Sedetus Addresses Foreign Complaints Over Undelivered Properties in Quintana Roo

Quintana Roo, Mexico — The state’s Sustainable Urban Development Secretariat (Sedetus) is handling at least three complaints from foreign buyers who purchased homes or lots in Quintana Roo but never received them, agency director José Alberto Alonso Ovando said.

Alonso Ovando said the complaints, received through the department’s email address, do not always point to criminal fraud. In several cases, he explained, they involve breach of contract, which buyers typically litigate through commercial courts.

Some buyers do file criminal complaints because they believe the scheme was intentionally fraudulent, he said. But a failure to deliver a development by itself, under Mexican law, usually falls into the commercial realm.

People who come to the agency are upset, Alonso Ovando said, and generally identify the real estate professionals who handled the sale. Sedetus verifies the information with those brokers and follows up with other authorities.

Because the cases are in litigation, the secretary declined to identify the developments or amounts involved. He did cite one project in Puerto Morelos that was already shut down and is for sale, and where foreign investors were also affected.

Alonso Ovando also noted that Sedetus’ website lists about 135 developments classified as irregular or in the process of being sanctioned. Regularization with Sedetus often requires additional approvals from state environmental authorities, the federal Environment Secretariat (Semarnat) or municipal regulators, which makes the process slow and complicated.

Although the agency reports knowledge of only two cases, complaints about real estate fraud in Quintana Roo go back several years. In a recent example, the developer Inmobiliaria Kritarq and its Árvore condominium project on Huayacán Avenue, near the Cancún airport, have been taken before prosecutors.

In August, Nahielli Margarita Orozco Lozano, head of ecology and urban development for the municipality of Benito Juárez, said authorities are running an ongoing operation against irregular subdivisions and real estate fraud. Six developments have been shut down during the current administration, and the State Prosecutor’s Office has seized two private properties.