Renting a place in Floripa; difficulty with rental company?

This is a third world country and not the US where people are respectful of individuals´ rights. They will ask you however to give them respect at any circumstance they so fit but not necessarily for you when
conflicts arise.

Don´t sign the contract until they change the date and take out the garbage; clean the house; repair or replace the bed. There is a checklist of things/furniture and or provisions on the contract that the place and things belonging to it will be maintained at the condition you received it. They will want you to submit the place clean, no broken bed and if they painted the house before you occupied, be also painted anew.

You should not have given the deposit in advance before signing the contract. GUARD the receipt with your life. I hope you won´t have to go to a small claims court.

Why so big a deposit? You can transact a rent for just a 3 mos deposit (caução) and be deposited at a bank with interest and be returned to you upon termination of the contract. Sometimes a deposit of 2 or 1month and sometimes NONE! Just a monthly payment paid in advance. Is your monthly rent around R$6,000?

robal

Stephanie,
I would have expected people with such a showy website to be a lot more professional than Kabral has proven to be  with you.  That's certainly a red flag.  At the very least, you should consider following the advice the Robal has given.

How is your Portuguese?  Even if it's perfect, but especially if it isn't, based on your experience so far, I would suggest having an attorney of your own review the contract, explain any objectionable points to you privately, and discuss and resolve them with Kabral, in your presence, of course, before you sign anything. How much of your deposit you can expect to get back and under what conditions is definitely part of that discussion.   I would expect that to cost you between R$1000 and R$3000 (it's negotiable); consider it insurance for the R$18,000 you have at risk right now, and any landmines that may be hidden in the contract.

If you haven't already, you should do a walkthrough with the agent, and take pictures of anything that's broken, that doesn't work, and of the space where anything that the description says should be there would go, but isn't.

Thanks very much for the helpful responses @robal and @abthree! I am doing this with my boyfriend, a Brazilian, so we are able to negotiate in Portuguese.

The R$18,000 is a caução, deposited with a third party that is registered with the Brazilian government (we looked them up when Kabral was taking so long to get back to us with the contract).

Over the course of today we've gotten them to agree to remove the garbage and clean the apartment (they appended this agreement to the contract) ...and to change the date to January 1. Sigh.

After additional back and forth on WhatsApp they FINALLY agreed to date the contract today. They close in 1 hour, and the office with the keys are in Campeche. We are in Trindade, so now begins the mad dash to the cartório to sign the thing and get the keys so that we can actually move this weekend and benefit from the days we will pay for.

I will post a final update later tonight!

You're welcome -- hope it all went well.  Looking forward to your update.

Very good Stephanie! I see that you´re at the UFSC (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina) area. I lived in Florianopolis for a few years in Barra da Lagoa, Lagoa da Conceição, Canasvieiras, Ingleses/Costão do Santinho.

Beira Mar North is one of my favorite (gastronomy and shopping). Any questions, jusk ask away.

robal

We have the keys and are moving today!!! Phew. I guess this place is just really disorganized, but they seem well meaning. What an intense first lesson in Brazilian negotiations 😅

That’s cool that you lived in Lagoa Robal - I love the vibe there; after living in Oakland (San Francisco Bay Area) for 10 years I’m a bit tired of concrete I will definitely ask more questions as I settle in. This is such a great community - thank you both for your help and making me feel a little less lost in this new place

Parabens! Enjoy
Sorry no help, I bought.
SC is our beach spot to go.

Congratulations!   All the best in your new home.

_stephanie wrote:

We have the keys and are moving today!!! Phew. I guess this place is just really disorganized, but they seem well meaning. What an intense first lesson in Brazilian negotiations 😅

That’s cool that you lived in Lagoa Robal - I love the vibe there; after living in Oakland (San Francisco Bay Area) for 10 years I’m a bit tired of concrete I will definitely ask more questions as I settle in. This is such a great community - thank you both for your help and making me feel a little less lost in this new place

I´m glad to know all went well. I lived at Brookdale Ave in Oakland for sometime. I still visit once in a while because my sister, nephews and niece still live at the Bay Area. I was there May this year.

Enjoy Brazil!

robal