Riviera Maya, Q.R. — The state of Quintana Roo continues its battle against ongoing real estate fraud. State Secretary Cristina Torres Gómez says Quintana Roo is in the process of creating programs to curb corruption in the real estate sector.
Torres Gómez says one of the programs that has been created is validated appraisers and appraisals. She explained that the state has created a program to regulate real estate appraisers who may alter true property costs for tax purposes.
She says the state’s program seeks to ensure that appraisals are not manipulated to reduce taxes, that construction permits are not obtained irregularly and that land is not used for fraudulent purposes.
She says the program also ensures that the declared value of the appraised real estate complies with current tax regulations. Therefore, if it is found that the state is being deceived with an altered appraisal or by an non-registered appraiser, fines will be applied.
According to Torres Gómez, real estate appraisers need to be registered and meet established requirements to validate an appraisal.
“The state created the validated appraisal program because there were people who rigged the appraisals, faked the appraisals. These are not ordinary people, these are people who own properties worth millions of dollars and they rigged their true value.
“Cases of this have been detected in several northern municipalities, so what we’re looking for is for the appraiser to have passed a verification process as well as be registered.
“This already exists at the federal level, so what we did was create it at the local level. We’ve already initiated processes to sanction those who don’t meet the requirements of both substance and form,” she explained.
In the state, real estate appraisals for tax purposes must be validated by the Quintana Roo Tax Administration Service (SATQ), which verifies that the appraisal complies with current regulations.
Torres Gómez noted that more than a dozen notaries are currently being investigated for going along with altered real estate appraisals. “Should it be discovered that they have been involved in arranging changes of ownership or property values with the goal of reducing the tax payable, there will be consequences,” she said.
She says there are currently 14 notary investigations under way for possible real estate fraud. She added that between eight and 10 percent of state notaries have accusations against them for malpractice, and are therefore at risk of losing their license.
