On June 19th, 2020 The Costa Rican Legislative Power approved a Bill (“Law 9866”), which establishes a term extension for one more year of the currently appointed boards of directors and other organs of civil organizations that expire in 2020. As a consequence of the declaration of national emergency by COVID-19, said period will be automatically extended to 2021.

The Law 9866 only benefits organizations that due the pandemic and the sanitary measures dictated by the Ministry of Health have not been able or cannot celebrate the assembly that would allow the appointment of said posts and these approvals, despite having made efforts reasonable for its realization.

The term extension applies to appointments that expired as of March 1st, 2020 and will expire before December 31st, 2020, inclusive. The extension has an effect on the following organs that must carry out their structural renovation processes during the indicated period:

1. Commercial companies.
2. The boards of directors constituted in accordance with Law 7933, Regulatory Law of Property in Condominium, of October 28th, 1999, and their administrators.
3. The administrative boards of foundations and the boards of directors of unions and development associations.
4. The government boards or directive boards, as well as the comptroller ‘s offices and any other organ of the professional associations, in accordance with the respective laws by which they are governed.
5. The boards of directors and the comptroller’s office of solidarity associations, in accordance with Law 6970, Law of Solidarity Associations, of November 7th, 1984.
6. The boards of directors, government councils or their governing body of federations or confederations that are integrated by foundations, unions, development associations, cooperatives, solidarity associations and professional associations.
7. The administrative and directive boards of the organizations protected by Law 5189, Constitutive Law of the Association of Guides and Scouts of Costa Rica.
8. The delegates of the National Coffee Congress, members of the Board of Directors of the Coffee Institute of Costa Rica (lcafé) or any other appointment made under Law 2762, “Law on the Regime of Relations between Producers, Beneficiaries and Exporters of Café, June 21ST, 1961.

Based on the epidemiological behavior of COVID-19 in the Costa Rican territory, the automatic extension established by the Law 9866 could be extended for another additional period of up to a maximum of six months, as long as the Ministry of Health so determines through the applicable administrative resolution

Furthermore, this extension does not require any recording in the registry entry of the entities that are subject to the Law 9866 to be valid and effective.

If you have any questions or require support in the registering of legal entities, please feel free to contact us and we will be happy to assist you.