In the US at least it is standard practice for a earnest money to be placed in escrow in order for a property to be taken off of the market for the purpose of due diligence and negotiatons. Typically, there will be a deadline where a portion or all of the funds may go "hard", ie no refunds are given. This is standard business practice and I would expect the same here in the DR.
That being said, you should have a Domincan lawyer review your contract to see if the seller cleverly "disguised" these terms in his contract. If it isn't in there, you should have recourse to pursue a "querella". If it is not in there I don't know what you can do.
good luck
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