How to rent an apartment for a long time

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What do you need to know to avoid unpleasant situations, quickly find affordable and decent housing, and rent it correctly for a long time?

What is more important, analyzing information and asking the right questions? Or the ability to avoid pitfalls? This will be discussed in detail below.

Dear readers! Our articles talk about typical ways to resolve legal issues, but each case is unique. If you want to find out how to solve your particular problem, please contact the online consultant form on the right or call the numbers below. It's fast and free!

Algorithm of actions

The average Russian, who does not have special legal and economic knowledge, if necessary to rent a house, acts as follows:

Search for suitable options. Most often, offers are considered on popular Internet resources (Avito, Yula, Cyan, etc.). Such services allow you not only to view advertisements, but also to filter out what is unnecessary using a convenient filter system (lease period, monthly payment, number of rooms in the apartment, etc.).
Negotiations with a representative. By calling the phone number indicated in the advertisement, the potential tenant should receive as much information as possible about the property they like. If everything suits you, you need to make an appointment.
Inspection. In most cases, a home inspection decides everything or almost everything. The first impression of a potential home is important, so don't skip this step by being a busy homeowner and agreeing to make decisions based solely on photos.
Conclusion of an agreement. real estate owners prefer to keep their small business in the shadows and not draw up official papers. Such a solution is equally dangerous and unprofitable for both parties. With oral agreements, the landlord receives money for the first month and a deposit, and the new tenants receive keys to the living space.

Important! Schematically, the algorithm for renting residential real estate looks simple. But literally at every stage the tenant expects pitfalls and unpleasant surprises.

How to rent an apartment on your own?

When searching on your own, you will need to find an advertisement from the owner, not a real estate company, set a time yourself and tour the apartments you like. Of course, in such a situation there are pitfalls, but many people prefer not to contact realtors.

What should you consider when searching on your own?

Checking the owner of the apartment

In order to ensure the legal purity of the property, ask its owner to provide you with the following documents:

Evidence of ownership;
An agreement confirming ownership of an apartment (for example, a purchase and sale agreement);
Passport.
In the case where the lessor is a representative of the owner, he must provide a notarized power of attorney confirming the right to manage.

Make sure there are no utility debts. It is necessary to check payment receipts and meters for electricity and water before you enter into an agreement.

Consent of all owners

If the apartment has several owners, that is, it belongs to them in shares, then consent is required from all of them (upon reaching the age of 14). The rental agreement must contain the signatures of all owners or the signature of an authorized person who has a power of attorney from them.

If you want to rent a room in a communal apartment, you will need the consent of your neighbors. The landlord must take care of this. He is also obliged to provide a document that states the procedure for using this apartment - that is, which room is assigned to which owner, which will save you from possible conflicts.

Correct lease agreement

A competently and legally correctly drawn up contract contains:

Full name and passport details of the owner and tenant;
Monthly rent amount;
Conditions for reviewing housing fees;
The largest number of visits by the owner of the apartment to inspect it, as well as the conditions of inspections;
Persons who have the right to live together with the tenant;
Apartment rental period;
Conditions under which the contract will be terminated.
The contract must contain a detailed description of the housing: address of the apartment, area and number of rooms, number of floors of the building.

Moreover, each contract is individual - there is no standard form.

We offer you an apartment rental agreement: .

Inventory of property

The property inventory is an annex to the main lease agreement. The inventory indicates the property that is transferred to the tenant for temporary use.

The owner of the property can include in the inventory: furniture, household appliances, linen, kitchen utensils and dishes, carpets, etc. If the tenant loses or damages items not included in the inventory, the owner will not be able to return them.

We offer you an inventory of property: .

Popular fraudulent schemes and scams

Renting an apartment without a realtor is not difficult if you are attentive, common sense and familiarize yourself with the main fraudulent schemes used in the field of real estate rental:

Gradual increase in price. According to experts, it is almost impossible to find the real owner of the property from an advertisement. Typically, owners delegate their powers to realtors or other intermediaries. Their favorite scheme is price gouging. In response to a call about the ad, they answer that the living space is almost completed and the potential tenant is already bringing a deposit. But you can still view the property, although the rental price increases slightly.
The property is not true to reality. Upon meeting, the potential tenant examines the beautiful premises with luxurious furniture and modern appliances. And after payment he receives the keys to an empty apartment, where behind the beautiful facade there were torn wallpaper and chipped tiles in the bathroom.
False owner. In some cases, citizens who want to rent housing without intermediaries on more favorable terms are faced with outright fraud. The scheme is simple: the swindler, posing as the owner of the apartment, rents it out, takes the money and disappears. And when new residents move in, they find out that the owner of the living space is a completely different person.
Tricks with utility bills. The joy of moving into a new home can be overshadowed by thousands of bills for the first month of residence. The owner of the apartment can blame the tenant for his past debts for utility services or previous tenants. Most often, such unscrupulous landlords take the deposit to pay off the debt and offer to move out of the apartment as soon as possible.
Multiple rentals. Another common fraud scheme is the rental of residential real estate to several tenants at once. The owner just needs to make several sets of keys and collect money from everyone. In the best case, the person who arrives at the new address the fastest will be able to move into the apartment, and in the worst case, all applicants will receive a free set of keys that do not open anything.
Creation of unbearable conditions. After renting out the property and taking money from the residents for accommodation, some owners begin to pester the residents. This may include multiple or late visits, suppression of any attempts to rearrange furniture or household items in their own way, or other inappropriate demands. The main goal of such owners is to bring the tenant to an explosion and a decision to move out of the living space. Nobody is going to return the deposit or money paid in advance for accommodation.

Healthy! If the tenant falls into the clutches of scammers, you must immediately contact the nearest branch of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. It is much easier to catch scammers in hot pursuit when they are in close proximity to the scene of the incident.

How to avoid mistakes

To properly rent an apartment for a long time, you need to remember a few simple rules:

Verification of documents. Even at the stage of negotiations about inspecting the apartment, you need to ask the owner to take with him a passport and the title document for the apartment. This will allow you to identify the citizen and make sure that the living space is actually registered in his name.
Drawing up a lease agreement. The document must specify the main points of oral agreements, the rights and obligations of the parties, and the reasons for unilateral termination of the transaction. In addition, the contract must indicate the frequency of visits to the rented living space by its owner and other important nuances.
Drawing up an act of acceptance of living space. At the time of handing over the keys to the property, it is necessary to record in writing the condition of the apartment, list all the existing defects (a broken latch in the bathroom, a window that does not close tightly, a scratched bathtub, etc.), as well as furniture and household appliances in the apartment.
Checking the functionality of basic communications, equipment, and metering devices. This rule is designed to protect not only the employer’s wallet, but also his life. When you move into an apartment with faulty wiring or an antiquated gas stove, something irreparable can happen. A way out of the situation may be a written agreement to replace plumbing, stoves or repair communications at the expense of the tenant, but at the expense of future months of residence.
Conversation with neighbors. If you really liked the housing, you can return there after saying goodbye to the owner and chat with other residents. Usually neighbors in the stairwell know information about each other. They will tell you who else is registered in the apartment, about the owner’s reputation, how long the living space has been rented out, and much more.

Types of fraud when renting apartments

Photos do not correspond to reality. You should be wary of the discrepancy between the cost of renting a home and its renovation. If you see photographs that resemble pictures of luxury interiors from a magazine, and the price is average or even lower than market value, then this is a scam. They may tell you that the apartment shown in the photographs has been rented out, and will recommend another one whose quality is much lower . How can you be sure that the photos of a particular ad were taken from somewhere? Use the Google Images service - you will probably find many matches on different sites. Typically, the purpose of creating such a false ad is to create a base of potential customers.

The apartment doesn't exist. Be careful when filling out contracts, check all the data, even if a realtor is helping you. Many people are faced with a situation where the address specified in the contract does not exist and they have to pay rent without having housing. If you encounter this problem, you can terminate the rental agreement unilaterally by sending a letter to the landlord. In the case when you do not have a housing acceptance certificate, you don’t have to worry about payment and forget about this apartment.

Often, fraudulent realtors act like this: they demand a fee for providing information services (up to 10,000 rubles), and then give the client several landlord numbers, without intending to negotiate with them and accompany you during the inspection.

Paid inspection. No one has the right to demand payment for viewing an apartment. If such a condition is put forward by a realtor, it means that he makes money on this, and he is not interested in the transaction. Often the realtor and the owner of the apartment act in collusion and divide the income from viewings in half. Most often, visitors from small towns or villages fall for this trick. If you encounter such illegal actions, immediately refuse the services of a realtor .
Re-letting of housing. Remember that apartment tenants do not have the right to move other people in or temporarily occupy them, or to take a deposit, fee or commission from them.

If you want to learn how to convert residential premises into non-residential ones, then this article will be useful to you.

Enter into an agreement only with the owner of the apartment, checking the documents confirming his right to property.

Offer to buy a customer base. Fraudsters “developed” this deception not so long ago. Those wishing to rent an apartment are offered access to an online database of apartment owners. The realtor convinces you that the database is updated daily, but if you pay for access to it, you will only see a website containing long-outdated information. To partially protect yourself from unscrupulous agents, you can search for information on the Internet by studying reviews of defrauded tenants .

Demand creates supply, and these offers are not always fair. We invite you to watch a video about new methods of fraud when renting an apartment.