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Guam

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Guam — Contract for Deed / Installment Land Contract

Legal information, not legal advice. Verify against the cited primary sources before acting. Statutes in this area are frequently amended. Last verified: 2026-06-08.

Guam (a U.S. territory, FIPS 66) has no contract-for-deed–specific statute and no retrieved Guam case law addressing installment land contracts, “contracts for deed,” or vendor-vendee forfeiture. The instrument is governed only by Guam’s general property and contract law, which is substantially derived from the California codes — nearly every operative section of the Guam Code Annotated (GCA) on conveyancing, mortgages, and recording carries a SOURCE: CC §… or SOURCE: CCP §… annotation tracing to the California Civil Code or Code of Civil Procedure. That parentage is decisive for the remedy question. Two California-derived rules, read together, point Guam toward a treat-as-mortgage result rather than strict forfeiture:

  1. 18 GCA § 36105 (“deemed a mortgage”). “Every transfer of an interest in property, made only as a security for the performance of another act, is to be deemed a mortgage,” and subsection (b) reaches “[e]very transfer of conveyance of any interest in real property … with right reserved to repurchase, executed and delivered to secure the performance of another act” — the classic statutory hook (California CC § 2924) under which a sale-with-retained-title used as a financing device is recharacterized as a mortgage.
  2. 7 GCA § 24101 (one-form-of-action / sole-remedy foreclosure). Sourced verbatim to California CCP § 726: “Any action for the recovery of any debt, or the enforcement of any right secured by mortgage on real or personal property, must be in accordance with the provisions of this Chapter,” and “[a]ll actions for the foreclosure of a mortgage … upon real estate must be brought in the Superior Court.” Guam mortgage enforcement is therefore judicial foreclosure with a statutory three-month period to pay the judgment before sale (§ 24103) and a permitted post-sale deficiency (§ 24107).

Important honesty flag: no retrieved Guam decision actually applies § 36105 to recharacterize an installment land contract as a mortgage, and Guam courts could in principle enforce a true forfeiture/conditional-sale clause on its terms. The treat-as-mortgage classification here is a reasoned prediction from the California- derived code, not a holding — see needs_verification. The federal overlay (Dodd-Frank seller-financer rules, the Guam SAFE Act at 18 GCA ch. 36 art. 3, IRC § 453) applies in Guam, the same as in a state, and is addressed in § 4.

0. Identity & Terminology

  • In-state name(s): No Guam-specific statutory term. In practice the instrument is called a “contract for deed,” “installment land contract,” “land contract,” or “agreement of sale,” matching general U.S. usage; Guam realty glossaries describe it in the standard vendor-holds-legal-title / vendee-holds-equitable-title terms. The buyer is the vendee/buyer, the seller the vendor/seller. (No GCA chapter names or defines the device.)
  • Recognition: Common law only for the CFD device itself — there is no installment-land-contract statute in the GCA. The surrounding rules (statute of frauds, conveyancing, mortgages, recording, foreclosure) are statutory and California-derived. — 18 GCA § 86106 (statute of frauds, SOURCE CC § 1624); 21 GCA § 4101 (mode of transfer, SOURCE CC § 1091), https://col.guamcourts.gov/sites/default/files/18gc086.pdf; https://col.guamcourts.gov/sites/default/files/21gc004.pdf
  • Statutory home: No single chapter. The relevant homes are 21 GCA ch. 4 (Transfer of Real Property; § 4101 writing requirement, § 4202 fee-simple presumption), 21 GCA ch. 37 (Effect of Recording; §§ 37101–37103 race-notice), 21 GCA ch. 31/33 (What May Be Recorded; Acknowledgments), 21 GCA ch. 43 (Homesteads), 18 GCA ch. 36 (Mortgages; § 36101 definition, § 36105 “deemed a mortgage,” § 36112 foreclosure, and art. 3 the Guam SAFE Act), 18 GCA ch. 86 (Manner of Creating Contracts; § 86106 statute of frauds), and 7 GCA ch. 24 (Foreclosure of Mortgages; §§ 24101–24108). — Title 21 ch. 4, https://col.guamcourts.gov/sites/default/files/21gc004.pdf
  • Remedy regime: treat_as_mortgage (predicted, not yet adjudicated). The California-derived “deemed a mortgage” rule (18 GCA § 36105) plus the CCP § 726 one-form-of-action / judicial-foreclosure rule (7 GCA § 24101) make judicial foreclosure the law’s default channel for enforcing a security-purposed land conveyance, displacing self-executing strict forfeiture; this aligns Guam with the skendzel-v-marshall-1973 / sebastian-v-floyd-1979 drift. No retrieved Guam case confirms the application to an installment land contract — see needs_verification and forfeiture-vs-foreclosure. — 18 GCA § 36105; 7 GCA § 24101, https://col.guamcourts.gov/sites/default/files/18gc036.pdf; https://col.guamcourts.gov/sites/default/files/7gc024.pdf

1. Formation & Mandatory Disclosures

  • Statute of frauds: Writing required. “The following contracts are invalid, unless the same, or some note or memorandum thereof, is in writing and subscribed by the party to be charged, or by his agent: … (5) An agreement for the leasing for a longer period than one year, or for the sale of real property, or of an interest therein.” A land contract conveys an interest in real property and so must be written and subscribed. — 18 GCA § 86106(5) (SOURCE CC § 1624), https://col.guamcourts.gov/sites/default/files/18gc086.pdf. Conveyance of the estate itself likewise requires “an instrument in writing, subscribed by the party disposing of the same.” — 21 GCA § 4101 (SOURCE CC § 1091), https://col.guamcourts.gov/sites/default/files/21gc004.pdf
  • Mandatory disclosures: None CFD-specific. Guam has no installment-land- contract disclosure schedule (no Texas §§ 5.069–5.070 / Minnesota ch. 559A analogue) — confirmed absent: no such chapter exists in Title 21 or Title 18. General fraud/UDAP and any residential-sale disclosure duties are addressed at the transaction level (see needs_verification for any Guam consumer-protection / deceptive-trade-practices statute and any residential property-condition disclosure requirement). — (absence based on Title 21 TOC, https://col.guamcourts.gov/sites/default/files/21gc_TOC_0.pdf)
  • Recording requirement: No deadline; recording is permissive but priority- critical. A land contract is a recordable “conveyance” — “every instrument in writing by which any estate or interest in real property is created, alienated, mortgaged, or encumbered, or by which the title to any real property may be affected” (21 GCA § 37103, SOURCE CC § 1215). Guam is a race-notice jurisdiction: an unrecorded conveyance “is void as against any subsequent purchaser or mortgagee … in good faith and for a valuable consideration, whose conveyance is first duly recorded” (21 GCA § 37102, SOURCE CC § 1214); recording with the Department of Land Management gives constructive notice (§ 37101). The buyer/vendee should record the contract (or a memorandum) to protect priority. — 21 GCA §§ 37101–37103, https://col.guamcourts.gov/sites/default/files/21gc037.pdf
  • Annual accounting statement: No statutory mandate located for CFDs (none in Title 21 or Title 18). — see needs_verification.
  • Prepayment: No statute located barring or restricting prepayment of a land contract; contract terms govern. — see needs_verification.
  • Usury / interest cap: Not retrieved this run. Guam’s general interest/usury rule (historically in Title 14 / Finance & Taxation–adjacent provisions, California- derived) was not pinned to a specific GCA section; whether any cap binds a seller- carried land contract is flagged. — see needs_verification.

2. Buyer’s Equitable Interest

  • Equitable title passes / equitable conversion recognized: Functionally yes (predicted), but no Guam holding retrieved. Under the general installment-contract doctrine and Guam’s California-derived security framing (18 GCA § 36105 deems a security conveyance a mortgage; § 36108 a mortgage does not give the mortgagee possession), a vendee in possession holds an equitable interest while the vendor retains legal title as security. No Guam-specific equitable-conversion or risk-of-loss decision was retrieved. See equitable-conversion. — 18 GCA §§ 36105, 36108, https://col.guamcourts.gov/sites/default/files/18gc036.pdf; see needs_verification.
  • Buyer’s interest recordable: Yes. A land contract is a recordable conveyance (21 GCA § 37103), and recording confers race-notice priority (§ 37102). — 21 GCA §§ 37102–37103, https://col.guamcourts.gov/sites/default/files/21gc037.pdf
  • Buyer’s interest insurable: Likely yes — Guam has active title insurers (e.g., Title Guaranty of Guam) writing on Guam realty; specific vendee’s-interest endorsements not verified. — see needs_verification.
  • Risk of loss: Contract-governed (no Guam statute reallocating risk of loss for a land contract located). — see needs_verification.
  • Improvements and waste: A possessor whose interest is subject to a mortgage-type security “may [not] do any act which will substantially impair the … security” (the waste rule, 18 GCA § 36110, SOURCE CC § 2929); a vendee in possession may improve and those improvements are part of the equity a forfeiture would destroy. — 18 GCA § 36110, https://col.guamcourts.gov/sites/default/files/18gc036.pdf

3. Default & Remedies → see forfeiture-vs-foreclosure

  • Primary remedy: Judicial foreclosure (predicted treat-as-mortgage). Where the land contract is a security device, 7 GCA § 24101 (CCP § 726) requires that “[a]ny action for the recovery of any debt, or the enforcement of any right secured by mortgage … must be in accordance with the provisions of this Chapter,” i.e., a Superior Court foreclosure action. Guam has no power-of-sale-by-statute track separate from this judicial chapter for the typical land-sale security; a contractual forfeiture clause is in tension with the § 36105 “deemed a mortgage” rule. — 7 GCA § 24101, https://col.guamcourts.gov/sites/default/files/7gc024.pdf
  • Forfeiture available? Unresolved by Guam authority; statutorily disfavored. No Guam statute authorizes installment-contract forfeiture, and 18 GCA § 36105 recharacterizes a security conveyance as a mortgage — which, if applied, would bar self-executing forfeiture and route the seller to foreclosure. But no retrieved Guam case has held that a CFD forfeiture clause is unenforceable, so a court could enforce a genuine forfeiture/conditional-sale on its terms subject to equity. — 18 GCA § 36105, https://col.guamcourts.gov/sites/default/files/18gc036.pdf; see needs_verification.
    • Substantial-equity bar: No Guam statute or retrieved case. The functional substitute is the foreclosure machinery itself: a foreclosure sale returns surplus proceeds to the mortgagor (7 GCA § 24105), protecting accumulated equity in a way strict forfeiture would not. — 7 GCA § 24105, https://col.guamcourts.gov/sites/default/files/7gc024.pdf; see needs_verification.
  • Statutory cancellation: None. Guam has no notice-and-cure cancellation statute for land contracts (contrast Minnesota ch. 559; Washington RCW ch. 61.30) — confirmed absent. The closest statutory cure window is the foreclosure judgment’s three-month pay-in period (below). — (absence; 7 GCA ch. 24, https://col.guamcourts.gov/sites/default/files/7gc024.pdf)
  • Judicial foreclosure required when: A secured-debt enforcement action falls within 7 GCA § 24101 (CCP § 726). On foreclosure, after the court fixes the amount due it orders it “paid into court within a period of three (3) months in the case of real estate mortgage … from and after the date on which the order was made” (a statutory pay-or-lose-it cure/grace period); only on failure to pay does the court order a sale “in the manner … that govern[s] sales of real estate under execution,” and the confirmed sale “operate[s] to divest the rights of all the parties.” — 7 GCA §§ 24103, 24104, https://col.guamcourts.gov/sites/default/files/7gc024.pdf
  • Acceleration enforceable? / restitution offset on forfeiture? Acceleration: no CFD-specific statutory bar located; governed by the instrument (see needs_verification). Restitution/surplus: on a foreclosure sale, surplus over the debt and costs is returned to junior lienors and then “to the mortgagor” (7 GCA § 24105) — the structural protection against the seller capturing more than the debt. — 7 GCA § 24105, https://col.guamcourts.gov/sites/default/files/7gc024.pdf
  • Seller’s other remedies: an action for the debt is folded into the foreclosure under the one-action rule (7 GCA § 24101); a deficiency for any balance after sale is available (7 GCA § 24107); specific performance and quiet title are available through the Superior Court. Where a contract is not treated as a security device, an action for the price/ejectment may lie — unresolved (see needs_verification).

▸ For Sellers / Operators — Guam has no contract-for-deed statute and no retrieved Guam case law on forfeiture, so the deal-defining question is unsettled — do not assume a self-executing forfeiture clause will be enforced. Guam’s mortgage law is California-derived: 18 GCA § 36105 deems a conveyance made to secure performance a mortgage, and 7 GCA § 24101 (CCP § 726) channels enforcement of a secured debt into judicial foreclosure in the Superior Court, with a statutory three-month pay-in period before sale (§ 24103) and a permitted deficiency (§ 24107). The conservative, enforceable posture is to expect a foreclosure-style remedy, not forfeiture. Make the buyer record the contract or a memorandum (21 GCA § 37102 race-notice priority), confirm your Guam SAFE Act / Dodd-Frank exposure before carrying paper (§ 4), and have a Guam attorney structure the default remedy — because the controlling characterization (mortgage vs. true conditional sale) has not been adjudicated here.

▸ For Buyers — Record your contract to lock in priority over the seller’s later creditors (21 GCA § 37102). Your strongest structural protection on default is that Guam’s code recharacterizes a security conveyance as a mortgage (18 GCA § 36105) and requires judicial foreclosure with surplus proceeds returned to you (7 GCA §§ 24101, 24105) — but because no Guam court has yet applied this to a land contract, get Guam counsel if the seller asserts a forfeiture clause.

3b. Remedies — Advanced

  • Election of remedies / deficiency: The one-form-of-action rule (7 GCA § 24101, CCP § 726) consolidates the debt and security claims into the foreclosure; a deficiency decree for the post-sale balance is expressly authorized (7 GCA § 24107). — https://col.guamcourts.gov/sites/default/files/7gc024.pdf
  • Anti-forfeiture / equitable relief from forfeiture: No retrieved Guam case. Guam’s Superior/Supreme Courts sit in equity and the California-derived code supplies the analytic tools (deemed-mortgage, redemption-style pay-in), but no Guam opinion granting relief from a CFD forfeiture was located. — see needs_verification.
  • Ejectment vs. eviction path: A vendee in possession under a security-type contract is an equitable owner, not a tenant, so the seller’s route to possession after an uncured default should be foreclosure (and resulting writ), not summary landlord-tenant proceedings under 21 GCA ch. 21 (Forcible Entry and Detainer) / ch. 48 (Landlord and Tenant). Not confirmed by Guam case. — see needs_verification.
  • Quiet title after cancellation: Title disputes over realty are resolved by an action to determine conflicting claims (21 GCA ch. 25); a confirmed foreclosure sale “operate[s] to divest the rights of all the parties to the action” (7 GCA § 24104), so a separate quiet-title suit is generally unnecessary after foreclosure. — 7 GCA § 24104, https://col.guamcourts.gov/sites/default/files/7gc024.pdf
  • Forfeited payments treatment: No Guam authority retrieved on liquidated- damages-vs-penalty for retained installment payments; if the contract is treated as a mortgage, retention beyond the debt is structurally barred by the surplus-return rule (7 GCA § 24105). — see needs_verification.
  • Intervening seller-lien risk to buyer: A recorded contract is protected by the race-notice rule — an unrecorded interest is void against a later good-faith recorded purchaser/mortgagee (21 GCA § 37102), so recording is the buyer’s defense against the seller’s later creditors. — 21 GCA § 37102, https://col.guamcourts.gov/sites/default/files/21gc037.pdf

4. Federal Overlay (as applied in-territory) → see dodd-frank-seller-financing, safe-act-mlo, garn-st-germain-due-on-sale

  • Dodd-Frank exposure: The federal seller-financing rules apply in Guam. The TILA “mortgage originator” definition and seller-financer exclusions (15 U.S.C. § 1602(dd)(2); 12 C.F.R. § 1026.36(a)(4)–(5)) and the ATR/QM rule (12 C.F.R. § 1026.43) reach Guam through TILA’s definition of “State,” which includes the territories. A natural-person seller financing one dwelling in 12 months may use the ≤1-property exclusion; the ≤3-property exclusion (with ability-to-repay) is the next tier. — see dodd-frank-seller-financing, https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/1602
  • SAFE Act MLO licensing: Guam enacted its own SAFE Act — the Guam Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act of 2010 (Public Law 30-151), codified at 18 GCA §§ 36301–36324 (art. 3 of the Mortgages chapter). It requires licensing of “mortgage loan originators” — an individual who, for compensation or gain, “(1) takes a residential mortgage loan application; or (2) offers or negotiates terms of a residential mortgage loan” (18 GCA § 36303(h)). The enumerated carve-outs in § 36303(h) do not spell out a stand-alone seller-financing exemption; whether and how a seller carrying installment paper on the seller’s own property is excluded (e.g., as not acting “for compensation or gain” as an originator, or under a de minimis threshold) is not resolved on the retrieved text. — 18 GCA § 36303, § 36304, https://col.guamcourts.gov/sites/default/files/18gc036.pdf; see safe-act-mlo and needs_verification (precise Guam SAFE-Act seller-financing treatment and administering agency).
  • State/territory consumer-protection overlay / CFPB enforcement notes: Guam has no CFD-specific predatory-sales statute (confirmed absent). Any Guam deceptive- trade-practices / consumer-protection statute was not pinned this run. Post-2016 CFPB/state-AG scrutiny of predatory contract-for-deed selling is the national compliance backdrop and informs how a Guam court might view an inequitable forfeiture. — see needs_verification.

5. Title, Recording & Wraps → see garn-st-germain-due-on-sale

  • Memorandum recording: Permitted and advisable. A land contract or memorandum is a recordable “conveyance” (21 GCA § 37103) at the Department of Land Management; recording gives constructive notice (§ 37101) and race-notice priority (§ 37102). — 21 GCA §§ 37101–37103, https://col.guamcourts.gov/sites/default/files/21gc037.pdf
  • Garn-St. Germain due-on-sale: A land contract is a transfer that can trigger a due-on-sale clause in an underlying loan; Garn-St. Germain (12 U.S.C. § 1701j-3) makes due-on-sale clauses generally enforceable and preempts contrary local law, subject to the enumerated residential exemptions (which generally do not shelter a sale on an installment land contract where the borrower parts with occupancy/possession). See garn-st-germain-due-on-sale.
  • Underlying-mortgage / wrap: Wrap-around land contracts over an existing mortgage are not prohibited by any retrieved Guam statute but carry the standard wrap risk: a senior lender may call or foreclose on a due-on-sale trigger, and a senior foreclosure can extinguish the buyer’s junior equitable interest. Disclosure and payment escrow are contractual best practice. — see garn-st-germain-due-on-sale; needs_verification.
  • Deed delivery: The seller retains legal title and conveys by deed at payoff (the conveyancing rules of 21 GCA ch. 4 govern the fulfillment deed). Escrow of the deed is contractual practice. — 21 GCA § 4101, https://col.guamcourts.gov/sites/default/files/21gc004.pdf
  • Marketable title at payoff: The seller must convey marketable title; Guam has a Marketable Title Act (21 GCA ch. 39) and a Land Title Registration (Torrens) system (21 GCA ch. 29) for registered parcels — recording the contract and the fulfillment deed clears the chain. — 21 GCA ch. 39 / ch. 29 (per Title 21 TOC, https://col.guamcourts.gov/sites/default/files/21gc_TOC_0.pdf)
  • Title insurance: Available on Guam realty through Guam title insurers; specific vendee’s-interest coverage not verified. — see needs_verification.
  • Seller death / bankruptcy effect: The seller’s interest (legal title + payment stream) passes to the estate/bankruptcy estate subject to the buyer’s recorded contract and right to the deed at payoff. — see needs_verification.

6. Tax Treatment

  • IRC § 453 installment reporting: A Guam land contract is an installment sale; a non-dealer seller may report gain under IRC § 453 as principal is collected (dealer-property and other exceptions apply). Guam administers a “mirror” territorial income tax based on the Internal Revenue Code, so § 453 reporting applies through the Guam Territorial Income Tax. — 26 U.S.C. § 453, https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/453; see irc-453-installment-sale and needs_verification (precise Guam mirror-code mechanics for installment gain).
  • Property-tax responsibility: Guam levies real property tax administered by the Department of Revenue & Taxation, Real Property Tax Division, under 11 GCA § 24101 (the DRT page states the Division administers “the real property tax laws mandated by Section 24101, Title 11, Guam Code Annotated”). In practice the buyer-in-possession (equitable owner) bears the tax by contract. — 11 GCA § 24101 (Real Property Tax Division authority), https://www.guamtax.com/about/rpt.html; see needs_verification (statutory text and whether the assessment runs against an equitable owner).
  • Homestead exemption for equitable owner: Guam recognizes a homestead (21 GCA ch. 43; § 43103 “Exempt From Forced Sale”) declarable by an owner; whether a land- contract vendee in possession qualifies as an “owner” to declare a homestead is not resolved on the retrieved text. — 21 GCA ch. 43, https://col.guamcourts.gov/sites/default/files/21gc043.pdf; see needs_verification.
  • Transfer / documentary-stamp tax: Guam imposes a documentary/transfer tax on conveyances (reported at roughly 1,000 of consideration); the precise GCA section and whether the tax is due on the installment contract or on the fulfillment deed were not pinned to primary text this run. — see needs_verification.
  • Mortgage registration tax: None located — recording is a per-document Department of Land Management fee, not a registration tax. — see needs_verification.

7. Bankruptcy & Death / Divorce

  • Buyer bankruptcy: Federal bankruptcy law (11 U.S.C.) applies in Guam through the U.S. District Court of Guam. Whether a Guam land contract is an executory contract (11 U.S.C. § 365) or a secured debt in the buyer’s bankruptcy follows the national split; Guam’s deemed-mortgage framing (18 GCA § 36105) supports secured-debt-style treatment, but no Guam-specific holding was retrieved. — 18 GCA § 36105, https://col.guamcourts.gov/sites/default/files/18gc036.pdf; see needs_verification.
  • Seller bankruptcy: The seller’s interest enters the estate subject to the buyer’s recorded contract and right to the deed at payoff. — see needs_verification.
  • Assignability by buyer: A land contract is assignable subject to its terms; anti- assignment / due-on-sale clauses are enforced per their terms and the Garn-St. Germain overlay for any underlying loan. — see garn-st-germain-due-on-sale; needs_verification.
  • Survivorship / divorce treatment: The buyer’s equitable interest is real property passing by will/intestacy (15 GCA Estates & Probate) and is divisible marital property on divorce; Guam is a community-property jurisdiction (19 GCA). — see needs_verification (specific Guam authority on a land-contract interest in probate/divorce).

8. Case Law (real, verified)

No Guam-specific contract-for-deed / installment-land-contract case law was retrieved. No Guam Supreme Court or Superior Court opinion addressing CFD forfeiture, recharacterization as a mortgage, or vendee equitable title was located. The controlling national anchors against which Guam’s (predicted) treat-as-mortgage posture is measured are external:

CaseYearTopicHolding (plain English)Source
skendzel-v-marshall-19731973forfeiture / treat_as_mortgageA forfeiture clause is unenforceable against a buyer with substantial equity; the seller must foreclose the contract like a mortgage. The lead case of the national drift away from strict forfeiture.https://www.casemine.com/judgement/us/5914c6d4add7b049347ddfa0
sebastian-v-floyd-19791979treat_as_mortgageAn installment land contract is treated as a mortgage; forfeiture is not an available remedy.(see case page)

(If a Guam decision on point exists, it should be added here; none was retrieved this run — see needs_verification.)

9. Edge Cases (territory-specific notes)

  • No CFD statute / no Guam case law — the device runs entirely on California-derived general property/contract/mortgage law; the remedy on default is a reasoned prediction (treat-as-mortgage via 18 GCA § 36105 + 7 GCA § 24101), not a Guam holding.
  • Deemed-mortgage hook (18 GCA § 36105) — a conveyance “with right reserved to repurchase, executed and delivered to secure the performance of another act” is statutorily “deemed a mortgage,” the strongest textual basis for foreclosure-over- forfeiture.
  • One-form-of-action rule (7 GCA § 24101, CCP § 726) — secured-debt enforcement must proceed through the judicial-foreclosure chapter, with a three-month pay-in period (§ 24103) and permitted deficiency (§ 24107).
  • Race-notice recording (21 GCA § 37102) — record the contract/memorandum at the Department of Land Management to beat the seller’s later good-faith recorded creditors.
  • Land Court / Torrens overlay (21 GCA ch. 29) — registered parcels record in the Torrens system; the Marketable Title Act (ch. 39) governs chain clearing.
  • garn-st-germain-due-on-sale — a land contract can trigger a due-on-sale clause on an underlying loan; allocate wrap risk by contract.
  • (Add: manufactured/mobile-home contracts; SCRA servicemember protections — Guam has a large military footprint; Chamorro Land Trust / Ancestral Lands restrictions on alienation of certain Guam land, which can bar a private installment sale of that land.)

10. Operations

  • Where records live: Land instruments are recorded at the Department of Land Management (DLM), Division of Land Records, ITC Building, Tamuning — Guam’s single territory-wide recorder (no county offices). Documents must be notarized and fully acknowledged (21 GCA ch. 33). — DLM, https://dlm.guam.gov/division-of-land-records/
  • Recorder / agency portals: DLM (recording); Department of Revenue & Taxation, Real Property Tax Division (property tax / RPT and documentary tax), https://www.guamtax.com/about/rpt.html; the official Compiler of Laws publishes the GCA, https://col.guamcourts.gov/guam-code-annotated/guam-code-annotated.
  • Who may draft (UPL notes): Land contracts may be drafted on standardized forms, but foreclosure (7 GCA ch. 24) and contested title/equity claims are litigated in the Superior Court through counsel; non-attorney drafting/foreclosing for others risks UPL exposure.
  • Typical costs: DLM per-document recording fees; documentary/transfer tax on conveyance (≈1,000, verify); foreclosure costs on default. — see needs_verification.
  • Typical timelines: No CFD-specific cure clock; on foreclosure the statutory pay-in period is three months for real estate (7 GCA § 24103) before sale.
  • Key agencies: Department of Land Management; Department of Revenue & Taxation (RPT, documentary tax, Guam SAFE Act administration — verify administering office); Superior Court of Guam (foreclosure); Compiler of Laws (Judiciary of Guam).
  • Useful forms: Recorded contract for deed / memorandum; grant deed at payoff (21 GCA § 4102 form); acknowledgment (21 GCA ch. 33); foreclosure complaint (7 GCA § 24102).

11. Meta

  • sources:
  • needs_verification:
    • The single biggest gap: whether any Guam court has applied 18 GCA § 36105 to recharacterize an installment land contract as a mortgage (forcing foreclosure over forfeiture), or has enforced a CFD forfeiture clause on its terms. The treat_as_mortgage classification is a prediction from the California-derived code, not a retrieved Guam holding. Pin any Guam Supreme/Superior Court opinion.
    • Guam usury / interest-rate cap applicable to seller-carried paper (general interest statute not pinned to a GCA section this run).
    • Precise Guam SAFE Act seller-financing exemption (if any) and the administering agency/office for 18 GCA §§ 36301–36324 (DRT vs. another office); how a ≤1/≤3-loan seller is treated under § 36303(h).
    • Any Guam consumer-protection / deceptive-trade-practices statute and any residential property-condition disclosure duty reaching a land sale.
    • Guam authority on equitable conversion / risk of loss, prepayment, and annual accounting for a land contract (none located; likely none exist).
    • Documentary/transfer tax — exact GCA section, rate, and whether due on the contract or the fulfillment deed (reported ≈1,000; text not pinned).
    • Property-tax statutory text (11 GCA § 24101 series) and whether an equitable owner / vendee can claim the homestead (21 GCA ch. 43) and any RPT exemption.
    • Bankruptcy characterization of a Guam land contract (§ 365 executory vs. secured) in the U.S. District Court of Guam; probate/divorce treatment of the vendee interest (community property, 19 GCA).
    • Chamorro Land Trust / Ancestral Lands alienation restrictions that may bar an installment sale of certain Guam land (21 GCA ch. 75/75A, ch. 80) — confirm scope.
    • Title-insurance vendee’s-interest endorsements available on Guam.
  • open_questions:
    • Does Guam practice actually use installment land contracts at meaningful volume, or does the heavy military/financed market route most sales through conventional mortgages (18 GCA ch. 36) — affecting how likely a Guam court is to confront the § 36105 question?
    • If a Guam court confronts a CFD forfeiture clause, will it follow California’s deemed-mortgage line (the code’s source) or treat a genuine conditional sale as enforceable?
  • changelog:
    • 2026-06-08 — Initial authored page. Honest territory page: no CFD-specific statute and no retrieved Guam case law. Primary sourcing from the official Guam Compiler of Laws chapter PDFs (18 GCA ch. 36 Mortgages incl. §36105 deemed-mortgage and the Guam SAFE Act art. 3; 7 GCA ch. 24 Foreclosure incl. §24101 CCP-726 one-action rule, 3-mo pay-in, deficiency; 18 GCA §86106 statute of frauds; 21 GCA ch. 4 transfer, ch. 37 recording race-notice, ch. 43 homesteads; Title 21 TOC confirming absence of any CFD chapter), plus DLM, DRT (RPT), and federal anchors. Remedy regime classified treat_as_mortgage as a reasoned prediction from the California-derived code, with the absence of a confirming Guam holding flagged as the primary needs_verification.
  • cross_links: forfeiture-vs-foreclosure, equitable-conversion, dodd-frank-seller-financing, safe-act-mlo, garn-st-germain-due-on-sale, irc-453-installment-sale, skendzel-v-marshall-1973, sebastian-v-floyd-1979

Disclaimer. This page is legal information, not legal advice, and may be out of date. Guam has no contract-for-deed statute and no retrieved Guam case law on the instrument; the remedy on default is a reasoned prediction from Guam’s California- derived mortgage, contract, and recording statutes, and outcomes are fact-specific and untested in Guam courts. Consult a licensed Guam attorney before drafting, enforcing, or signing an installment land contract.

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