Common Law and Property Division after a split.

He "might" have something, but this is for the DR1 Lawyer to answer.
Remember, it is her name on the property title, and she could argue that she bought it before they were "together"....

Short version: Its a ball of worms...


HB

If it is in her name it is hers. If it was in your name it would be yours.

If he's willing to pay for lawyers, why doesn't he just buy her out? The lawyers are the ones that stand to gain, with questionable outcomes.

And I'll play devil's advocate. Let him go to a lawyer to see what the lawyer says, and you go to another setting up the scenario as if you are the absentee woman. I'll bet you both come away convinced you can win.

if they where married at the time of buying the house it is both independent who is in the papers.
At least that is what I was told some time ago.

I could be wrong, but I read on one of the news threads on DR1 that Leonel was saying that common law marriages were not recognized under Dominican law. Like I said I could be wrong...

hammerdown said:

I could be wrong, but I read on one of the news threads on DR1 that Leonel was saying that common law marriages were not recognized under Dominican law. Like I said I could be wrong...

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Any help ?DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
About half way down
Another problem is that upon the death of a parcelero the wife cannot inherit the parcela, although the children can. If there is no grown son, the family has to leave the parcela.. If the parcelero abandons his family, the Agrarian Institute can decide either to give the parcela to the wife or the oldest son, or it can decide that they are not fit to work the land and take it away from them, paying compensation for the work they have done, but not for the land itself.

Also, since common law marriages are not recognised in the Dominican Republic, if the parcelero leaves, the common law wife and children must leave the parcela. A common law husband can sell or mortgage his parcela without the consent of the common law wife. (This also happens with respect to married couples, since most men carry cedulas that say they are single.)

The Agrarian Code in its current form makes it difficult for women to apply for agricultural credit, because they do not have collateral. Also, rural women often do not have a cedula, without which it is impossible to enter into a legal transaction.

Common law marriage

One NGO wishes to bring to the attention of the CESCR Committee a potentially misleading comment in paragraph 82 of the Government report. The report states that men and women are "free to form a common law marriage," but it does not go on to clarify that such unions are not legally recognised.

It is estimated that sixty per cent of unions between men and women in the Dominican Republic do not involve legally recognised marriage. As to property acquired during an unrecognised union, in the majority of cases, due to culture and tradition, the property will be in the man's name even if the woman has worked or paid equally to acquire it. This means that if there is a separation or the man dies, the woman loses everything. It also means that the man can sell, mortgage or in any other way dispose of the property at his will.

Ironically, this is not so different from the situation of a legal wife. Even though the law says that there are two property regimes a couple can choose -- separate property and community of property -- most couples choose community of property. This should mean that the husband cannot dispose of the property without the wife's consent, and that in case of a divorce the wife and husband should share equally in the property. Although the law says that husbands and wives are equal before the law, the law also says that the man is the sole administrator of this common property, so that when a man decides he wants to divorce his wife he can begin to sell the common property, and by the time the divorce is final, there is practically no common property left. The law says that the wife has two years to challenge this state of affairs after the divorce, but a challenge to the sale of the common property is an expensive and complicated procedure. Also, in practice the husband usually registers the divorce and pays off the bailiff so that the wife does not find out about the divorce until it is too late for her to legally challenge the division of the common property. This is a common practice and there is no law to prevent it or to sanction the person who commits this form of fraud.

D.Rep said:

if they where married at the time of buying the house it is both independent who is in the papers.
At least that is what I was told some time ago.

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This is correct. Even if he was married he would get zero. In the DR Real Estate goes to whoever is the holder of the title in a divorce.

His best bet is to get about 3 dozen roses and take her to the best restaurant to make a deal.

That is now an interesting topic, as there are different points of view:
http://www.dr1.com/forums/legal/124387-divorce-what-happens-property.html
In the post of Fabio, I would read it as if marriaged, the house belongs to community property and therefore it belongs to both of them.

Would be nice to get a firm answer here from Fabio about that.

They will spend more in attornieys than the house is worth. They should just rent it out and keep half the money each.

Chaos

tiguerita said:

A couple (both Dominican) buy a newly built house together (in Santo Domingo Este) while living abroad.
He could not get away due to work so she went and signed for the property alone.
Only her name is on the title.
A couple of years later he decides he wants to move back to the DR (which he does) hoping she will follow.
She only comes to visit twice a year (this goes on for 5 years).
Together they have a second floor added onto the house.
He feels she is not going to come back to live in the DR anytime soon and decides to move on.
He still lives in the house, she does not.
They argue about what to do about the house but never reach an agreement.

He gets married to someone else.
He has kids.
He moves out (physically) but always leaves belongings there in order to prove some kind of belonging to the property and checks in on it.
She still lives abroad.

She rents out the first floor.
His belongings are moved to the second floor.

He leaves the country for several months.
He makes sure a friend checks in on his things and stays there several nights a week.

He comes back and reassumes the second floor living quarters (there is no independent entrance).
The first floor is still rented to a third party.
She still lives abroad.

She comes down for Christmas (stays with her mom, still does not inhabit the house).
They argue again over who has a right to what.

He feels that if he goes to court and proves that they were in a common law relationship when the house was bought and that he is the only one who has occupied the house as a primary dwelling (and he can provide proof of payment of renovations and utilities, and bring neighbours to testify for him) that he will surely be awarded 50% ownership of the property. Regardless of having started a new life. He feels that he MUST keep a foot in the door or all hope is lost.

I think that if she is only in the country a couple of times a year, it will be hard for him to get her in court or have any judgement enforced, I think he will spend a lot of money and a lot of time fighting her in court and still get shafted. I believe all hope is already lost.

What does the law say?

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A chaotic life style will reap chaos.
If you want a property make sure your name is on the title, seems basic.
Prepare a prenuptial to secure your property.
A lawyer as Guzman will answer legal questions,also basic.
Do your ground work prior to the wedding not after a divorce.
One is either serious about ones finances, or can leave a chair in the house and hope for a panacea..... Si Dios Quiere.

SKY said:

This is correct. Even if he was married he would get zero. In the DR Real Estate goes to whoever is the holder of the title in a divorce.

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This is incorrect. If the spouses are married under community properly rules, it does not matter in the name of which spouse a property is titled -- it belongs to the community and must be split upon a divorce.