Noesdeayer had it correct when he was talking about "algo venido abajo". The owners of the apartment we are renting are typical of that type, I'd think. They are children of a successful lawyer and a once-famous TV personality of some sort (well before our time and their mother, the personality, died 5 years ago). They have a few properties around town that they haven't maintained well but receive rent from. Supposedly they still have a soy company (not sure exactly what it does, if it's a farm, buying/selling/import/export, or what - they are vague about it) that's worth millions of dollars, according to them, but seems to be in financial problems and is losing money. They don't have anything to do with the running of the business and probably are being stolen blind by those who do run it, not to mention the problems from the economy and government regulations and such over the last 12 years.
We had some electrical problems and they called an electrician who came out, looked at things, and wanted a down payment for half of the cost from us. The owners were supposedly "going on vacation" and couldn't pay, so they asked us to cover it and they would pay us back when they returned (we ended up having to deduct it from our rent, with protest by them). While the electrician was in the apartment he told us that he hasn't been paid by them in months and it was only their promise to him that we were going to pay that allowed him to come over. We needed the work done, so we did pay him. Same thing happened with a plumber not too long after. And of course, we were lured into the apartment to begin with by the promise of more than a single two-year contract and found out after a year in the apartment that they had been in a 5-year-long legal battle with their father, after the death of their mother, for ownership of the various properties they told us they owned and had been ordered by the court, last year, to sell the apartment we are occupying to cover legal fees and to pay their father his portion of this apartment, the ownership of the other apartments having been settled half and half, as the law states. BTW - they apparently didn't even have the right to sign the contract on this apartment, as the father has come a few times asking who is in his apartment. They and the real estate agent had asked, together and prior to visits from their father, to meet with us about all of this and asked us to deny to their father that we were renting the apartment, but rather were friends who were just here for a short time, not paying rent, and were going to leave soon!
They complain all the time about not having money, yet they apparently go on 2 and 3 week trips within Argentina and at least to Brasil. They apparently don't pay their bills on time and they lure people like us into their apartment so they can finance at least some of their crap (we pay in dollars, which is helpful). I suspect these are the kind of "rich" people who screw others, all over this city at least.
