Carol, We were always in the market for a vacation rental, we bought the house next door to the Westin, beachfront. The previous owners were American citizens, who had owned the land for over 20 years. Before purchasing I spoke to many people. Most current buyers tried to dissuade me, I would have none of it.

I was told to make sure the septic was on the land, not the neighbors, which I did. Tried to hire a home inspector, total rip off/joke

Before purchasing the notary, one of 3 appointed by the dutch government assured us the reason we were paying such high fees to her was because she essentially acts as title insurance. We specifically asked any easements, she said no.

Two months after closing I was at the beach and my neighbor came down and said oh by the way part of the parcel was sold to us and we have an easement. I thought ya right.

The owners had sold 1/4 of the land to the neighbor as well as an easement to the beach in 2004.

The kadaster's office never registered it on their computer system.

They fixed the error when I went to investigate, met with the head of the office he promised to meet up with me and the notary and work out a compensation, which since he has reneged.

The notary says sue me, she refuses to dip into her insurance, which is meant for such situations. She says not her fault since the owners lied by ommission and the kadaster's made a mistake.

I met with a lawyer who said the notary has an obligation to go down to the kadaster's office and check the facts manually, had she done so, she would have found the error.

I have been talking to the deputy prime minister's office, who also are is head of their land/vromi who pushed me off to the ombudsman.

Ombudsman - says sure we will investigate, but we cannot make anyone compensate you.

The tourism minister who has publicly said he will ensure American/Canadians will not be scammed any more, getting the run around from their office as well.

Here's the tone - everyone says the understand, they first act like the solution is around the corner, at the end just bunch of words but no action.

So no buying property in SXM is not safe nor are you guaranteed that they are indeed selling you what they are representing.

Sonal