By Gissel Taveras
El Inmobiliario
SANTO DOMINGO.- Deputy Alexis Jiménez, president of the Permanent Justice Commission of the Chamber of Deputies, assured this Wednesday that next week they will present a report on the draft bill to regulate real estate agents in the country.
“We are working on a modern, comprehensive proposal that will regulate real estate brokerage in the Dominican Republic,” Jiménez told El Inmobiliario.
He said that "we have instructions from the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Alfredo Pacheco, to release all the important draft bills like this one between this week and next," explained the deputy who chairs the Commission that reviews the document, introduced last year in the Lower House.
He also noted that they recently held a meeting with the organizations promoting the draft bill to hear their impressions.
The purpose of this piece is to regulate, supervise, develop and promote an orderly, efficient and transparent real estate brokerage market.
According to Article 1 of the document, the proposal also seeks to protect the rights and interests of both property buyers and sellers and developers, as well as to preserve confidence in the Dominican real estate market, establishing the conditions for information on the promotion of real estate transactions to be truthful, sufficient and timely, in order to contribute to the economic and social development of the country
Jiménez explained that the main objective of the meeting with various members of sectors linked to the real estate industry was to analyze and understand the different aspects and repercussions that the law would have on the real estate sector.
One of the main topics discussed in the space, according to the Association of Builders of Santo Domingo East (ACOSDE), was the regulations for acquiring the license necessary to operate as a real estate agency.
According to a press release from the trade association, another important point was the method of payment of commissions and how they should be structured to ensure transparency for both intermediaries and clients.
Also analyzed were the situation in cases where a client decides to return a property or cancel a real estate transaction and the compensation that, by law, the real estate project developer should receive in case the client breaches the contract or purchase agreement of a property, according to ACOSDE.
The meeting was attended by Alberto Bogaert, president of the Association of Real Estate Agents and Companies (AEI); Annerys Meléndez, president of the Dominican Association of Housing Builders and Developers (ACOPROVI); and Riubell Montes de Oca, president of the Association of Builders of Santo Domingo East (ACOSDE).
Justice Commission
The Permanent Justice Commission in charge of the draft bill is composed of Alexis Jiménez, president; Jesús Manuel Sánchez, Rafaela Alburquerque, José Horacio Rodríguez and Sadosky Duarte.
In addition, a subcommittee is studying the draft bill as a full committee: Alexis Isaac Jiménez González, Ramón Mayobanex Martínez Durán, Omar Leonel Fernández, Darío De Jesús Zapata Estévez, Eugenio Cedeño Areché, Jesús Manuel Sánchez Martínez, José Horacio Rodríguez Grullón.
José Miguel Ferreiras Torres, Pedro Tomás Botello Solimán, Plutarco Pérez, Santiago Vilorio Lizardo, Víctor Manuel Fadul Lantigua and Víctor Valdemar Suárez Díaz are also members.
Cover photo: Congressman Alexis Jiménez.
