Technical article

Renting Without a Local Guarantor, and Other Rental Surprises

The agent asks for a guarantor who owns property in the city.

By Neil Solomon · 5 min read

Picture a couple named Dan and Helen. Both are 63. They want to try a year in a South American city before they decide on anything bigger. They find an apartment they like. The agent asks for a guarantor who owns property in the city. They know no one there. What does the law say about other ways to back a lease?

Brazil: four ways to back a lease, and only one at a time

Brazil's tenancy law (Lei 8.245 of 1991) lists what a landlord may ask for. Article 37 says: "No contrato de locação, pode o locador exigir do locatário as seguintes modalidades de garantia:" The four kinds are:

1. a cash deposit (caução)
2. a personal guarantor (fiança)
3. rental guarantee insurance (seguro de fiança locatícia)
4. a pledge of units in an investment fund (cessão fiduciária de quotas de fundo de investimento)

The same article adds that more than one kind in the same lease is void: "É vedada, sob pena de nulidade, mais de uma das modalidades de garantia num mesmo contrato de locação." So a landlord who takes a deposit cannot also ask for a guarantor.

A cash deposit has a ceiling. Article 38 says it "não poderá exceder o equivalente a três meses de aluguel" (it may not be more than three months of rent). It goes into a savings account, and the interest goes to the tenant.

The law also sets two lease lengths. A written lease of 30 months or more ends at its end date without notice (Article 46). A lease under 30 months renews on its own for an indefinite term when the end date passes (Article 47).

Argentina: the rules changed, and the pages show both

Argentina is harder to pin down, because the law moved. The government's news page of 1 July 2020 described Law 27551. It set a three-year minimum lease. It capped the deposit at "el primer mes de alquiler". It also said landlords "deberán aceptar como garantía alguna de las siguientes opciones", which means a tenant could pick from a list rather than find a guarantor.

A later government page, dated 12 August 2024, says Decree 70/2023 "derogó la ley Nº 27.551 de Alquileres" (repealed the rental law). The decree itself calls the repeal necessary in its opening reasons. The Defensor del Pueblo of Buenos Aires Province, a public body, described the effect on 5 January 2024. These are its words, and I give them as quoted:

• "Ya no rige el plazo de duración por 3 años para los nuevos contratos de locación."
• "El dinero dado en calidad de depósito siempre pertenece al inquilino."
• The deposit "puede ser dado en moneda extranjera."
• "habrá libertad para contratar en dólares, euros o cualquier otra moneda extranjera."
• Rent increases "deberá acordarse entre las partes."

Side by side

What the decree text adds

I read the text of Decree 70/2023 on the government's legal database on 11 October 2026. Its opening reasons call the repeal of the rental law, Law 27.551, necessary, and the decree repeals it. With it go the three-year minimum, the one-month cap on the deposit and the list of guarantees a landlord had to accept. The decree puts the Civil and Commercial Code principle that agreed terms bind the parties in their place. In practice, an Argentine landlord may ask for a guarantor, a deposit, insurance or a mix, and the lease says which. The tenant's protection is the lease itself.

What this article leaves for another day

• Which guarantee a given Brazilian landlord will take from a newcomer, and what rental insurance costs. The law lets the landlord pick the kind. It does not say which one a landlord will pick.
• Court decisions after the pages I read. A lawyer reading your lease would know of them.