Tips & Advice for Lease-holders and Owners

Lease-holders:

-No matter you sign the contract or not, exchange with your owner personal data, telephone numbers, number of your identity card and personal identification number.

- If a flat is rented out through the authorized person, it is compulsory for you to ask for the written authorization from a flat owner by which the person who deals with renting for him/her is authorized to do that.

- Pay attention if a legal person rents premises to you, especially on the occasion of renting business ones, the tax is included, so the price of rental fee is simultaneously increased.

- Establish in detail what your other obligations are on the occasion of paying, apart from paying the rental fee. Those are mainly telephone bills, bills for public utilities, power, cable TV (if it is installed), but also check other obligations- the maintenance of a building, a lift, a yard, a garage and the like.

- Establish the period of notice, i.e. how many days in advance you have to announce the notice to an owner.

- It is usually agreed that an owner has the right once a month to visit the premises where you are, to check appliances and the whole state of a flat and at the same time to get or check paid bills, the rental fee…The owner should announce his/her visit at least one day earlier. All of these can be arranged in a different way, it all depends on you as both parties, but we recommend you to be in the flat when the owner comes.

-Make the difference between the current and investment maintenance of a flat. The current one is regular, everyday keeping the flat clean and tidy and you are the only one who is responsible. Investment maintenance includes all installations, plumbing, power, reconstruction, extensions, damages in the flat due to natural disasters etc., and as a rule, an owner should bear the costs. All these items can be reworded in the contract as you agree.

- If there a lot of valuables and expensive stuff in the flat, it is best to make the list of all things in the flat on a separate sheet of paper which will be the integral part of the contract.

- You are obliged to pay the rental fee and other costs, and an owner is obliged to enable you to use the flat without any problems.

Owners:

- Everything that we have written as advice for lease-holders also refers to you as an owner, because the contract is bilaterally binding.

- Every flat has its own renting value and owing to that, in the very beginning consult a competent person if the price that you request is objective. Do not set the price according to the principle- AS MUCH AS I NEED. It does not mean that your flat will be empty next six months because you are waiting for a lease-holder that can pay your high price, unless you get lucky. But maybe you will not get lucky, and meanwhile you will miss the proper lease-holder and a lot of monthly rental fees. We even do not advise you to rent out a flat for a mere trifle.

- It is not true that it is not important who moves into your flat, pay attention at the first meeting, try to find out as many details as you can about your future lease-holder.

- Do not convince your lease-holder that your flat suits him/her a lot because tastes are different, let him/her decide about that. It does not hurt to tell some other positive things about the flat that are not noticeable on the occasion of the first surveying the flat. The flat should make him/her think it is the right one to suit him/her. A fewer number of lease-holders decide to take the flat upon first survey, they usually decide to do that later when they take all suitable parameters into consideration. Be patient.

- If you have not rented the flat out for a longer period, listen to what agents, and lease-holders that have seen your flat have to say. Maybe there is something else to be done in the flat that is important for future tenants.

- Do not consider the future lease-holder as the previous one, because people are simply different. If you have had problems with the previous one, it does not mean that you will experience the same thing with the next one. Be careful, but not unrealistic.

- Do not come to the flat without informing a lease-holder about it in advance, do not keep your personal belongings in the flat you rent out. If you have valuable things in the flat, we suggest taking them out. If you live in the same flat and have decided to rent it out, then before showing it, tidy, clean and air your flat so that the potential lease-holder does not get the impression that he/she will live with you and your stuff. Try to present your flat in the best way, without your personal stuff, with just those things that he/she will use. Show your flat at a convenient time, and not while you have guests or at lunch-time for instance.

- The price you set as a rental fee in the very beginning is in effect until the cancellation of the contract unless you have agreed differently. If you already intend to change the price soon, you must inform the lease-holder about that, otherwise, if you want to change the price while the contract is still valid, it is not proper and you can even be obliged to cover all losses of the lease-holder if this case gets to the court.

- It is also advisable, besides the rental fee, to take the deposit from the lease-holder, which is usually at the amount of one monthly rental fee of the flat. The deposit is used for securing the owner in case the lease-holder has not settled his/her obligations of paying bills (power, telephone…) or has damaged the flat, with which the owner can cover all these items. The deposit is to be returned to the lease-holder by the cancellation or after the cancellation if he/she has settled all accounts and has left the flat in the same condition as when he/she has moved into it.

- The amount of the deposit is the money of the lease-holder, so the owners should treat it like that. Take care not to spend the deposit for other purposes in order not to find yourself in the situation to borrow from others when at the end you have to return that sum of money to the lease-holder

- Specify the date until which the lease-holder can be overdue concerning the rental fee. Be tolerant, but also precise. If the lease-holder often fails to meet even this deadline, we suggest you to find another lease-holder. - Specify the notice period.

- State in the contract with all personal data who will also, apart from the lease-holder, stay in the flat.

- From the very beginning discuss with the lease-holder if he/she agrees with showing the flat to other potential lease-holders in the last month of his/her occupancy. It is lease-holder’s will whether he/she will show the flat, since he/she also pays for that month of occupancy.

- Specify with the lease-holder which parts of premises he/she can change, make alterations, rearrange things or that he/she must consult you first for all similar actions.

- It is your right to check paid bills once a month.

- Visit the flat regularly by informing the lease-holder first, so there would not be unpleasant surprises. Make an effort to do that once a month in order not to disturb the lease-holder in using the flat.