The Roatan Story

For those who have property in Honduras, you may want to search the databases at the Instituto de la Propiedad from time to time to see if your ownership has made its way into the online system. The system is gradually being updated, so if your property does not show up, don't panic! It may not be there for a variety of reasons, perhaps because the government folks are catching up with older transactions or because the information was not entered exactly the way you thought. Or, it may be that older transactions are not entered until something new happens, like a sale, or a mortgage note being paid off.

If you want to browse the database, make sure you have pop ups enabled in your browser. Also, the web interface is not smooth in all places. For example, you can't necessarily move from one screen to the next all the time. Sometimes, you have to "back up" by using the "back" key on your browser to get back to the top so you can make another selection.

Browse to www.ip.hn Click on "Consultas Publicas"

If you know the tomo and inscripcion (kind of like a book number and an entry number within the book) follow this procedure:

Click on "Inscripciones" under "Folio Personal"
In "Tipo de libro" select "03 - REGISTRO DE LA PROPIEDAD, HIPOTECAS
Y ANOTACIONES". Note, it really does appear in capital letters.
In "Circunscripción Registral" select the region that covers your property Bay Islands = "KN") Enter the tomo and inscripcion numbers in the appropriate fields
and click "Buscar."
A window will appear and you can actually see a scanned version of your Escritura.
If you read your Escritura, you may see notes for additional inscripcion numbers. You can find these as well.
You may see links with curly blue arrows which point to additional references. Check these out as well.

If you don't know the tomo and inscripcion follow this procedure:

Click on "Inmueble" under "Folio Personal"
Now you have to figure out which criteria you want to use for searching. I bought a lot in a planned community so here's what I did.
Click "Direccion"  In "Circunscripción Registral" select the region that covers your
property (Bay Islands = "KN") Enter a keyword in the "Dirrecion Inmueble" field.
For "Tipo de Busqueda" select "Contiene." This will cause the system to search for entries containing your keyword.
If you see a list of properties, find your property and browse the related documents.

Again, these databases are not necessarily up to date. Perhaps some of
the realtors or lawyers may have additional information on the system. I think it's great that Honduras continues to make progress in making information available online.