Guarantor (Fiador)

A guarantor (fiador) is the person who, through a suretyship agreement (contrato de fiança), assumes before the creditor the responsibility to fulfill the main debtor’s obligation if the debtor fails to do so. This is a personal guarantee: unlike collateral-based guarantees, a suretyship binds the guarantor’s personal assets, not a specific piece of property.

In Florianópolis’s real estate market, a guarantor appears mainly in two contexts:

• Residential and commercial leases: the landlord requires a solvent guarantor to secure payment of rent and related charges.
• Financing and credit operations: in deals where the borrower doesn’t present a strong enough profile, some institutions accept a guarantor or endorser (avalista) as additional credit backing.

Key legal points:

• Joint liability: unless the contract states otherwise, the creditor can go directly after the guarantor without first pursuing the main debtor, as long as the guarantor has expressly waived the right to require the debtor be pursued first (benefício de ordem) (art. 828, I, Civil Code).
• Guarantor’s family home (bem de família): a guarantor’s legally protected family home can be seized in lease agreements, under the exception set out in art. 3, VII, of Law 8,009/1990. Brazil’s Supreme Court (STF) upheld the constitutionality of this exception (RE 407,688).
• Release of the guarantor: in open-ended lease agreements, the guarantor can give 120 days’ notice to be released from the obligation (art. 40, sole paragraph, Law 8,245/1991).
• Substituting the guarantee: the tenant can replace the guarantor with another guarantee type allowed by law, subject to the landlord’s acceptance.

In Florianópolis, the high-end market often prefers lease insurance (seguro-fiança) or a cash security deposit (caução) over personal guarantors, given their liquidity and simpler enforcement.