To rent a good apartment with a convenient location at a bargain price is quite difficult. Everyone who has at least once looked for rental housing knows that this process is extremely difficult and long.
Much worse, if you study a lot of options and find a suitable housing but then realizing that the apartment is not so good as you thought. Problems may arise from the arrears of utility bills, insects in the apartment, faulty household appliances. Consider the most common problems and traps that can wait when looking for an apartment for rent.
1. It is necessary sign the contract
It is quite often when owners of apartments offer to rent housing without signing a contract. In any case, you should not agree to such conditions, because the lease is not just a condition, and a mandatory document. It is on the contract can be relied, if there are difficult, conflict with the owner of the apartment.
When signing the contract you need to study in detail, as well as record all important points. From payment terms to repairs and contingencies.
The rental agreement is a document that is made in arbitrary writing. It does not need to be certified by a notary. According to the information of companies of expert evaluation immovable property, nowadays more than 85% of long-term rental agreements in Kyiv are confirmed in writing.
Before signing the contract, it is necessary to examine in detail all the documents of the owner, who must present all the originals. All owners of the apartment must be present during the signing of the lease. Alternatively, it must be documented that all owners agree to rent out.
2. Problems with utility bills
Quite often, when renting housing can get an unpleasant surprise in the form of arrears in utility bills. If the owner owes a large sum of money, the tenant can be turned off. If the landlord refuses to pay the debt for any reason, the tenant is in a very bad situation. You either have to pay the debt yourself, or again look for a new apartment. If the tenant decides to pay the debt, it is necessary to take a receipt from the owner, where he undertakes to deduct the amount of the paid debt from the payment of the apartment.
That is why before you sign the contract, you should ask the owner to provide a report on the payment of communal services.
3. Prolonged waiting for repairs
Quite often, the owner promises that he will buy new furniture or make repairs in the near future, almost immediately after the occupant. Often owners do not keep their promises, and the tenant has to endure it. In such situations, it is necessary to secure the promises of the owner in the contract.
Often the lodger offers to do the repair, for which the owner will not charge him a few months. This is called «rent holidays». When the repair is completed, the owner demands payment of the rent, and the promise not to charge the payment is simply «forgets». Because his property is already better, rating of the apartment has risen and the owner can rent it more. That is why it is necessary that absolutely all points be detailed in the contract.
4. You are not my friend anymore!
If the apartment is rented to close relatives or friends, the contract is most often not concluded. However, according to statistics, the most common conflict situations occur between close people who have not signed a lease. It is for this reason that the contract should always be concluded.
There are situations when the house is rented in trust, which says that the trustee allows the trustee to rent out his property. However, the text of the power of attorney does not stipulate the right of a trustee to take rent from tenants. In the future, a rather unpleasant situation may occur: the tenant pays the trustee, but after a certain time the owner of the house will require to pay the full amount for the past time and him. Therefore, all documents should be examined in detail, and if the power of attorney is not stated permission to charge the tenants, it is necessary to discuss and correct it.
5. Unexpected breakdowns after settlement
There is a very popular method among fraudsters to deceive tenants, which is associated with a malfunction of household appliances. For example, the tenant enters the apartment and the owner claims that everything works properly. The tenant trusts the owner, doesn’t check everything personally, but just signs the lease. If after a while it can be found out that any appliance is defective. In such a situation, the tenant will be the culprit, because to prove that the owner knew of the malfunction almost impossible.
Therefore, before signing the contract, it is ideally desirable to evaluate the property, which together with real estate takes the tenant. Or at least you should make sure that all household appliances work properly, and the apartment is not broken. And at least visually appreciate the furniture.
6. Problems with neighbors
One possible problem could be troubled neighbours about who no one will warn. Of course, there is no point in going to the apartments and try to learn more about the residents of the entrance. After all, no one would want to tell a stranger about such details, if at all open the door to him.
Indicative to understand the contingent of residents of the entrance can be on the state of public places in the house. We need to assess the condition and take a look at the entrance, the elevator, the vestibules, the yard. If nothing has alarmed, everything is clean and neat then, most likely, in the future should not be a problem. However, broken doors, broken bulbs, unpleasant smell in the stairwell suggests that unexpected problems with neighbors may arise. This factor, by the way, can rarely be taken into account when evaluating real estate. And, meanwhile, it has a significant impact on both the value of the apartment and its liquidity (means the speed of sale).
7. Insects in a rented apartment
Insects can be another unpleasant «neighbors». In apartments with a low cost of rent, you can often find bedbugs, cockroaches or even ants. In some houses it is almost impossible to get rid of them. Naturally, apartment owners try not to talk about it.
A person can notice insects after he has moved into the apartment. As with faulty appliances, it will be quite difficult to prove anything. The owner will deny everything and refer to the fact that it is the tenant who is responsible for the appearance of insects. In this case, the tenant can be forced to carry out disinfection. To protect yourself from unpleasant situations, you must carefully study various hard-to-reach places and make sure that there are no insects in the apartment.
8. The deposit
Quite often apartment owners refuse to return the security deposit when the tenant plans to move out. Most often the amount of the deposit is equal to the full cost of rent of the apartment for a month. If a person needs to leave before the end of the long-term lease, the owner of the apartment may not want to return the funds to him. To avoid such situations, it is necessary to draw up the lease correctly, as well as to enter all the details.
If the trouble when renting an apartment still happened, but you do not want to be the silent victim of fraudsters, you can always order an evaluation for the court and try to defend your legitimate interests and rights there. And even if it doesn’t work out, at least you will drag deceivers through the courts.
We would like to draw your attention to our other articles about corrupt brokers who deceive trusting clients when buying and selling and renting real estate.
