Originally posted by peubraw Dunga said it all. with a "contrato de compra e venda" you already own the house. The "escritura" is just some paper work after that.

Definately not. With the contrato de compra e venda you only have two parties with two obligations, one has the obligation to pay and the other has the obligation to register the escritura. Only afte registration of the title will you be the owner of the property. The contrato de compra e venda is only valid between parties.

While not a full guarantee that a seller (or anyone you're considering a business transaction with) doesn't have any certidões negativas associated with their name, these two links can at least inform you if there are any initial "red flags".

Certidão Negativa de Débitos de Tributos e Contribuições Federais

There seems to be a bug in the Receita Federal url above.  When the pages loads, and you see an error message, simply copy the url, then paste in the same place, hit Enter, and the correct page should load.


CCFácil

To use the CCFácil site, you must register as a Pessoa Juridica, meaning you have a registered business with a CNPJ.   If this doesn't apply to you, perhaps you can persuade someone you know who does, to sign up, and then pay them for the credits needed to do the assorted background and credit checks the site offers.   A complete report costs all of 15 reais.   Well worth it!


PS - If anyone has valid information about escrow accounts for real estate transactions, please post!



Edited by Gringo.Floripa - 18 October 2010 at 20:45

Thanks Boris!  I was afraid that was the answer I'd receive.  Thought that just perhaps, there was something depending on the region.  

Originally posted by BorisG Originally posted by Gringo.Floripa PS - If anyone has valid information about escrow accounts for real estate transactions, please post! I have the information: There are no escrow accounts in Brazil. A very remote Brazilian relative of escrow account - deposito em juízo is virtually never used in real estate transactions save in certain litigation cases. ... and there is no title insurance either

That's not really so:

What you call "deposito em juizo" is actually called "pagamento em consignação" and can be done through a bank and through the courts. It's merely a guarantee that the debtor is not considered in breach of the agreement when he does not aggree to the amount to be payed or, if for some unjust reason the creditor does not accept his payment.

Escrow would be something like a "contrato de depósito". There is no legal regulation about escrow accounts, but it is completely legal and would be a contrato "inominado" (unnamed contract) whereby the two parties to a bilateral contract deposit money into the account of a thrid party.

Originally posted by BorisG Yet, I am still to encounter a sane Brazilian who would be willing to deposit funds to a third party account a la escrow account for a contract involving any significant amount of money.

Or a foreigner to deposit funds into an account of a brazilian third party

Actually, FGTS is an escrow account of some sorts.