Lease agreements in Spanish

mobile home university
1

I just bought my first park. There are spanish speaking tenants in the park.

Should I give out lease agreements in spanish to spanish speaking tenants?

Thanks.

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We keep all our agreements in English. English is the official language in America, and I’d rather not have to find a Spanish-speaking judge to interpret a lease if/when time comes to evict someone who has signed a Spanish lease.

Comprende?

-Jefferson-

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Entiendo, gracias Jefferson :slight_smile:

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We have had some legal research done in relation to finance agreements in Spanish. We came to the conclusion that unless a law requires you to deliver legal documents in any language other than English, you should avoid it like the plague. It sets a sort of precedent you do not want to establish.

  1. How many languages are you going to be forced to deal in? If you offer Spanish documents based on Castilian Spanish, what happens with a Cuban Spanish speaker, or a Chilean Spanish speaker? (Were you aware that people from Chile don’t utilize the same Spanish as those from Mexico? We have a fluent Spanish speaker on our consultant roster who cannot communicate with his wife who is a native Spanish speaker in Spanish. They use English to talk and write to each other.) Then what do you do when you have a Polish speaker show up and wants all of their documents in Polish? It would be discriminatory to not offer them what you offer Spanish speakers. Think of the nightmare in California where state agencies offer almost 40 versions of the same document in various languages, including apparently, “Klingon”.
  2. Then there is the problem on accurate translation which is hard enough with ordinary language, but almost a nightmare for legal documents. Who wants to spend $10,000 or more to get a bulletproof lease in one version of Spanish that can be certified for courtroom use?
  3. Finally, the law insinuates that if you offer even one written thing in another language, every communication - including verbal - from there forward must be in the same language with that consumer you are doing business with. How many languages must your community manager speak?

None of this means you shouldn’t speak Spanish or that your community manager shouldn’t speak Spanish. It just means don’t offer written alternatives, especially when dealing with legal documents.

I loved Jefferson’s insight about having to find a Spanish speaking judge to interpret a lease! Great insight!

TraducciĂłn de documentos legales de un idioma a otro es como ir por el hoyo del conejo con Alice .

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@RishelConsultingGroup, maravilloso, muchas gracias!