New Lease Law: BCRA Approved Index Applicable to Lease Agreements

In accordance with the provisions of section 14 of the New Lease Law 27,551 enacted on June 30, 2020 (see https://www.marval.com/publicacion/nueva-ley-de-alquileres-modificaciones-introducidas-en-la-regulacion-de-alquileres-para-uso-habitacional-y-comercial-13706&lang=en), in lease agreements for residential use that are signed as of July 1, 2020, adjustments to the rental fee must now be made annually and not semi-annually as allowed in the past and must be calculated based on a special index that the Argentine Central Bank ( the “BCRA”, after its acronym in Spanish) had to prepare and regulate.

Through Communique “A” 7096 dated August 27, 2020, the BCRA approved the index applicable to lease agreements (the “ICL”, after its acronym in Spanish), which must be used as the method of calculating the annual adjustment for lease agreements for residential use that are signed as of July 1, 2020.

Starting from the 17th of each month and until the 16th of the following month, the ICL will be calculated on the variations, with equal weighting, of the consumer price index with national coverage published by the Argentine Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INDEC) and of the average taxable remuneration of stable workers (RIPTE) published by the Argentine Ministry of Social Security.

The ICL will be published daily on the BCRA’s website and will allow the calculation of the adjustment regardless of the start day of the lease agreement.