Problem With Our Property

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PJT

Silver
Jan 8, 2002
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We had a surveyor measure our house lot last fall to update title and deslinde. The documents are over 25 years old. The surveyor came back to us and said there was a problem.

The property is in a gated residential. A neighbor has been trying to sell his empty lot between his house and our villa lot. He has a buyer. He is unable to sell because the documents on file have (his?) empty lot in our name and our improved property is on file in the neighbor’s name. This was explained to us by the neighbor’s lawyer. The lawyer is proceeding to submit a request to the Registry of Deeds for a certification.

If the Registry of Deeds says this is true the lawyer suggested a transfer of properties, switching one for the other, the neighbor buys ours and we buy his. Our property is estimated at RD $12,000,000. The new laws say a certified check has to be used for sales transactions. The dilemma is we do not have the money to submit for a certified check to make the sale or pay the sales taxes. The sales values will be based upon mandatory appraisals of the property values. Is there a loophole to make the transfer cashless and taxless to rectify the error? Suspect the land court will have to be involved. We know we will need a lawyer but want to be armed with proper information to protect our investment.

Any suggestions?


Regards,

PJT
 
chico bill

chico bill

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There must be a way two willing people can make an agreement with a competent lawyer, even in the DR's ancient system
 
JD Jones

JD Jones

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chico bill said:
There must be a way two willing people can make an agreement with a competent lawyer, even in the DR's ancient system
Click to expand...
PJT said:
We had a surveyor measure our house lot last fall to update title and deslinde. The documents are over 25 years old. The surveyor came back to us and said there was a problem.

The property is in a gated residential. A neighbor has been trying to sell his empty lot between his house and our villa lot. He has a buyer. He is unable to sell because the documents on file have (his?) empty lot in our name and our improved property is on file in the neighbor’s name. This was explained to us by the neighbor’s lawyer. The lawyer is proceeding to submit a request to the Registry of Deeds for a certification.

If the Registry of Deeds says this is true the lawyer suggested a transfer of properties, switching one for the other, the neighbor buys ours and we buy his. Our property is estimated at RD $12,000,000. The new laws say a certified check has to be used for sales transactions. The dilemma is we do not have the money to submit for a certified check to make the sale or pay the sales taxes. The sales values will be based upon mandatory appraisals of the property values. Is there a loophole to make the transfer cashless and taxless to rectify the error? Suspect the land court will have to be involved. We know we will need a lawyer but want to be armed with proper information to protect our investment.

Any suggestions?


Regards,

PJT
Click to expand...
PJT, just to clarify, we are talking about two empty lots next to each other with the same value? How did you come up with the RD12mm if it hasn't been appraised yet?
 
P

PJT

Silver
Jan 8, 2002
3,566
301
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JD Jones said:
PJT, just to clarify, we are talking about two empty lots next to each other with the same value? How did you come up with the RD12mm if it hasn't been appraised yet?
Click to expand...
It is not two empty lots. One is an empty lot, mistakenly under our name? The other where our house is, is under the neighbor's name. Somehow due to some error the ownerships were transposed. Not the same value. The lands is the same value and size. The lot we are living on has the house this it is improved, is valued more. RD$12M. per the lawyer's estimate.


Regards,

PJT
 
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MariaRubia

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Surely if you transfer a property you will have to pay the property transfer tax which I think is 3%? I think this is always applied whenever a property is transferred from one owner to another.
 
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MariaRubia

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Also, I am not certain that you should be doing a transfer in the first place. When you bought the property, you should have had a contract of sale. This is what was filed at the land registry (Registro de Titulos) and so if they have made a mistake, they should put the mistake right. I think you should be speaking to the lawyer who handled the sale in the first place to establish whose fault it is that the land registry has got the wrong owner associated with your land.

Please be extremely careful and only use a good law firm, don't try to save money by using a cheap lawyer here. Guzman Ariza are as good as any other in real estate and I would recommend them to have a look at this.
 
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DR Solar

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Nov 21, 2016
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In Porto Plata. Lawyer that specializes in land deals. Argentina Brugal. 809-586-4736.
We have known her and retained her for over 20 years and she has always been reliable and fair. Excellent English.
 
JD Jones

JD Jones

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DR Solar said:
In Porto Plata. Lawyer that specializes in land deals. Argentina Brugal. 809-586-4736.
We have known her and retained her for over 20 years and she has always been reliable and fair. Excellent English.
Click to expand...
My lawyer as well in all things real estate. Educated me on having properties with a corporation. Wonderful person.
 
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MariaRubia

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Cynical me sees a scam here. Just sign here and sign over your property to your neighbour, and he will then sign over his to you, except he never actually does sign over his to you and you end up owning nothing. And there would be absolutely nothing you could do about it because you signed the property over in front of witnesses.
 
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MariaRubia

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DR Solar said:
In Porto Plata. Lawyer that specializes in land deals. Argentina Brugal. 809-586-4736.
We have known her and retained her for over 20 years and she has always been reliable and fair. Excellent English.
Click to expand...

It will also help that she is from one of those families. Nobody's going to pick a fight with a Brugal or a Vicini or a Rainieri and come out on top. So she sounds like the type of person you need.
 
M

MariaRubia

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Fabio J. Guzman said:
There are two ways of solving the problem: (a) correcting the mistake in the parcel numbers of the properties (time consuming), and (b) doing a "permuta" or exchange of properties, which will trigger transfer taxes but won't involve swapping checks.
Click to expand...

Based on a valuation of RD$ 12M, what would the transfer taxes be if they went down the route of doing the permuta? And if they did correct the mistake, how long do you think this would take, and approximately what cost would be involved? I think it's essential to have this information for the OP to make their decision.
 
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windeguy

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JD Jones said:
My lawyer as well in all things real estate. Educated me on having properties with a corporation. Wonderful person.
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Properties in a corporation is a good money making deal for the lawyers.
Now you pay taxes, before you might not have had to if not in a corporation.
I understand the inheritance benefits of the corporation still exist.

I would certainly start with the bad lawyer who did the original sales and escalate from there in the case of the OP.
 
bachata

bachata

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PJT said:
It is not two empty lots. One is an empty lot, mistakenly under our name? The other where our house is, is under the neighbor's name. Somehow due to some error the ownerships were transposed. Not the same value. The lands is the same value and size. The lot we are living on has the house this it is improved, is valued more. RD$12M. per the lawyer's estimate.


Regards,

PJT
Click to expand...
La Mejora was built in the wrong lot.

Big mistake, who performed the deslinde before to start the construction!

JJ
 
bachata

bachata

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I have an idea, if you can afford it buy the lot from him and put both of them together in a single title.

JJ
 
bachata

bachata

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Fabio J. Guzman said:
There are two ways of solving the problem: (a) correcting the mistake in the parcel numbers of the properties (time consuming), and (b) doing a "permuta" or exchange of properties, which will trigger transfer taxes but won't involve swapping checks.
Click to expand...
Yes!!! Permuta...the right thing to do. My grandfather always used to talk about that.

JJ
 
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