Category: Business Spanish Courses Online – Learning Resources

Masculine noun. Contract by virtue of which the owner of a thing, movable or immovable, grants another the use and enjoyment of it for a specified time, at a certain price or service to be satisfied by the recipient, in a nutshell: lease.
We tend to make a difference and call arrendamiento just a lease of a rural property and locación when it is an urban property. Why is this important? because the minimum term for an arrendamiento rural is usually much longer than for a locación urbana. How do you know when a property is rural? It is rural (or rústica) if the sewers and the public services like street lighting or garbage collection do not arrive to it. Of course, this may vary according to the country.
The lessor is called arrendador and locador and the lessee or tenant is called arrendatario and locatario. A way to remember who is who: Otario siempre paga. dc

Feminine noun. It is a claim in front of judge to challenge the effectiveness of a public instrument like a escritura.
The whole point of making a contract on escritura pública in front of a escribano is to give certainty regarding 3 main points:
a. The identity of the parties who execute the act.
b. Their capacity to contract.
c. The date of celebration.
If the act is executed on escritura pública, this contract is almost watertight, and its authenticity cannot be challenged. Every Spanish speaking country has their own proceedings but in the acción de redargución de falsedad the claim generally can just be based in 1. the material adulteration, for the document not having been granted by the official who appears to subscribe it or having been deleted, modified or added any of its enunciations; 2. in the inaccuracy of the facts that the public official had stated as being carried out by him or that have happened in his presence. dc

Feminine noun. It is a notarial instrument that contains one or more declarations of those who intervene in an act or contract, issued before the notary that complements it with the legal requirements specific to each act, for its incorporation into the notarial protocol and, where appropriate, so that it can be registered in the corresponding public registers. Some contracts are due to be executed on escritura pública and be registered so they can be effective against third parties, , e.g. transmisión de inmuebles o de bienes registrables. In this case, if the contract is not executed on escritura pública, the interested party can try the acción de reducción a escritura pública (elevación a público in Spain).
Some other documents, to be effective, must be made on escritura pública without the need of registration, e.g. a power of attorney. In fact, any contract can be made on escritura pública to give it more certainty regarding the identity and capacity of the parties and the date of celebration.
The verb is escriturar and the notary is called escribano/a. They tend to be rather boring. dc

Feminine noun. Public limited company with legal personality in which the capital, divided into shares (acciones), is made up of the contributions of the partners who are not personally liable for the company debts. It is usually presented with the name of the company plus S.A. E.g. YPF S.A.
Why is it called anónima? Because the share can be transferable to anybody, although the estatuto social (bylaw) can state some limitations. If the acciones are sold in the bolsa de valores (stoke exchange) is a sociedad anónima cotizada. dc

Plural masculine nouns. In Legal Spanish they are never used in singular.
Daños are those impairments that, because of a certain event, a person suffers in their property, and for which another must respond. On the other hand, perjuicios are those legal gains that are no longer obtained or the expenses that are caused by the act or omission of another, and that the latter must compensate, in addition to the daño caused directly. dc