Legal Certainty in the Acquisition of EJIDO Property By Omar Pérez Martínez, Diego Robles Farías & José María Gallardo Tamayo
Photos by Jesús de Avila • November 2008
In January 1992, article 27 of the Mexican Constitution was amended and in light of this; an important reform came to pass in Mexico in regard to the possession and ownership of agrarian land.
Afterwards, in February of that year, a new Agrarian Law was passed which replaced the Federal Agrarian Reform Law which hitherto regulated possession of said lands. Up until that point, the underlying issue was the distribution of land between the ejidos and the communities which was carried out by the executive branch through the Ministry of Agrarian Reform. The possibility to convert said lands into private property was not contemplated.
In light of the distribution of land between ejidos and communities, at this moment in time, agrarian land constitutes 52% of Mexico; the rest is made up of private property or of government assets. Reviewing these figures we can fully appreciate the importance of understanding the subject, the manner in which agrarian land can become private property and what legal certainty exists in regard to the transmission of said land to third parties.
In the first place, it is important to determine the role of ejidos as organizations and of ejido members as part of said organizations. Ejidos are legal entities in themselves, meaning they have the ability to own assets and are subject to rights and obligations. Ejido members are people who have ejido rights -as is clarified below.
In this line of thought, Agrarian Law states that agrarian land belongs to the ejidos, not the ejido members. Ejido members own the right to use and profit from their parcelas (as their portion of agrarian land is known). Agrarian land breaks down into three separate categories: (i) the urban portion of ejidos destined for human settlement; (ii) common portions of the ejido; and (iii) parcelas which the ejido members have the right to use and profit from.
As parcelas are the most commonly sold type of land, we will focus our attention on them. In light of the constitutional reforms already mentioned and thanks to the new Agrarian Law, parcelas may be converted into private property through the process set forth by said law. All ejidos have management bodies, the most important of which is the Ejido Member’s Assembly, which has the power to decide whether an ejido member can obtain full ownership over his or her parcela.
Obtaining full ownership over a parcela implies that said piece of land will cease to be property of the ejido and will hence become private property. This enables the ejido member to sell his or her property to third parties. Short of this procedure, ejido members can only carry out limited number of acts over their parcelas, none of which involves selling land to third parties.
Once the ejido, through an assembly resolution, authorizes ejido members to obtain full ownership over their parcelas, they are free to do so when they see fit. In order to do it, however, they must appear before the National Agrarian Registry of the state where their parcela is located to request that said piece of land be de-registered from said office and that a Land Title Certificate be issued. Legal certainty in the acquisition of ejido property is based precisely on the foregoing process, the National Agrarian Registry –government office in charge of overseeing the process- issues the corresponding Land Title Certificate and orders that it be registered by the Public Registry of Property –government office in charge of registering all private property.
In addition, seeing as these pieces of properties have only just recently been incorporated into the private property regime, they have no record before the Public Registry of Property or the local Appraisal Registry Office (Catastro), making it easier for legal counsel to determine that they are free and clear of any and all liens.
Finally, it should be noted that the Agrarian Law sets forth a series of requisites that must be complied with in the event that the ejido member makes the decision to transfer his or her property to third parties, amongst others, his or her family members, people who have worked the land during the last year, other ejido members, avecindados and the ejido itself have, in that order, a right-of-first-refusal. Email to a friend
■ Diego Robles Farias, Alberto Lazo Corvera and Jose Maria Gallardo are founding partners of Robles, Lazo y Gallardo, S.C., a Law Firm of specialists in various areas of Law, including Corporate Law, Real Estate, Immigration, Foreign Investment, among others. The Firm is also integrated with a group of highly qualified attorneys, being Omar Perez Martinez one the most experienced in Real Estate transactions. The Firm has offices in Guadalajara (Privada del Niño #676, Fraccionamiento Camino Real, telephone number 33-3121-3010) and Puerto Vallarta (Carretera a Mismaloya No. 479 interior 107, Edificio Scala. Phone: 322-223-3218).
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In January 1992, article 27 of the Mexican Constitution was amended and in light of this; an important reform came to pass in Mexico in regard to the possession and ownership of agrarian land. 
In this line of thought, Agrarian Law states that agrarian land belongs to the ejidos, not the ejido members. Ejido members own the right to use and profit from their parcelas (as their portion of agrarian land is known). Agrarian land breaks down into three separate categories: (i) the urban portion of ejidos destined for human settlement; (ii) common portions of the ejido; and (iii) parcelas which the ejido members have the right to use and profit from. 
Once the ejido, through an assembly resolution, authorizes ejido members to obtain full ownership over their parcelas, they are free to do so when they see fit. In order to do it, however, they must appear before the National Agrarian Registry of the state where their parcela is located to request that said piece of land be de-registered from said office and that a Land Title Certificate be issued. Legal certainty in the acquisition of ejido property is based precisely on the foregoing process, the National Agrarian Registry –government office in charge of overseeing the process- issues the corresponding Land Title Certificate and orders that it be registered by the Public Registry of Property –government office in charge of registering all private property. 