to rent a house , need to pay a lawyer

wim

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I want to rent a house from somebody . She makes a contract for rent the house with a lawyer .
Now the lawyer says that I need to pay him for making a contract of the house , the same price as 1 month of the rent of the house .
Is this correct ? Isn't it so that the owner need to pay the lawyer ?,, She wants to rent the house with a lawyer , not me .
They tells me it is a new law ???
Who knows the right answer ?

thanks . greetings , Wim .
 

carina

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Mar 13, 2005
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The one who rents is the one paying the lawyer, i.e you.
But the cost of putting up a contract is 500-1000 pesos, not a month rent..
Apart from the cost of a contract you usually pay 1 month rent and also 1-2 deposits ( according to the law max. 2 ) that are equal to the cost of the rent, and given back to you when you move if all is in shape in the house.
Usually you live up the deposits if you deside to move.

If the lawyer she has wants an amount equal to 1 month rent to put up an agreement, tell him/her that she can rip someone else off and then go to any other lawyer. I suggest Graciella Fermins office.
But as said, any other lawyer charges you 500-1000 pesos for a contract.

And.. there is no such new law that you have to rent out your house/aparment through a lawyer that should be paid an extra amount equal to the rent!!
Some people have a lawyer taking in the rent for them, they lawyer gets a commission for that, but that is a completely other thing and that commission is taken off the rent- it is a deal between the landlord and the lawyer and has nothing to do with you.
 

Conchman

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I thought it was normal that the owner provides the lease contract, since he is the one making the rules. Did you request from owner to have a written contract e.g. is the owner used to not having contracts?
 

carina

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Mar 13, 2005
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Usually in rentals the one renting is paying for the contract.
But still, not the amount they claim...
Are you sure it was the cost of the contract by the way, and not a deposit they asked for? It seem so very stupid otherwise..
 

Gringo

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Its a fact

If you are buying or renting, you pick up the tab for the Lawyer......Wecome to the DR.

Gringo
 

Sharron

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Dec 19, 2002
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500 pesos

When we rented our current apartment we paid the owner one months rent as a deposit, one months rent in advance and 500 pesos for the contract and nothing else.

We are currenlty looking to move and have spoken to the owner of the apartment we want to rent, the cost of the contract has gone up to 600 pesos, which we will be paying with the deposit next week.
 

NotLurking

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Sharron said:
When we rented our current apartment we paid the owner one months rent as a deposit, one months rent in advance and 500 pesos for the contract and nothing else.

We are currenlty looking to move and have spoken to the owner of the apartment we want to rent, the cost of the contract has gone up to 600 pesos, which we will be paying with the deposit next week.


It is true, the cost of the contract is around $600 and in your case the owner is renting. The issue in the OP might not be a contract fee but a broker fee. If the owner rents the apartment out directly, you just pay a contract fee plus deposit and one months rent as in your case. However if the property is being rented by a lawyer acting as broker/manager for the property, it is customary to bill the future tenants a broker fee. The fee is usually equal to one month rent but could be as low as 1/2 month rent.

The broker incurs expenses when listing a property for rent and needs to recuperate some of that money. Listing in the classified of any newspaper for a few months is not that cheap. Even listing on the internet get rather expensive after a few months. I think that if a real estate broker is renting out the property they are entitled to charge a fee just like everywhere else.

BTW The last apartment I rented in NYC the broker charged me one month rent as his fee. Should it be different here?

NotLurking
 

carina

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The fee might be correct, but when it comes to renting out it is not the one renting who pays double fees/rent.. If I say find a renter to someone who has a place to rent, I would get 60 - 100% of 1 months rent from the landlord as a commission. But this money is taken of the money that the client pays ( i.e 1 rent and 1 to 2 deposits ), from the first rent.
You never ask the renter to pay an extra rent because the laywer/brooker wants a commission, that is a rip off.
 

riravaga

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Feb 24, 2005
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There aren't any law that says that we have to pay the equivalent of 1 month to the lawers for the contract, you know where we are living, Dominican Republic, looks like all lawer has a deal with that, it's the same every part in DR where you want to rent a house, apartment, room, etc. We don't have anybody to protect us.
 

NotLurking

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Carina, I think gringo said it best and I think it is worth repeating it below.

Gringo said:
If you are buying or renting, you pick up the tab for the Lawyer......Wecome to the DR.

Gringo

When you rent an apartment or house from a real estate agent you are using his/her service and you need to pay for it! How is that a rip off? You want free service? I suppose if someone uses your service you would want to get paid too. Correct? What's the difference?

You can test this yourself, call a few agents in SD renting apartments, ask what they are charging as their broker fee and who pays.

I don't know what the big deal is it is the same thing in the USA. You pay the broker for his/her service both when buying or renting.

NotLurking
 

Sharron

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Dec 19, 2002
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Yes the broker needs paying but....

I own an aparmtment in Santo Domingo which we wanted to rent out. We didn?t have time to do it ourselves so contacted a broker to do it for us. She put the adverts in the papers, took interested parties to view the property and then when she found someone she thought suitable did all the leg work to check them out. This service was paid for by us the owners, not the guy who ended up renting our property.
 

NotLurking

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riravaga said:
There aren't any law that says that we have to pay the equivalent of 1 month to the lawers for the contract, you know where we are living, Dominican Republic, looks like all lawer has a deal with that, it's the same every part in DR where you want to rent a house, apartment, room, etc. We don't have anybody to protect us.


Huh? No, not for the contract but for his services of getting you the property, if that is what he did, you have to paid whatever the going rate is or whatever you agreed upon before initializing the deal. If you are buying property, commission is stipulated at 5% of sale price to be paid by the seller. However the seller will inflate the property price by 5% to cover the amount of broker commission, therefore, the buyer actually foots the bill. The same is true about agents renting apartments or houses they charge about one month rent as their fee and pay a lawyer for to draw up the contract (if they aren't lawyers...hehe).

NotLurking
 

carina

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NotLurking said:
Carina, I think gringo said it best and I think it is worth repeating it below.



When you rent an apartment or house from a real estate agent you are using his/her service and you need to pay for it! How is that a rip off? You want free service? I suppose if someone uses your service you would want to get paid too. Correct? What's the difference?

You can test this yourself, call a few agents in SD renting apartments, ask what they are charging as their broker fee and who pays.

I don't know what the big deal is it is the same thing in the USA. You pay the broker for his/her service both when buying or renting.

NotLurking

Larry answered on the question who pays the laywer for a contract.
He rents out his apartments,as well as work in real estate, so he would
know. But I am also sure, if he works with commissions, those are included in the rental cost, not put on top.

I am not asking for free service. There is always a commission involved, but it is taken off the first rent in case it is a house/apartment rental, it is not put on top. It is the landlord/owner who pays it.

This works exactly the same, if it is a real estate agent renting out, or if I find an apartment for someone. The owner pays 60-100% of 1 month rent to the one referring the renter.
The renter pays the contract though.

This system is the same as elsewhere in on the island. If someone books a client on an excursion he/she gets a commission of the amount the one going on the excursion pays, it is not put on top.
If a taxi driver takes you to a furniture shop, he can pick up a commission as he referred you.
Neither is put on top, the commission is always included in the price the buyer pays.

So call anyone of the serious agents, big or small, Juan Perdomo, Larry (Gringo ) etc. they pay commission, not the one paying the rent.
 
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carina

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riravaga said:
There aren't any law that says that we have to pay the equivalent of 1 month to the lawers for the contract, you know where we are living, Dominican Republic, looks like all lawer has a deal with that, it's the same every part in DR where you want to rent a house, apartment, room, etc. We don't have anybody to protect us.

Actually a renter is well protected by laws in DR.
 

NotLurking

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Sharron said:
I own an aparmtment in Santo Domingo which we wanted to rent out. We didn?t have time to do it ourselves so contacted a broker to do it for us. She put the adverts in the papers, took interested parties to view the property and then when she found someone she thought suitable did all the leg work to check them out. This service was paid for by us the owners, not the guy who ended up renting our property.


What? I have an apt in Gazcue and my agent did the same as yours except he bills the future tenants! (One full month rent as his fee) He has rented it out 3 times in the past 5 years and always the same - tenant pays not me!

NotLurking
 

Gringo

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carina said:
Larry answered on the question who pays the laywer for a contract.
He rents out his apartments,as well as work in real estate, so he would
know. But I am also sure, if he works with commissions, those are included in the rental cost, not put on top.

I am not asking for free service. There is always a commission involved, but it is taken off the first rent in case it is a house/apartment rental, it is not put on top. It is the landlord/owner who pays it.

This works exactly the same, if it is a real estate agent renting out, or if I find an apartment for someone. The owner pays 60-100% of 1 month rent to the one referring the renter.
The renter pays the contract though.

This system is the same as elsewhere in on the island. If someone books a client on an excursion he/she gets a commission of the amount the one going on the excursion pays, it is not put on top.
If a taxi driver takes you to a furniture shop, he can pick up a commission as he referred you.
Neither is put on top, the commission is always included in the price the buyer pays.

So call anyone of the serious agents, big or small, Juan Perdomo, Larry (Gringo ) etc. they pay commission, not the one paying the rent.

Carina is quite right,

It is the Seller that pays the Realty Commission and not the Buyer also it is the Owner that pays the Realty Commission and not the Renter.
He pays this out of the First and last months rent and often one month security........The Realtor most often charges one month rent, In return the Owner gets a one year legal contract done by a lawyer.

Larry
 

NotLurking

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Gringo said:
Carina is quite right,

It is the Seller that pays the Realty Commission and not the Buyer also it is the Owner that pays the Realty Commission and not the Renter.
He pays this out of the First and last months rent and often one month security........The Realtor most often charges one month rent, In return the Owner gets a one year legal contract done by a lawyer.

Larry

Larry and Carina as you wish. I wont argue the point any more after this, however, everyone knows that who actually pays is the buyer or the renter. If I'm selling a house and it is worth around 2 million pesos and I have to pay a 5% commission, I wont sell the house for a dime under $2,106,000. That means the BUYER pays for commission everybody knows that! The same is true of apartments. If the owner will be incurring fees and such the rent will be increased to reflect any additional expense incurred by the apt., so the renter carries the bill. I my case, my agent has always managed to bill the new tenants. Well it hasn't cost me anything extra when he rents out the apt. I just pay the 10% fee he gets from the rent every month for his sevice of managing it. (BTW that 10% is included in the rent I charge. ie. base rent + 10% for broker = monthly rent I charge for apt)

NotLurking.
 

carina

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NotLurking said:
Larry and Carina as you wish. I wont argue the point any more after this, however, everyone knows that who actually pays is the buyer or the renter. If I'm selling a house and it is worth around 2 million pesos and I have to pay a 5% commission, I wont sell the house for a dime under $2,106,000. That means the BUYER pays for commission everybody knows that! The same is true of apartments. If the owner will be incurring fees and such the rent will be increased to reflect any additional expense incurred by the apt., so the renter carries the bill. I my case, my agent has always managed to bill the new tenants. Well it hasn't cost me anything extra when he rents out the apt. I just pay the 10% fee he gets from the rent every month for his sevice of managing it. (BTW that 10% is included in the rent I charge. ie. base rent + 10% for broker = monthly rent I charge for apt)

NotLurking.

Turn this around how you want, but the fact remains.
If the original poster rents a house/apt and lets say the rent is 10.000 pesos.
He will then pay 10.000 x 2 or x 3 when signing the contract, and the contract for the rent ( 500-1000 pesos ).
The first 10.000 is rent, 2nd-3rd are deposits, that he gets back when moving out, or better lives up before moving out.
If, lets say, a real estate agent or someone, have referred and showed this person the apt/house, he/she gets a commission from the above amounts.
For residential long term ( 1 year min ) the commission is anything agreed from 60% up to 100 % of the 1st month rent.

It is not put on top, or specified as a separate amount as you claimed in your prev?ous posts to be a brooker fee, and that was the question of the person posting. No such amount exists.

A rental contract is for 1 year for a residential apt/house.
 

Gringo

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Here is the ticket

NotLurking said:
Larry and Carina as you wish. I wont argue the point any more after this, however, everyone knows that who actually pays is the buyer or the renter. If I'm selling a house and it is worth around 2 million pesos and I have to pay a 5% commission, I wont sell the house for a dime under $2,106,000. That means the BUYER pays for commission everybody knows that! The same is true of apartments. If the owner will be incurring fees and such the rent will be increased to reflect any additional expense incurred by the apt., so the renter carries the bill. I my case, my agent has always managed to bill the new tenants. Well it hasn't cost me anything extra when he rents out the apt. I just pay the 10% fee he gets from the rent every month for his sevice of managing it. (BTW that 10% is included in the rent I charge. ie. base rent + 10% for broker = monthly rent I charge for apt)

NotLurking.

What I suggest to people who feel the way you do is that you don't use a Realters service........

You go out and search for the house yourself, You ask all the people in the area you want to live.....What's for Sale or Rent?

Because Dominicans do not like the traditional For Rent or For Sale Signs on there propertey as they are bothered by every other Motor Concho passing by to view there property.

And just maybe you do end up paying more in the long run because the Gringo price escalates way up! As soon as they see your Gringo Face...

Just maybe the house next door is $20.000 less, but because you are a Gringo and have done the leg work and negotiating yourself and of course you are fluent in Spanish, so just maybe you won't get screwed to badly.

And don't forget with all your connections you will not be subject to the Mortgage rates here for the laymen @ lets say 3% a month.

Will you save in the long run?

My listing prices are the same for every one regardless of Race.

Good Luck- Paul

Larry