Power of Attorney in the Dominican Republic: Signing for a Makai Residence From Home

A power of attorney — a poder in Spanish — is the document that lets someone in the Dominican Republic sign in your name while you stay at home. For a buyer at Makai Residences, a pre-construction building of 216 residences in Cap Cana handing over in Q2 2028 and Q2 2029, it is less a convenience than a piece of the purchase you design: what it allows, for how long, and who holds it. This page explains how Dominican law treats a poder, how one signed abroad is made to count, what the title registry looks for when somebody signs for you, and how to take the power back. It is general information, not legal advice; the drafting belongs with an independent Dominican attorney who acts for you alone.

What a poder is, and why a buyer abroad meets it more than once

The Dominican Civil Code calls it a mandato or procuración: under Article 1984, one person gives another the power to do something for them and in their name, and the arrangement takes hold only once the agent accepts. Article 1985 lets it be given by notarial act or under private signature, even by letter — but what a court or registry will accept for a particular act is a narrower question, and one your attorney answers before anything is signed.

A pre-construction purchase has more than one signing moment, and they are years apart. Off-plan, the transaction typically opens with a promise of sale (promesa de venta), which governs everything up to the definitive sale contract and does not itself pass ownership. At Makai that definitive contract belongs to handover — Q2 2028 for the first phase, Q2 2029 for the second. And under Article 90 of Ley 108-05, ownership exists in law only once the transfer is registered at the Registro de Títulos.

So the useful question is not whether you need a power of attorney, but for which of those moments. You may want to sign the promise yourself, by courier, and have someone else appear at the notary in 2028. You may want the reverse. Deciding that first is what keeps the document short.

Special or general: why the Civil Code makes the choice for you

Article 1987 recognises two kinds of mandate: special, for one matter or a few named matters, and general, for all of a person's affairs. The temptation abroad is to sign one broad document and be done with it. Article 1988 is the reason not to: a mandate drawn in general terms reaches only acts of administration. To sell, to mortgage, or to carry out any other act of ownership, the power must say so expressly.

A purchase is an act of ownership. A broad general power is therefore at once too wide — it hands someone authority over things you never meant to delegate — and possibly too thin for the one act you did mean. A poder especial that names the residence, the acts and the parties avoids both problems. Article 1989 adds the safeguard that makes precision worth the effort: the agent may do nothing that goes beyond what the document contains, and under Article 1998 you are not bound by what was done outside those limits unless you ratify it.

Making a power signed abroad count in the Dominican Republic

A power signed in Toronto, Madrid or Miami is a foreign document until something connects it to the Dominican system. Three routes do that work, and your attorney chooses among them for your country and your file.

The apostille. The Dominican Republic joined the Hague Convention of 5 October 1961 — the Apostille Convention — on 12 December 2008, and it has applied there since 30 August 2009. Between two member states, a single certificate issued where the document was signed replaces the older chain of consular legalisation. An apostille certifies the signature and seal on the document; it does not translate it.

Legalisation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The registry's own requirement notes carry two sentences side by side: public documents from Convention states must bear the apostille, and documents from abroad that concern a transfer of real property — powers to sell are named — must be legalised before the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MIREX). The notes do not reconcile the two, so do not guess which one your poder needs; that is precisely the judgement you pay your attorney for.

A Dominican consulate. Dominican consuls abroad can act as notaries for documents meant to take effect in the country, and an act a consul draws up has the evidentiary weight of one signed before a Dominican notary. Whether a given consulate will receive a power from someone who is not a Dominican national is less clear-cut, so ask the consulate, and your attorney, before you book an appointment around it.

Whichever route applies, Spanish is the registry's language. Any document in another language has to be translated by a judicial interpreter, and in Dominican practice that interpreter's signature is itself legalised at the Procuraduría General de la República — the Attorney General's office — before the translation is used; your attorney will confirm the sequence for your file. Ask your attorney whether the power should be drafted in Spanish from the outset, with a version in your own language alongside it, so that the text the registry reads is the text you approved.

1. Agree the scope in writing first
   Before anything is drafted, list with your attorney which acts the agent may perform, for which residence, and until when.
2. Sign before a notary where you live
   Bring your passport and a second official identity document from your own country; the registry asks a foreign party for both.
3. Add the apostille or legalisation your attorney specifies
   Issued in the country where you signed, or completed through the consulate or ministry route if that is what your file requires.
4. Translate and send the original
   A judicial interpreter's Spanish translation travels with the original document, and the agent files both.

What the title registry asks for when someone signs for you

The Registro de Títulos publishes the list it works from when it registers a transfer by sale, and a representative changes that file in three practical ways. The power of representation itself goes in. The identity documents of every person involved go in, the representative included. And where a party is a foreigner, the registry asks for a passport plus the national identity document of the country of origin as a second official document.

Two smaller points catch buyers abroad. If a certificate of title names no spouse while a party's identity document shows a different civil status, the registry asks for a marriage certificate — so a married buyer should settle with the attorney whether the spouse also grants the power, before the document is signed rather than after it is rejected. And the file can be lodged at any Registro de Títulos through remote deposit or the Registro Inmobiliario's virtual office, which is one reason a well-drafted poder spares you a journey: the person holding it does not have to travel to a particular office.

One thing a poder cannot do is shorten the legal chain. Ownership still arises only on registration, and a registry certificate of the property's legal status is what shows its position on the day it is issued. A good agent requests one before signing anything on your behalf, and sends it to you.

Drafting it narrow: time, scope and the person you choose

The Civil Code fixes no expiry date for a mandate. Article 2003 lists the ways one ends — revocation, the agent's renunciation, or the death, interdiction or insolvency of either party — and an end date exists only if you write one in. That matters on a building with a long runway. A power drafted to lapse a year after you sign it today will not reach a deed signed in 2028 or 2029, and an open-ended one leaves authority outstanding for years. Two short special powers — one for the promise, one for handover, signed when the date is known — are often cleaner than a single long one.

Beyond time, a narrow poder usually carries these limits:

• One residence, identified exactly as in the promise of sale.
• Named acts only, with selling and mortgaging left out unless you intend them.
• No substitution unless you say otherwise. Under Article 1994 an agent who passes the task to someone else answers for that substitute when the power did not allow substitution; it is simpler to forbid it, or to name the substitute yourself.
• A duty to report. Article 1993 already obliges the agent to account for what was done and hand over whatever was received; the poder can add that you receive copies of every document the agent signs.

Then the person. The agent acts for you, so the agent should be someone whose only client in the transaction is you — normally your own Dominican attorney, chosen and paid by you, with no tie to the seller. A poder in the right hands is routine; the same poder in the wrong hands is where a remote buyer's real exposure lies.

Taking the power back, and the gap the Code warns about

Article 2004 lets you revoke a mandate whenever you see fit and require the agent to return the document that proves it. Revocation is a right, not a negotiation.

The trap is Article 2005: a revocation notified only to the agent cannot be raised against third parties who dealt with the agent without knowing of it — you keep your claim against the agent, but the deal may stand. So a revocation that matters goes to everyone who might rely on the power: the agent, the notary, the developer's legal team and anyone else holding a copy. Article 2006 offers a second tool: appointing a new agent for the same matter revokes the first from the day the first is notified.

The reverse case exists too. Under Articles 2008 and 2009, what an agent does without knowing that the mandate has ended is valid, and commitments to third parties in good faith are honoured. In practice that means keeping your agent informed — and making the revocation in a form as solid as the grant, signed and certified the same way, so nobody can doubt it when it arrives.

Common questions

Can I sign a Dominican power of attorney without travelling to the Dominican Republic?

Yes. You sign it where you live, before a notary or through a consular route your attorney confirms, and it is then given the apostille or legalisation your file requires and translated into Spanish by a judicial interpreter. At Makai the deed belongs to handover in Q2 2028 or Q2 2029, so many buyers sign that power closer to the date rather than years in advance.

Does a poder expire on its own?

The Civil Code sets no fixed lifetime for a mandate. Article 2003 ends it on revocation, renunciation, or the death, interdiction or insolvency of either party; any other end date is one you write in yourself, and on a pre-construction purchase it is worth choosing deliberately.

Is an apostille all a foreign power of attorney needs?

Not necessarily. The apostille certifies the signature and seal; it does not translate the document, and the registry's published notes also mention legalisation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for documents that concern a property transfer. Which steps your own poder needs is a question for your Dominican attorney.

Should the seller's lawyer hold my power of attorney?

The agent acts in your name, so the agent should owe their loyalty to you alone. An independent Dominican attorney you choose and pay, with no tie to the seller, is the usual safeguard, and the power should name that person rather than leave the choice open.