If a developer misses delivery, your protection is whatever the contract wrote down beforehand: defined delivery obligations and dates, penalty clauses running in both directions, and clear cancellation terms. Mexican litigation is slow, so the real defense is front-loaded — verify permits, tie payments to notarized instruments, and read the exit clauses before you sign.
We sell pre-construction lots, which makes us the party this question is about. So read this as a disclosed first-party guide: the clauses below are the ones I would want a member of my own family to demand — from us, or from anyone else selling land in Tulum.
What must the contract actually specify?
A presale contract that names only a price and a payment schedule is not a contract; it is a receipt. Four things have to appear in writing.
What is being delivered. Not "a lot" — the lot's identity: surface area, boundaries, its position in the enclave, and the infrastructure that makes it buildable. Access road, water network, energy, controlled access. Infrastructure named in a brochure and absent from the contract is a marketing claim, not an obligation.
When. Two dates, not one: the date the title transfers to you, and the date infrastructure and amenities are complete. They rarely coincide. At Selvadentro, Suspiro's infrastructure and amenities are scheduled for 2029, while residents get cenote and amenity access from the day of purchase — both of those statements belong in a document, not in a conversation.
What happens if a date slips. See the next section.
How either side exits. Cancellation grounds, the refund formula, any retention percentage, and the deadline for money to actually come back.
If the sales team answers any of these verbally and the paperwork stays silent, the paperwork is what you own.
Should penalties run in both directions?
Yes, and asking for it is the fastest way to read a developer's confidence in its own timeline. Most presale contracts are asymmetric by default: your late payment triggers interest, forfeiture and cancellation rights, while late delivery triggers nothing.
| Clause | What a balanced contract says | Red-flag version |
|---|---|---|
| Late delivery by developer | Defined grace period, then a stated penalty or price adjustment in your favor | Silence, or unlimited "circumstances beyond our control" |
| Late payment by you | Grace period, defined interest, written notice before any consequence | Immediate forfeiture of everything paid |
| Cancellation by you | Stated grounds, a refund formula, a payment deadline | "Non-refundable" with no conditions |
| Force majeure | Narrow list of events, capped extension | Broad clause that absorbs any delay |
| Assignment | You may transfer your position, with conditions | Prohibited, or at the developer's sole discretion |
| Amenity scope | Listed and dated, changes require your consent | "Subject to change without notice" |
A developer that accepts symmetry expects to deliver. One that refuses any penalty for its own delay is asking you to carry a risk it will not carry itself.
What happens if I stop paying?
Ask before you need the answer. Across a 48-month plan, life changes — a job, a currency, a divorce, a diagnosis. Three questions settle it:
At what point do amounts already paid stop being recoverable, and on what scale? Can you sell or assign your contractual position to another buyer, and who approves that? Is there any pause or restructuring mechanism, or is the only exit cancellation?
The honest answer from most developers is that early cancellation costs you money. That is normal. What is not normal is a contract where cancellation costs you everything, immediately, with no written notice.
Why should payments track notarized instruments?
Because a private contract is a promise and a notarized instrument is a fact. Structure your payments so that each significant one is triggered by a document that exists in the public record: the notarized promise of sale, the escritura itself, its registration at the Registro Público de la Propiedad — and, for foreign buyers, the fideicomiso constituted at closing.
Three rules follow. Pay to the company's account, never to an individual's. Never pay against "we will regularize it later" — the same logic that makes informal ejido deals unrecoverable. And verify that whoever signs actually holds the power of attorney to do so; forged intermediaries collecting deposits is one of the region's recurring fraud patterns.
Why are permits the leading indicator of delivery risk?
Because a project that cannot get permission cannot build, however good the renderings are. Permit status is the closest thing the market has to a delivery forecast, and unlike a developer's promises it is verifiable by a third party. Our step-by-step verification guide covers how.
Our own file is public and we will summarize it plainly. On September 11, 2025, SEDETUS — Quintana Roo's territorial development authority — published an alert naming 26 Tulum developments it said lacked state or municipal permits. Selvadentro was on that list. On September 16, 2025, an updated SEDETUS bulletin removed 14 of them, Selvadentro included, after they demonstrated compliance with the Ley de Asentamientos Humanos, the Ley de Acciones Urbanísticas and the Ley de Propiedad en Condominio. The original alert was covered by elquintanarroense.com.mx and quintafuerza.mx; the clearance was reported by Tulum Times. Five days, on the record, either way. Our full documentation trail sits on the legal and permits page.
What does recourse actually look like in Mexico?
Slow. Contract enforcement runs through civil courts, and a contested case measured in years is ordinary rather than exceptional. PROFECO handles consumer complaints on adhesion contracts and can mediate. A notario público, as a public official, will refuse to formalize an operation whose documents do not hold up — which is genuine protection, but protection that arrives at closing, not after.
None of that is worthless. All of it is a poor substitute for diligence. Recourse recovers a fraction of what prevention protects, and it does so on a timeline that suits nobody who has to live with the outcome. Which is exactly why the checklist below matters more than any clause about courts.
Which clauses should I demand before signing?
- Identified object: lot number, surface area, boundaries, plan annexed to the contract.
- Two delivery dates: title transfer and infrastructure/amenity completion, each specific.
- Named infrastructure: every service you were shown, listed as an obligation.
- Developer penalty for delay: grace period, then a defined consequence in your favor.
- Your payment terms: grace period, stated interest, written notice before any sanction.
- Cancellation and refund: grounds, formula, retention, payment deadline.
- Assignment right: your ability to sell your position before closing.
- Narrow force majeure: defined events, capped extension.
- Payments against instruments: each milestone tied to a notarized or registered document.
- HOA and regime disclosure: the fee basis, the reserve, and the building rules you inherit.
- Permit annex: the expediente referenced by number, with copies attached.
- Jurisdiction and language: which courts, which governing version of the text.
Take that list to any development in Tulum. A serious counterparty will negotiate most of it; the reaction itself is information.
What green flags actually mean something?
Sold-out prior phases, because a phase that sold and closed is a delivery record rather than a projection — at Selvadentro, the Mirador and Refugio enclaves are fully sold and Suspiro is the active one. Completed projects elsewhere under the same names: our team's track record runs through Aldea Zamá in Tulum and Yucatán Country Club in Mérida. A compliance history that survived outside review. And a notario-verifiable escritura path you can check without asking permission.
If you are weighing a presale right now, the pre-construction buyer's guide has the ten questions to ask on the call, and everything about how our phases work is laid out in one place.