"Deslinde" Procedure Necessary for Real Estate Transactions after April 4, 2009

As you may know, the new Property Registry Law (Law #108-05) that has been in effect since April 4, 2007, and its enabling regulations, have drastically changed Dominican real estate law. One essential element of this modernization has been the requirement of a "deslinde" for all real estate transactions: purchases, sales, mortgages, condominium formation, etc.

A "deslinde" ("segregation" in English) is the legal procedure by which a portion of land within a parcel is segregated from all the other portions within the same parcel. In other words, the deslinde procedure converts a provisional title that guarantees the property right of ownership for a portion of land within a bigger parcel into a definite title that guarantees the ownership of an individual parcel. The result of the procedure is that the segregated portion will become its own parcel with its individual cadastral designation, guaranteed by a definite title. The majority of jurisdictions around the world only recognize and register segregated portions of land and do not allow any transactions of portions of land that are not segregated. The purpose of the new Property Registry Law is to reach exactly the same level of sophistication and security as these modern jurisdictions have had for a long time: no recorded property rights without a deslinde.

Read "Deslinde" Procedure Necessary for Real Estate Transactions after April 4, 2009

Official says investors know of DR-Cafta trade deal’s guarantees

Santo Domingo.- Since last year foreign investors have filed complaints on issues as diverse as electrical distribution, expropriation and public works concessions, taking advantage of the legal guarantees established in the DR-Cafta trade deal, said the Minister of Industry and Commerce.

Jose Ramon Fadul said Thursday that the DR-Cafta has allowed foreign investors to become aware that the agreement provides them with rights and mechanisms to protect their investments.

“Therefore the priority of the agency in charge is to continue encouraging the adoption of the bill for a Law on Commercial Arbitration,” he said.

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Dominican high court ruling protects Bahia de las Aguilas

SANTO DOMINGO.- The Supreme Court upheld the Superior Land Court’s jurisdiction to hear the case of the hundreds of kilometers of registered lands expropriated in Bahia de las Aguilas beach, located in the southwest municipalities Enriquillo and Pedernales, a ruling that bolster it’s status as a protected area.

The high Court rejected the appeals filed by Jose Luis Guzmán Bencosme, Gilberto Jose, Miguel Nelson Fernandez Mancebo, Mantenimientos y Servicios Fernández, C. por A., Aquilino Antonio Méndez, Manuel Carvajal, Antonio Felix Perez and Manuel Carvajal, against the Superior Territories Court sentence of April 22, 2005.

The land-grab scandal of Bahia de las Aguilas, part of Jaragua National Park, began in the early 1990s when officials in the Administration of Joaquin Balaguer forged land deeds to take over nearly 15 kilometers of pristine beaches.

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