Sosúa Warnings and Dangers

 
by schurlif
 
  •   Warnings and Dangers
    by schurlif
  •   Warnings and Dangers
    by schurlif
  •   Warnings and Dangers
    by schurlif
  •   Warnings and Dangers
    by schurlif
  • Reserving their monster parking lot
      Reserving their monster parking lot
    by schurlif
 

Most Recent Warnings and Dangers in Sosúa

BUYING REAL ESTATE IN SOSÚA
schurlif profile photo

3.5 out of 5 starsHelpfulness

schurlif 240 reviews
One of the oldest in town
4 more images

So many people have come to Sosúa , many times as simple tourists... and thought they had "discovered" their paradise.... next step , they thought buying real estate in Sosúa or adjacent communities like Cabarete would be a wonderful investment , dreaming of a house on the hill with ocean view or really oceanfront..... next comes the plundering of all savings accounts, selling the house , the cars and all the rest back home. A dream is about to come true... Leaving the ratrace behind , becoming an islander and constructing a new life.... maybe as a restaurant or bar owner , maybe as a jeweler, maybe as a baker...???? So far , so good...

But by now the naive tourist is already head forward in the worry and problem kitchen the Dominicans don't even bother about but which is hell for all gringos .
The very first and upmost important thing is to find the right real estate company.....

The ones pictured here are neutral for me , neither good , nor bad things to tell because I frankly dont know them too much. Still, be carefull...

There are the big , successful and trustworthy franchise real estate companies whom , I'd say , you can really trust. I'll talk about those in two or three of my upcoming "What To Do Tips"...

And !!!!!! There's this one or another real estate company which is like a deadly trap when you enter.....As soon as you made this mistake , you're in real trouble... There's one notorious, well known owner of a real estate company who , according to Dominican newspapers and TV , has forged documents, sold "lots" on public streets and nonexisting projects to clueless tourists and much, much more...I'll tell some about this too in the next Warning and Danger Tip ....

Updated Apr 4, 2011

Phone: the only helpful resource is to

Related to:
 Spa and Resort
 Romantic Travel and Honeymoons

Was this review helpful?

THE GREEN HEIST AND FRAUD ATTEMPT
schurlif profile photo

2.5 out of 5 starsHelpfulness

schurlif 240 reviews
My virginlike land eons ago.....
4 more images

As I pointed out in my Sosua Intro, you cannot be careful enough in trying to protect your property if you own some in Sosua, surroundings and probably in all of the DR because laws are full of loopholes, bureaucracy and creepy tardiness of the courts wear down the strongest steel nerves and there's an obstacle at every step you make. So be prepared to be smarter than the vultures that may circle above you and your property.
Picture 1 shows my property some 19 years ago, pic taken from the big red X position on the map (Pic 2) and the red and blue arrows pointing out the boundaries, the streets as shown in Pic 2. This map shows the property of my neighbors, Rick and Mary Green, he from England, she from Scotland, in green, the yellow part plus the blue part represent my property. The blue part is what they walled in with the gate and wall from pics 3, 4 and 5. The map is made from two different official surveyor maps with different scales, so it is out of proportion, my property is in reality about 4 times what the Greens own. They built this wall without permission, without title to the land, either being very clever, too clever for my taste or they're just so stupid that their ignorance is almost criminal. Their excuse was that the former owner of their property had told them.... bla bla bla and that's why they thought this land was theirs too... My answer??: Ohh, the cleaning woman of the neighbor over there told me your house is mine too... Can I go upstairs now and lay down in your bed...??

Updated Apr 4, 2011

Phone: Never mind, it's battling

Related to:
 Bungy Jumping

Was this review helpful?

BEWARE THE BUTCHER VET
schurlif profile photo

2.5 out of 5 starsHelpfulness

schurlif 240 reviews
Take your Fifi to get chopped
1 more image

Would you appreciate catburgers or dogsteaks....? Grilled parrotbreast ?? Hamster nuggets ?? When you walk down Calle Pedro Clisante you can see a VERY weird sign...... and it's a big one too.....

So think twice before you take your poodle or kittykat with you on your trip......

Pic 2 already reveals that the vet must have a pretty tilted sense of humor.... because here it's right....
Or could it be that nobody has told her yet that the street sign is a delight for engrish lovers..??

Updated Apr 4, 2011

Phone: Greenpeace

Related to:
 Travel with Pets

Was this review helpful?

Sosúa Life Bar
schurlif profile photo

3.5 out of 5 starsHelpfulness

schurlif 240 reviews
1 more image

This could have been a nice tip in the nightlife section..... but I will definitely not recommend this place to anyone.....
Situated at one of the best adresses in Sosúa, the intersection of Calle Pedro Clisante and Calle Dr. Rosen, this German owned bar looks just like most of the others, there are the usual girls waiting for customers, beer flowing, people talking and there's actually nothing wrong with the physical place itself.........

EXCEPT ONE LITTLE DETAIL........

The clientel..... Guys from Germany, vulgar, loud and drunken, some of them with shaved heads and some of them with very bad body odor......
I made the mistake to try out this place once. Not only do they not have anything decent to eat but, again, the worst thing there are the guys sitting, standing, talking so loud that it hurts and , here it comes..., swearing and babbling the most disgusting antisemitic rhetoric you could imagine, over and over.... that's what they're doing on their carribean holidays..... getting drunk and swearing in the most vulgar way at Jews, exactly the people who had to escape and flee their fathers terror and mass murder, who came and founded Sosúa, which eventually became a tourist destination and to which today this german low trash comes for "holidays".... you may imagine what they're doing in Germany..... the same....
I just paid the bill without finishing my drink and left, mad and pitying Sosúa for this kind of guests....

Written May 23, 2007

Was this review helpful?

BE SURE YOU HAVE THE "RIGHT" FRIENDS ...
schurlif profile photo

2.5 out of 5 starsHelpfulness

schurlif 240 reviews
2 more images

... when you invest big time in actually the whole DR...

There's the example of the German investor ( sorry, forgot his name ) who invested millions and millions into a new tourist destination on the north coast, "Ocean World". Everything seems to have gone smooth, some of the millions must have poured into the right accounts since the arrival area of Gregório Luperon Internationl Airport ( POP ) before and after immigration and customs is wallpapered with outdoor sized Ocean World adds and the investor has been recommended by the DR government for decoration with the highest honor medal of the republic...

... while another investor ( as the Sosúa rumor kitchen has it ), a proud and maybe not too clever Italian neglected rule # 1 for all people who want to sink their money into the DR...: Make sure you won't have unpleasant surprises half way down the investing process... After supposedly having already invested some 40 million dollars in DR enterprises, this project of the Italian went wrong all the way... have a look at the rest of this "new" lush Casino/Disco/Mega-enterprise that was banned in the middle of being built by the competent authorities with sad eyes because they too were banned from nibbling a bit from the big cake....

See the pics and just imagine the money that was dumped and squandered here...

Written May 22, 2007

Related to:
 Architecture
 Business Travel
 Casino and Gambling

Was this review helpful?

~ Immunisations & Malaria Tablets ~
Heavens-Mirror profile photo

4.5 out of 5 starsHelpfulness

Heavens-Mirror 210 reviews
~ Malaria Tablets ~

Some websites say that you do not need any immunisations or that you need to take malaria tablets. We checked with our doctor and in fact you do need to take malaria tablets. The immunisations are not compulsary but they are highly recommended.

The recommended immunisations are Diphtheria, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, malaria, TB, tetanus & typhoid. I had to have my typhoid jab as i was due for it.

Also you need to take Avloclor malaria tablets (250mg pack) these are for the prevention of malaria. They need to be taken once a week & at least two weeks before you travel, thats two tablets once a week, then you have to take them for four weeks after your return date as this is when your most at risk.

So if you are travelling to the Dominican Republic make sure you take a visit to the doctor a few weeks before travel.

Written May 6, 2007

Website: www.traveldoctor.co.uk

Was this review helpful?

FUNDAMENTAL TRAP......
schurlif profile photo

3.5 out of 5 starsHelpfulness

schurlif 240 reviews
cute and nica but at a distance...

When you see these two nice people, RUUUUUUUUN !!!! LOL !!
It was exactly on my last evening in Sosua and I had left my hotel to find one of those cheapo tourist souvenir places because I felt I had not bought enough little presents for Camila and Rosane.
As I walk down the street I run into this couple and he comes to me and talks as if he knew me and as I have a terrible memory for faces and names, I react politely pretending to know him, lol !!. Then he tells me a story that he's a wholesale precious and semiprecious stone dealer and that he has his collection with him and that he wants to show me an item or two because next day early in the morning he was going to Santo Domingo. As by accident I was looking exactly for what he soon showed me, a set of amber ear rings, a necklace and a wrist band (since Jurassic Park everything in the DR is amber) I accepted his invitation to follow them to their house where it was going to be easier for me to look at his precious stuff.
As soon as we get there, she starts cooking in the kitchen while he displays an array of necklaces and other stone goodies on the table. And then he says, before starting with business we should pray (??) and there he goes, raising both arms towards the heavens he sings hallelujah! then holds his left open hand over my head and invokes luck, health, happiness and love on me, while his wife leaves the kitchen and burning stove to chant extasically with her husband and rolling the eyeballs, LOL!! Business was then quick and professional but even though I didn't pay that much I had the feeling I was buying crap (he was adding free gifts to everything I bought). Afterwards he got anxious and pesty, wanting to show me all family pictures and telling me his whole life (and that of his wife too) untill she, good angel, saved me by telling her husband to stop it. I made up some great excuse and escaped the place politely, after all they were nice people.
Camila and Rosane loved the stuff I brought them or at least they pretended to. LOL...

Written Apr 26, 2007

Related to:
 Religious Travel
 Seniors
 Arts and Culture

Was this review helpful?

HOW TO PREVENT SOMEONE FROM STEALING YOUR PROPERTY
schurlif profile photo

3.5 out of 5 starsHelpfulness

schurlif 240 reviews

It's not only me warning.... a lot of people in Sosúa warn others about this and that.... many , many times having to do with scam real estate deals......

See this picture of a BIG sign on an empty lot at the corner of Calle Alejo Martinez and Calle del Ayuntamiento.....

The owner of this lot , a real estate company in the person of its owner and president Amable Trujillo , decided that it was necessary and wiser to let everybody know the following....

My Spanish is not exactly the best but with a little fantasy and talent for languages anybody with no knowledge of Spanish and only a bit of English can understand the meaning of the text on this oversized sign...

Here goes :

Attention !
Warning !

This property ( lot ) has in its total extension 2.371,44 m2 .... ( Abarca..????? ) extends ( all the way ) to the three adjacent streets and is the property of ATSA Realty. We are not responsible for any transaction or action by persons or institutions who represent the contrary fraudulently

Amable Trujillo
President

Funny......? Not really... just imagine how many scams must be going on all the time so that Mr. Amable ( WHAT A CUTE NAME...!! LOL...) decides to put up such a sign in order to prevent eventual future legal troubles......

Written Feb 13, 2007

Related to:
 Business Travel
 Luxury Travel
 Budget Travel

Was this review helpful?

SCAMMER SHARK JB WARNING # 2
schurlif profile photo

3.5 out of 5 starsHelpfulness

schurlif 240 reviews
It could have meant something nice to us
2 more images

I warned you in my last tip about doing business with this guy , JB at NCR...... 22 years ago , when I had no idea about real estate , how to buy , what to observe , he caught me and my ex wife in his net and talked us into buying an apartment in his Neptune project..... It was then only on paper and he needed money to finance it..... I , like a dumb*ss, flew back to Vienna to bring the money.... I can't believe I really did that..... And the deal was that we would get ( looking at the building ) the top floor apartment to the left.... and he said : "Ahhh, OK , apartment A3". We pointed at it on the project plan and he said: " OK , apartment A3 ". So , to us it meant that he was talking about block A , third floor..... ( in the DR the ground floor is the first floor , so the first floor is the second and the second is .... you guessed it..... Block A , looking at the building on the left side , third floor , that would be second floor in any "normal" country......
So what happened was that by the time he had the building standing , some 18 months later or so...... he had the numeration of the apartments changed all of a sudden.... A3 was now in real life the third apartment from the left on level A , that meant with JB the ground level or the socalled "first floor "... Check pics 2 and 3.... The red arrow points to the apartment we bought , wanted and agreed to..... The blue arrow points to the apartment he wanted to foist on us... We protested , so he showed us the contract that said we had acquired apt. A3 and pointed to the ground floor apartment ( blue arrow ) and said : "This is A3 ".... At the end he "offered" me my money back and I took it , even though it meant he had an interest free loan of U$ 75.000 for 18 months from me and I told him he should shove his A3 up his *ss ..... That was it...... So beware this guy..... He's been getting away with this kind of business since at least 25 years or more.....

Updated Feb 12, 2007

Related to:
 Luxury Travel
 Business Travel
 Family Travel

Was this review helpful?

BEWARE THE SHARK AND CON MAN !!!!!
schurlif profile photo

3.5 out of 5 starsHelpfulness

schurlif 240 reviews
the man with the naturally criminal mind
3 more images

This is a real and concrete warning about an imminent and real danger in Sosúa. It's about the most notorious and hated scammer in Sosúa's real estate market. This guy has way over 100 or even more court cases of frauded clients against him but he and his lawyer bend the law to within nanometers of illegality and let their victims run with their head against the wall playing every dirty trick imaginable. Many people have lost their money with this guy ( that's why Western Union is in his building too... pic 3 - lame joke...). His contracts are suicidal for the naive customer who's day dreaming about a little appartment on a sunny island during long and cold winter days.... This guy sold us three appartments ( gosh !!! were we - my exwife and I - easy victims for this SOB...) He kept control over the building where we had two small appartments for renting purposes.... he rented them out but never gave us a cent of the income, feigning that it was barely enough for the overheads of the building ( 12 small appartments...) See next tip about what he did to us regarding the third appartment.... And pic 1 shows one of his signs with his ugly picture on it which I found four weeks ago hanging on a palm tree on my property.... This guy has sold "lots" on public streets (!!) and in non existing projects, back in Detroit where he started he's still wanted by the police for document forging and other crimes, he was presented in newspapers and TV-shows in the DR as the most scandalous , corrupt and criminal real estate broker of the whole island.... And he was a suspect in a murder case but he saved himself , as usual , by bribing police, coroners and judges.... This is also why he has to continue frauding.... so he can pay his protectors..... BEWARE JB AND NCR - NORTH COAST REALTY ! Don't step in this cut throat trap... !

Updated Feb 12, 2007

Related to:
 Family Travel
 Business Travel
 Luxury Travel

Was this review helpful?

Comments

Top 3 Hotels in Sosúa

Piergiorgio Palace Hotel

 1 Review and 24 Opinions  I stayed here in Jan/Feb 2001 and remember pretty much still.... The hotel is "the dream come true"... 

 Hotels in Sosúa

Show Prices

Casa Marina Beach

 4 Reviews and 592 Opinions  My stay at the Casa Marina Reef for 1 week was truely wonderful, I came to see my friends get... 

 Hotels in Sosúa

Show Prices
Map of Sosúa