Have you ever been to any fiscalia in Santo Domingo? I've been a lot. Every day you can find some people there who came to file FALSE complaints against their neighbors, employers, etc, hoping to get some money from them. Talk to any fiscal about his daily routine, maybe 15% of all cases is something worth hearing, everything else is some bullshIt querellas where people falsely accusing other people hoping to get some easy money. And some good percentage of those are domestic employees.
- Thread starter dioscuro
- Start date
Hiring a trustworthy cleaning lady
Where can you get a paint brush that wide.? I'd like to paint my house tomorrow.TIA
I think I can decide myself what's for me and what's not. Hiring a maid in DR is not for me for sure, but I don't need one anyway.
On the subject of maids....
I moved to the DR in 2001 and have had only 2 maids in all that time.
After about a dozen years, the first one accepted a live-in position in SD. Her replacement is still with me.
I have not been attacked, had items stolen or any of the other issues mentioned by Mr. Burke.
Am I a "unicorn" expat that supposedly doesn't exist?
I moved to the DR in 2001 and have had only 2 maids in all that time.
After about a dozen years, the first one accepted a live-in position in SD. Her replacement is still with me.
I have not been attacked, had items stolen or any of the other issues mentioned by Mr. Burke.
Am I a "unicorn" expat that supposedly doesn't exist?
You posted the numbers and I'll post the the offset to what you STATE:
1. How many maids working in the informal sector would do what you state is fact?
2. How many maids are/were Haitians ( a large part of the informal sector) in their WILDEST dreams even THINK of doing what you suggest is a common and daily event at the court house.
I'm done here. Waste of time. See 'ya.
I have the same experience as you. Never had any major issue, nor has anybody I know. But seeing as Glenn Burke spends a lot of time at the "Santo Domingo fiscalia" as he posted, maybe he knows something none of us know. As far as hiring a trustworthy maid, I would look for recommendations from others.
If you live here since 2001, you might have noticed that people have changed a lot since then. Maybe not so much somewhere in the campo, but in Santo Domingo it's like another country now if you compare it to 20 years ago. I agree that finding some 'trustworthy' employee in Santo Domingo (not only a maid) was not that difficult back then, but it's almost impossible now. And now that maid can bring you much more trouble than she could do 20 years ago.
Been here (Santo Domingo) since the late 80's (permanently in early 90's) and still have never seen or heard of what you posted. Do things happen, yes, they do but not anywhere near what you posted. Can you find a trustworthy housekeeper, of course you can. Now moving on...
Ours just use way to much soap. I guess my problems are minimal to yours.
Probably won't fire her now seeing as the maids seem to have formed some type of murderous mafia union. In your mind anyways.
I was not talking about Haitian maids or Haitians in general. But if you think Haitian workers never make it to Fiscalia, then you are wrong, we had a Haitian worker (not a maid) at the condo where I lived 12 years ago, and one day he decided that it's time to get a jackpot, he asked for a lot of money for some ridiculous reason that the condo treated him bad, went to Fiscalia, then to the court and he actually won the case.
But most Haitians still do it the old school way. When I lived in Gazcue, I remember how two Haitian workers killed the apartment owner and buried him under the stairs in the same condo the way that nobody saw nothing, so his body was found only after they disappeared into thin air.
Oh.. that lady.. from 2019. Is that the best you can do?Well, not all of the cases make it to the newspapers, but some do.
Regarding querellas to fiscalias, you can talk to any fiscal about his daily cases
How about showing us one from each year since then. Or any at all.
It amazes me that I read the daily papers regularly but it seems I've missed all of the other ones.
I'll give you a hint for one: Asian diplomat
Last edited:
Going back to the OP's question, I would suggest that you ask the administrator of the tower that you live in, most of them know people and they won't want any hassle or thefts in the apartments. I would suggest that you pay well. If you pay something like 30,000 a month (US$ 500) plus free board, you'll get a really good person who is unlikely to try and cause problems for you. And let's be honest, US$ 500 isn't all that much money for someone to work for a full month for you. Remember if you want someone who can really clean, you're up against a fair amount of competition from the hotels and the Airbnb's.
Another idea is to use the Aldaba job site, I've always had good results on there. There are several other job boards where you can advertise for staff. If you're not Dominican yourself, make sure that you have a Dominican help with your interviews. It is normal to request a lot of medical tests to be undertaken before someone starts with you, and if they are child-bearing age, to require proof that they aren't pregnant (hiring someone who is pregnant in DR is a serious sh!tshow, trust me).
My final point is do you really need someone full-time just to clean? If you really need someone to look after the kids, then be real about that because you need way more than a cleaner to do that.
Another idea is to use the Aldaba job site, I've always had good results on there. There are several other job boards where you can advertise for staff. If you're not Dominican yourself, make sure that you have a Dominican help with your interviews. It is normal to request a lot of medical tests to be undertaken before someone starts with you, and if they are child-bearing age, to require proof that they aren't pregnant (hiring someone who is pregnant in DR is a serious sh!tshow, trust me).
My final point is do you really need someone full-time just to clean? If you really need someone to look after the kids, then be real about that because you need way more than a cleaner to do that.
Right now one of my friends has a problem with one, he fired her because he didn't need her anymore, he doesn't live here full time anymore, now she is suing him for some millions of pesos for 'damages'.
Another friend had a lawsuit from a male worker, not a maid but something like gardener/general cleaning/etc... he was fired, got paid all the money required by the law... a month later that worker claimed that he has Hepatitis, a liver damage, that all of that happened because of a stress because he was fired, asked for millions of pesos for medical bills because he has no job or insurance anymore to pay for it because he was fired and to compensate for damage of health, etc.... the case was in courts for some years, a lot of expenses for lawyers...
I knew a guy who had a cleaner lady for his office in Zona Colonial. One day she opened the door to two armed guys to rob the office. He managed to escape and call the police. The maid said 'no fui yo' and got away with it, no matter that all evidence of her involvement was recorded on cameras.
I can continue with dozens of other stories that never made any newspapers papers or police stats, but I know they happened because they happened to somebody I knew in person.
Oh stop all this nonsense. Santo Domingo is moving towards first-world at quite a pace these days. There is very little unemployment, there are a lot of decent hardworking Dominicans. I've worked in hospitality for many years and I can only remember two customers alleging something had been stolen, amongst thousands and thousands. I always paid my staff well, and my mantra was to treat them with respect and dignity, and I never had staff problems. Things go wrong when you try to nickel and dime people, when you live in your huge penthouse with all your flashy stuff and expect someone to work for you for buttons and be treated like a dog.
Ok enough with the stories. Because without proof, they are just "stories. Thank you
Well, what you say has no proof either. All that good stats, where's the proof that it's not your imaginary pink bubble? Your and other expats' vision thru the rose colored glasses? Maybe you guys are just trying to convince yourself that you moved or retired to a nice good country? Maybe you just don't want to accept the fact that you are living in a shIthole, and this forum is a kind of a group therapy? Most of you post here 20 times a day, do you have a life at all, or your life in DR is in fact just this DR1 forum? Even that you said that nothing bad ever happened to you, who knows, maybe you were attacked by some anal rapist yesterday but just don't want to talk about it. Where's the proof?
I am exaggerating in this post, of course, but just to show that your posts don't have any more proof than mine. So with all due respect, let's agree to disagree.
You need to stop posting in this thread, you have been warned.