Deslinde!

[melphis]

Congratulations on getting your deslinde. I could write a novel about our horror story but unfortunately it's not over yet. We had money laundering, escaped drug dealers and a government seizure involved in ours.
We did get it back and my guess is we are at about the half way point after 8 years.

 

[Wishing you well]

Half-covered then lol.

I brought it up because i recently discovered the DR inheritance laws are based on the older french laws----napoleonic, since modified in France.
The surviving spouse gets nothing. ( well in your case, at the least you have 50 % ---- whereas in my case I would have got zilch of my wife passed away before me, as land and house were hers prior to wedding------ would have gone to children, except we/she dont have any, so it goes to her siblings. ).

Totally different legal scenario than the one presented with this subject of discussion. Your wife was the owner prior of you coming into the picture.

This OP is different - she was married and has been married with the owner (husband) since the original purchase making her an automatic owner, hence no need to freak out, she is/was an owner as well.

Her husband could not had sold that property without her approval and signature even if he wanted to and even that her name wasn't on the title.

DR laws would have prohibited it.

Is it good to have a deslinde?

Of course, its actually great and a must to have it, but that vs. having name added on a title are two different things, the latter on this case (since both are married since the purchase of the property) is not a reason to freak out.

In short, if married, one becomes an automatic owner regardless of name on tittle. That simple.

 

[Wishing you well]

Title is diffrent from deslinde, i think.

Normally you cant sell w/o a deslinde, anymore...... of course in reality you can.

It is, hence my reply.

She is the wife and has been since the purchase thus she is an owner as well. The deslinde does not provides legal authority of ownership necessarily, the title does and by virtue of being the wife when the property was originally acquired, she gets to be an owner even if her name is/was not in the title.

I don't see the rush here?

 

[bob saunders]

That solves the problem somewhat, assuming that the deposit will be returned if the deslinde is unable to provide clear title, in which, case I would want that deposit to be held in my attorney's escrow account.

We are quite confident, as we know the owner of the whole parcel that was divided and sold. Owner of this particular solar died and his daughter inherited as she was an only child and her mother was already dead. She actually has paid for a deslinde but the surveyor ran off with her money without registering the measurements...etc. The law caught up to him and he was made, on threat of jail time, to complete the process.

 

[malko]

Totally different legal scenario than the one presented with this subject of discussion. Your wife was the owner prior of you coming into the picture.

This OP is different - she was married and has been married with the owner (husband) since the original purchase making her an automatic owner, hence no need to freak out, she is/was an owner as well.

Her husband could not had sold that property without her approval and signature even if he wanted to and even that her name wasn't on the title.

DR laws would have prohibited it.

Is it good to have a deslinde?

Of course, its actually great and a must to have it, but that vs. having name added on a title are two different things, the latter on this case (since both are married since the purchase of the property) is not a reason to freak out.

In short, if married, one becomes an automatic owner regardless of name on tittle. That simple.

Agree to all.

A bit off topic. It was in the case of the death of 1 of the spouses before the other.
We learned when we doing the documents relative to the dr assets of my wife prior to our wedding, that i would have to do the same process one day.
Otherwise my brother ( as i have no children ) will have claim on 50% of the assets we aquire after the wedding, but no claim to the 50% of my wife's.
Technically, we buy a house today, if i die in a year, my wife keeps 50% ( as it was aquired after the wedding ), and my brother has claim to the other 50% ( as i have no kids and only 1 brother ).
We didnt go into much detail as we were doing it the other way round, ie my wife deceasing before me, and i would have been left with 0% of the house and land if we hadnt gone through this process.

We had just assumed, falsely, that the conjoint survivant had at the least usufruit of all assets, if not straight out ownership, as is the case from the countries we come from ( France and Switzerland ).

 

[Wishing you well]

Technically, we buy a house today, if i die in a year, my wife keeps 50% ( as it was aquired after the wedding ), and my brother has claim to the other 50% ( as i have no kids and only 1 brother ).

I don't see why would you brother collect any of it? Esposa is the primary survivor, followed by any kids.

 

[cavok]

We are quite confident, as we know the owner of the whole parcel that was divided and sold. Owner of this particular solar died and his daughter inherited as she was an only child and her mother was already dead. She actually has paid for a deslinde but the surveyor ran off with her money without registering the measurements...etc. The law caught up to him and he was made, on threat of jail time, to complete the process.

In your case, I'm sure you'll have no problem, but in general, to buy a property w/o a deslinde, or even with the promise that you will be given one, or that it is "in process", would be a very risky proposition since, until the deslinde it complete, you have no guarantee that all, or even any, of the parcel that you are buying can be transfered to you.

It is reported that there are titles for for twice as much land as actually exists in the DR. In the past, title fraud was rampant, much with the complicity of accomplices in the title offices issuing bogus titles.

 

[malko]

I don't see why would you brother collect any of it? Esposa is the primary survivor, followed by any kids.

Spouses are not regular heirs to each other under Dominican law. If a spouse dies, 100% of the assets go to the children. If there are no children, 100% of the assets go the siblings and the parents. If there are no siblings or parents alive, 100% of the assets go to other relatives. Only in case there are no relatives up to the 12th degree will the wife become an heir.

Things are not as bad as they seem, however. 

First, it is possible to leave assets to your spouse by writing a will, although there are restrictions on what you can give him/her (only 25% of your assets if you have three or more children, no more than 33% if you have two children, no more than 50% if you have a child). 

Second, 99% of Dominican marriages are governed by community-property law. When a spouse dies, the surviving spouse is considered the owner of 50% of matrimonial assets. This 50% is not considered to be a part of the estate and therefore no estate taxes apply. The remaining 50% goes to the heirs.


That is a post from SrGuzman from another thread in legal....... for the life of me i couldnt get it to quote. Lol.

That was what prompted me to go and see a notorary lawyer, in the first place.

 

[sylindr]

What's the typical cost of Deslinde?

 

[cavok]

It is reported that there are titles for for twice as much land as actually exists in the DR. In the past, title fraud was rampant, much with the complicity of accomplices in the title offices issuing bogus titles.

Correction:

It is reported that there are titles for MORE land than actually exists in the DR. I can't remember the percentage(?).

 

[drstock]

What's the typical cost of Deslinde?

My question too.

 

[malko]

My question too.

I think it depends on the location, the province and the value of the asset. I have heard around 200k pesos.

 

[Russell]

I think it depends on the location, the province and the value of the asset. I have heard around 200k pesos.

I recall my Deslinde being delivered to me in Luperon Hills at around $1000.usd.
Russell

 

[Russell]

I recall my Deslinde being delivered to me in Luperon Hills at around $1000.usd.
Russell

The other two properties we were told were also Deslinde by the Realtor and Developer cost us a total of $85,000DOP including legal and land court costs ...That $200,000 DOP sounds a bit high.
I am also sure we got rooked on the $1000.00usd on the other property.
The larger fees would cut most farmers and locals out of the Deslinde process as that amount would be several years earnings.

But it is probably different in various Provinces and Municipalities.
I do understand that Desilnde Titles are issued from one central office; could be corrected on that one.

I put my Espossa's name on the deslinde title from the very beginning.
The same with our other properties.
Including in a Will.
Russell

 

[AlterEgo]

Mr AE not here right now, but I believe the surveyor charged 100,000 pesos, half up front. The lawyer fee was small, my BIL took care of it. Price for survey is from 4 years ago, undoubtedly more now. In our case, survey is for one large parcel made up of two separate purchases, so he did one whole survey broken into two separate ones with GPS coordinates for each and for the total. Once the second deslinde is done, we’ll supposedly get one title/deslinde for the entire parcel.

 

[Russell]

Mr AE not here right now, but I believe the surveyor charged 100,000 pesos, half up front. The lawyer fee was small, my BIL took care of it. Price for survey is from 4 years ago, undoubtedly more now. In our case, survey is for one large parcel made up of two separate purchases, so he did one whole survey broken into two separate ones with GPS coordinates for each and for the total. Once the second deslinde is done, we’ll supposedly get one title/deslinde for the entire parcel.

Our survey fee for the 15 acre farm was $35000DOP (2014) and the two Townhouses in Luperon were a total of $40.000DOP
All done with GPS coordinates. The main residence in Luperon hills was already surveyed and the Deslinde was indeed $1000.00 usd

 

[CristoRey]

Learned something new this evening. I thought the deslinde had to
do with what type of structures you could build on the property. Bit
like zoning in the states?

 

[lifeisgreat]

Learned something new this evening. I thought the deslinde had to
do with what type of structures you could build on the property. Bit
like zoning in the states?

No it is gps survey of your land so there is no question who owns what, it’s also a one time thing once your property has it done it’s good you don’t need again unless you divide land.

 

[AlterEgo]

No it is gps survey of your land so there is no question who owns what, it’s also a one time thing once your property has it done it’s good you don’t need again unless you divide land.

Exactly. And the surveyor must attach a large sign to the front of the property, notifying everyone that it is undergoing the deslinde process. Includes the owners name, surveyors name and contact number, and case number for anyone with objections to call. Ours took so long that the first sign fell off and a new one had to be made.

 

[pgolivares]

Exactly. And the surveyor must attach a large sign to the front of the property, notifying everyone that it is undergoing the deslinde process. Includes the owners name, surveyors name and contact number, and case number for anyone with objections to call. Ours took so long that the first sign fell off and a new one had to be made.

The deslinde on our property in the capital is taking close to 5 years and we are anticipating that it will cost around DOP$200k in the end (90k for the atty plus other expenses). The main reason the process is taking so long is incompetency all around starting with surveyor (put the wrong measurement on the papers but good thing the judge double checked against the original title), atty (1st atty never filled one piece of paper. We found out when he died) and the tribunal de tierra (took it upon themselves to put my mother as married instead of widow).

That’s my story kids.