Fotografo de Bodas, Santiago

November 13, 2008

After two days in a row of being this pissed off, I’m surprised I haven’t dropped dead of an anger heart attack yet. Yesterday taxes, now today, court.

Yes, you heard that right. We may end up in a legal battle with our former landlord. The contract states we could terminate at any time with 30 days notice via email. So we did. Not so fast. He called to tell us that we understood the contract wrong and that we were actually bound through December and that we have to give 60 days notice via notarized letter and since we haven’t done that yet, then technically our contract renews for another 6 months and we need to pay through July. He also threatened S. when S. called to tell him that wasn’t right and we followed what the contract says to the letter by giving 30 days notice via email.

So S. went and consulted with a laywer friend. It turns out that the contract says both things, what we think it says and what the landlord thinks it says. It’s ambiguous says our lawyer friend, but in Chile laws heavily favor renters, not landlords, and Chilean law says the way any ambiguity is interpreted is the person who drew up the contract’s responsibility, or in this case, the landlord’s.

Our lease was paid on the 6th of every month. So on October 6 we paid in full for the month of October 6th-November 6th. We gave our 30 days notice on October 23rd, meaning that we would still owe the guy rent from November 6th-23rd, or basically a little over a half a month’s rent. But, since nothing was resolved we did pay rent for November 6th-December 6th, meaning we overpaid what we owed.

S. went in today to see if we could come to some kind of agreement with him. We offered to let him keep the extra half month’s rent, as well as tell him that we’ll clean the old apartment and give him the keys today, even though we’ve paid to live there through December 6th, that way he can find other renters.

The guy said, “No, that doesn’t work for me. Here’s a new contract, sign it. It holds you responsible for 3 more months rent and all related expenses. You need to pay that now or at least leave checks for three months worth of rent. However, if I find another renter, I’ll refund you the three months rent.”

S. responded by telling him politely that he was going to talk with his lawyer but right now he absolutely wasn’t going to sign anything. The guy FREAKED OUT and shouted, “NO, you can’t leave unless you sign.” S. was like, “I’m sorry, but absolutely not. First of all, we’re talking to our lawyer because if you don’t uphold your end of the contract we’re taking this to court. And second of all, even if I do decide to agree to to your terms, I’m not signing another contract with you that I think says one thing and you decide means something completely different. How do we know you’ll actually give us our money back. At this point you’re already breaking what our old contract said, there’s no way we’re leaving you with more money in the hopes that you’ll ‘refund it.’”

Then the guy started threatening, and get this, told him that under NO CIRCUMSTANCES were we allowed to remove anything from our apartment. He goes, “Don’t even think about moving that refrigerator.”

Ummm, yeah, about that. A. Nowhere in our contract did we sign anything that says, “We’re your bitches,” and B. HAHA, we already moved. There’s not a damn thing in our apartment and today we’re going to get our bikes out of the storage space belonging to that apartment too, so he can’t go in and change the locks or do something crazy.

I’m freaking out. I don’t want to go to court whether we’re in the right or wrong.

15 Comments

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15 Comments

ummm, that is an INSANE story. I would go get your bikes right now because I wouldn’t be surprised if he did do something crazy like change the locks or hold them as ransom for 3 months rent. I know nothing about Chilean law, but several of my English students are contract lawyers so I’d be happy to ask them a few questions, but it seems like your lawyer friend has that covered.

Comment by Isabel — November 13, 2008 @ 8:03 am

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Oh man, I’m so sorry you’re going through this! It sounds stressful. Good luck.

Comment by PastaQueen — November 13, 2008 @ 8:14 am

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Oh my god what a psycho landlord!!!!! Crap, we are thinking of breaking our contract too so we need to be careful.

Screw that guy. Get your stuff out of there ASAP because it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if he changed the locks. I wonder if he would really even be willing to go to court since he is the one with the shady contract and will probably lose.

Comment by kumichan83 — November 13, 2008 @ 8:16 am

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Oh my god Kyle, this all sounds awful. I’m sorry you’re going through all of this. I advise you and S to get all your things out of there asap. Good luck, thinking of you.

Comment by Girl.Meets.Chile — November 13, 2008 @ 10:06 am

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Ummm… just out of curiosity, is he Argentinian? (I have nothing against argentinians, just need to know if he is someone specific and this is the easist way to weed out most landlords in Chile). If he is, you need to email me at my home acct.

Comment by Clare — November 13, 2008 @ 10:17 am

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What a jackass!

But yeah, the law totally favors renters. I’m so glad you already moved your stuff. I hope this resolves, I wouldn’t deal with him directly anymore. Have another lawyer deal with him. It probably doesn’t help that he’s one anyway…

Comment by Amanda — November 13, 2008 @ 11:14 am

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Unbelievable!!! I think he freaked out because he hadn’t really considered the fact that you might lawyer up. Good for S. for standing up to the jerk and not let himself be bullied into signing god knows what.

Hope the guy lets it go once he sees that you guys already moved your stuff, paid for the rent and basically doesn’t have any leverage left.

Keep us posted on how it works out!
Fned.

Comment by Fned — November 13, 2008 @ 1:38 pm

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I would be totally American about this and use the Lawyer threat as far as you possibly can. I really hate asshole landlords. I’ve heard some really awful stories from other friends renting in Chile and it all has to do with the fact that the landlord thinks they can take advantage of the poor little gringos. It makes me nervous to start looking for an apartment.
Good luck!

Comment by Sara — November 13, 2008 @ 4:31 pm

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Isabel, yeah, we are going to get our bikes right now because they’re worth more than three months rent and it would NOT surprise me if he went in and changed the locks.

PQ, thanks, it does suck.

Kathleen, good luck breaking your contract, hopefully you won’t have as many problems as we do. I think this guy is just smoke and mirrors though.

Tamsin, yeah, we have everything but our bikes, so we’re getting those out ASAP!

Clare, nope, not Argentine, Chilean.

Amanda, yeah, we have our lawyer, and our lawyer actually wants him to sue us because he thinks we have such a strong case that we will win.

Fned, I agree completely. This is just a case of a guy thinking that we are young and stupid and wouldn’t go back in and read our contract, that we would just be scared by his big bad lawyerly threats.

Sara, it doesn’t even have anything to do with gringos, this guy has no idea S. is married to a gringa. For that very reason, when we apartment searched we always had S. do all contacting and I didn’t go with when he signed the contract or anything.

Comment by Mamacita Chilena — November 13, 2008 @ 4:38 pm

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Ugh! What a crappy situation all around. I managed apartments part-time for a very short period and I learned that people (both renters and landlords–this was a corporation, so not just one guy who owned the place) will try to swindle others out of money. Something makes me think that he’s gotten away with this before. I wonder if you could find any complaints against this guy or people who have sued him before.

Comment by kirida — November 13, 2008 @ 4:58 pm

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I wasn’t trying to imply that. That’s just where I’ve heard most of my stories from. That’s all.

Comment by Sara — November 13, 2008 @ 6:29 pm

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That sucks. Hope this gets work out fast and painlessly. Yeah, I suspect the guy has done this before and gotten away with it.

Comment by Ritamae — November 13, 2008 @ 8:49 pm

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Sara, no you’re totally right, I’m saying that’s WHY he doesn’t know that S. has a gringa wife…because I too have heard a lot of horror stories of landlords who try to take advantage of gringos who don’t know the Chilean laws.

Mom and Kirida, yeah, I feel like he has done this before too…it’s all a big intimidation thing. And it’s not working.

Comment by Mamacita Chilena — November 13, 2008 @ 9:28 pm

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I don’t know this for sure, but it sounds like the guy is all bluster. I doubt he’ll take you to court. He’s threatening S because he needs you to sign that lease to keep getting your money.

Even if he does take you to court it sounds like the law is on your side.

I hope it all works out and you don’t have to deal with any more nastiness from him.

Comment by Ordinary Girl — November 14, 2008 @ 8:09 pm

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At this point, I throw everything in his office in a big pile in the middle of the floor and start screaming, “I’m gonna burn this mother down!”

Comment by EvilJoy — November 15, 2008 @ 11:34 am

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