Residential lease agreement in Jalisco

[Sandrita]

To be considered a valid lease does it need to be written in Spanish with 2 witnesses?

Muchas gracias.

[ComputerGuy]

See Al's response below.

[Al Berca]

No, it does not have to be written in Spanish. It can be written in any language understandable to and agreed upon by all signatories. The only need to have it in Spanish is if there is a dispute between the signatories and they have asked for help through arbitration or the courts or other outside party. Then it must be translated into Spanish if not already writtten in Spanish.

[ComputerGuy]

Best advice: get a professional.

[Natasha]

6 hours ago, Sandrita said:

To be considered a valid lease does it need to be written in Spanish with 2 witnesses?

Muchas gracias.

According to my Mexican landlord, who is also a lawyer,  yes it DOES need to be in Spanish..... and why not use the same 2 witnesses you use for the English version if you want/need one?  Also, the Spanish version should be certified by an official translator if either party is not a Spanish speaker.

Why? Because the day there is a dispute over any part of the contract, ONLY the Spanish version is acceptable in a Mexican court.  AND if the landlord is Mexican, he can tell the courts he did not realize what the English version says even if he speaks perfectly fluent English  and he can get away with it!  (I know of a contract  drawn up by an English-speaking  Mexican landlord in English only that, when it went to court, was tossed out because the landlord stood up and told the judge he did not understand what the document really said!)

And there is little point waiting until you HAVE an issue to get a translated version, because you always run the risk of the other party saying "that's not what I meant it to say" when we originally did it.

[ComputerGuy]

I have decided the best advice is to not get involved in this. Get a professional.