Rhett Butler’s famous demurrer seems to be the state of the Law here in Uruguay, at least insofar as it applies to fraud–at least on a one-to-one basis. No where has this been more clearly demonstrated than in the ongoing plight of the couple from the UK who had everything stolen minutes after moving into their new house.
After having everything stolen, understandably they don’t want to live there. They don’t feel safe there because
- it is the only house in the neighborhood without bars,
- the alarm system is not connected to any security service,
- the alarm system can be neutralized by turning off the electricity,
- the realtor lied about the fact that, according to the police, “there are 2 or 3 burglaries every week” and told the British couple the house was perfectly safe,
- when speaking to the police investigators, the real estate agents withheld pertinent facts and the landlord outright lied.
Now, to my single gringo mind, the landlord is liable for the tenants loss because the house was neither safe nor properly protected as promised. Not in Uruguay.
According to the local attorney hired by the couple, the tenants are stuck under the terms of the leasing contract and are now negotiating the liquidated damages that they have to pay to the landlord in order to get out of the lease. The only way they would have any chance to turn the table is if the landlord were to be proved to be complicit in the theft.
There are important lessons to be learned from this experience, as there are from my previous recounted experience with Netgate (http://www.uruguayliving.com/2006/09/01/a-pig-in-a-pokeinternet-service-from-netgate/). Among these are:
- that Caveat Emptor, let the buyer beware, is still the standard rule here.
- that a seller/landlord can lie to you, even in writing, and probably get away with it.
- that unless the contract has an escape clause in it for you, you are probably stuck.
- that you need to independently confirm the facts AND
- independently confirm the reputation of the person with whom you are dealing.
Another striking example: a gringo was assured he could get high speed internet at his new house–the only thing that was available was dial up–the response from the realtor was I thought anything more than 19,200kbps was high speed…
ASSUME NOTHING!!! DON’T BE CHEAP–HIRE AN ATTORNEY TO REVIEW THE CONTRACT BEFORE YOU SIGN IT! Ask your attorney a series of “what if” questions like: What happens if the hot water heater breaks and the landlord won’t fix it? What must the landlord fix and what can he ignore? How long does the landlord have to fix it? How can I get out of here if the landlord doesn’t cooperate? Maybe you need to add a whole lot of things to the proffered contract to protect yourself.
I have one rule I have followed unswervingly over the past decade and it has saved me many times: “IF they mean what they say, they will put it in writing–if they are lying, they won’t”. That’s how I have my contracts draw.
All of that being said, the overwhelming majority of people here are honest, which is probably why there aren’t stronger laws to protect consumers, and since it is a small society, bad reputations get around fast. As the number of foreign residents grows, I hope to do two things for the benefit of all:
- create an effective better business bureau and black list–we are just waitng for the police to finish their investigation before the first members of the black list appear, and
- be among the first to spend the money to enforce rights under the new consumer protection law–we are having it analyzed now.
Until then, remember, there was a serpent even in paradise…and there are snakes here too…
Very sad affair. It is just the kind of experience no one wants newly-arrived people to experience in their “new” home country. That rate of burglaries sounds much like the impression I got from friends and family when I visited Uruguay last October: a relatively common occurrence, in all Montevidean neighborhoods (from La Teja to Carrasco). My mother had to have iron bars/rods to reinforce doors and windows as well as contract ADT for security services (they have been very responsive and seem like a professional service).
I’m curious to know what impression you have of the property laws in Uruguay.
Left by gaberoo on December 12th, 2006