Private Property Reforms
New draft law on the inviolability of private property & Ley de Tierras update
Welcome Avatar! At the start of the month, the Milei government presented draft law on the inviolability of private property, and last week more changes were announced for the Ley de Tierras, which originally limited farmland purchases for non-citizens. Let’s dig in.
Not many countries have the need to confirm the inviolability of private property — although recent pro squatter laws in the West show that the path there is the inverse of what Argentina is currently experiencing.
Owning property in places like California and Spain has become a liability for property owners due to their argentinización that slowly eats away at property rights in favor of squatters, with eviction often taking months or even years. In Argentina, it has been this way for many decades, which is one of the reasons why Argentine landlords are so reluctant to sign long term rent contracts — sometimes even favoring an empty apartment that only represents a sunk cost.
Autist note — here you can find a complete introduction to buying and selling real estate in Argentina:
On December 9, the Argentine government published the full text of the bill on the Inviolability of Private Property, an initiative that will mandate the immediate return of property in cases of precarious possession or squatting. It will also eliminate the prohibition on sales to legal entities in barrios populares, also knows as Villas Miseria, among other provisions.
Expedited Evictions
The initiative provides greater legal security for private owners, and the State loses discretion in expropriations and illegal occupations, significantly accelerating eviction processes against squatters.
One of the pillars of the project is the modification of the judicial eviction process. The text proposes incorporating an “immediate eviction” mechanism, applicable to occupants without property deeds, precarious holders, intruders, or usurpers.
Once a plaintiff has presented the property title and starts the litigation process, a judge must order the immediate handover of the property within five days, through a summary procedure. The key innovation in this project which is not the case now, is that this handover can be carried out even if the property is unoccupied at the time of the operation.
The text also authorizes a court officer to:
Use law enforcement.
Search residences.
Open locks and appoint custodians for the goods found on the premises.
Serve the occupant at the property itself, even if their actual address does not match the one provided.
If you have any familiarity with how hard it is in Argentina to evict squatters today, this really is a total game changer.
Furthermore, the bill stipulates that the process server must identify all occupants present, even if they were not named in the complaint, and that the judgment will apply equally to them. For evictions due to non-payment or expiration of contract, the plaintiff may request immediate eviction through a sworn guarantee and presentation of title, although a fine of up to ten times the last rent is foreseen if the owner hides information relevant to obtaining the measure. Overall very reasonable.
The project also reformulates the Ley de Tierras (Rural Land Law) and eliminates the caps and restrictions on purchases by foreign private capital. It also introduces changes in expropriation regulations (not a luxury to have given Argentina’s history).