What may be done at any time will be done at no time

Back room

Things are moving forward with the house - a little slower than I wanted but it is to be expected I suppose. I met up with the architects and they gave me a set of conceptual designs based on the brief I had given them. I have to say it is a good feeling to see what the place is going to look like. At the moment you have to have a lot of imagination and vision to picture the property finished - every time I walk into the place I get excited, even with the trash, bottles, dogs and rats all over the place. They did pretty well with the designs and even added a few features that I didn't think of and ones that can be added over time. 

The constructional engineers came by during the week and it wasn’t all bad news. Most of the beams holding up the roof and the floors will be reusable which will be a huge saving. They said the front structure is pretty sound which is awesome news however there are question marks over the two pillars that hold up the upstairs sun terrace and the two rooms at the back of the rear construction. Not sure what that means yet but I am sure I will find out soon. The one thing that does worry me is that no one wants to say a price... strange hey lol.

I have got some quotes in for the plans I need to apply for the permits so I will be maing a decision shortly on which architects to go for. From what I have found out I need four sets of plans; Orginal/constructural, conceptual, plumbing and electrical. My main aim is to get these permits applied for to get the ball rolling, I can worry about getting quotes for the work whilst I am waiting on the permits.  

I did drive by the other day to a bit of a shock, they are digging up the road and sidewalks along the road - I later found out that the government is investing money to replace the sewage pipes and electrical lines which is a plus. However to my shock there was three children having a shower in front of my property in their underwear... They had a hose pipe connected to what I am guessing is my water supply that is now accessible due to the sidewalk repairs. I had a horrible feeling I might be providing the neighbors with their water and power... So the utility companies were called and they came around and cut of the water and electricity until we start restoration.

Tres Ojos Santo Domingo

That is one thing over here you have to be really careful of - the electricity thieves! The cost of electricity over here is astronomical and having neighbors hook up to your supply is a frequent occurrence. I am glad I spotted that one early.

With regards to the paperwork side of the house; I have paid the taxes - a 3% transfer tax and registration fee. I had to go to the DGII (government tax office) to find out the amount I had to pay. This would have been a little quicker however I have not yet applied for residency - silly I know - and therefore have no cedula (ID) number yet. It is not a big issue as over here you can buy property with just a passport as ID but you need to have a personal RNC (tax) number. Its very handy having Katherines dad who is a lawyer as he sorted all this out for me. So I now have an RNC number so I can pay tax on the house - oh the joy.

On the day we had to go and pay the taxes I thought it would be a simple process but this is Dominican Republic and something that should take 30 minutes takes 4 hours - but I am getting used to it. So first things first we had to get a cheque issued from me to the government, I wont bore you with the details but after an hour and a half in the bank we finally sorted it. So then down to the tax office, after waiting about an hour - which was strange as the place was pretty empty and there was a lot of staff at the windows - we finally got to the desk only to find out that we needed to fill in another form - for that we have to go upstairs and take a ticket then come back down and wait to see an attendant again. Hey but I didn’t care, taxes were paid! woop woop - you get a green sheet stating the amount you have paid. 

I am almost at the stage of getting the title in my name, I just have to go to the DGII office this week to hand in all my paperwork. 

Dominicana Moda 2012

So what else is new... The new president has released his new tax rises that are apparently going to allow the country to grow and prosper... or as everyone here sees it just to line a few more government pockets, but I wont go into that.

There are a few of the usual suspects that aren't to shocking such as a rise cigarette and alcohol tax. They are also raising the property taxes - registration tax will now be 4.5% rather than 3% (I bought just in time), but probably the biggest one will be that before if you had properties over here worth under $5m pesos you did not need to pay tax. For example if you had 4 properties worth $4m pesos each then you wouldn't have to pay any taxes. However as I understand it (I could be wrong) now they are changing that to your collective properties worth ie 4 houses at $4m Pesos = $16m pesos. The first $5m pesos is tax free but now this person would have to pay 1% tax a year on $11m pesos of that... 

Another is that the ITBIS is going up from 16% to 18% which I think is pretty high for a developing country.

Another one that got me was the car tax, now the tax is 1% of your cars value each year. Might not seem so bad but its the governments appraised value - not the purchase price which screws me as they say mine is worth almost double what I paid for it! If they just put an end to all the ‘waste’ that goes on in the government they wouldn't need to raise anything.

7am Queue to register my car

Now I had promised myself I would start working through a long list of things that I need to get done - not house related. Top of that is to finally register my car, six months on I am almost there! Katherine's dad came along with me (did I mention its awesome having a lawyer in the family?) and told me to meet him at the local office in Santo Domingo at 7am. I did think that was early and but I found at why... even at this time there was at least 50 cars ahead of me in line. Basically you have to wait until one of the workers comes to check all your paperwork against the VIN numbers on the car to ensure it is all legit - to be fair the office doesn't open until 8:30am and I was seen at 9am so it wasn't that bad - I got told if you come later it takes a lot longer. They then give you a slip of paper and then you have to go in and queue to submit all the paperwork; contract of sale signed by owner and buyer and then notarized, original title of car and a photocopy of cedulas/passport. 

I think it takes about a week then I have to go back down to pick up the new title. One job almost completed! It only took about 3 hours... 

Next job will be applying for my cedula which might not be as bad as I first throught as there is a foreign investment incentive that allows you to get a cedula in 45 days! I am curious if that is true? But before I can apply I need my Birth certificate apostlized in the UK and sent over along with a police check - I am heading to the embassy tomorrow to see if they can help me with the police check. I had to apply for a new birth certificate as they kept my original one for my wedding at xmas - which added another week onto the process, But its finally here so watch this space...

Weekend in Sosua

Other news...

Had a bit of a shock the other morning - woke up feeling very hot indeed, first I thought the aircon must have broken. But unfortunately not! Someone had stolen it off the wall from the outside of the building (for the second time) - even though a new cage had been put up and it was securely locked they managed to take it - along with three others from the building we found out later that day.  

Thieving sods - if I had to give advice when living in an apartment it would be to not have one on the ground floor! 

So I am hoping by mid November I will have finally applied for the permits so I can apply at Patrimonio and Ayuntamiento. My live in caretaker will have moved out everything by mid November so I will finally be able to get in there and clean the place up a bit. He is going to stay on as our caretaker to make sure nobody decides to move in to the house which is handy. So until next time...

Life Begins at 30?

My 30th in Punta Cana

Its actually been quite an eventful week, I was not planning on a post quite so soon but Im sitting on the balcony with a nice blue sky, beer in hand and thought I would fill you in on my week. 

It was my 30th Birthday over the weekend and I was dreading it. Where does the time go... although I really don't feel like 30! Then I sat back and decided its not actually that bad, I mean I have had an awesome past few years and have had some amazing experiences. Plus the fact that I am writing this on a Caribbean Island...

So back to my birthday weekend; we decided to go to Punta Cana for the weekend with one of Katherines cousins, her cousins boyfriend and Griset - one of Katherines friends. It was a long weekend which wasn’t ideal as the prices of the resorts were not that cheap but we found a good deal at the Rui Macao Palace - advertised as an adults only resort, awesome! So I thought.

One thing I was looking forward to was the drive (yes you heard correctly), the new highway has just opened and I heard rumors that it only takes 2 hours to get there. The old road took around 4 hours and you were constantly trying to find places to safely overtake slow moving trucks. So I at the edge of the city I hit the stop watch - the new road was awesome although I am sure in a few months time it will be full of pot holes like every other road here. We arrived in Punta Cana in 1hr 45minutes - not bad at all! 

It was a relaxing weekend as I didnt really fancy a big party and the hotel on the most part was really nice. I mean you cant complain when you have a free mini bar with liquor in your room. The only problem about this adults only resort was the screaming kids! Apparently I needed to read the small print when booking as out of season they let children in - a little bit of false advertising I think, but hey was a really good long weekend.

I love this bridge

My new transportation

I am now in my 30’s so decided to get active. Myself and Jose were sitting down over sangria and decided that we would join the gym - now I know that people join the gym and never go however I am going to stick at this. There are a few gyms close to me but I will be moving to the Colonial Zone when the house is ready so decided to go to the gym there. It beats paying 2000 pesos (about $55) a month to go to Golds Gym which I feel is a crazy price to pay. The gym I go to is only 500 pesos and month, is clean and ok it doesn’t have air con but they open all the windows and you have a view of the sea.

There was only one thing in the way - how to get there? Now I love my Jeep however with the price of gas and the very low MPG it gets to go to the gym and my Spanish classes (that start next week eekk) it would probably double my already high gas bill each week. I have been considering converting to Natural Gas but the cost of getting it converted is pretty steep and there are only a few natural gas stations in the city. So... how to get there... the answer is I bought myself a bike, no, not a motorbike but a good old bicycle. Not quite the mid life crisis red convertible car but it is going to get me fit and save me money. 

I managed to find a half decent used bike online for a reasonable price so I was all set. 

The traffic is crazy in Santo Domingo and most people (including Katherine) have called me crazy but it just makes sense. The good part about it is my university is on the way back from the gym so I can kill two birds with one stone. 

A little bit of rain yesterday

It is a 7.6km trip each way to the gym but it will be worth it. The route is not that bad as 5km of it is along the Mirador Sur - a road which they close off in the mornings to traffic for cyclists and runners, so I have only 2.6km of traffic to negotiate. The first day I went I met Jose halfway and it only took 45 minutes to get there which I thought was not to bad for a first attempt. 

So, progress on the property... I have received the plans back from Rodolfo and we had a meeting to discuss what we require from the property. I really want to keep as much as possible original without splitting up to many rooms. The place has really high ceilings and the beams will look awesome. Now the property itself has basically no plumbing so the placement of the bathrooms is a huge consideration as after the roof and floor of the main building this is the next biggest cost.

I was informed that when we get the estimate we have to be aware that the budget when renovating a colonial property could vary by up to 50% - my mouth did kind of drop when I heard this. Now I know that things come up that you don't expect but not that could raise the renovation costs up by 50%! But hey I am not worrying yet - we have a budget and even if its me and Jose up putting a new roof on we will get this completed.

My new plans

So where from here? Well next week I will see the proposed plans from the architects and this week we have to go and pay the taxes on the house. Now the taxes are around 3.5% of the government appraised value of a property but that is well below market value. If you pay over 5 million pesos for a property then you have to pay a yearly tax of 1% of the properties value above 5 million pesos  - unfortunately ours is over that threshold so we will have to pay a yearly tax. I believe the 3.5% property tax goes on what you paid for the property according to the contract of sale rather than the government appraised value, but I will find out for sure this Friday - I am hoping its the latter...

I am hoping we will have the required plans submitted to Patrimonio by the end of next week, at least then we will have started the official process - I still have my fingers crossed that we can start work before Xmas but I suppose we will have to wait and see.

So a week Wednesday is the start of term at the University where I start my Spanish classes - 5 times a week for 2 hours, it should do the trick. I am so glad I found out about this course as private schools charge an absolute fortune. I am a little nervous and excited at the same time. Finally I will sort my broken Spanish out!