Bali Expat Forum - Bali Travel Forum

Hi there
I went through the “Exporting Rupiahs” topic and I am afraid I can be close to making the same mistakes as Don unless I take some precautions. I hope you can help to do it right, or at least as right as possible.
In a couple of months I should be in North Bali to close a land acquisition deal. To use a reference figure we could say in the proximity of 100.000 Euros.
What would be the expert expats suggestions how to proceed considering that ? :
I will only have a tourist visa and plan to stay in Bali just one month. I plan to build a villa in the near future.
Local friends?, I have some; trustworthy?, who knows ..., human friendship is volatile.
Of course the deal can go sour at any point and I may need to send (carry?) the money back home.
Thanks to whoever can help me.
LM

If the price is in Euro, then the developer you are dealing with may have Euro account somewhere, and then perhaps you can do a direct bank transfer from your account to this Euro account. Or am I missing something?

If you need to pay in Rupiah, and dont' have a Rupiah bank account - then it does seem to get tricky.

The payment is in Rupiah and naturally I don't have a banck account in Indonesia.

Can you transfer from abroad? Can you make a arrangement with your foreign bank, so they will transfer the money when you call?

Best is to have the money transferred to the notary who is handling the deal... After all the things have been put on paper...

Bank transfer to the notary is definitely the best way to go. Any other options is either illegal and/or highly risky in both country isfcarrying cash ever crossed your mind. First negotiate with the notaris' bank for the best rate (with this amount it's always negotiable) and have them change directly from Euros to Rupiahs and not euro-dollar-rupiah or you'll lose quite a bit on the change. But if you're still unsure of the deal I would sign only a pre sale agreement where you only put in a small percentage of the land value (2 or 3% should be more than enough) and pay the balance when you've cleared the uncertainties,that is if one month is enough time to do so.

I agree with “O” one hundred percent excepting one point...I would NOT use a notaris...either for the land deal contracts, or the escrow holder for the final payment of funds. I would ONLY use an attorney. I’m not looking to re-open this discussion again, as this has already been hashed out here almost ad nausea, but you can take my word for it that EVERY expat I personally know, will only use an attorney in cases like yours.

We have several business clients in Spain who regularly send us wires in Euros which get directly converted to IDR. BCA, Bank Central Asia has always provided the best, up to the minute accurate exchange rates. Chances are your attorney will already have an account at BCA, as it remains the top bank for commercial business. BCA's wire transfer fee for incoming funds is only 50,000 Rp...I kid you not, and their "float time" is minimal...generally less than 48 hours.

Cheers, and good luck.

Thank you all Bert/O/Roy
As always your recommendations are most valuable to me. I will comment orderly some of your points.
Yes, I can transfer from abroad
Yes, I have a pre signed agreement and expect to pay the final balance when I clear some obstacles next summer.
Following some of your previous suggestions I was able to contact a notary in Singaraja who I expect to coordinate the acquisition operation. She insists that she can arrange all the documentation.
I was unable to contact an attorney. I have the feeling that an attorney would have been a better alternative but the notary I contacted was more responsive and enjoys the trust of some of you as well.
Thanks again, I hope I can meet some of you personally next August, you are a great bunch.

“but the notary I contacted was more responsive and enjoys the trust of some of you as well.”

I don’t know who this notary is, but if were you, I might be thinking about asking the specifics and degree of the trust in that notary you mention.

In other words, who among those here in Bali have you found that put up their own money in the amount of 100,000 Euros...or about US $150,000 on their own transaction through that particular notary?

Consider that we are not talking about a one, or two year lease contract for 50 or 100 million rupiah...rather we are talking about 1 and one half billion IDR.

Plenty of lawyer contacts are listed on the web sites cited in the link below titled, “lawyer/attorney contacts.”

Good luck with your project. Cheers

In other words, who among those here in Bali have you found that put up their own money in the amount of 100,000 Euros...or about US $150,000 on their own transaction through that particular notary?

This particular notary has done this before. I know

And I also know an attorney/lawyer who did it once, and was very troublesome regarding releasing the money, wanted to discuss exchange rates over and over again

And....

for people wanting to know more about notaries, their plights and mights, and even their official prices for contracts, deeds etc....

See page 259 to 287 of Sriro's Desk reference of Indonesian Law 2007.

This book, in English, you can surely find at the Ngurah Rai Airport, and probably elsewhere in Bali, but also via online shopping malls...

Oh, beep, the 2008 version is out....

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?ur ... ro&x=0&y=0

Buy it.

Oh, a Notaris has to give advice for free. And a lawyer not. I once asked a famous lawyer here in Bali, how much for an hour. USD 600. (masih nego)

So, if you are finished with your lawyer, you can go to the notary, because a notary has to provide pro-bono (cuma cuma) legal services (jasa hukum) to the poor. (orang tidak mampu).

Hey friends, I didn’t mean to stat an argument among you. I imagine that the discussion notary vs. attorney is not new.
Following always your advice it came that a notary answered to my calls while none of the attorneys did. Notary’s 1 - Attorneys 0. I must say that the coordinates you gave me for a notary were quite precise and for the attorney were rather vague.
I appreciate your recommendation but at this moment I am not interested in making a Ph.D. dissertation about plights and mights. I need a more practical solution. Maybe if I were more precisely oriented I would have a more realistic alternative.
thanks

LMM wrote:Hey friends, I didn’t mean to stat an argument among you. I imagine that the discussion notary vs. attorney is not new.

Don't worry. Both Notaries and Lawyers can be useful. As well as the discussions about them

LMM wrote:I appreciate your recommendation but at this moment I am not interested in making a Ph.D. dissertation about plights and mights. I need a more practical solution.

Just get the book. No need to make a dissertation. Just a handy reference.

Just learned that Dewi (my wife) who is studying law, and wants to become a notary, is not allowed to handle anything for me....

No worries LMM about starting an argument between Bert and I. We go back a long way, and we often do not agree on various topics. Just think how boring it would be if we always agreed!

Bert...seriously? $600 US an hour for an attorney here in Bali? I think that’s way over the top, even for Jakarta. Anyway, I get plenty of free consultation with my lawyer, but then again, I don’t charge him any commissions for the work I send his way either!

As the saying goes, when in Bali...

Pssssssst I am traveling through Bali on the 29th July at 9pm. I will carry it through customs for you for a small fee. Suuuuussssshhhhh do not tell anyone else as I do not want any one else to meet me at the airport.....Know what I mean?

Hi,
My friend found no viable solution to his dilemma. He would have lost up to 13 juta in re-converting rupiahs to dollars, and decided to pack out the money on his person.
If he had put it in his personal carry-on baggage it would have shown up as it went through the x-ray screening, so he elected to jam his pockets with rupiahs He is a big guy and wore cargo pants with plenty of pockets. He had to be very careful not to have ANY metal on his body and thus be subject to further screening. It worked, although he was leaving with more than the alloted rupiahs and entering the US with more than his allowance.
Can't say I would recommend this, but banking wasn't secure as it would have been available to the Indonesian person to whom it was entrusted and other banks available to foreigners weren't insured for loss. Sorry I couldn't provide a more secure solution.
Good luck.
Don

Great story! I always wondered what the Michelin Man was really stuffed with.