belgian girl needs advice about room rentals

[tina8]

Hi everyone!

Would like to know your advice or idea about paying room rentals in dollars.
Last weekend I started renting a studio. The owner only accepts me paying the rent in dollars so she can save them up and change them into pesos when the dollar is high. For me it's very difficult or even impossible to get dollars in the bank. I first have to take out pesos and then change them into dollars, which means I have to pay an extra amount of money. Does anybody has any idea this is legal, even though in the contract the rent is written in dollars.
Thanks and would like to hear from you guys!!! Un saludo,

Tina

 

[John.St]

... Last weekend I started renting a studio. The owner only accepts me paying the rent in dollars so she can save them up and change them into pesos when the dollar is high. For me it's very difficult or even impossible to get dollars in the bank. ...

Whether it is legal or not, no tiene significa.

Unless this one is extremely cheap, find another studio.

 

[tina8]

Thx John,

Will definitely move out of the studio....in 4 months; when my contract is finished; otherwise I even have to pay more; see this as a lesson, probably won't sign a contract again the next 5 years ; but in the meantime would like to know if someone has any idea if they can let me pay the price in dollars...has someone similar experiences? Anybody?

 

[Popper]

I think this is kind of an iffy subject. I think it ultimately depends on how accepting/nice your landlord is. My lease is quoted in dollars but I pay the equivalent in pesos. If you think about it, it's somewhat ludicrous to quote a currency that isn't a) your national currency and b) isn't easily accessible to foreigners. If you can reason with your landlord and tell him/her how difficult (and expensive) it is due to the low limits on the ATM, ATM fees, bank conversion fees, etc., they might let you pay in pesos. Tell them you'll pay in pesos and they can change to dollars that day.

 

[tangobob]

When I am over my dance teacher always want Dollars, OK I bring them with me. But when the dollars run out he takes pesos or I go to someone else. The moral being; if you have no dollars and are willing to pay in pesos, they will take pesos, there are more apartments than renters out there.

 

[Maraya]

Hi Tina!

Last year I had a similar situation and I just refused to pay dollars - because of the hassle. So, they caved and I paid the exchange in pesos every month. That's what I do where I am now too.

I hope everything else is going well!

 

[John.St]

Tina,

does your contract specifically state payment in U$S?

If not, follow Popper's and Maraya's advice: refuse

If they threaten to throw you out, have tangobob's reasoning in mind, tell them so - you have the money and they have a commodity that can be rented from a zillion others.

There are many threads on this subject and it seems that we don't know for sure if it's legal to charge rent in dollars, but I think it is, because many advertisements from inmobiliarias are specific about payment in USD.

The reason why your dueño wants payment in USD is almost certainly that when Argentinos change pesos to USD this is registered.

As for getting USD, I use Western Union for money transfers and always get Euro or USD (or a combination of Euro + USD + pesos when I prefer that). WU transfers are cheaper (at least for me) than using my credit card in ATMs because of the ATM limit.

 

[esllou]

I believe it is illegal for anyone to refuse the country's national currency. You can accept other currencies but you can't insist on it. But as someone else said, that's not really relevant, they'll just kick you out and find someone who will pay dollars.

 

[John.St]

I believe it is illegal for anyone to refuse the country's national currency.

Not if a contract specifically states payment in Rubels, Yen, USD or ... - same all over the world. A contract overrules the general rule, unless specifically prohibited by law or decrete.

 

[NoVegetables]

I know where you are coming from Tina, had the exact same issue. I told the landlord that it was nuts to go to the atm pay lots of fees to get pesos only to go to a cambio to pay more fees to get dollars. I said i couldn't do unless she wanted me to take all the fees out of the rent. I eneded up paying in pesos.