Urgent Help! I'm not spamming I'm scared!

[zacearlwanderstheworld]

My wife and I have been living in a two room apartment for just short of a month. When we moved in the landlord asked if we could find people to take the other unoccupied room. We said sure and started asking friends. Everyone we showed said the room was too small for the price. We really liked the apartment so we decided there would be better chance of finding roomates if we moved into the smaller room and offered the larger room to potential tenants. Our landlord entered unanounced and flipped out when she found the rooms rearranged. She has evicted us (effective Monday April 18th- Just in time for "holy week") and has accused us of sub-letting the rooms out "Yo sé que tienen gente viviendo aquí sin pagar"- her quote. So now she is threatening to not return our deposit- a sum of USD$550! The portero agrees that it is impossible that other people lived there with us, but I am not sure he will say anything to the landlord. My wife and I speak fluent Spanish, however she talks over us when we offer our explanation.

 

[nikad]

This is confusing, she asked you to rent out a room and now threatens you with eviction because you did it? When you rent an apartment you can re arrange the rooms if you want. I am not sure what type of contract you guys have, it all sounds confusing. nobody will come and evict you in Argentina, so relax and tell the landlord to return your money if she wants you to leave or you will stay and report her.

 

[fifs2]

Sounds scary so sympathies n`all. I would personally change the locks, stock up on food, download some good movies and plan to spend as much if not all of that week in the appt behind your new locks - plan a rota of accomodating friends. She likely has someone else lined up for your place so the longer you stay entrenched the more likley she will be to pay up the deposit. Sounds easy I know, bst of luck with things and let us know how it goes.

 

[French jurist]

To the OP : since you opened two threads, maybe it would be good to close one

 

[jaredwb]

My wife and I have been living in a two room apartment for just short of a month. When we moved in the landlord asked if we could find people to take the other unoccupied room. We said sure and started asking friends. Everyone we showed said the room was too small for the price. We really liked the apartment so we decided there would be better chance of finding roomates if we moved into the smaller room and offered the larger room to potential tenants. Our landlord entered unanounced and flipped out when she found the rooms rearranged. She has evicted us (effective Monday April 18th- Just in time for "holy week") and has accused us of sub-letting the rooms out "Yo sé que tienen gente viviendo aquí sin pagar"- her quote. So now she is threatening to not return our deposit- a sum of USD$550! The portero agrees that it is impossible that other people lived there with us, but I am not sure he will say anything to the landlord. My wife and I speak fluent Spanish, however she talks over us when we offer our explanation.

Well, just don't leave. My guess is the landlord has NO legal reason to evict you and so what if you moved rooms around, that is your choice.

I would certainly let them know you plan on reporting them and see how that goes.

 

[clooz]

I was in a similar situation once in another country. The landlord needed the place vacant to rent to a relative, so invented a spurious reason to end the lease, plus added some shouting and violence.

What I did was to find a pro-bono attorney. The attorney wrote a letter to the landlord, which threatened the landlord with various legal consequences. The landlord realized that he could not so easily threaten or mislead an attorney, and that his actions were being watched by a 3rd party, so he switched to a practical due process instead of the violence.