he will be in charge of making these payments. In order to carry out this transfer, the lending entity must give its consent.

Concluding we can say that with all these documents ready and with all the payments related to your property up to date, you will be ready to close the sale of your property successfully. Keep in mind that whenever you have doubts you can consult with an expert on real estate.