Inversiones Jorjune — the notary is not the finish line

Section one

Property changes hands at the registry, not at the notary

In Chile the public deed and the transfer of ownership are two separate events. The escritura pública signed before a notary records what the parties agreed. It does not, by itself, make the buyer the owner. Ownership passes only when the title is inscribed in the register of the Conservador de Bienes Raíces.

Código Civil · Article 686

Se efectuará la tradición del dominio de los bienes raíces por la inscripción del título en el Registro del Conservador.

Transfer of ownership of real property is effected by inscription of the title in the Conservador's Register.

Until that inscription is made, the buyer holds a signed contract and a claim against the seller — which is a real thing, and worth having, but it is not ownership. It is not opposable to third parties, it does not stop the registered owner from appearing as the owner, and it does not by itself prevent anything being registered against the property in the meantime.

This is the single most expensive misunderstanding in Chilean property, and it is entirely understandable: the signing is the ceremony, it is where the money moves, and nothing about it feels provisional. The inscription is an administrative step that happens later, somewhere else, and often without the buyer present.

What do you actually hold, at each stage?

Three moments that feel like one. Click through them.

From signature to ownership General illustration — not advice on any transaction

Not yet yours

A contract and a claim

You hold a public deed recording the agreement. The register still shows the seller as owner, and until the title is inscribed the transfer has no effect against anyone else.

Stages are shown in the order they occur. Timing, requirements and the registry's power to object to a title are matters for a lawyer, not for a web page.

Section two

Four documents that answer four different questions

A property is not checked by looking at it. It is checked by reading what the registers say about it — and each document answers one question and no others. People routinely obtain one and believe they have covered the rest.

Dominio vigente A copy of the current inscription showing who the registered owner is right now, and under which inscription. Answers: who owns it today?

Hipotecas, gravámenes y prohibiciones Whether mortgages, charges, easements or prohibitions on disposal are registered against the property. Answers: what is attached to it?

Estudio de títulos A review of the chain of title going back up to ten years, checking that each transfer in the chain was valid and properly inscribed. Answers: is the chain sound?

The fourth is not a certificate at all: the date on the ones you hold. A certificate describes the register at the moment it was issued. An encumbrance registered the following week does not appear on it. Where there is a gap between obtaining the certificates and completing the transaction, the certificates need refreshing — and the closer to completion the better.

What makes the check worth doing

Certificates obtained close to the transaction, not months before
A title study carried out by a lawyer, in writing, with the conclusions stated
Checking that the property described in the register is the property you viewed
Confirming the seller in the register is the person signing, with authority if acting for another
Re-checking immediately before completion

What makes it theatre

Accepting certificates supplied by the seller, undated or old
Treating a clean encumbrances certificate as a title study
Relying on "it's been in the family for years" instead of the chain
Skipping the study because the property is cheap — the cheap ones are where the defects are
Reading nothing and trusting that somebody else did

Who works for whom

The lawyer who studied the title for the bank studied it for the bank. Their concern is whether the property is adequate security for the loan, which is a narrower question than whether it is a good thing for you to own. If you want an opinion on your position, it has to be commissioned by you.

Section three

The gap between signing and inscription is a real exposure

Between the deed and the inscription there is a period — sometimes short, sometimes not — during which the buyer has paid, or is committed to paying, and the register still says somebody else owns the property. Most transactions pass through it without incident. It is worth understanding anyway, because the things that go wrong there are not fixed by having been careful at the signing.

Something is registered in the meantimeAn embargo, a prohibition or a charge lodged against the property after your certificates were issued but before your title is inscribed.
The registry objects to the titleThe Conservador examines the title presented and can refuse to inscribe it if there is a defect. A refusal does not undo your payment; it leaves you holding a deed that has not produced a transfer.
Nobody is actually responsible for lodging itEveryone assumes the notary, the bank, the agent or the other side is handling it. Weeks pass. This is the most common cause of a long gap, and the easiest to eliminate.
The description does not matchBoundaries, area or the identification of the property in the deed differ from the register. Small discrepancies become large delays at exactly the wrong moment.

Three questions that close most of the gap

Who is lodging the title at the registry, by what date, and how will I be shown that it has been inscribed? Agree the answers in writing before signing, and ask for the inscribed copy afterwards rather than assuming it arrived. The transaction is finished when you are holding evidence that the register names you — not when the money left your account.

Section four

What Inversiones Jorjune is — and what it is not

Inversiones Jorjune Limitada is a private company in Santiago. We invest our own capital, for our own account, and we hold what we buy. Nothing on this page is addressed to investors, because we are not looking for any.

"Inversiones" in a Chilean company name is ordinary and says only what a company does with its own money. It is not a licence, it indicates no supervision by anyone, and it confers no permission whatever to handle other people's funds.

What we do not do

Accept, hold, pool or manage funds or assets belonging to any other person
Offer shares, participations, notes or any other investment, publicly or privately, to anyone
Promise, project, suggest or imply any return, yield, profit or preservation of capital
Provide banking, credit, leasing, insurance, brokerage, securities or payment services
Act as a real estate agent, broker, valuer or conveyancer, or give legal advice
Publish anything on this page that constitutes an offer, solicitation or recommendation

Two things worth checking about anyone, including us

A company existing is not a company being supervised. Incorporation records that a company exists and who runs it. Banks, stockbrokers, fund managers, insurers and registered financial service providers appear on the public registers of the Comisión para el Mercado Financiero; a firm that is supervised can be found there in under a minute.

Nobody may promise you a return. Not us, not a bank, not an adviser. Where something offers a guaranteed return above what safe instruments pay, the guarantee is the false part — that has been the structure of every such scheme that has ever collapsed, here and everywhere else.

Our office

We work from Oficina 1101 in Las Condes, Santiago, by appointment. Please write or call before coming.

Signing is not owning.