Dominican Republic’s east has the most land fraud cases

Santo Domingo.- Real estate buyers, especially land, have to be wary of the country’s eastern region, where according to figures from the National Cadastre Agency (DGCN) cited by news source elcaribe.com.do, 52% of the frauds occur.

Those swindles against buyers aren’t by chance. The East region has vast tracts of land for tourism activities which stir the appetites of hustlers.

It’s no mystery that the vast majority of the remaining 48% of the frauds occur in Samaná, the National District, Puerto Plata and tourism regions.

Quoted by elcaribe.com.do Cadastre director Bolivar Marte said in most cases persuasion is how buyers get trapped. As an example, the official cited the case of a person who lives in the United States and places their trust in another in Dominican Republic who sends them a photo or video of a property they are selling. When the buyer has paid part or all of the money, they come to the country and realize they were sold “a bill of goods” because the property isn’t the one bought based on the images.

Real estate experts and Cadastre itself advise potential buyers to consult serious law offices to investigate and precisely define the property’s borders with GPS, to verify, for example, if a piece of land simultaneously has “layer on layer,” or several titles. “Once the purchase materializes and verified that there aren’t any problems with this, the correct thing to do is to realize the transference to help clarify the done deal. The advisable thing is not to stop conducting that transference on fear of having to pay the taxes.”