Sneak Peek inside Move to and Live in Argentina from Chapter 6

From Chapter 6: Real Estate in Buenos Aires

Garantias

Garantias - Remember how the owner can take years to get someone to pay back rent, or get them out of their property? Well the guarantia is what makes them feel secure.

                A guarantia is essentially a type of lien whereby someone’s property is put up as collateral should the tenant default on the lease or destroy the property. Although never 100% guaranteed to work, it gives the landlord more legal power to try and recoup their losses. It can be difficult to find someone to give a guarantia because they may be uncomfortable risking their property or they may already have given one to another person. Even if you are successful in getting a guarantia, there is no guarantee that the owner will accept it.

Employers can also provide a guarantia. For instance, many of the foreign companies or embassies who send their workers to

Argentina

will provide a guarantia for the property rental. If you don’t have a guarantia, don’t worry, there are other options that are available, such as paying the rent up front or pago adelantado, which is essentially what is happening in the tourist rental market. And you needn’t feel like you’re alone in securing a guarantia because many Argentines also have trouble securing guarantias.

If you choose to use the pago adelantado you need to be aware of one thing, unless you work it out with the owner or agency, you will be paying your entire rent up front and should you have any problems or need to break the contract, you will have little recourse. One way to avoid this is to try to do a contract broken into segments – for instance a two year lease that has four separate contracts, all prepared at the same time, but as each contract ends and the next begins, you pay the next rental period. This protects you in the case that you absolutely need to leave or begin to hate the place…or the owner.