Deslinde will give you a new title, only for that part that you own and comes together with a deslinde, with all points from the property in gps coordinates.

I’ve been in a bind with this deslinde thing, and your article was just what I needed.

If you get this message and can correspond with me some more, please email me.

Thanks!

That said, I have bought property without seeing it! Not long ago, I saw advertised a lake cabin (near our home in Canada) that could only be accessed by boat in summer or across the ice in winter. It was perfect and ridiculously cheap so I convinced my reluctant husband to make an offer with a clause stating that it would not be final until we looked at the place.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t get there. The lake has a hot spring under it and a mild winter meant the ice was not safe for a snow machine. Skiing across the lake was also not possible for us. Eventually, an acquaintance was able to go across and said “the place is not worth it.” Surprise! Within a week, there were two higher offers on the place! So we exercised our option at the original price we had agreed on with the seller.

It was with some trepidation that we went to our cabin once the ice melted in the spring. It is beautiful. Worth much more (to us, at least) that we paid for it.

I agree that if you are willing to trust your instincts you might find a deal like we did. You also might make a big mistake. If it is one you can afford to make, why not?

I recently bought land in the Dominican Republic, in Luperon, which is not too far from Sousa. I think it’s a great country and a great place for expats to live. Your purchase seems to have gone smoothly but, based on my experience, I think you ought to consider a couple of additional steps to protect your investment. They might be a good excuse for a winter visit to the beach in Sousa.

First, I’d pick up my title and take it over to the Tribuna de Tierra (Land Court) in Puerto Plata to make sure it’s been correctly recorded. This is quite easy as they have everything computerized and a friendly English-speaking clerk will be happy to look up your title and show it to you on the computer screen. BTY, do hold onto your title certificate as it can be costly to replace if it is lost. Making sure that your title is correctly recorded is very important because if it isn’t someone else could register it in their name and you’d then have a real problem.

Next, you should consider getting what’s called a “deslinde,” which is official government recognition of the actual metes and bounds (location) of your lot. This requires going to a surveyor (agrimensor) who will resurvey your lot and then submit the survey to the land court for official recognition. The court will hold a hearing and your laywer will notify all adjacent landowners so that they have an opportunity to challenge your claim. If there are any conflicts, the judge will resolve them. This will cost the equivilent of about $1,000 to $1,500 US dollars.

You might wonder why this is necessary. The reason is that it’s likely that the lot you bought is part of a larger piece of land which is being sold off in pieces by the owner. The owner seems to have given you a survey showing what part of the larger tract you bought, but that survey has no official standing. Your title likely says simply that you own 822 m2 of land within the larger tract without actually specifying which 822 m2. That’s why you need the deslinde, to specify the exact boundaries of your lot.

Many landowners have skipped this step in the past and that used to be feasible as long as you immediately took possession of the lot, put up a good fence or even concrete block wall and either built your house or hired someone to keep watch to make sure no neighbors moved your fence or that no one started squatting on all or part of your land. (It’s very difficult and costly under Dominican law to get squatters off your land once they’re there.) In your situation as absentee owners, you could be in for a nasty surprise without a deslinde, not to mention a good fence and someone to keep an eye on your property.

The other reason you might need a deslinde is that the Dominican government changed its land title law so that any land sold after April 2007 cannot be sold again by the new owner without having an official deslinde done. If you check your title certificate, you will probalby see that it is stamped with the word “intransferible,” which means “not transferable” because the sale occurred after April 2007 and you cannot sell it without obtaining a deslinde. While you may not be planning to sell anytime soon, you should know that it can take a year or more to get a deslinde done. (I had my lot surveyed for a deslinde in July of last year and the hearing in land court to obtain the deslinde title is currently scheduled for August of this year.) You can see this is not ideal if you for some reason need or want to make a quick sale. By the same token, a lot with an official deslinde in place is automatically going to be more valuable than one that lacks a deslinde.

I think you’ve made a great decision buying land in the DR with the intention of moving here and opening a B&B. But I do urge you to protect your dream by taking these additional steps. An old American saying — perhaps English too — is “Good fences make good neighbors.” This definitely applies when you buy land in the DR.

Guy