Brazilian Employment // Occupancy Law

@roddiesho

Impossible to comment precisely without knowing the exact terms of employment and details. For example, was there a contract of employment, did you pay all the taxes, FGTS, etc, did the employee receive 1 month's annual paid holiday and Christmas bonus, were they provided with all the legal requirements (uniform, equipment, safety gear, etc) to carry out their duties, were they ever asked to do jobs not in the contract, etc, etc. Or were they paid on a cash-in-hand basis?

It also depends on how long they had worked for you, if the legal minimum wages for the job were paid, and so on.  But severance pay is quite normal, and yet they may still take you to a labour court if they feel you have not met ALL the legal requirements - where you WILL lose, the employer never wins.

As for 2/ this is unlikely, if you were paying power and water bills, annual taxes and the maintenance on the building. If these were being paid by the owner then the employee cannot claim usucapiao (squatter's rights), which allows for the occupier to claim the property if the owner has abandoned the property for at least 5 years in a municipal location, or 10 years in a rural one.

If you were not paying anything then it could be possible, but it does need a bit of investment to present a legal argument for usucapiao, and it is still unlikely if  you can claim that you have not abondoned it, but merely provided it as part of their job description - eg in the employment contract.

Brazilians are very used to this kind of employee situation, and paying severance pay, and it is quite easy to take legal advice to make sure you are covered...

@Peter Itamaraca 1). YES, everything was in her contract 2). We built the house on the property that also has my house and my wife's house, so it was never abandoned. Just interested to know if she and her family just lived in the house weather there was any potential challenges.

Roddie in Retirement 😎

Just interested to know if she and her family just lived in the house weather there was any potential challenges.
Roddie in Retirement 😎 - @roddiesho

If, as you say, her employment details including the use of the house were written in the contract, plus I imagine you paid the energy, real estate taxes, etc? Then they do not have an argument, and cannot claim the house. I think you mentioned they had only used the house for a few months, not years? Again they would have no case, especially if they were there less than 1 year.

If you created the belief that you "gifted" them the house, and they were there for many years and paid all the bills, with no contractual agreement that their occupation was temporary (no matter how long that period), then they MAY have an argument, but you could easily fight them in court with an attorney. Additionally, it does require some investment on the part of the claimant to legally take the property, which may not be available...

Severance pay can amount to several thousand reais, depending on how the employment was terminated, what was in the contract, how long the emploment existed, and will also include any outstanding salary, holiday and Christmas pay, let alone compensation.

@Peter Itamaraca So since you were nice enough to help me with my situation I will provide the context. We live in Northeastern Brazil in a very, very large property. There are three houses on the property. My wife and 98year old mother, Mine and the third house. My wife is the legal caretaker of my Brazilian mother and my mother lives in her house with my wifes uncle who has mental challenges. A young mid-20's woman who we ALL liked very much and was a great person came up from Fortaleza (6 hours away) to help my  wife with the Sorvete Shop she runs on the property. She has been here for at least the three years I have lived in Brazil. My wife last year built a house for her on the property so her 10-year-old son and 5 year old daughter could live here also (she was formaly living down the street with other relatives). It was a perfect arrangement. My wife was making payments on a cool motorcycle for her (she now has it back), we have a swimming pool the kids enjoyed and brought their friends over for. We had a Trampoline for the kids and otherwise great environment to live in.

Last week it all changed when my wife went to her house (hers is closer to the street and entrance in back), to tell her that my wife was off to the festival.  Instead, there was a young man in the house (we later found out that our young lady was actually at the festival at that time). He did not acknowledge my wife at all even though he was a stranger on our property. My wife concerned for her safety left the house. She then informed the young lady's father (everybody is connected to everyone here and he was my Man Friday when I needed to go to the city).  The young lady then got very upset that we had told her father. Apparently, this was a young man she was involved with. Not sure if the family knew him either or not. My wife confronted her and informed her that although we all liked her a lot, this was a real breach of our safety to have an unknown strange man in the house. He apparently also came in from the back street entrance, so did not pass by anyone in the front. One thing led to another, and she was asked to leave the house. She left the house in pristine condition, with no damage at all and turned over all the keys to my wife

So, I really wish she was old enough to know you just can't have strange people in your house on your boss's property with no one knowing.  Anyway, my wife has been the best and paid her the 6months severance etc.

Roddie in Retirement😎

@roddiesho

I must point out that I am not an attorney, and I am only expressing an opinion based on my very limited experience. For proper professional advice I am sure your wife already has contacts for attorneys should she think this is necessary.

I can see your point of view, but the lady in question may simply argue she had invited a guest into her house - which I doubt you had previously said she could not have.

Anyway, the 6 months severance payment may have been 3 years worth of holiday and Christmas pay (2 months for each year), or compensation - I do not know. Hopefully her departure was very amicable, because she does have 1 year to take any grievances to a labour court, if she is persuaded that she is entitled to more.

If she does then she will win (employees always do), and that could cost you a lot more. But I am sure your wife is experienced in all this, and that all will be fine.

In the past 20 odd years I have had a total of about 100 employees at one time or another, all on short term contracts or casually employed, and only one took me to court! But I did sail close to the wind on a couple of occasions...!

@Peter Itamaraca Thanx! I am guessing we covered it all. Other than this misstep we always had a great relationship, so I forsee it has ended there. I especially never underestimate my wife. Even though she never graduated from High School, she is the smartest person I know and never ceases to amaze me. While many in my former country (USA) were complaining about the past federal shutdown and how they would survive their paycheck-to-paycheck lifestyle, I offered to help my wife with the severence pay only for her to telll me that she had already put aside the 6months and was fine. 😎

Given how difficult it is to find good, hard-working employees in Brazil, especially domestic help you can trust, you might want to find a way to get over this: she is young and invited someone over to her home -- unless you expressly prohibited that she may not have seen anything wrong with that -- perhaps set rules on that or build a wall between her house and your property and she needs to use a keyed entrance to your property.

Brazilians are a bit more "flexible" when it comes to rules. You thinking "she should know better" is not something Brazilians are good at -- they simply have a more flexible mindset which can be good and "bad".

And, if she has a carteira then you do owe her severance -- she accumulated that and you are required to pay it out. I assume you did use a Contabilidade for her employment -- if so, they know exactly what she is owed -- whether you fired her or whether she left makes no difference.

12/02/25 @mjs30170.  I think that in this case, the security concerns have trumped any difficulties in finding replacement help.  This is a rather isolated family compound in the interior of Ceará that serves as home to some vulnerable people.   The Brazilian owner of the compound unexpectedly finds that a man she doesn't know and hasn't vetted is apparently living inside her security perimeter by permission of someone she trusted, who never informed her.  To make matters worse the interloper - who may not even have realized that that's what he was, because he may not have been informed of the complexity of the situation by his girlfriend either - made a really bad first impression.

Yes, the ex-employee is almost certainly entitled to her compensation,  which seems to be in the works.  But no, this is probably not a situation that there's a way to just "get over" and go on.

@mjs30170

Given how difficult it is to find good, hard-working employees in Brazil, especially domestic help you can trust, you might want to find a way to get over this: she is young and invited someone over to her home -- unless you expressly prohibited that she may not have seen anything wrong with that -- perhaps set rules on that or build a wall between her house and your property and she needs to use a keyed entrance to your property.

Sorry, I may not have explained it thoroughly. First of all, my wife and her family have been leaders in this communit for their entire life and pay above average, so it is not hard to find people who want to work for the family, all of them very hard-working. At present she has landscapers, Gardners and caretakers who work for her.  The most important part though is the young man was not "invited over to her home". He was literally in her home with NO ONE, including the young lady, knowing he was there. She was at the festival, and my wife had never met him, so this could very well have been a Home Invasion for all we knew. She is also living ON our property.     It is a massive property with three houses and this one built for her. The path that he took to get to the house she lived in was the street entrance at the back end of our property. NO ONE had any idea he was there and by coming in through the back he went out of his way to sneak into our property and sneak into the house she lived in with NO ON knowing he was there.

Roddie in Retirement😎