Markit,After so many years of hearing similarly complex and convoluted explanations concerning the legalities of property ownership here in Indonesia I'm beginning to miss only one thing - where are the court cases of expats that have been relieved of their dubiously owned land or where any "nominee" has been similarly relieved of his duties and his "owners" property?
There are, to my knowledge, no court cases of mixed couples who would have been relieved of their property due to the fact that they have acquired a property without prenup and with the help of an ignorant or complaisant notaris. If you want my opinion about it, I would also tell you that I believe that there won't have any. It would be in my opinion far too unpopular for the government to really push this agenda, despite what governmental officials say, from time to time.
There are quite a few cases of mixed couples who have been extorted or refused a sale by notaris, due to the fact that they had acquired a SHM while joint property was the matrimonial rule. Most managed to sell their asset by just looking for another notaris and the more naive have lost a bit of money and agreed to be extorted.
A few years ago (2008 to 2010) the Ikatan Notaris Indonesia has tried to held a few seminar for its members in several part of Indonesia concerning the consequences of the land law on mixed couples. I had the chance to be invited to one by a friend. It was pretty interesting but I can't say that I had the feeling that those who attended were very interested by the topic or even motivated to stick to the law and enforce it. At least where I live. I have been living in Indonesia over 15 years and my (indonesian) wife was involved in quite a few land transaction as a buyer and as seller as well, in two different provinces. Not one time a notaris has bothered to inquire about our matrimonial regime and prenup. Worse, I don't have enough of my two hands to count the number of incorrect answers I had to questions I asked concerning legal aspects of a transaction. I remember one particular transaction with an elderly woman who had been married twice, widowed twice, with 5 kids born from the two marriages, with two of them having emigrated to Australia and the US, who wanted to sell quickly a house which was pawned in a bank and soon to be repossessed. A particularly tricky case but a very interesting potential investment for us. I had to go through 3 different notaris before finding one who gave me the impression that she knew what she was doing.
If mixed couples issues are no big deal, you are however seriously misleaded in believing that no Indonesian having acquired a foreign citizenship concurrently to his/her Indonesian citizenship have been forbidden by justice to hold an ownership title. If you want court cases documenting it I invite you to browse the archives of Mahkamah Agung: Direktori Putusan - Pengadilan > MAHKAMAH AGUNG > Perdata. Browsing the one concerning "warisan", "tanah" and "pembagian harta" would have you changing your mind. Most of the one that you would find, where article 21(3) UU 5/1960 has been applied, are cases concerning inheritance because it is often where divergence in a family may occur and where the citizenship of a family member may be questioned.
When one invests the saving of one's life, I assume that one wants to make sure that everything is legally certain and that it doesn't infringe any law. Considering how the justice system works here and how fast the mood of our political leaders may change I think you can't blame people to try to follow the most legit way.
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