Countries › Dominican Republic › Guide › 11. Real estate and land › Unregistered land, constancias anotadas and deslinde

Unregistered land, constancias anotadas and deslinde

Last verified: 2026-10-30 · Status: Stable

Land that was never registered enters the system through saneamiento, a court process that ends in a first certificate. Much land is still held by constancia anotada, a share of a parcel with no defined boundary, which no longer can be issued and which must be individualized by deslinde or, since October 2025, more easily by administrative regularization. Buying without one of these done means buying a share, not a plot.

USD figures use the Banco Central de la República Dominicana reference selling rate of RD$60.9007 per US dollar for 29 October 2026, the latest row in its published rate file on the verification date, rounded to the cent.

Key facts

Contribution on first adjudication	0.5 %Ley 108-05 art. 41 paragraph III, as of 2026-10-30 · in force
Prescription without title	20 yearsCódigo Civil art. 2262, as of 2026-10-30 · in force
Prescription with just title and good faith	5 or 10 yearsCódigo Civil art. 2265, as of 2026-10-30 · in force

The rule

1. The State is the original owner of all land. Land on which nobody can prove a right is registered in the name of the State.Ley 108-05 de Registro Inmobiliario, as amended by Ley 51-07, Principle III, 2005-03-23 official text · verified 2026-10-30

2. Saneamiento is the public order process that identifies the land, clears the rights and registers them for the first time. The State or anyone claiming a right on unregistered land can start it.Ley 108-05 de Registro Inmobiliario, as amended by Ley 51-07, art. 20 and paragraph I, 2005-03-23 official text · verified 2026-10-30

3. Possession must be public, peaceful, unequivocal and uninterrupted for the time set in the Civil Code. Cultivation, building or clear boundaries are acts of possession. A judgment cannot rest on witnesses alone.Ley 108-05 de Registro Inmobiliario, as amended by Ley 51-07, art. 21 and art. 22, 2005-03-23 official text · verified 2026-10-30

4. The Civil Code term is 20 years without title, or 5 years in good faith with just title if the true owner lives in the judicial district, and 10 if outside it.Código Civil, art. 2262 and art. 2265, 1884-04-17 official text · verified 2026-10-30

5. First adjudication pays a 0.5% contribution on the fiscal value, and the judge will not adjudicate until it is paid. Properties up to 300 public sector minimum salaries, the State, charities and religious bodies are exempt.
Cost to do it: 0.5% of the fiscal value, or RD$25,000 (about US$410.50) on RD$5,000,000.
Example: RD$5,000,000 value, RD$25,000 contribution / US$82,100.86 value, US$410.50 contributionLey 108-05 de Registro Inmobiliario, as amended by Ley 51-07, art. 41 paragraphs III to V, as amended by Ley 51-07 art. 4, 2005-03-23 official text · verified 2026-10-30

6. Saneamiento runs through survey, court process and registration. The registry issues the certificate within 30 days of receiving the final judgment.Ley 108-05 de Registro Inmobiliario, as amended by Ley 51-07, art. 24 and art. 27 paragraph III, 2005-03-23 official text · verified 2026-10-30

7. A person deprived of a right by fraud in saneamiento may seek review before the Tribunal Superior de Tierras within one year of the certificate. A buyer during that year is not treated as a good faith third party.Ley 108-05 de Registro Inmobiliario, as amended by Ley 51-07, art. 86 and paragraphs I and III, 2005-03-23 official text · verified 2026-10-30

8. Issuing constancias anotadas has been banned since the law took effect, except for condominium units. The Supreme Court sets how existing ones are titled.Ley 108-05 de Registro Inmobiliario, as amended by Ley 51-07, art. 129, 2005-03-23 official text · verified 2026-10-30

9. Constancia rights can be cleared using saneamiento principles, and deslinde is a contradictory process before the Tribunal de Jurisdicción Original.Ley 108-05 de Registro Inmobiliario, as amended by Ley 51-07, art. 130 and paragraph, 2005-03-23 official text · verified 2026-10-30

10. Deslinde locates and individualizes rights under a constancia. It has technical, judicial and registry stages. A buyer under an act of transfer can start it with the original act and a certification showing the seller's right.Resolución 790-2022, Reglamento para la Regularización Parcelaria y el Deslinde, art. 10, paragraph I and art. 11, 2022-10-27 official text · verified 2026-10-30

11. Regularización parcelaria individualizes a portion by administrative route if there is no objection, peaceful occupation, boundaries visible on the ground and a clear area in the entry.Resolución 82-2025 de la Suprema Corte de Justicia, art. 1, replacing art. 5 of Res. 790-2022, 2025-10-09 official text · verified 2026-10-30 · changed: Resolución 82-2025 of 9 October 2025 rewrote the conditions and added the transferee route.

12. A buyer under a transfer act can use regularization if the surveyor notifies the registered seller of the survey result, and the seller may object.Resolución 82-2025 de la Suprema Corte de Justicia, art. 5 paragraph II as replaced, 2025-10-09 official text · verified 2026-10-30

13. No condominium can be formed on land held under constancias anotadas, and a building's floors on registered land cannot belong to different owners unless under the condominium regime.Ley 108-05 de Registro Inmobiliario, as amended by Ley 51-07, art. 100 paragraphs V and VI, 2005-03-23 official text · verified 2026-10-30

14. Only surveyors perform survey acts, and any right to be registered needs a survey approved by the Dirección Regional de Mensuras Catastrales.Ley 108-05 de Registro Inmobiliario, as amended by Ley 51-07, art. 108 and art. 110, 2005-03-23 official text · verified 2026-10-30

Point	Deslinde	Regularización parcelaria
Forum	Tribunal de Jurisdicción Original	Administrative, Mensuras and Registro
Objections	Heard by the court	Any objection on rights blocks the route
Needs	Survey, publicity, judgment	Peaceful occupation, visible limits, clear area
Rule	Res. 790-2022 arts. 10 to 18	Res. 790-2022 art. 5 as replaced by Res. 82-2025

Deslinde or regularización parcelaria

Worked example

An investor pays RD$8,000,000 (about US$131,361.38) for 10,000 m² under a constancia anotada in a larger parcel. Until individualized, that is a share. With fences and peaceful occupation and no objection, the surveyor can seek regularization. If a co owner objects, the case moves to deslinde before the court.

Step by step

Ask for the certificate or constancia and the plan.
Inspect the ground with a surveyor for fences, occupants and overlaps.
Make individualization a condition of payment, or hold back part of the price.
File the survey with the Dirección Regional and follow the publicity rules.
Register the new Certificado de Título before building or mortgaging.

Common traps

DGII Guide 18 says acts on unregistered land do not pay transfer tax, but they also give no registered right.
The year for fraud review runs from the first certificate, so a purchase soon after saneamiento carries real risk.
Public domain cannot be cleared by saneamiento. See real-estate/beaches-coast-and-public-domain.
The 300 salary exemption turns on the public sector minimum salary, whose current amount this guide did not find.

Sources

← Title registration and due diligencePurchase contracts and off plan purchases →

Get rule changes weekly

Free. One email a week from The LatAm Thread.

One more step after you press the button: we take you to Substack, where your email is already filled in. Confirm there to start. No spam, unsubscribe anytime, we never share your address. By subscribing you agree to the privacy policy.