What do you need to know to rent an apartment without problems?

Have you or your friends ever had cases when people found themselves the victim of a fraudulent scheme when renting an apartment? Unfortunately, this happens all the time. And both intermediaries and owners can be scammers. How unpleasant it is to lose money, and besides, in the end, also be left homeless.

If you rent a home directly from the owner, make sure that he is actually the owner of the living space. Study all documents carefully, ask for originals, not copies. The owner must have a fresh extract from the Unified State Register, a purchase and sale agreement / gift / inheritance document. Check all data with the owner's passport. Thoroughly study the lease agreement, check all the conditions, the lease term, the data of the lessor.

If, when checking the title documents, you find that the apartment has several owners, ask for their written permission to rent out housing. It can be drawn up as a separate document, or the names of all owners with passport data can be included in the contract.

If you turn to the services of intermediaries, it is worth choosing trusted specialists. Ideally, based on the reviews and personal experiences of people you know. Always check your documents. In addition to documents for the apartment, the intermediary must have a certified power of attorney or permission to rent housing.

An intermediary can be not only a realtor, but also a tenant who provides housing for sublease. Subleasing happens as follows - a person rented an apartment from the owner, and now he plans to rent it to you. This is a fairly common practice. Don't be alarmed. Just carefully check the documents - the passport of the owner and the tenant, documents for the apartment, the lease. In the lease, find a clause that states that the owner is not opposed to the transfer of the living space to sublease to others.

If suddenly, while looking for an apartment, you stumbled upon news agencies that offer you to choose a list of addresses according to the parameters you specified - pass by! 99% of the results are the same - fictitious addresses and wasted time and money.

If possible, do not come to your appointment with landlords alone. Do not bring large sums of money with you. Let the money be on a card or bank account. After all, there is an option that when you inspect the apartment, a group of suspicious persons will be waiting for you. If everything is in order with the documents and the landlord, ask the owner to wait 1-2 hours for you to withdraw money from the account.

Don't trust everything on the internet. Much there is not true - fake information, non-existent photos and addresses. Do not leave pledges without checking documents, contracts and receipts. Do not transfer the prepayment before checking the documents and signing the contract on both sides.