Question regarding selling a home in dr

Correct term is deslinde. See: http://www.dr1.com/forums/legal/80172-deslindes-will-mandatory-beginning-april-2009-a.html

The price of a deslinde can vary depending upon the circumstances. Generally speaking, the quote seems a little high but I do not know the circumstances of the original title.

If I understand the law properly, the law basically says that if you sell a piece of land you need to have the title to transfer it. The title is acquired through the deslinde process. If you do not have a title and you sell the land, the only protection you have under DR law is the civil law controlling contracts (assuming you created a contract for the sale). Otherwise, if you have a deslinde then the DR government guarantees the purchase, by law, so you are in the best position should your ownership be called into question.

Point of clarification, a "deslinde" is a separation of one piece of land from another. In the U.S. we would refer to this as subdividing the title (land). Basically, you start with a title to a larger tract of land but then need to separate a smaller piece so that smaller piece has it's very own title. This is needed so you can transfer ownership of the land. The deslinde process is the legal process of separating one piece of land from another to allow its own title to be issued.

You can get quotes from multiple surveyors who are the ones who actually initiate the deslinde process. Personally, I do it all through my attorney so I have a single point of contact. But if you want to fly solo you can certainly do that as well.

JANET/NJ said:

About a year ago my aunt asked me to help her sell her house in DR.
i was on vacation so i really didnt have time to look into it-- but i asked a neighbor who is a "lawyer" and he told me she needed to a DELINDE, he explained briefly that this was a satellite measurement that was done on the house so that a correct measurement can be determine for the bank and the new home owner being so many people stole land over there. he said this document would cost me about 60,000.00 pesos-- and that it took about 5months for it to be done. He said no bank would lend out money to anyone who wanted to buy my aunts house without this "delinde"--- is this true?

she has asked me again to help her with this issue---- any help or advice from anyone here is greatly appreciated.

thank you in advance.

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Janet, usually it takes much longer than 5 months, but as with the pricing, it will depend upon your particular circumstance. For example, I had one in Santiago that took just over two years to complete (completed last fall) and another in Moca took about 20 months. Neither of these had problems or were contested, just the backlog in the system I guess. I would be very skeptical of a 5 month estimate. As suggested by other posters, check with various agrimensores for price and timing estimates.

Mine is costing me the same amount you were quoted for the paperwork and it's taking longer than 6 months so far. Be prepared to spend more than that as I found that some of MY land was in another person's title so now they need to discount that, but I have to "buy" those meters from that person, whom of course promptly got a lawyer to try to get the most money he can from me, so I've stopped the process until they come down to a reasonable price per meter.

My dad has a piece of a piece of a piece of land, yes it's that complicated that he has been dealing with FOREVER. It used to belong to our great-grandfather. He has other properties but the deslinde on this one has taken some time, years. Two years is nothing. So good luck and God speed