Dominican Republic’s Land Court system ‘could collapse in 2 years’

Santo Domingo.- The Institutionalism and Justice Foundation (Finjus) on Monday warned before the Supreme Court that serious internal distortions in the Real Estate Jurisdiction (Land Court) could lead to the system’s collapse in less than two years.

Finjus warned that the sheer number of cases, delays in title registries, a sluggish Court, lack of interagency coordination and lack of resources, are "factors that have a wide range of negative effects because of its complex nature."

In a report delivered to Chief justice Mariano Germán, Finjus said the grave crisis affecting the key component of legal security and the domestic economy results from the stagnation and deterioration of the changes introduced by the reform began with the enactment of the Real Estate Registration Law 108-2005.

"While property law plays an essential role in social and economic development that its efficiency is directly linked to the overall performance of their model of Government, there is currently a strong concern, due to the improper functioning and regulation in our real estate justice system."

Finjus notes that while the reform process achieved visible progress, existing distortions warrant the judiciary’s intervention.

It listed a long duration of the procedures for mapping, transfer unjustified replacement of specialized technicians, weak statistics system, legal lagoons in the technical areas of the National Cadastral Surveys Agency (DNMC), and the failure to implement cadastral diagnostics as the General Regulations on Cadastral Surveys stipulate.

The legal think tank adds that and registration automation, as well as the need to provide a legal status based on the law, to the cartography unit.

"We’re exposed to the Judicial Real Estate system’s collapse in less than two years, it this collapse occurs it would be the gravest threat to judicial security and economic stability that the country could suffer, with catastrophic consequences."