Buying costs and the purchase process

Asking prices on Bonaire are quoted kosten koper, meaning the buyer pays the costs of the transfer. Count on roughly 6.5% of the purchase price on top of the price itself, made up of 5% transfer tax, the notary's fees and registration with the land registry. The figures on this page are the ones we quote for Bonaire; the law described further down applies on Saba and St. Eustatius too.

What the 6.5% does not include

Several costs fall outside it: an appraisal, the arrangement fee for your mortgage, a bank guarantee, connecting the utilities, television and internet, moving, furnishing the property, and taking over movable goods. For a newly built property there is no transfer tax; the general consumption tax of 8% is due on the contract sum instead.

Movable goods

A property is sometimes sold with all or part of its contents. Those contents have a value, and that value can be recorded in the purchase deed. You pay no transfer tax over it. Note that a bank finances only the property itself and not the contents, so whatever you record as their value raises the amount you have to bring in yourself.

Making your offer

Before you bid, look into everything that bears on your decision: the sales particulars, the information held at the land registry, and your own financial position. Alongside the amount, your offer has to state the date of acceptance, any resolutive conditions, and whether you are taking over movable goods. Anything you leave unmentioned forms no part of the negotiation, and you do not get a resolutive condition automatically.

When the purchase becomes binding

An oral agreement is binding and legally valid under the law of the BES islands. The purchase is concluded the moment you are told the seller accepts your offer with whatever conditions it carried, and from then on neither party can withdraw on its own. No condition can be added afterwards, which is why every condition you may want has to be raised with the offer or worked out before you make it. The purchase deed is the written record of what was agreed orally. It is sometimes called a provisional deed, which does not mean it is not binding: it is, and the word only marks it as the forerunner of the deed of transfer signed at the notary on the day of legal delivery.

There is no cooling-off period

The law of the BES islands contains no cooling-off period. The reflection period that buyers have in the European Netherlands does not exist here at all.

Deposit and financing

The purchase deed follows a standard model, which provides that the buyer furnishes a bank guarantee or deposit of 15% of the purchase price as security for meeting those obligations, paid into the notary's third-party account within two weeks of the oral agreement.

Where you have made financing part of the negotiation, that condition is written into the purchase deed, and it generally runs for six weeks from the oral agreement. The deed records a maximum amount or the matching percentage. For residents with an income on Bonaire that is 70% of the private sale value, so 30% of the price plus the buying costs come out of your own funds and fall outside the condition; if the bank is willing to finance 80%, the condition lapses and the deed cannot be dissolved on that ground. For non-residents with a foreign income it is 60%, leaving 40% plus the buying costs to be brought in yourself. Dissolving on this ground has to be documented: at least two rejections from recognised lenders, delivered to the selling broker or the seller by registered letter with signed return receipt, within the term the deed sets.

Survey and appraisal

If you want certainty about the structural condition of a property and the repair and maintenance costs it may carry, you can have a structural survey done. The report shows the state of the building and whether serious problems exist or are coming, though it is a snapshot and guarantees nothing about the distant future. An appraisal is usually required before a bank or another institution grants a mortgage, because the lender wants an independent expert's judgement of the property it is lending against.

What the seller must tell you, and what you must find out

A property has to be transferred free of special charges and restrictions other than those the buyer has accepted, so the seller must disclose those charges and defects to the selling broker and certainly to prospective buyers. At transfer the property must have the qualities needed for normal use, and the seller answers for defects that stand in the way of that use unless they were apparent to the buyer when the sale was concluded, or visible, or reasonably to be expected. For other hidden defects the seller in principle does not answer, and the risk rests with the buyer.

The seller's duty does not relieve you of your own duty to investigate, and you will have to say clearly what you intend to do with the property. If you have renovation plans, it is worth bringing a contractor, an architect or a structural engineer to a second viewing. You carry responsibility for information you can request from the authorities and other public services, which is one reason to be assisted by your own buying broker, who represents your interests rather than the seller's.

Connections, inspection and transfer

Arrange practical matters such as your internet and telephone connection well in advance, and let your building insurance start on the day you receive the key at the notary. A few days before the transfer the notary sends you a draft of the deed of transfer together with a settlement statement listing everything you owe at transfer. Before the transfer you are given the opportunity to inspect the property, to check that it is still in the same condition as when the purchase was concluded. The handover of the keys at the notary is the last act before the property is definitively yours.