Penelopy, I think someone has mentioned it already but "hipotica" does not exist in Brazil. There is a "hipoteca" which is how you translate "mortgage" in Portuguese.
So if a property has a "hipotica" that means that the property has a mortgage and as Rob stated, any lawyer worth his salt will find that out during the due diligence process. In fact, just so that you know, until 2006, Brazilian law did not allow banks to repossess property if buyers defaulted on their payments, which is why most mortgages (or "hipotecas") only started in 2008.
The law changed in 2006 and on the 15th of October 2007, the first 30 year mortgage (hipoteca) was launched by Banco Santander Brasil in a revolutionary measure which made headlines around the country (you can google it). Today, a mere 3 and a half years later, Brazilians remain suspicious of the 30 year mortgage and the trend is still (amazingly) to take what is called "Developer Financing" - where the buyer pays the developer (not a bank) over ten years after the property is delivered - of course this only works on a newly built or off-plan property.
I employ "amazingly" here because interest on Developer Finance can be as high as 25% per year whereas a 30 year mortgage can be as low as 4.1% per year (on government subsidised property for example).