Estudio de Títulos — Argentine Title Diligence

Argentina (AR) — civil law.

Nothing on this page describes United States practice. There is no certificate sold to an investor, no administrative sale, and no post-sale redemption window in Argentina. If you arrived carrying US assumptions, read falsos-amigos first.

Estudio de títulos

Argentina assures title through a professional, not through a product. The escribano público studies the chain of title and takes responsibility for the act; there is no policy behind it.

What the study covers

• Chain of title — the successive escrituras and their registration, checked for form, capacity, and continuity.
• Parcel searches — informe de dominio: ownership, hipotecas, embargos, and other registered charges.
• Personal searches — anotaciones personales against each relevant party, to catch an `inhibición general de bienes` that a parcel search cannot see.
• Cadastral position — estado parcelario and valuación fiscal from the provincial catastro; boundaries, surface, and whether the physical parcel matches the registered one.
• Fiscal position — impuesto inmobiliario and municipal tasas.
• Expensas, for a propiedad horizontal unit — and this one is not optional. See expensas-y-el-adquirente-en-subasta.

How far back

Practice looks back roughly a twenty-year horizon, which is not arbitrary: it is the long acquisitive prescription period under `usucapión`. Defects older than the prescription period are generally cured by it.

Before a subasta

You will not have an escribano closing for you at the auction, but you should still have one study the title before you bid. The auction is not the moment to discover a boundary discrepancy, an undisclosed occupant with a possessory claim, or an inhibición complicating the distribution.

See diligencia-previa-a-la-subasta.