Jorge Montalvo, from Acoprovi, says that the increase in the cost of housing in a post-pandemic situation is normal
The executive director of the National Institute for the Protection of Consumer Rights (Pro Consumer), Eddy Alcántara, reported Tuesday that this institution is overwhelmed by complaints from home buyers against construction companies that would be imposing disproportionate increases to what was previously hired.
The official affirmed that they have had to use 70 percent of the personnel that works in the Legal, Inspection and Good Practices departments, in the resolution of conflicts that have arisen between construction companies and home buyers who understand that their rights have been affected.
He also indicated that about 85% of the complaints for alleged excessive cost increases have been reconciled between the construction sectors and consumers, through hard work.
When participating in the Despierta con CDN program, Alcántara specified that they have had weeks in which one or two cases have taken up their full time, both work and personal, because each case has different characteristics.
“There are those who claim things that perhaps within what we have established in the agreement it is not possible that the legal reasoning for a decision can favor them, and in other cases we understand that some type of quite considerable scam has been committed against the consumers,” he explained.
The head of Pro Consumidor said that in the last four months they have resolved more than 500 cases of conflicts between construction companies and home buyers, which could not be resolved through consensus or conciliation of the parties.
“We created a liquidation unit in principle where we found pending files since 2015, because many times they acted irresponsibly, in the sense that since this process is not going to favor the consumer, then I do not solve it. That was a process that kept both providers and consumers dormant,” he added.
However, he assured that they have already resolved all the processes that were pending at the time of taking office, as well as the complaints that they received until the end of October. The official also reported that every month they receive between 100 and 150 claims for conflicts between construction companies and home buyers.
“And we have had to give it a solution because there are those who do not understand that in each claim or complaint there is a due process that must be exhausted, to preserve the rights of both parties,” he said.
The director of the consumer protection entity indicated that in order to resolve the cases that generate a situation of confrontation between construction companies and home buyers, they created the Analysis Unit to determine if there are elements that could justify the claim, before sending the files to conciliation. .
“So as not to overwhelm us with files that are often deposited without any type of support and, even so, they are quite a few,” he said. However, he specified that the entity’s own executive director reviews, reasons and issues each resolution, adhering to the Constitution and the rules, both ours and the sector’s.
Increases are adjusted for inflation
In this sense, he highlighted that to date there is not a single Pro-Consumer resolution that has been revoked by a court, because they have done so according to the casuistry of each case. “They have been adjusted to the statistics for the issue of inflation when that indexation is stipulated in the contract established by the National Statistics Office (ONE), and for the service of the Central Bank of the Dominican Republic (BCRD),” he added.
The head of Pro Consumidor explained the legal logic that the entity that defends the rights of consumers uses to determine the percentage of increases in the cost of housing.
“An ingredient that many of the builders do not agree with is that in Pro Consumidor we have said that, logically, if there is an inflation established from the ONE in the last three months and there is going to be an adjustment that is stipulated in the contract, It must be that percentage,” he explained.
And, he continued: “But apart from that, it is what remains to be built of the building. It is not that we are going to place an inflation that occurred three months ago on a block that you bought, for example, at 10 pesos, place that inflation on it, as if the block that was placed at RD$10 has to be charged at RD$15. That some do not understand, but it is the reality. We are reasonably adjusting everything that is correct in a decision from the point of view of elementary logic and standards”. He said that there are cases of housing pre-sale contracts that do not specify the increase, while most of the agreements that establish the increases do not specify how they will be applied.
Increase in the cost of square meter
The president of the Dominican Association of Home Builders and Promoters (Acoprovi), Jorge Montalvo, assured that it is normal that in a post-pandemic situation the cost of a home increases after being acquired.
During his participation in the Despierta con CDN program, Montalvo explained that there has been an increase in the cost per square meter of construction, so it is normal for this type of situation to occur.
“There have been cost and price adjustments that logically depend on the time it was purchased and the time the delivery is being made to customers,” he said.
