Many of the individual fideicomisos (bank trusts) used for propery purchase in San Felipe are with HSBC, especially at El Dorado. Annual fees need to be paid for each fideicomiso to keep it current.
Nezter
HSBC have outsourced the collection of the annual fees to Nezter (not Netzer), who have offices in various locations in Mexico, as well as Phoenix, Arizona. There is no extra charge for paying the fideicomiso fee (only) through them.
You can find out the status of your annual fees from Nezter, and make payment to their US office in US dollars.
Note: in 2010 your payment will be (at least) 1% higher than 2009, this is because the IVA/VAT tax rate has changed from 10% to 11%.
Balance
To get a balance, there is a form at http://www.nezter.com/hsbc/ - click on "your balance". Enter the details of your property or lot and they will reply by email in a few days (allow a week). You should check the fideicomiso number they quote matches what you have on your own paperwork.
On request, they will send you the printout from the HSBC system that shows the exact status of the account.
Payments
Nezter have an address in Phoenix that you can send payments to. Note that the payee of the check (they'll quote this to you) is specific to your fideicomiso so it should end up crediting the right account.
Nezter sometimes send confirmation of receipt of the payment, and sometimes do not. So you may need to chase them up to make sure it has been applied correctly. In general they are very slow at responding to emails and some emails are never answered, so you need patience in dealing with their barely adequate service.
They also offer a service for paying impuesto predial (property tax) but it appears they charge a high $65 fee for that. Might be useful to some absentee owners but even then it's possible to pay the property tax directly on the Mexicali municipal website, or at the office in San Felipe.
Overdue Bills
Over the past few years, many properties in El Dorado have changed hands and received a new HSBC fideicomiso. As part of the closing process, El Dorado Ranch were paid the first year's fideicomiso fee, to pass on to HSBC.
In a number of cases El Dorado have taken a very long time to pay that money to HSBC.
So if you have a fideicomiso from HSBC at El Dorado (or any other development really), do get in touch with Nezter and see what the status of your account is.
