Economic Storm Clouds Brewing for Argentina?

[el_expatriado]

If you own the property you live in, protect yourself by having an escribana write a "bien de familia" into your title deed. Then your property can't be seized even if you go bankrupt and have big debts. On the other side, you can't be a guarantor or use the property as collateral.

The bien de familia doesn't protect you against foreclosure due to building expenses or a mortgage taken out on your home.

 

[Gringoboy]

This bloke says what he means.
The Chilean economist Jose Luis Daza:
"Si ustedes hubieran puesto a un chimpancé de ministro de Hacienda en Argentina, les habría ido mejor (.) la probabilidad de que los números de inflación sean ciertos en Buenos Aires es más baja que un meteorito le pegue a una persona dos veces en la cabeza. ¿Quién quiere invertir en un país así?", se preguntó el economista.

 

[jimdepalermo]

Every friend I have who owns an apartment bitches about the fact that a relatively large percentage of the owners in their buildings don't pay the expenses. Also, when I was living out in Pilar in a closed neighborhood, about one fourth of the owners had expense bills over $30K pesos.

I have heard the same thing since before I bought my first apartment here. Maybe I'm just lucky, but their are no morosos in the buildings where I have apartments. All are in Palermo, so maybe other neighborhoods have worse problems with morosos. Admittedly, every now and then someone gets behind a month or two, the administrador charges them interest, and they pay up. But it's never been a problem.

It seems like another one of those things porteños love gripe about, like crime....

 

[ElQueso]

Actually, the ones I've heard complain about it most are my expat friends.

I have a buddy, a retired cop from Daytona Beach, who moved down here and married a portena and bought an apartment in Microcentro. He has problems all the time with the administration, including being pissed that the expenses are rising for those who take care of their expenses vs those who don't - they have to pay more to make up the difference. On top of that, the local administrator is the husband of the encargada, who all the time gets paid her normal salary plus an incredible amount of overtime and he can't get the administration company to look into it. A slight conflict of interest that maybe most portenos even don't see a problem with.

Another buddy of mine is from Holland and he has the same problem with expenses in the building, as well as the builder (the building's only a couple of years old) who lives in one of the apartments having some kind of special deal with the administration company, and the owners are trying to get the administration company changed.

Another buddy of mine owns a house in the city and deals with other kinds of problems, including the building next door refusing to admit they have a leak that's destroying the walls in his house, even though he's broken down the wall on three floors to prove it is not coming from his pipes, but seeping through their walls to his building. The building next door is an apartment building and the administration of the building refuses to do anything about it.

In fact, we have weekly parillas on his patio and two weeks ago we were treated to some eggs being thrown at us from some lovely people in the building next door. Luckily they didn't hit the meat...

I do have one Argentine friend who owns her apartment and who also bitches about the same kinds of things. Most of my other Argentine friends actually rent.

It seems a recurring theme, what I see. Hell, which came first - corruption among the people or corruption among their leaders?

You do seem to be lucky, Jim. And I don't know for sure, but my building seems to be filled with pretty decent people. Though I've never seen the expense report, I suspect there aren't many shirkers in my building either.