Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with renting

AirBNB and [not] breaking the law

jander03 — Tue, 28 May 2013 11:36:29 -0800

If I want to charge visitors a fee to stay in the apartment I rent form a landlord, what might I want in my lease? Would I absolutely need a clause about subletting? What are the exceptions? Let's pretend that I do everything by the letter of the law and the contracts that I sign. I am renting an apartment in San Francisco. I would like to use that apartment to host visitors for a fee (maybe with AirBNB, maybe something else).

Three questions:
1) If I want to charge visitors a fee to stay in the apartment I rent form a landlord, what might I want in my lease? Would I absolutely need a clause about subletting?
2) What are the exceptions? Is it really "subletting" if a visitor is only in the space for less than a month (say 5 days)?
3) Alternatively, what if I wanted to host visitors and NOT charge them?

Loans for NYC Moving Expenses

incomple — Tue, 14 May 2013 07:29:25 -0800

I'm planning to move from one NYC neighborhood to another at the end of the summer. Though I'm 99% sure I'll be able to cover all potential expenses (movers, security deposit, first/last month's rent, broker's fee), I was wondering if there's a reputable company that advances small loans to help cover these costs. Though at this point I'm fully expecting to be able to cover all the expenses, I'm worried about the possibility of some sort of emergency that would necessitate dipping into these savings. The amount that I would potentially need to borrow would be small (absolute worst case scenario, probably $4000), and could be repaid reasonably immediately.

I have doubts about my bank (Chase) advancing such a loan, though I'll be thrilled if anyone tells me otherwise. I'm also strongly considering asking for an increase to my credit limit, because though I have yet to encounter a landlord who takes payments by card, I know that could be the thing that preserves my bank balance in an emergency.

Basically, any advice on how to cover my ass, beyond just crossing my fingers, would be appreciated.

Virginia Lease Question - Landlord threatening to withold deposit

seesom — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 13:21:55 -0800

Recently my toilet stopped working. I emailed my landlord to ask to send a plumber. The landlord suggested the I try to use a plunger and liquid plumber. I did both but was still unable to fix the problem. I told the landlord this in writing over email. A plumber was sent and fixed the problem. Now landlord is saying the I will have to pay this cost from the security deposit. Help? Should I be responsible for this charge? How should I proceed with my landlord? Thank you in advance.

Bedbugs, roaches, deep paralyzing renter's remorse. Oh my.

stoneandstar — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 15:27:57 -0800

I'm PERHAPS overly paranoid about renting an apartment. I need some advice from sane, non-traumatized people to make sure I take all necessary precautions while also not rendering myself homeless by default. My boyfriend and I will be moving in together in Chicago this fall. I've lived in Chicago previously for five years while I was a student, and lived in a variety of dorms, apartments and short-term apartment sublets during that time.

My experience with sublets was mixed. I rented a variety of places for rents between $350/mo. and $650/mo., of varying quality. The first room I rented (the $350/mo.) apartment was a little shabby but fine, until cockroaches started crawling out of the bathroom and congregating around the leaking refrigerator. I fled that place as quickly as possible due to my insomnia-inducing terror of roaches, while still paying rent (as it was cheap and only a 3 month sublease). The exceedingly low rent would have been a warning sign-- except that rent would have actually been $500/mo. if I hadn't gotten the I'm-leaving-for-the-summer-and-desperately-need-a-subletter-NOW discount, and as I was subleasing from a friend (who liked the apartment and lived there for nine months afterward with purportedly no signs of roaches).

After that I lived in a $500/mo. apartment where I was on the one-year lease as a renter. Things were peachy until one revolving-door-roommate brought up the possibility of bedbugs and/or scabies. We went through about a month of calling in inspectors and doctor's appointments to inspect bites and monitor the signs of infestation while dealing with a landlord in denial who was skeptical either of these things could be possible. Since then, I've read that bedbugs are quite common, while bedbug infestations are rare-- but jesus christ do I ever not want bedbugs. The situation ended with no official evidence of bedbugs (though still a prevalence of bites on my roommate), but I eventually moved out and sublet my room to a friend who didn't really care and was convinced by the official evidence.

After that, I moved into a recently renovated $650/mo. sublet that was very pleasant, and never had any bug or rodent related difficulties, besides finding a dead cockroach carcass near the entrance to the building on one occasion. I had no signs of bedbugs, and took all the necessary precautions before moving in. I also nabbed another cheap sublet at some point in between that didn't appear to have any difficult bug problems either, though it was small and very similar in quality to my first, roach-infested apartment, such that visually you would not be able to tell which was the "sketchy" rental.

After all of this, I moved home for a period, and was planning on moving back to Chicago this spring, until plans fell through when our potential spring sublet had blood spots on the sheets and mattress which were in appearance identical to bedbug evidence. We declined to move in, lost our security deposit (there was never any formal lease, just email agreements, and I was renting sight-unseen), and ended up majorly changing my plans, thus deciding to move in later this year.

After all this I'm eager to be back in Chicago, but frankly feeling terrorized, exhausted and depleted by the constant specter of disgusting insects and infestations. In all honesty, I kind of feel like a crazy person-- the repeated run-ins and months of frantic Googling/e-mailing/inspecting have made me averse to even the most mild of possibilities there will be a bug issue in my place of living, to the extent that I even forfeited a job opportunity when it looked like my apartment would not be habitable. (Insane, but I was too tired to keep searching from afar not knowing if the place I went would have an issue I wouldn't notice until I lived there, and not wanting to subject an expensive professional wardrobe to damage by putting it in the dryer or oven multiple times.) Yeah, I feel crazy!

My boyfriend and I want to choose an apartment the right way. We were originally planning on spending about $1000-1300/mo. in rent on a one bedroom apartment this fall, but are willing to spend a little more on the right apartment. We saw a great place (for sublet) earlier this year in the Bucktown area that was big, spacious, and clean for about $1400. We aren't too concerned about which area of the city we live in-- my paranoia was telling me to rent in the suburbs to avoid this issue altogether, but the commute would be terrible. What can we do-- assuming we are on site to apartment hunt-- to take the greatest possible precautions that our apartment will be swell, and that we will lose the least possible money if there turns out to be an undetected problem? The other side of all this hassle has been that I've lost a lot of money on moving/lost security deposits/just plain discombobulation whenever one of these scenarios has arisen, and want to minimize that.

I do have preexisting general anxiety and depression, so upsets like this kind of throw my mental health until the issue is settled (i.e., I move out or throw a lot of money at the situation, usually).

Help, help, help. I know to some extent these issues are not always detectable or avoidable, but I can't live a life of sealing all my food and never leaving water in the sink and checking my sheets for blood spots every morning for an entire year. I will die of fatigue and lose my job. I really want to know how to be as vigilant as humanly possible when apartment hunting this fall-- a checklist of every single thing I should do would not be unwelcome. The names of any great landlords or rental companies in Chicago by MeMail would be a boon.

Previous advice I've gotten from browsing MeFi has been, 1) don't worry yourself crazy, but also don't dive headlong into a problematic apartment (especially re: bedbugs), 2) think about renting through a rental agent (? I don't know anything about how to do this, or how expensive it is), and 3) try moving up your upper-limit rent a bit to improve the quality of space. I've heard of $1400/mo. for a one bedroom as a safer threshold, but that was for a different city-- any advice for Chicago?

(To be honest, one or two cockroaches seen in an entire year would gross me out, but not drive me crazy, especially with someone else to kill and dispose of them. I understand that sometimes they come in from outside or venture in from an old wall and that's the cost of city life. But... well, that's all I've got.)

Moving cross-country and clueless about housing.

Nomyte — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 16:13:17 -0800

In May I will be moving to the Bay Area for work. Where should I live? How should I look for a place? Some details:

I am set to start work in May.
I will not have a car, at least at first.
My employer is a short walk away from the Palo Alto Caltrain station.
I will not have an opportunity to fly to California to scout out living quarters, but my employer offers some resources as part of a relocation assistance program.

I've always lived with roommates, but a studio (or something) to myself would be preferred. I would strongly prefer to live within biking distance of work, but I realize that Palo Alto very likely doesn't have a lot of available housing, and pretty much all of it is extortionately priced. Then again, I will be paid an entry-level Silicon Valley salary, which is far more than I've ever made (but still, relatively low for the area).

Where and how should I look for housing?

It would be a pretty neat coincidence if you (or a friend) live in the area and are looking for housemates. I bite gently!

liability after apartment fire in NYC

gerryblog — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 17:52:01 -0800

The other night there was a fire in my friend's building in New York City; the fire was on the 10th floor, he lives on the 21st. He wasn't present while the fire happened, but there was smoke damage to his apartment, particularly to his clothes. My friend doesn't have renter's insurance. I have two related questions. The first is about cleaning -- what is the best plan of attack for cleaning his clothes? Is there a particularly laundry detergent or laundry strategy he ought to deploy? Is there a particular type of dry cleaner to which he should take his suits (and should he ask for some special treatment)?

The second question is about liability for his expenses. If his clothes can be cleaned, he expects that the total cost to him will only be a few hundred dollars, or less; if his clothes can't be cleaned and he has to buy new suits, it could cost him one or two thousand dollars. Given that he has no renter's insurance, is there any possibility that the building, or the person who started the fire, is responsible for his expenses under New York and New York City law? Complicating matters is the fact that he is actually subleasing his place from another party; is it possible that that person's insurance has some liability even if the building doesn't?

Of course I understand that none of you are his lawyer, but he wants a sense of whether this is worth pursuing at all.

What Are Your Rights When a Landlord Wants to Break a Lease?

forkisbetter — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 09:56:25 -0800

Asking for a couple of friends living in Washington, D.C. They signed a lease and put down security deposits to rent a two-bedroom condo with move in on Saturday. The guy just called them and said that he's changed his mind, and he doesn't want to rent the place anymore and he is currently living there. What can they do about it since they haven't actually moved in yet? **All responses assume that You Are Not My Attorney and your advice is not representative legal advice**

I've already tried looking around on the DC tenant's website, but I haven't yet found anything about what you do when it's the landlord rather than the tenant who wants to pre-maturely break the lease.

-Can the landlord even do this? He threatened to lawyer up, but not sure what claim he could possibly have.

-Is it even worth it to go through legal trouble if he is willing to pay back full deposits as well as whatever costs they've incurred? I feel like the landlord has already shown himself to be pretty nutty, and I would be very hesitant to move in at this point myself.

-The dude has their deposits, so unless he gives them back expediently they won't be able to fork out for a new place. Would getting their deposits back from the guy do anything to void their lease/claim to incurred expenses from the landlord?

-The guy is still currently living there, so what to do about that if he doesn't want to move out? Could he be evicted?

Renting. It's freaking me out a little.

mippy — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 08:34:11 -0800

After years living in flatshares, MrMippy and I are moving in together. That part's fine - it's dealing with estate agencies and huge sums of cash that scares me. Help me calm down about it so I can think about how to furnish our flat in peace! (We are in London.) Like most people our age living in London, we are renting, and probably will be for a very long time (unless I happen to find a Monet in a charity shop), so any flat we are renting needs to be a happy and comfortable home. This means that we are looking for a flat via lettings agencies (more than one person has told me not to touch Gumtree with a long greasy pole and only go through an ARLA-registered agent which will use the deposit scheme etc, which is what we are doing.)

Here's what's making me panic a little:
- rather than the £500 or so deposit and first months' rent for a flatshare as I've been paying since 2005, I'm going to have to give them six weeks' deposit, a month's rent and associated costs for fees (sadly, unlike Scotland, they get to charge us for referencing, 'check out' and the contract, which adds up to about a week's rent). The money is ready to go, but it's more money than I've ever spent on something in my life. As in, we could probably buy a used car (and presumably live in it) with this kind of money, even with the area we are looking in being very cheap for London. This makes me feel certain something is going to go horribly wrong. And if we don't like it? We'll need to have that handy again before we can move.

- MrMippy is a lodger, but his landlord's girlfriend is moving in, so while a notice period is given, there could be a little flexibility. I am also a lodger, but my landlord will want to let the room as close to when I move out as possible- so once my month's notice is given, I'm leaving. Is it wise to give notice once your initial deposit is paid, or only once the referencing/checks have gone through? (There's no reason why we shouldn't pass, but I have seen many stories of people being asked for a guarantor regardless of income, or a month's advance rent being raised to two because there's something they don't like in the referencing process.) I can't really pay two rents at once.

- Agencies so far have been astonishingly unprofessional. I've had people deny that appointments have been made, try and get me to agree to a 10 minute slot to view a flat alongside other people, tell me I need to make an earlier appointment as 'someone is very interested already', and in one case, reply to my polite enquiry e-mail with something that looks like a 12yr old's text message. Basically, they're not doing a very good job of trying to convince us to give them money. I also have a very low tolerance for being patronised by people less intelligent or competent than myself - my job involves challenging claims and working out when people are clearly hiding the truth - so it's going to be hard to remain polite as one should. Can agents generally be expected to be awful, and is agent behaviour always a good indication fo how the flat will turn out? (In fairness, one place we are seeing on Saturday had a very pleasant person dealing with me, which is positive.)

- Flats seem to go within days of being advertised, and several I've enquired about have already been let despite being up on RightMove/Zoopla. Despite me being pretty desperate to move out of where I live, we don't want to rush into anything. How much time can we expect to take to think things over?

- What if the walls are made of fondant icing and melt in the rain? What if it all goes horribly wrong and the boiler breaks?

If you have any tips for furnishing a flat from scratch as well - as in, any products which hit the sweet spot between budget and durability - then this is welcome.

Pipe dreamin'

showbiz_liz — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 08:37:15 -0800

A studio or one-bedroom in a desirable* part of Brooklyn for less than $1200/month. Is this even slightly possible anymore? I currently live with roommates, but would love to be able to live by myself. However, I would rather continue to live with roommates than move to a neighborhood I don't like.

*Right now I'm in Cobble Hill, and the parts of Brooklyn I'd like to live in include anything west or north of Prospect Park and south of Williamsburg.

I've checked various apartment listing sites, but there's almost nothing in my price range, and I have no clue which ones are legit. I emailed a couple people from Trulia, but I pretty much expect them to be scams. I have only ever subletted in NYC and I really don't know the best way to go about renting my own place.

Do any apartments in that price range exist anymore? If so, how on Earth do I find them- before someone else does?

Getting back to sleep

antonymous — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 07:44:36 -0800

How can I get back to sleep quickly after being awoken in the middle of the night? First - a wee bit of background - I moved into a new place a few months ago, and noticed after the first week or so that the creaking from the hardwood floors is really loud, especially from the unit above me. I figured that I'd get used to it and that my body and sleep schedule would adjust, but that doesn't appear to be happening.

The couple that lives above me doesn't do anything that's intentionally loud, but I can definitely hear loud floorboard creaking with every single footstep taken, especially in the bedroom, which is right above mine. In addition, I can hear one of them getting ready early in the morning (around 6 or 7 AM) - the opening and closing of drawers, occasionally setting/dropping things on the floor, etc. Once I hear this, it's generally difficult for me to get back to sleep.

Last night, the more heavy-footed of my upstairs couple comes home after bar close (around 2AM) and it takes him/her about 20-30 minutes to finally get to bed. They weren't stumbling around or anything, but since I woke up as soon as they set foot in the bedroom, it seemed like an eternity before they finally made it into bed. At that point I was so frustrated with my inability to control whether I could sleep or not that I just got more and more upset and my mind started racing - I think I finally got back to sleep around 4:30, a full two hours after I had been awoken. This is especially frustrating because I made a concerted effort to get to bed early, and as I write this I'm feeling the exact opposite of what I had hoped for.

So I'd like to take a bit more control of this situation and was hoping for advice along a few lines, and to see how others have dealt with similar issues in the past. First, is it safe and effective to use those little disposable foam earplugs during sleep on a regular basis? I prefer falling asleep with the radio on as background noise, but could live without it if it means a full night of sleep.

Second, are there any effective strategies for getting back to sleep after being suddenly awoken? I know that most "things that go bump in the night" are one-time events, but sometimes due to the nature of living below neighbors, I have no control over how long it takes them to get ready in the morning or what time they come home at night. I'd prefer not to confront my neighbors, as I don't think their actions

Third, am I not even asking the right question here and should I just break my lease and find a different place to live? I have no experience doing that, and I'm only a few months into a year-long lease. I like the location but nothing else about my unit is special - now that I think more about it, I'd been planning to move at the end of my lease anyway. I've lived in similar buildings in the past and have never heard as much from my neighbors as I have in this one.

Looking for a rental agent in San Francisco

Susan PG — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 16:57:01 -0800

I am looking for a rental agent in San Francisco, but I'm confused about how they work. I am looking for the equivalent of a realtor -- someone who has access to all the listings, and will show me various properties (regardless of who owns them) until I find one I like. Does this exist for renting, and do you have any recommendations for someone who does this work? I don't want for example this type of guy, who seems to represent only a few properties whose owners have asked him to get them rented. Or this firm, which seems like it just does property management.

You can help me by explaining how rental agents work (how do they make their money?), and/or by pointing me towards any good ones in San Francisco. A SOMA specialist would be particularly great. Thanks.

How hard is it to rent with bad credit in Toronto?

heavenstobetsy — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 12:35:30 -0800

I've got poor credit, a cat, and some questions about renting in the Toronto area. My SO and I will be moving in together sometime this year. If it's at all relevant we are looking at Dundas/Kipling area but we are flexible.

I've lived with my mother on and off (mostly on) for the past 10 years. And so I'm not so sure what renting with bad credit is like in Toronto. I understand credit checks are normal, should I offer a guarantor? My boyfriend's credit is fine. How is this usually done? Is my credit going to significantly limit our options?

As well, many listings mention "no pets". Is it still the norm to ignore this assuming that it is a building and not a house that you are sharing with a landlord?

Bonus question: We both work in Brampton, are there any areas in Mississauga/Etobicoke that are especially conducive to commuting to the Brampton area or are we more or less screwed in that regard?

Thanks so much, Mefites.

Rental Impasse

Brian Lux — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 07:33:24 -0800

What are best ways to advertise a rental flat in London without using an estate agent? Is it gumtree? What strategies do you have any strategies for making it stand out?

How serious should I be taking the black mold that is growing in my Pacific Northwest apartment?

Anonymous — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 07:57:22 -0800

How seriously should I be taking the black mold that is growing in my Pacific Northwest apartment? I moved into a rental apartment in September 2012, in Portland, Oregon. The property manager, when she was showing me around when I signed the lease, told me to keep an eye on one of the walls in the bedroom because it had gotten wet in past years due to an exterior leak, but that they fixed that leak last year and didn't think it would be a problem.

A few weeks ago, I noticed the wall in question was wet, and I sent her an email. The wall was damp all over. The next morning, I woke up and there was black fuzz growing all over two of the walls. I assume this was mold. I of course told her, she asked me a bunch of stuff about the temperature of the room and wanted to heat it, removing a bunch of other irrelevant details here I cleaned the walls with TSP. A couple of days later, the mold came back and I cleaned it with bleach. I've since heard mixed things about cleaning mold with bleach. Now I've got dehumidifier running in there which pulls astonishing amounts of water from the air. But I just saw there's more black mold growing in the bathroom.

The building was built in 1914. The outside is stucco and the inside walls appear to be lath and plaster. The apartment does not appear to have proper ventilation: there is a hole through the cabinets that's been repaired that looks like it was the exhaust hood for the stove, but now it's closed up and the stove is moved (no hood, but there is a window nearby). There is no vent or fan in the bathroom, but again, there is a window.

The walls on which the mold grows are the exterior walls of the apartment. With the (forced hot air from a gas furnace in the unit) heat on, these walls are consistently around 10 degrees F cooler than the interior walls (i check them with an infrared pyrometer), and they are covered with semigloss paint (although the paint was apparently formulated with some sort of fungicide).

In short, I think the apartment is nearly airtight, but poorly insulated. So I believe that all sorts of water vapor from general living like breathing, sweating, taking showers, cooking, etc. builds up and has no where to go, and then it encounters the poorly insulated exterior wall surface and condenses there, creating a perfect mold-growing environment.

So my mitigation strategy is "reduce the humidity" so that it drops below the level required to condense on the wall at the temperature it is likely to stay. The only other possibility I can think of is raising the temperature of the wall above the dew point, and that seems either impractical (wall heater?) or expensive and wasteful (heating the air in the room more so that it heats the wall more and makes up for the lackluster insulation).

Now, I just moved to the Pacific Northwest. The property manager gave me some sort of mold disclosure form or something, I don't really remember, but when I saw this mold I figured, "hey, it's the Pacific Northwest. It's wet and dark all the time here. Mold is just going to be part of the deal, like flying cockroaches in the South or bed bugs in New York." I mean, most of the year, it is insanely humid, and it's relatively cool, so everything is wet, always, but it's not so cold that mold can't grow. How are you not going to have mold everywhere? I figure millions of people have lived in the Pacific Northwest since forever, quite happily, and they seem to have done just fine with their mold.

However, other people I have mentioned this to are like "OH MY GOD YOU HAVE TO MOVE! YOU HAVE TO MOVE IMMEDIATELY! TOXIC MOLD YOU ARE GOING TO GET MOLD POISONING!" When I tell people I've cleaned the mold up, they say that I've only cleaned the surface mold and there is actually mold living everywhere and I can never remove it, and that it's going to start growing in my sinuses and it's going to produce mycotoxins and so on. They also say, "Even if it's only a 10% chance, you don't own the place, just break your lease and move it's not worth the risk!" I tend to think that everyone up there who says this has mold in their dwelling and just doesn't know it, and that they are overreacting. I just don't see how you could completely eradicate mold in this environment.

Mold seems to be one of those things it's tough to read about on the internet. There are a lot of paranoiac-seeming sites and I don't know enough about the subject to distinguish the reasonable from the insane. A lot of people are selling mold-related services.

There is one complicating factor that is making me take my friends' arguments more seriously: I have what seems to be a cold I cannot get rid of. I got one a few weeks after I moved in, and it never really seemed to totally go away, and then last week it came back with a vengeance and now I can't kick it. I was thinking this was just bad luck, or something in the weather of the region wasn't agreeing with me since even before I got this apartment I got sick a lot (I had strep throat in July, for instance). I am not normally a person who gets sick frequently.
Now I'm worried that this black mold was just the first mold I can see, and that somehow this mold is making me sick, or perhaps I am allergic to it (I don't have any allergies that I know of). I have gotten sick with insane frequency in the six or so months I've been here, but some of that predates this specific apartment.

So, long story short: is my apartment going to poison me with it's insidious ineradicable toxic mold? Do I really have to move? Or is mold just something everyone has to stay on top of in a climate where it is sort of drizzly basically all the time?

Renting Advice

mcav — Sun, 09 Dec 2012 23:55:21 -0800

I'm searching for a house to rent with some friends, and I have a few questions. I live with a few other coworkers in Silicon Valley. Our current lease ends on February 28th. I want to find a larger house with a bigger yard that we can rent together, potentially in the Los Altos area. I have a few questions. Please forgive my completely inadequate grasp on the whole renting process.

- How soon should we start looking and applying for houses in earnest?

- Where should we look? I'm currently looking at Zillow and Craigslist. Do realtors offer houses not shown there?

- I contacted one realtor about a specific house listed on Zillow, and he said he has several people "on the verge of signing the lease, so we'd have to move fast". Does that mean it's essentially a lost cause? Is it even worth following up given we still have 2.5 months before our own lease is up?

(probably irrelevant: we have good credit, stable jobs, etc. Also we want a dog, which is largely the impetus for the move.)

Money back from letting agents?

gmb — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 15:24:10 -0800

UK Rental filter [posted for a friend]: My friend paid the deposit + first month's rent for an apartment, but has yet to sign the lease; his circumstances have changed suddenly and he now wants to back out - can he get his money back? My friend was supposed to sign the lease and move in to the new place on December 1st, and since that was a Saturday was asked to provide the first month's rent + deposit (£1500 in total) beforehand by direct bank transfer.

On Friday night, my friend's father was taken severely ill. This means that he's needed to travel back to his home town, some 200 miles away from his new place. My friend's a freelance worker and can easily shift locations for work purposes, but he doesn't know how long he'll be down there - quite possibly for some months to come.

Naturally, this all means that a) He hasn't signed the lease yet - he never went into the agent's to pick up the keys - and b) He'd like not to sign the lease and to get his money back - he doesn't know when he'll be ready to move to a new place and he's got friends (including me) happy and willing to put his stuff in storage until he can finally get round to moving.

My friend's question is this: under UK law does he have the right to get his money back without repercussions? He submitted an application form, which warns against defaulting on his tenancy obligations, and he paid a separate admin / holding fee when he did so (£150). But he's never actually signed a lease. At the moment my friend's out of pocket to the tune of £1650; is there any chance he can get the deposit and first month's rent back?

Someone already used "Shipping up to Boston" but I can't think of anything else because I have all these questions.

woodvine — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 20:36:24 -0800

Moving to Boston from the South. Single parent. So many questions. I asked this question, which turned out to be completely irrelevant, because I just got an offer from Eye Bee Emm in Waltham, which I'm taking. I'll be moving in January. I'm stoked, but after doing some preliminary research, I have a lot of questions.

Where should I live? I'm most excited about the big city aspect of this, but as I peruse Craigslist, holy shit is living in the city going to be expensive. Waltham or Watertown seem like they might be okay, but are they very suburban? Should I try to find a reasonably-priced place in Somerville or Cambridge in order to feel more in the city?

Related to this is the fact that said company will be covering broker's fees, if I use a broker from their approved list. I should use a broker, right? But won't they steer me toward more expensive apartments, as that will up their fees?

What should my apartment budget be? I need two bedrooms, or one bedroom with an office space that I can use as a kid bedroom. I need on-site laundry, a bathtub for the kid, and would really prefer a dishwasher. Other than that, it can pretty much be a closet. I would like to say $1100 if heat is not included, or $1300 if it is, in a less expensive area (like Watertown or JP?). Is that even possible? (Craigslist says no.) If not, what is a "good" price for what I need?

I would rather not keep my car, but it looks like the only bus that goes by work is the 70A, and it isn't particularly efficient. Am I right in thinking I'll need my car to commute to North Waltham? Especially since I'm also going to be dropping the little vine off at daycare and picking him up again after work.

Money is going to be tight for me, because though the offer is a good one, I am a single parent and will need full-time childcare. Childcare centers appear to charge approximately four (4!) times what I'm paying now, in Memphis, to a home daycare. Mercy. What's a good/reasonable price for a home daycare in the city? How about outside of the city? I saw this question, which was very helpful, but doesn't quite answer the good deal price point question.

How about way outside of the city? What if I go live in... Sudbury or Natick or something? I assume these outer towns will be too irritatingly/boringly suburban for me, but also an order of magnitude less expensive from a housing and childcare perspective. Am I correct? Should I just suck it up and move further out for the kid's/my wallet's sake?

Do you know of any Facebook groups for Boston-area parents? The "Alternamamas" group I belong to here in Memphis has been instrumental to my survival as a single parent and it would be nice to find something similar.

What am I not considering here?

Looking for a cottage rental around Ottawa, but don't know where to look

Decimask — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 19:46:08 -0800

I'm looking at renting a cottage around Ottawa from just before Christmas to just before New Year's Day--Dec 22-29, give or take a day. I don't know the area at all, and haven't the faintest idea where to start. Help? So far these are the rough criteria:

About an hour out of town

Sleep two couples and two individuals who don't want to share a bed

Fireplace

Any suggestions or experiences welcome.

What did you wish you'd known before renting a particular apartment?

corey flood — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 09:38:44 -0800

When checking out potential new apartments, what problems do you wish you hadn't overlooked? Obviously, some things can be fixed or improved, but what immutable issues would you ask about or look for before renting? I have obvious ones covered: water damage, pests, electrical outlets, water pressure, condition of appliances and fixtures, condition of floors, etc. Example: a friend once lived in an apartment next to the laundry room and was conscious of the noise/heat/smell/foot traffic. Now he checks the location of the laundry facilities before signing a lease.

In other words, what non-obvious information about your apartment do you wish you'd had before moving in?

Do I save by moving into my apartment in the winter rather than the summer?

lunchbox — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 16:05:13 -0800

Apartment lease economics: I'm planning to move to a new apartment. I'm considering waiting until winter to move in, because leases are cheaper in the off season. But will my rate just go up when it's time to renew a year later? In my city, apartment prices are seasonal: they peak in the summer & early fall because of high demand, and then in the winter, they drop since not as many people want to move in, and landlords don't want vacancies. So, instead of moving into my new apartment now, I'm thinking of waiting until the winter, when I'll be able to score a cheaper lease.

For example, if I get an apartment in September, I might get offered an annual lease at $1400/month, but if I wait until December, that could drop to $1300/month, yielding a $1200 savings over 12 months.

That part is straightforward to me. But it seems the savings might actually extend beyond the first year, because landlords are telling me that my lease price for the second year is based on market prices at the time of renewal.

Assuming I'm on an annual cycle, it seems like it would be extremely advantageous to start my initial lease during the winter, because every time my annual renewal comes around, it'll be off season again, and I'll once again reap the benefits.

Continuing the example above, this would be like the following (for the sake of simplicity, assume everything stays constant from year to year):

December 2012: $1300/mo
December 2013: $1300/mo
December 2014: $1300/mo

versus:

Sept 2012: $1400/mo
Sept 2013: $1400/mo
Sept 2014: $1400/mo

Am I correct in perceiving a long-term advantage to moving in the winter?

Apartment hunting with a mold allergy (Chicago)

randomname25 — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 11:03:54 -0800

I have a rather serious mold allergy. How should I go about finding a mold-free (or almost mold-free) apartment in Chicago? My allergy is bad enough that levels of mold that might be tolerable to other people make me cough, sneeze, wheeze, get itchy eyes, itchy throat, etc. after 30-60 minutes. Unfortunately, this is not so immediate that I can just detect whether a place is livable from a 10 minute viewing.

I suspect that telling prospective landlords about my allergy in initial Craigslist emails may be scaring them off/making them believe I'm a pain in the ass, even if the advertised apartment doesn't have any mold issues. Should I wait for a phone call? Or maybe the actual viewing, because they've already invested some time, and it's harder to lie to someone if you're looking them in the eye? (Man, these mental games...)

Everywhere I've ever lived has had air conditioning, with the exception of my college dorms (but for some reason they were all fine). Is A/C something I need to make essential in my search? (I'd rather not, but I guess that's life.) Should I be searching for newer buildings, and if so, how? Craigslist postings almost never list the age of the building.

If it matters, I'm looking to live on the North side of Chicago, along the red line (or brown or blue). Before I realized this truly is a dealbreaker, I was mostly looking at places in the $550-$700 range in Rogers Park, Edgewater, and comparable nearby neighborhoods. Is that budget unrealistic if you really can't deal with mold? $850 is my ABSOLUTE max including heat, and I'd really rather not pay that much. But maybe that's unavoidable? Are there other neighborhoods I should consider? Keep in mind that I'm female and small so safety's a major concern.

Finally: would using any of these apartment services be a reasonable solution?

For those of you who saw my previous question, yes, the apartment had hidden mold, but luckily the manager let me out of the lease.

Renting in the UK

harujion — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 04:20:39 -0800

Moving to England! Help us make our UK renting experience go as smoothly as possible. After hearing some horror stories about letting agents, I've looked at online rankings and gotten some advice from friends. I feel forewarned, but not exactly prepared. What else can/should we do for the renting experience to go off without a hitch, from the actual finding of a place, to problem-free living and leaving with all our deposit? I'm sure there are plenty of things we would know if we were local, that are completely escaping us now!

The details:

My partner and I (currently living in the US and Sweden respectively) are moving to Cambridge in October. She has a postdoc lined up with the university. We've used Rightmove and the Cambridge University Accommodation site to narrow down our price range and the areas where we would like to live, and have a shortlist of preferred flats and houses. We're both flying over next week for a couple of days to try and secure a contract, so we have someplace to live once her job starts up. She can't stay, since she has visa paperwork to do in the US, whereas I could go back to sign contracts and pay deposits fairly easily. Under UK law, we count as civil partners.

What I would like input on is the actual process of picking a good place and securing such a contract with the least amount of hassle.

Some examples of the questions I don't have any answers for yet: How far in advance should we contact letting agents when we want a viewing? Is it possible to sign a contract the same day you view a property? What should we always consider, apart from the rent, council tax and energy costs? In places with just a washer, where do you dry your clothes? (In Japan, the answer would be "on the balcony", but those seem much rarer in the UK!) Oh, and - what's the difference between central gas heating and gas rad heating...? Is one much better than the other?

Please regale me with your horror stories and share your good advice, so we can avoid ending making ourselves miserable and instead get the best new (rental) home we can!

Renter's Insurance in California?

rainbowbrite — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 09:00:14 -0800

Renter's Insurance in California? I have never had renter's insurance before, but I've decided I now have enough 'stuff' that it would be a good idea. But, I have no idea how to go about it! I do not have a car, and all my friend's with renter's insurance have simply added it to their car insurance. I'm wondering - what are the best companies to go with (I am in CA), and what do I need to do from my end - I've heard photos of all my belongings, although that sounds like a lot of work! Any other tips with actually getting them to pay up if something happens (I've heard horror stories here, and don't really want to pay for insurance if it will end up being useless should something bad happen.)

Where should I even be LOOKING?

Ted Maul — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 05:05:07 -0800

Trying to rent a room in (South East) London. As we all know, renting in this city is a sweat, a nightmare, and a racket. But my question is pretty specific - what sites do you use other than Spareroom and Gumtree? Thanks.

Are we unqualified?

sucre — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 17:31:41 -0800

Apartment-hunting: are we doing something wrong? Hi. My boyfriend (of about 10 years) and I are apartment-searching in a moderately large Midwestern city. We just got turned down for an awesome apartment, which is worrying me, but it was apparently because 2 other prospective tenants applied at the same time. We were told that there was nothing wrong with our applications, but you see, I'm a worrier.

Background: I'm 27, he's 30. I'm a teacher in a public school. He's currently unemployed, but has savings (some from an inheritance) which is plenty to cover rent. He wrote a short note with the application explaining that despite his unemployment, he would be able to cover the full year of rent for both of us, up front, if the landlords were worried about unemployment (listing his income as "savings and investments"). My salary as a teacher would also allow me to do this, although we didn't make note of that because it didn't seem relevant. The point is, we have enough money to cover rent and wanted to make that clear to the landlords.

Our credit is fine, I think, and no problems with previous landlords. Boyfriend has lived at home for the last 4 years to take care of a dying mother and spend time with his father, so his previous landlord info is from 2008. He currently volunteers and is working on artistic and musical projects but is suffering from anxiety and depression (his maternal grandma just passed away, which is one factor), another reason he's been living at home. Obviously we didn't list those things on the application, except listing volunteer experience. As much as I want to put our personal stories on there, they're probably not relevant.

Would the offer to pay up front be a red flag to landlords? Or the boyfriend's current situation? I'm guessing that the applicant who got the place is older, or more professional, has a higher salary, is wanting to stay in the area for a long time, or some other reason that makes sense. The owner (the apartment is owned by a couple, not a big company) said in a voicemail, "We chose someone who is, uh, better to rent to" after telling me that there were no problems with the applications. She seemed to not know exactly how to phrase it.

This is the first place we've applied for and now I'm all anxious that we aren't qualified tenants even though we totally are.