Hello Folks, I just wanted to mention that we had an incredibly bad experience with C21. Their in house attorney gave us a check from his account (not a bank check) as payment of a $269,000 US sale - not a bank check, his personal business account. Further, please note that this check was not good, that is we were unable to cash it! The lawyer had conveniently filled it out improperly. When we requested they send a good check to us fifteen miles away they at first refused telling our lawyer that we would need to go to them to trade checks at their office. NO APOLOGY! In fact, they were ruthless throughout the transaction - we later determined that the buyers were personal friends of theirs which explained why the escrow money was not kept in an escrow account and why the English translation they provided for the promise to sell document did not reflect what was written in the applilcable Spanish version - to our detriment. I have never in the 32 real estate closings I have been party to in the US and the Dominican Republic dealt with such an unprofessional yet arrogant and treacherous group of people.
- Thread starter CaptE
- Start date
C21 Trickery
Who cares about an apology? I would crawl the 15 miles to get the right check.
What does your atty say?
Looks like they have to play dirty to get the ends to meet.
Not a good sign for us- the future buyers and sellers here on "The Island"
Not a good sign for us- the future buyers and sellers here on "The Island"
Which Century 21 office was this?
I suspect you are going to have to use your actual name if you want this thread to stay intact.
I suspect you are going to have to use your actual name if you want this thread to stay intact.
I never, ever, ever accept checks in this country. First of all, there is honestly no criminal prosecution for knowingly issuing a bad check. So accepting a check does nothing more than allow for a float...to their benefit and not yours. Note to self: checks are verboten!
Wire transfers confirmed by your receiving bank are the only way to work here IMHO. You need a third party. Even in the language translations I obtain from my attorney (highly reputable) I send to a second certified translator to confirm. Call me paranoid but in 30+ transactions in this country I have never had a sustainable problem.
I say sustainable because I've been sued a number of times by Dominican 'sharks' trying to take something from me but my attorneys are as anal as I am so we are always covered and in the right. But it still takes a fight in court. Nothing happens until a judge rules.
Get a great lawyer (I use Guzman Ariza), a wonderful backup lawyer (I'm not telling) and read every line of the contract! Take wire transfers and not checks. Promises are as strong as the air they live upon. If your eyes are open you will be fine but this is not America where the law protects stupid people.
Wire transfers confirmed by your receiving bank are the only way to work here IMHO. You need a third party. Even in the language translations I obtain from my attorney (highly reputable) I send to a second certified translator to confirm. Call me paranoid but in 30+ transactions in this country I have never had a sustainable problem.
I say sustainable because I've been sued a number of times by Dominican 'sharks' trying to take something from me but my attorneys are as anal as I am so we are always covered and in the right. But it still takes a fight in court. Nothing happens until a judge rules.
Get a great lawyer (I use Guzman Ariza), a wonderful backup lawyer (I'm not telling) and read every line of the contract! Take wire transfers and not checks. Promises are as strong as the air they live upon. If your eyes are open you will be fine but this is not America where the law protects stupid people.
Thanks for the interested responses. It was the Sosua office. My name is Eric Dobbyn and these people did some really weird stuff. We accepted Guido Perdomo's personal business check as they refused to provide a bank check...I drove very fast to our cambio in PP who expected us - he's got a big operation and we invest heavily with him...4 years running and he has done all the right way no surprises. He is set up to cash big checks so we surprised Guido Perdomo and Juan. The arrogance was completely intolerable. Pablo Rivera, Juan Perdomo's office manager brought us a good check on his way home that evening at which time we cashed it at Mr. Polanco's office. You would have thought Rivera was doing us some huge favor from his attitude. Totally unbelievable. I must say however, we got paid and never have to see any of those folks again.
The Sosua office...where Juan Perdomo is based with his relative Guido Perdomo as in house attorney. We did business with the Las Terrenas office during this time buying other property. The fellow we did business with at Las Terrenas did a very professional job and gained our trust in total. He has since opened his own office, Real Estate Las Terrenas. Too bad C21 did not respect his honesty and diligence...we would have continued to do business with them.
Our attorney was beholden to the great Juan Perdomo company for closings...she asked me to go pick up the check. I refused stating my next car ride was to the police 2 blocks away, not Sosua 15 miles away. She called back a minute later after talking to someone at c21 and said the office manager would be bringing us a replacement check.
IT'S REALLY TOO BAD that you are attempting to tarnish a lawyer who has more business than any other lawyer on the North coast ! there may have been a brief glitch , but in this financial world , at the moment , you have jumped the gun and made such a premature accusation , about a lawyer who has handled thousands of transactions since 1988 or later .His integrity And results , Make your petty bull.it frivolous Your just a simpleton
Well this surprises me as well but possibly you should look at it from a different angle given the people involved. Juan and Guido are exceptionally honest, to the best of my knowledge, so there may have been some other problem. I have never bought or sold anything through Juan's C21 but I have used Guido on occasion and have respect for him. Juan's C21 is the largest C21 in the Caribbean, period, and he wouldn't have gotten there without a large dose of honesty and professionalism.
Since you've had such good luck with them in the past (>20 transactions) I really would mark this down to a hiccup. Possibly someone should have apologized, yes, but why burn the bridge for a single transaction when your history with them has been so positive to date? This is a small island, smaller than some might think, so I recommend tolerance and understanding before pitching grenades around.
Just sayin...
Since you've had such good luck with them in the past (>20 transactions) I really would mark this down to a hiccup. Possibly someone should have apologized, yes, but why burn the bridge for a single transaction when your history with them has been so positive to date? This is a small island, smaller than some might think, so I recommend tolerance and understanding before pitching grenades around.
Just sayin...
That may be and we gave them the opportunity to apologize. I had heard good things about them and a friend referred the group. A hiccup, sure. It happens. Our experience did not equate with all the good things we heard about the group. And, to be fair, one of Guido's staff may have been responsible for the mess.
Kudos, CaptE, for standing up, giving your name, getting it off your chest.
I grew up thinking "the customer is always right".
For reasons you don't need to try to understand, they didn't believe that on that particular day.
They needed to apologize to you. And they didn't.
I grew up thinking "the customer is always right".
For reasons you don't need to try to understand, they didn't believe that on that particular day.
They needed to apologize to you. And they didn't.
It might have been that the money was going to be transferred between accounts and it just hadn't been done in time for when you tried to cash the check. Everyone moves money between accounts.
We have only had great experiences with both Pablo and Guido. In fact, we had a female intown lawyer getting us our title.
We paid in full and when we went to get the title she said the prices of titles had gone up and tried to get us to pay more money. We checked and prices had not gone up. When we questioned her she got abusive. We went to Guido's office and said if we have to pay more money we weren't going to give it to her. Pablo, Guido and Ruth in his office got the lawyer to give them our last payment and we got our title for the original price quoted. They were professional and efficient.
We have only had great experiences with both Pablo and Guido. In fact, we had a female intown lawyer getting us our title.
We paid in full and when we went to get the title she said the prices of titles had gone up and tried to get us to pay more money. We checked and prices had not gone up. When we questioned her she got abusive. We went to Guido's office and said if we have to pay more money we weren't going to give it to her. Pablo, Guido and Ruth in his office got the lawyer to give them our last payment and we got our title for the original price quoted. They were professional and efficient.
My question is that why would you sign a contract that appears to be different to the translated version? A sale is never completed until you have signed it and I am sorry to say, but if you signed without checking it thoroughly then you accepted it.
I have done dozens of real estate transactions over the years, many of which were through Guido's office and not once have I had any problems. Granted, each time money has changed hands it has been in the form of a wire transfer, which is normal procedure, but I am sure that this was a genuine mistake. Now, I am not saying that their follow up was of their normal standards, but at the same time I have a lot of respect for Guido.
I have done dozens of real estate transactions over the years, many of which were through Guido's office and not once have I had any problems. Granted, each time money has changed hands it has been in the form of a wire transfer, which is normal procedure, but I am sure that this was a genuine mistake. Now, I am not saying that their follow up was of their normal standards, but at the same time I have a lot of respect for Guido.
Dear Mr Dobbyn.
Sorry it took me so long to answer this complaint. I was not aware of it till a client told me about it. Let me tell you that I assume my fault, yes I did a mistake on the check but not as you say that I "conveniently filled it out improperly" because will be ridiculous for me to make a check I would need to change a few minutes later, check was given to you and your wife and you looked at it very carefully and did not realize about the mistake either. It was just a mistake that all humans normally do and you are aware that as soon as you called our office, I apologized and never told you to come and get a new one, we right away sent our sales representative to the bank with the new check. We told you not to leave the bank and to wait there till you get the new check. I do not think it took more than 45 minutes before the issue was properly resolved with the new check that you were able to cash immediately at the bank. I now ask you and all the people who may read this message. Does any private bank will change a personal check for such considerable amount of US$269,000.- to anyone ? In your case the check was changed right away because of the honesty of the person who wrote it.
About the issue with the contracts, I am also surprised that you are saying that, your lawyer who I consider a reputable and correct lawyer was present all the time and yes, the contract, had to be changed a few times and corrections had to be done to it as it is normally done at every closing to preserve the interests of both parties.
I hope the situation is now clear and again I offer my apologies if you did not feel well treated by me or any of the staff of Century 21 Juan Perdomo.
Sincerely
Guido Perdomo
Sorry it took me so long to answer this complaint. I was not aware of it till a client told me about it. Let me tell you that I assume my fault, yes I did a mistake on the check but not as you say that I "conveniently filled it out improperly" because will be ridiculous for me to make a check I would need to change a few minutes later, check was given to you and your wife and you looked at it very carefully and did not realize about the mistake either. It was just a mistake that all humans normally do and you are aware that as soon as you called our office, I apologized and never told you to come and get a new one, we right away sent our sales representative to the bank with the new check. We told you not to leave the bank and to wait there till you get the new check. I do not think it took more than 45 minutes before the issue was properly resolved with the new check that you were able to cash immediately at the bank. I now ask you and all the people who may read this message. Does any private bank will change a personal check for such considerable amount of US$269,000.- to anyone ? In your case the check was changed right away because of the honesty of the person who wrote it.
About the issue with the contracts, I am also surprised that you are saying that, your lawyer who I consider a reputable and correct lawyer was present all the time and yes, the contract, had to be changed a few times and corrections had to be done to it as it is normally done at every closing to preserve the interests of both parties.
I hope the situation is now clear and again I offer my apologies if you did not feel well treated by me or any of the staff of Century 21 Juan Perdomo.
Sincerely
Guido Perdomo