The Government of the province of Buenos Aires charged ex officio three companies dedicated to the commercialization of prefabricated housing, for the commission of alleged violations of the National Consumer Defense Law for which could be sanctioned with fines of more than 400 million pesos. Is about “Housing The Solution”, “Rolon Homes” y “Rock Homes”who have already been notified of the accusation and have five business days to present their defense.
The Ministry of Production, Science and Technological Innovation, exercising powers of control and prevention of abusive clauses in adhesion contracts, carried out an ex officio survey tending to analyze the contracts entered into between prefabricated housing suppliers and Buenos Aires consumers and also verified that the web pages of these companies the contracts were published.
The result of the investigation determined that the companies have not published the copies of the contracts on the web pages where they offer and market their products, infringing the constitutional right of access to consumer information. For this reason, they were ordered to comply with the publication and exhibition of the aforementioned contracts, in order to guarantee that citizens have said information at the time of contracting (as established in article 38 of the National Law 24,240 for the Defense of Consumer and Resolution No. 271/2020 of the former SCI of the Nation).
In the cases of “Viviendas Roca” and “Viviendas Rolón” they were ordered not only to publish the contracts on their websites, but also to present them to the provincial authorities in order to carry out the corresponding analysis. In the case of “Viviendas La Solución” its contract could be analyzed and it was charged for including seven clauses that were allegedly abusive and contrary to the rights of consumers, according to the parameters established in article 37 of National Law No. 24,240.
Among them were clauses worded in a confusing way, which hinder the exercise of consumer rights, such as the one that states that “The given details are not returned under any circumstances”, in open contradiction with current regulations, since in case of non-compliance by the suppliers, they must repay the amounts paid. Another abusive practice of this firm is the one that indicates that the down payment constitutes a high percentage of the total value of the home (more than 40%), added to the right that the company reserves to analyze the guarantees required for the granting of the loan. at a time after the delivery of the signal.
“Clauses that establish limitations on the company’s liability and fail to comply with the duty of legal guarantee that all goods and services possess were also observed.by providing that ‘once the construction is completed, the repair or replacement of any component of the same will be at the expense of the applicant,’ “said the Buenos Aires ministry, among other issues.
