Zona Oriental, SD and negotiations

[El Rey de Mangu]

Mountainannie,

Is this true, that we are unlikely to get the security deposit back? I don't like the sound of that.

I don't understand that. If you have a notarized contract with licensed attorneys, the deposit is required to be returned by law, less any observed "damages" or incurred costs during your lease period. The laws in DR for rental properties are much like that of the US where the courts almost always favor the tenant.

If there are folk that have been "hustled" by landlords here (which is NOT uncommon), I just don't see it as the norm if you perform your due diligence.

 

[DRNED]

It is a huge concern as these deposits are not small amounts of money. It wouldn't be the first time I have had trouble getting deposits back from an estate agent and so I know it happens, if it happens in SD then I expect that they know if they hold you up long enough with the returns, eventually you will be leaving for a flight, and the chances of you persuing it from back home are pretty small.
Downfalls of them knowing we won't be around for that long when we are asking for a shorter term contract.

 

[Lucille]

Mountainannie,

Is this true, that we are unlikely to get the security deposit back? I don't like the sound of that.

DRned:
The security deposit is to cover any damage to the property or for unpaid utilities....otherwise you are entirely to get your money back and some cases they allow you to use your deposit as the last month rent.
Take a close look and see any damage, before you move in.....
The contract is paid by the tenant.

 

[El Rey de Mangu]

DRned:
The security deposit is to cover any damage to the property or for unpaid utilities....otherwise you are entirely to get your money back and some cases they allow you to use your deposit as the last month rent.
Take a close look and see any damage, before you move in.....
The contract is paid by the tenant.

This isn't even relevant. The OP is concerned about getting BURNED by the landlord. The whole world knows what a deposit "should" be used for.

I would like to re-state, again, for the third time, if a contract is done RIGHT here in DR, the laws are very much in favor of the tenant. A valid, executed contract in proper format, notarized by a licensed attorney who is a notary, is very hard to deny.

The landlord would have to say he is not returning your deposit for reasons PRE-DEFINED in the contract, which would mean he is lying and taking the risk that you won't pay a miserable 200 dollars to out-lawyer him in an arbitration.

Very simple: in DR you need use a lawyer. You need have a valid contract. You need, just like in any other place on Earth, watch out for potential scams.

 

[Lucille]

This isn't even relevant. The OP is concerned about getting BURNED by the landlord. The whole world knows what a deposit "should" be used for.

I would like to re-state, again, for the third time, if a contract is done RIGHT here in DR, the laws are very much in favor of the tenant. A valid, executed contract in proper format, notarized by a licensed attorney who is a notary, is very hard to deny.

The landlord would have to say he is not returning your deposit for reasons PRE-DEFINED in the contract, which would mean he is lying and taking the risk that you won't pay a miserable 200 dollars to out-lawyer him in an arbitration.

Very simple: in DR you need use a lawyer. You need have a valid contract. You need, just like in any other place on Earth, watch out for potential scams.

Rey...Just come down......RELAX..

 

[El Rey de Mangu]

Rey...Just come down......RELAX..

You're right Lucy, I was just all heated up over the other thread on DR economy!!! it must have poured over into this. LOL

 

[Lucille]

You're right Lucy, I was just all heated up over the other thread on DR economy!!! it must have poured over into this. LOL

Thank you....Sweetie...

 

[DRNED]

Abe Lincoln Ave

Abe Lincoln Ave? just to bring this quiery back into the light now we have the contract entitlements covered.
Is it a nice place, or to be avoided?

 

[El Rey de Mangu]

Abe Lincoln Ave? just to bring this quiery back into the light now we have the contract entitlements covered.
Is it a nice place, or to be avoided?

I'm sorry to say this DRNED, but it looks like you're peppering the forum with "how to wipe your ---" questions. Some of your stuff is just so globally fundamental. You need use the search functions.

It's starting to look like an amateur marketing data fishing expedition.

 

[mountainannie]

Calmer,

Rey, Calmer, please

the guy is a newbie.. he does not speak Spanish well, he is not married to a Dominican. And really, even if you HAVE a lawyer, it does not mean that you have an honest one!!

I think that we are really in a rental bubble now in SD, with landlords holding out for exorbitant rents... prices should be around $550 for the older 2 bedroom apartments which should sell for 2 million or so... but they are now asking for $700 or more.. at least here in Gazcue...Price-to-Rent Ratio

So my advice to the OP is to go to Hostal YU ::Hostal Plaza yu:: which is very clean, very safe, and has nice units with kitchens and pots and pans and everything and negotiate a good price for a month and just settle in until you know the city better. If you are only going to be here for less than six months, then just STAY THERE.... you will have maid service, you will have company, you will have security and company, and you will not have to hassle with all of this.

I lived in an aparthotel for four months when I first came to the Capital when I came here and I had been in the country for two years already. It takes a while to get your bearings, figure out your life, the transport, the cost of everything, and if you are really going to stay,

It just seems to me that you really do not have enough savvy to be going around looking for an apartment and getting into signing a lease right now.. it is just going to be too stressful and you are most likely going to make a mistake that you are going to live to regret.

 

[DRNED]

Ok, this wasn't our intention, I thought the best place to ask for live info would be from people living there, not alot online for the questions we are looking for answers to. Especially the inside view.

Trust me we have had our heads stuck to the PC for many many hours and days, weeks trying to do this without assistance.

I realise we have asked quite a few questions to things that may be obvious to you guys, or even easy to find out if you know where to look. We have looked and some things are just not available, like peoples opinions. If this is a pain to other users then I take your point and we'll shuffle on fine.

Thanks for all the input.

 

[mountainannie]

no, please stay

Ok, this wasn't our intention, I thought the best place to ask for live info would be from people living there, not alot online for the questions we are looking for answers to. Especially the inside view.

Trust me we have had our heads stuck to the PC for many many hours and days, weeks trying to do this without assistance.

I realise we have asked quite a few questions to things that may be obvious to you guys, or even easy to find out if you know where to look. We have looked and some things are just not available, like peoples opinions. If this is a pain to other users then I take your point and we'll shuffle on fine.

Thanks for all the input.

No, Rey already said that he was upset about another forum and I was only saying that finding an apartment here is really tough. If you search on renting a house in SD you will see some very sad tales.. --- PLEASE do not take this as my saying that you were being too much trouble or that your questions were too much trouble. Just that it sounds like you need a place to stay, a roof over your head...
(and we do not even know who WE is, are you alone, with two kids, with a five month old baby, a Moslem with three wives?)

Anyway, do NOT just suffle on... it is dangerous out there and WE ARE REALLY HERE TO HELP...

just give us more time and please a bit more information about what it is that you are looking for?

We have your budget which should be doable but .... as I said, there seems to be a bubble right now....

 

[Lucille]

Rey, Calmer, please

the guy is a newbie.. he does not speak Spanish well, he is not married to a Dominican. And really, even if you HAVE a lawyer, it does not mean that you have an honest one!!

I think that we are really in a rental bubble now in SD, with landlords holding out for exorbitant rents... prices should be around $550 for the older 2 bedroom apartments which should sell for 2 million or so... but they are now asking for $700 or more.. at least here in Gazcue...Price-to-Rent Ratio

So my advice to the OP is to go to Hostal YU ::Hostal Plaza yu:: which is very clean, very safe, and has nice units with kitchens and pots and pans and everything and negotiate a good price for a month and just settle in until you know the city better. If you are only going to be here for less than six months, then just STAY THERE.... you will have maid service, you will have company, you will have security and company, and you will not have to hassle with all of this.

I lived in an aparthotel for four months when I first came to the Capital when I came here and I had been in the country for two years already. It takes a while to get your bearings, figure out your life, the transport, the cost of everything, and if you are really going to stay,

It just seems to me that you really do not have enough savvy to be going around looking for an apartment and getting into signing a lease right now.. it is just going to be too stressful and you are most likely going to make a mistake that you are going to live to regret.

Mountainannie:
Waooooh....Beautiful advice.
Very smart....

DRNED:
You should consider mountainannie's advice.
All Best,
Lucille

 

[pedrochemical]

Ok, this wasn't our intention, I thought the best place to ask for live info would be from people living there, not alot online for the questions we are looking for answers to. Especially the inside view.

Trust me we have had our heads stuck to the PC for many many hours and days, weeks trying to do this without assistance.

I realise we have asked quite a few questions to things that may be obvious to you guys, or even easy to find out if you know where to look. We have looked and some things are just not available, like peoples opinions. If this is a pain to other users then I take your point and we'll shuffle on fine.

Thanks for all the input.

Stick around. Most here are helpful. Mangu is new so listen to some of the people who have experience.
Interestingly enough, the Jonny-come-lately know it alls seem to self destruct and not stay long on the forum or in the D.R.

 

[Lucille]

Ok, this wasn't our intention, I thought the best place to ask for live info would be from people living there, not alot online for the questions we are looking for answers to. Especially the inside view.

Trust me we have had our heads stuck to the PC for many many hours and days, weeks trying to do this without assistance.

I realise we have asked quite a few questions to things that may be obvious to you guys, or even easy to find out if you know where to look. We have looked and some things are just not available, like peoples opinions. If this is a pain to other users then I take your point and we'll shuffle on fine.

Thanks for all the input.

Drned: Please do not feel that way, there are a lot of good people in this forum, who loves to help.
It is my pleasure to help you, but I live in Santiago.
I agreed with the idea of renting a hostal, because that way you can know better the city, before entering into a contract, but if you really want to rent the apartment that is fine too.

 

[El Rey de Mangu]

Stick around. Most here are helpful. Mangu is new so listen to some of the people who have experience.
Interestingly enough, the Jonny-come-lately know it alls seem to self destruct and not stay long on the forum or in the D.R.

oops. looks like I misplaced an opinion.

 

[pedrochemical]

oops. looks like I misplaced an opinion.

I think the word is 'lost'.

And stop being rude to people, especially newbies.
It is not nice.

 

[bienamor]

you misunderstand

the reason that they do this because there is rent control in SD...So if you get the apartment at a lower rate, then you have a guarantee of staying at that rate... Try negotiating from the position of offering them a lower rate to start and building in rent increases on a percentage increase until it builds up to the rent that they want... since that is the rent that want for a fixed return on their money.. In the end, they know that that is the return that they are going to get for ever and ever-- so they are better off having the apartment empty and waiting than getting stuck with a lower return.

Also bear in mind that they are NOT going to do the repairs like a North
American landlord or European landlord will do... you are going to have to do them.. what you see is what you get.. be prepared to sink money into the apartment... and they are not going to replace the old fridge and stove, the broken furniture, etc.... so figure that one out as well....

See BienAmor thinks like a Dominican.. HE would gut and redo the apartment.. an American would NEVER think to invest in some one else's property.. in the States the landlord does the improvements, here, no...

There is another strange aspect which is that if you are soft, or kind, they think that you are stupid in the head.. for instance, I paid my landlady EXTRA for two years so that she could take a cab up to the casa de cambio and cash the check every month. Because she is older,,, because i am kind.. And therefore clearly a mark... duh... So when she saw my new fridge and when I pressed her on the leaks she started to press me to leave, said she wanted me out , started threatening me. and so I went to my lawyer, who served her with a restraining order and said that in fact, nothing in the lease even says it is a furnished apartment so I could in fact but all the old furniture on the street.. (i will not of course, but I could)...-.. her method was always to have a foreigner for a couple of years, as long as they were no trouble, then drive them out if they started to ask for anything, raise the rent to market... but if someone STAYS and pays on time, there is NO WAY that they can evict them Even to get a rent increase, they must go to court.

Try then offering a lower amount with built in increase over the years and see if that works...

Not thinking like a Dominican Anni anything but, the comment on gutting and redoing is if you bought a building on El Conde, this would have to be done as they have sat open to the elements so many years that even the walls need redone let alone the floors/ceilings. Case in point is the Roma Hotel. Take a look above the Chinese place on Elconde and I believe 19 of March, just to see how bad they can get. or the building just past La Despensa beautiful building that has just sat an rotted for at least 15 years that I know of. The current owners just know that the building has be to worth millions of dollars because its on El Conde, the fact that it has be redone is beside the fact. Plus most will have to be redone to maintain the historical significance.

The rent control can be negated as you said with the contract and graduated increases, which cannot by law be greater than 10%.

 

[El Rey de Mangu]

I think the word is 'lost'.

And stop being rude to people, especially newbies.
It is not nice.

I AM a newbie. Hold on, I'm going back into the archives to pull "rude" comments from the "old timers". I'll be right back (need to build a 100-page Word document).

Been there, done that. Next.

 

[mountainannie]

ah,.

Not thinking like a Dominican Anni anything but, the comment on gutting and redoing is if you bought a building on El Conde, this would have to be done as they have sat open to the elements so many years that even the walls need redone let alone the floors/ceilings. Case in point is the Roma Hotel. Take a look above the Chinese place on Elconde and I believe 19 of March, just to see how bad they can get. or the building just past La Despensa beautiful building that has just sat an rotted for at least 15 years that I know of. The current owners just know that the building has be to worth millions of dollars because its on El Conde, the fact that it has be redone is beside the fact. Plus most will have to be redone to maintain the historical significance.

The rent control can be negated as you said with the contract and graduated increases, which cannot by law be greater than 10%.

I did misunderstand.. I went over to a friends house and he had had ALL this work done on his rental apartment before he moved in,, had knocked out a wall, painted the place, polished the floors.... so i figured it was the same thing...

I see a lot of those run down buildings here in Gazcue too, especially the Colonials which they KNOW cannot be torn down but they figure that someone will do a gut rehab of them anyway so... WHY even pick up the trash? ok, well, trash is another story..

not that the agents here know how to market them.... There are even some mansions here in GOOD repair that are hardly being marketed... Seems a shame-

And if anyone is following real estate -- NALS.. for instance.. take a look at the diminishing listings in Listin Diario and Diario Libre and SuperCasas... listings just get less and less every day as the market dries up........because, of course, the Dominicans are not going to lower their prices. And agents are not going to pay to advertise overpriced real estate that no one will rent or buy.

pop is the sound of a bubble bursting