Stage 1. Finding an apartment
If you choose an apartment yourself
When searching for an apartment through a specialized classifieds website or groups on social networks, you run the risk of encountering scammers.
To avoid falling for their tricks, you need to pay attention to several important points. The Lifehacker Telegram channel contains only the best texts about technology, relationships, sports, cinema and much more. Subscribe!
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Average cost of renting an apartment according to your criteria
Ads that are too “sweet” are often fake. A spacious studio with a modern renovation in the very center of the city, a minute’s walk from the metro and for pennies? A very dubious proposal.
Please transfer the prepayment to the card
This point often follows from the previous one. You call an ad you like, they tell you that there are so many people interested, and then they ask you to transfer at least a few thousand so that the apartment remains yours. Don't be fooled by this: you just talked to a scammer.
Never transfer money to strangers as a deposit without a personal meeting.
Authenticity of photographs of the apartment
To ensure the accuracy of the information from the ad, check the photographs of the apartment for authenticity. This can be done, for example, through a Google image search.
If the same apartment is posted on several housing rental sites, it’s not a big deal. It’s another matter when photographs circulate on the Internet, and the description, apartment address and contact person change radically from time to time.
Lack of apartment photos
Ads without photos look at least strange. In most cases, this means that there is something wrong with the apartment or that such living space does not exist at all.
Ad frequency
It happens that the same advertisement for renting an apartment appears and disappears with enviable frequency. Two weeks ago the apartment was rented out, then it was rented, and a month later it is still up and running again. And so on in a circle.
Of course, the problem may not be with the owner, but with the tenants. Well, a person is unlucky when it comes to tenants, and that’s all. However, the frequently flashing advertisements are alarming.
The contact person
Who deals with the issue of renting out an apartment? The owner himself or the realtor? If you don't want to pay a commission equal to half or even the entire monthly payment, then realtor ads are not for you.
If you contact a realtor
Realtors can make your life easier and help you find your dream apartment. Or they can fray your nerves, empty your wallet, or waste your time. This is when you should be wary.
The realtor cannot name the company where he is currently an employee or where he worked before
If a realtor claims to be on staff of an agency, you can contact the company directly and clarify this.
If the realtor is a private entrepreneur, in any case he should tell you at least a few companies in which he worked before. If you have difficulty with this, you may have a scammer in front of you.
The realtor is not interested in who will live in the apartment and in what composition
Almost every owner has at least an approximate idea of who he sees as a tenant, and notifies the realtor about this. If during a conversation you are not asked about the number of residents, the presence of animals and permanent work, this is a bell.
The realtor is not an expert in his field
It’s hard to imagine that a realtor doesn’t know how to write a receipt for money or fill out a rental agreement. And if he still doesn’t know, then this is not a realtor.
You are asked to pay a commission before concluding a contract
The realtor receives a commission only after the transaction is concluded. If you are required to pay in advance, do not give in and do not transfer funds.
The realtor deals with only one apartment
Typically, a realtor has several properties in the works. It is suspicious when a specialist devotes all his time to only one apartment. Try typing the phone number into the search bar of your browser and see how many ads you get.
The realtor introduces himself as an employee of a news agency
You are offered to come to the office, sign an agreement and gain access to the database of owners after paying a commission.
The realtor will not go with you to inspect the apartment and meet with the owner, and even if you can get through to anyone from the received database, after a preliminary agreement on the meeting, the landlord will cancel everything at the last moment.
In this case, it will not be possible to return the money, because you signed an agreement on the provision of information services. To achieve justice, you can contact lawyers and try to file an application in court. However, no one guarantees you a successful outcome. Therefore, carefully study all the documents on which you sign.
What is the difference between short-term and long-term leases?
The main difference between the contractual registration of an apartment lease for a long term (more than a year) is the need to register restrictions on the lessor’s property rights in Rosreestr (Civil Code, Art. 674, clause 2). In addition, the long-term format of the rental agreement normatively expands the powers of the tenant:
- the tenant has the right to move minor children into rented housing without the consent of the landlord (Civil Code, Art. 679);
- The tenant has the right to accommodate temporary residents on a free-of-charge basis, subject to notification to the landlord. The landlord has the right to refuse temporary residents only if the number of residents does not correspond to the general standard for living space (Civil Code, Art. 680);
- in the event of the death of the tenant, the long-term lease agreement remains in force and the previous conditions with the transfer of the legal status of the tenant to the citizen who previously lived permanently with the deceased tenant, or all permanently residing citizens receive the status of co-tenants (Civil Code, Art. 686);
- the tenant receives more lenient conditions for terminating the rental agreement in court (Civil Code, Art. 687, paragraph 2).
However, all of the listed legal powers of the tenant can be canceled by the landlord (Civil Code, Art. 683, paragraph 2), provided that the relevant clauses are included in the rental agreement and signed by both parties, followed by registration with Rosreestr.
As for the legal advantage of the tenant to extend the lease, it applies to any duration of the apartment rental agreement (Civil Code, Art. 684). Also, regardless of the duration of the contract, the tenant can act as a sublessor, but only after agreeing on the sublease with the owner of the property (Civil Code, Art. 685).
Stage 2. First contact with the owner
You have chosen the ideal option, in your opinion, and to celebrate, call the owner to arrange a meeting. First, make sure you are actually talking to the owner and not a realtor or anyone else. Even if the ad indicated that the apartment was for direct rent.
Ask your landlord a few questions. For example, where the windows of the apartment face or what floor it is on.
If a person hesitates, perhaps he is trying to deceive you. The owner will answer such questions without delay.
If you feel that everything is in order, go through the information provided in the ad: check the cost, the need for a deposit and the last month's payment. Find out how long the apartment is being rented out, and whether it really is a 10-minute walk to the metro, not 30. In general, talk through all the nuances that are important to you.
What to check with the landlord
For any length of rental period, the first step is to make sure that the landlord is the actual owner of the apartment.
This fact will be confirmed by a certificate of ownership, a purchase and sale agreement (if the housing was purchased), a gift agreement (if the housing was donated), an inheritance certificate (if the housing was inherited) or a privatization certificate. The landlord is required to show only original documents confirming ownership. Photocopied or scanned copies are easy to forge and cannot be relied upon for their content. It is also necessary to compare the data of the original passport of the apartment owner with the information specified in the documents of ownership of the housing.
It is necessary to find out the number of owners of the apartment being considered for rent. If there are several of them, their signatures will be required in the lease agreement. It's easier if there is only one owner. You can verify the correctness of the owner’s information through the MFC or the Rosreestr website by requesting an extract from the Unified State Register for a rented apartment. According to Federal Law No. 218-FZ, data on copyright holders (registered) and the main characteristics of a real estate property are publicly available (Part 7, Article 62 of the said federal law).
If it is established that the data of a citizen who represents himself as a landlord does not match the information of the cadastral extract, further discussion of the lease is unsafe. The person representing the owner may be a tenant, a citizen registered in the apartment, or a shareholder. But a valid lease agreement, especially a long-term one, can only be concluded with the copyright holder of the property (i.e. its legal owner).
Stage 3. Inspection of housing
- Evaluate the entrance. Its condition can say a lot about the residents of the house - your potential neighbors.
- Try visiting your neighbors and asking who lived in the apartment before you. It is advisable to do this together with the owner: if the residents of neighboring apartments are not new residents, then they will recognize your landlord, and you will once again be convinced that he is the owner.
- Carefully inspect the bathroom, especially the plumbing. If a faucet is leaking, it is worth pointing this out to the owner immediately.
- Check the condition of the furniture and assess its wear.
- Pay attention to the location of the outlets. You may need to rearrange your furniture.
- If you are allergic to animals, check to see if the previous occupants had a cat or dog.
- Take the time to turn on all the appliances and appliances you plan to use.
- Check all switches in the apartment.
- Ask about internet availability.
- Check the locks so you don't have to wait outside the door until they let you in. If there are several locks, but you are given the key to only one, find out the reason. The owner may say that the lock has been broken for a long time and has not been used. You should insist on replacement or repair and ask for a complete set of keys.
- Make sure the seals on the meters are intact.
- Check the condition of your balcony doors and windows if you don’t want to freeze in winter.
- Evaluate the sound insulation throughout the apartment.
If none of the above in the apartment bothers you, you can proceed to drawing up an agreement.
Mandatory annexes to the rental agreement
A detailed property description is not carried out; it is enough to indicate the most expensive things and household appliances. The contents of the inventory must correspond to the actual situation with the property before directly signing the contract.
Those. If the inventory lists a working refrigerator and an automatic washing machine, but the first appliance barely cools, and the second appliance has some faulty washing modes, the tenant must demand a change in the inventory, otherwise the tenant will have to repair the landlord’s faulty property at his own expense.
The deed of transfer of residential premises must contain all defects of the apartment discovered by the future tenant - this is very important! Otherwise, before leaving the property, for example, with an initially damaged fragment of the baseboard (the defect was not indicated in the transfer act), the owner has the right to refuse to return the security deposit.
How to find an apartment without intermediaries
If you don’t have the time and experience in looking for rental housing, you can use the help of realtors and choose a suitable option through an agency. However, you will have to pay from 50 to 100% of the monthly rent for the agent’s services. If you have time to figure it out and search on your own, then it’s better to do without intermediaries - this will save money.
Through the Internet
The Internet provides many opportunities for searching for housing - most landlords post their offers there and look for tenants. Anyone who wants to rent an apartment can find a huge number of options that fit their parameters and contact the owner directly.
You can search for advertisements for housing for rent on the following Internet sites:
- specialized sites focused on rental real estate - for example, “Cyan”, “Yandex.Real Estate”, “Domofond”, etc.;
- bulletin board sites - for example, “Avito”, “Yula”, etc.;
- social networks - public pages on Vkontakte, Odnoklassniki or Facebook.
Many owners post their offers not only on bulletin boards, but also in specialized groups on social networks. They, in turn, are divided into open and closed. While the former allow all users to publish rental advertisements, the latter allow access only to carefully checked pages and also selectively publish advertisements.
Important! Be careful and carefully filter the offers that you come across, as many of them are scams. A common option is when an advertisement is posted for the rent of a good apartment at a too attractive price. An interested tenant calls and is told that the apartment has already been rented out, but there are several other equally interesting options (their price, of course, will be much higher). This is how realtors attract clients’ attention to their properties and build a client base.
Through advertisements
An outdated, but still valid way to find an apartment to rent is to look at paper advertisements posted right on the street. Pay attention to the flyers hanging in the area you are interested in. Many landlords use all kinds of ways to attract the attention of potential tenants to their offer - including posting paper advertisements the “old-fashioned” way.
Be careful! From the video you will learn about methods of apartment fraud:
Using newspapers and magazines
A method that is also slowly becoming obsolete, but is still effective. Not all people who want to rent out an apartment are Internet-savvy, and they prefer the method of submitting an advertisement through newspapers and magazines. To search, find out what advertising and advertising publications are published in a particular region. Purchase or obtain the latest numbers of several of them and look through advertisements looking for a tenant.
Among friends and acquaintances
Searching for options among friends and acquaintances is the most reliable way to find an apartment for rent without intermediaries. By contacting the landlord through loved ones or friends you trust, you reduce risks and get the opportunity to rent an apartment from a trusted person without being deceived.
Expert opinion
Klimov Yaroslav
More than 12 years in real estate, higher legal education (Russian Academy of Justice)
Ask a Question
To do this, notify as wide a circle of friends and acquaintances as possible that you are looking for rental housing. The easiest way is to publicly announce this with a small announcement on your page on social networks - this way as many people as possible will know about your intention to rent a house, and then word of mouth will start working.
