It is correct to rent an apartment for a long time. How to rent a house and not end up on the street

Many tenants think that searching for housing on their own is preferable to using intermediaries who need to pay a percentage of the transaction. In fact, it is possible to find a living space yourself, but this requires caution and attentiveness. In this article, we will tell you in detail about methods of searching for rental housing, ways to reduce the risk of meeting an unscrupulous counterparty, and the specifics of the procedure.

○ Advantages and disadvantages of renting an apartment without intermediaries.

Renting a home without involving intermediaries has both pros and cons. To make a final decision, you need to study all aspects of the issue in detail and weigh all the advantages and disadvantages of this method.

So, the positive aspects of renting housing on your own are the opportunity to:

• Savings due to the absence of additional costs for intermediary services.
• Joint hiring with friends and splitting the amount of payment.
• Bargaining with the owner and reducing payment.

All of the above points allow you to save a significant amount on rented housing.

However, the main disadvantage of this type of hiring is the risk of becoming a victim of fraud. Other cons:

• Difficulty finding suitable housing.
• The possibility of conflicts with the landlord regarding things provided for temporary use.
• Risk of sudden eviction.
• Lack of guarantee of respect for the rights of the tenant.

○ How to find an apartment that is rented without intermediaries.

You can find an apartment yourself through:

• Acquaintances.
• The Internet, the most popular sites for searching in this direction are www.avito.ru, www.irr.ru, as well as various social networks.
• Newspapers and magazines, in special sections.

You can also independently post rental advertisements within the area of ​​interest and wait for a call from landlords. IN in this case It is advisable to place advertisements on the walls of houses or special stands.

○ How to check the apartment and the owner.

Before concluding a transaction, it is important to conduct a thorough inspection of the apartment for technical condition. Particular attention should be paid to the condition of pipes and wiring.

You also need to check whether the landlord has the rights to conclude the transaction:

• Is he the owner (providing a certificate of title, extracts from Rosreestr).
• If not, does he have title documents: primary lease agreement, purchase and sale agreement, certificate of inheritance.

In addition, you need to check the following documents:

• Passport (if the renter is an individual).
• Constituent documents (if the housing is rented out by a legal entity).

Also, regardless of the status of the landlord, you need to check the apartment for the presence of debts to pay for utilities (extract from Rosreestr or the management company).

○ Fraud with apartments.

Renting a home is one of the most popular areas of work for scammers. Therefore, when embarking on an independent search, you should minimize the risk of meeting them.

The most common fraud schemes:

1. Re-letting of rented housing. The fraudster rents an apartment, then rents it out, posing as the owner using forged title documents. When renting out, they take a deposit for a few months and disappear.
2. The same type of fraud can be carried out by the owner of the apartment. Upon agreement, he shows a copy of the certificate of title, citing the fact that the original is in some authority. Here he also requires a deposit, after receiving which he disappears.
3. A real estate agency can also commit fraud. For example, you may be offered to buy a database with phone numbers of potential tenants, specifying that they will not charge you a percentage for the transaction. As a result, the list turns out to be invalid, and the payment for it is quite high.

To protect yourself from such cases, you should choose housing as carefully as possible, observing the following rules:

• Do not trust options with too attractive prices.
• Check the authenticity of the documents provided (for this you can ask for an extract from Rosreestr).
• Pay money for the arena only on receipt.
• Draw up a lease agreement with an attached acceptance certificate for the premises and an inventory of the property.

○ How to draw up an agreement?

An agreement concluded in accordance with all the rules guarantees the observance of the rights of each participant in the transaction. Therefore, it is worth compiling it even if the property is rented without the involvement of a realtor.

Despite the fact that the legislation does not provide for an established template for such an agreement, the agreement must indicate:

• Personal data of the parties to the transaction.
• Subject of the agreement (features of real estate that make it possible to determine that it is being rented out).
• Rent amount.
• Rights and obligations of the parties to the agreement.
• Responsibility of the parties.
• Duration of the agreement (if this clause is not specified, a maximum five-year validity period will be assigned, in accordance with Article 683 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).
• Details of the parties to the transaction, their signatures and the date of conclusion of the agreement.

It is also necessary to draw up the following annexes to the agreement:

• An act of acceptance and transfer of property that records the technical condition of the property at the time of conclusion of the agreement.
• An inventory of property, which indicates things transferred for temporary use, indicating their exact quantity.

Modern man When searching for an apartment, first of all, they go to the Internet and enter the words “I’ll rent an apartment without intermediaries” into the search bar. But the role of housing landlords is usually played by agents who rent out other people’s housing to strangers, receiving a certain commission and, most often, do not bear any responsibility at all.

Therefore, there are only two options: contact them directly and reduce commission payments to the maximum possible level, or really try to do without them.

How and where to find an apartment from the owner without intermediaries

There are several options for finding an apartment without an agency:

1. Ask everyone you know– relatives, friends, employees, colleagues, etc. - Does anyone rent out housing?
2. Submit and view advertisements in all print and online publications.

• in newspapers and magazines.

  Each city has its own most widespread newspaper, which is in demand. There are newspapers that are delivered to mailboxes. They usually print advertisements so crowded and in such small fonts that they are rarely read. In printed publications, advertisements about the desire to rent an apartment are usually placed by rental agents, so your advertisement will most likely go unnoticed among a large number of them.

• search for advertisements on the Internet.

  There is a special Internet platform Posrednikovzdes.net, where advertisements from rental agents are strictly filtered.

  You can find advertisements from owners on well-known Internet boards, which include avito.ru, irr.ru (the site “From Hand to Hand”, which also contains advertisements from the newspaper). You can also place your advertisement on these resources looking for an apartment for rent in the desired area of ​​the city. Both sites offer free advertising.

  Also, each individual region and city has its own bulletin board sites. To find them in the Yandex and Google search bar, simply enter “bulletin board + city where you want to find an apartment for rent” (for example, “Moscow bulletin board”) and you will be presented with a whole list.

  There are special groups on social networks, for example, this one on VKontakte http://vk.com/arendakvartir_ru. In this group it is prohibited to advertise housing for rent with a commission. Such groups and communities can be found by searching for phrases like “rent an apartment without an intermediary,” etc.

  Advice: before calling the phone, you can “break through” it to identify the intermediary - just type the number into Google and carefully study the results. If the number appears in many advertisements for apartments, then most likely it belongs to a realtor. The method itself is not a 100% guarantee, but it helps to filter.

Posted advertisements require constant updating, i.e. raising your ad to the top, and this can bring much more benefits, but you should remember that agents will call much more often than owners.

Conduct the conversation competently over the phone: ask about details that only the owner of the apartment can know - the condition of windows and doors, characteristics of kitchen and other household appliances, availability of meters, etc., willingness to present documents for the property, receipts for payment of housing and communal services (their Almost no one fakes them, and only the owner of the home has them).

How to draw up an apartment rental agreement correctly

Having chosen a suitable apartment with a trustworthy owner, you should have a pre-detailed rental agreement with you.

It should take into account:

1. Documents provided by the owner:

• contract for ownership of this apartment;
• Extract from the Unified State Register for the apartment;

  Since 2017, the main document that confirms ownership of real estate is an Extract from the Unified State Register of Real Estate about the property (in our case, an apartment). Registration certificates have now been canceled and have not been issued since July 2016. Let the seller provide an extract from the Unified State Register for the apartment in paper form with a stamp and signature.

• passport(s) of the owner(s) of the apartment;
• extract from passport office about the people registered in this residential area, especially minors, since this fact may cause the tenant to be suddenly evicted from the rented apartment.
• It is worth looking at the latest receipt for payment of utilities, where you can see the presence of current debt.

• term (with a specific date of check-in and check-out);
• responsibilities of the owner in case of breakdown of household appliances or flooding, or other force majeure circumstances;
• responsibilities of the employer in all cases. For example, keep the apartment clean, don’t listen to music late into the night, don’t make noise, etc.;
• employer's rights;
• the number of people who will live in the apartment;
• types (monthly, quarterly, cash, non-cash) and terms of payments (indicating the date and exact amount).

• walls;
• floors;
• lighting;
• Appliances;
• furniture;
• kitchen;
• window;
• doors;
• carpets and other floor and wall coverings.

It will not be superfluous if for each piece of furniture and equipment there is a detailed description condition.

You should also not neglect the list of items provided, including the smallest ones, such as forks, spoons or other kitchen utensils. You can describe their size, color, condition, etc.

How to avoid falling for scammers

The danger of running into scammers who rent out apartments that are not theirs or rent them out falsely remains extremely high. Therefore, you need to be careful to avoid their traps.

In addition, still on stage of telephone conversations, you should:

1. Ask questions about whether the owner has all the documents certifying his rights to own this apartment.
2. Check information about other owners.
3. Be wary of demands for a large (more than three months) advance payment.
4. Be wary of the proposal to change the time and, especially, the place of the meeting - there must be very important reasons for this:
   • Apartment showings are taking place en masse and there is a real threat of bumping into previous tenants, and scammers are wary of this.
   • Perhaps at this particular time the real owner will be in the apartment and the scammer will not be able to let potential tenants into the apartment.
5. Be wary if an advance payment is required before concluding a contract, and even more so if an advance is asked for half the monthly rental amount.
6. You should check with the owner all the information regarding transport, the location of stores, including specialized ones, for example, hardware stores, the presence of a school, kindergarten, playgrounds, parks, transport routes - scammers usually do not have such information, and if they do, it is very easy to check their accuracy . But the owner of the apartment will easily answer all such questions, especially those who honestly rent out housing and also do not want to be deceived by unscrupulous tenants.

You can also do a simple trick. When you agree to rent a house and sign the contract, let your friends call the owner and ask if he is renting out the house. If he agrees or retires to another premises to discuss terms with a supposedly new potential tenant, he should immediately be classified as a fraudster and negotiations should be interrupted. Therefore, under no circumstances should any amounts be paid before the contract is signed.

Over the course of five days, we will talk about how to find housing and business premises in Moscow, what pitfalls lie in wait for a tenant in a lease agreement, we will teach you how to distinguish between a series of standard buildings and we will figure out how to choose a nice flatmate.

1. According to the ad: Where to look for an apartment and room in Moscow

CIAN's gigantic real estate database is not always the best assistant in finding housing. Firstly, most ads are placed by realtors. This means that when concluding a contract, you will have to pay not only the first and last month’s rent to the landlord, but also the agent’s commission - usually this is 100% of the rental price of the apartment per month. Secondly, the huge number of advertisements is difficult to navigate. We have selected ten popular services, as well as groups in social network“VKontakte”, where you can also look for housing.

Services

The site is designed for representatives of the lower segment of the middle class, so prices rarely rise above 70-75 thousand rubles per month. Apartments here are offered both new and secondary. There are many offers of extremely cheap housing, for example, a three-room apartment for 30 thousand rubles per month. This indicates the presence of unverified advertisements. The Avito administration warns users about the possible presence of scammers and recommends not to believe advertisements with a reduced price for a good apartment. Most offers on Avito come from agencies, but there are also advertisements from individuals.

This = an aggregator that collects offers from all over the Internet. Most of the offers are from Cian.ru, which is honestly linked at the bottom of each mini-post. Offers are posted here exclusively by agencies. With one click, the user is transported to the site where the ad was originally posted and can see both photos of the option he liked and the realtor’s phone number.

The site contains a huge number of offers from agencies, as well as unverified advertisements promising to rent cheap, almost elite housing: a one-room apartment with European-quality renovation in good area for 16 thousand rubles a month or a three-room apartment with the same indicators for 29. Cases of fraud on the site are discussed by Internet users.

The site is pre-moderated, all ads are checked, this is stated on home page. Access to content is paid - 399 rubles. There are no suspiciously low or off-scale high prices. We offer well-maintained, clean apartments with everything you need: refrigerator, telephone, TV and Internet. The advertisements are posted by the owners; realtors are asked not to worry.

You cannot view the site’s databases online; they must be downloaded by first registering using a phone number, to which you will subsequently receive an SMS with a code. To view updates in the database, you need to subscribe to the site, which costs 15 thousand rubles per month. This seems completely pointless, given that all advertisements from the site are automatically published on the sites “From Hand to Hand”, “Yandex.Real Estate” and many other similar ones.

Winner employs exclusively agents, which requires a deposit, as well as payment of one hundred percent of the monthly cost of the apartment to the agency in the form of a commission. There are also many advertisements with suspicious low prices for apartments, which indicates possible fraud.

Groups on social networks

The group is sluggish, there are practically no discussions under advertisements. Likes periodically appear under posts in the “renting” category, while group members do not react at all to “looking for” or “renting”. However, despite the low level of discussion, the dynamics of posting ads in it are quite good. Plus - offers to rent apartments come from the owners.

The largest group in terms of the number of offers in this segment. She works non-stop without lunch and weekends. In addition to those looking for an apartment, there are many here who are looking for a neighbor - approximately 10-12% of those offering housing. Some use the group as a dating site and try to solve two problems at once - both with housing and with their personal life.

There are agents among those who rent out housing. Some of them are open (they provide links to the original site), others are hidden (they publish many different options apartment rentals).

Despite the fact that the group is very active and does not stop working for almost a minute, there is almost no discussion under the posts either. Participants prefer communication in private messages.

Unlike other groups in this segment, here supply exceeds demand. Almost all advertisements for apartments for rent come directly from the owners. The number of agents here is minimal. The advertisements are accompanied by a large number of photographs; the offer is very clear. As in all groups of this type, there is practically no discussion under the posts.

The group is a continuation of the site FriendRent.ru, which works on the principle of word of mouth: acquaintances of acquaintances are looking for housing through acquaintances of other acquaintances. Agents here are asked not to disturb themselves or others. The site has its own database of advertisements and convenient functionality, so you can search for a room or apartment not only on social networks.

Mostly homeowners publish ads here; there are almost no agents. The absence of agents in the group is indicated by the intention of people to cooperate without deposits or collateral. In addition to those who want to rent or rent out housing, neighbors are also often sought out here - 13-14% of all those renting.

What you need to know to avoid unpleasant situations, quickly find affordable and decent housing, and rent it correctly on long term?

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 know how to solve exactly your problem - contact the online consultant form on the right or call the numbers below. It's fast and free!

Search through real estate agencies

People who are faced with the need to rent an apartment for the first time usually turn to an agency. It is advisable to find a trusted organization, ideally on the recommendation of friends. The tasks of a real estate specialist are as follows:

• Find an apartment according to the client’s requirements;
• Set a viewing period with the landlord;
• Accompany you to viewings of selected apartments;
• When drawing up a rental agreement, conduct all negotiations;
• Advise the client on contract issues;
• Check the owner's documents regarding the ownership of the property;
• Directly, as well as draw up a transfer and acceptance certificate, which will contain an inventory of the property of the apartment.

The cost of specialist services is 50-100% of the monthly rental price.

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.

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.

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 invite you to download the apartment rental agreement form: Download.

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.

Rules for renting an apartment

Check with the owner of the apartment about his right to rent out residential premises, study the documents for the apartment.

Find out where you can find it, and check your contact details (telephone, address).

Check the conditions for connecting to the Internet or, if it has already been established, find out the payment procedure.

When inspecting the apartment check the condition of plumbing and electrical wiring. It is important that the plugs are not knocked out when connecting a minimum number of devices (electric kettle, computer, washing machine). Also make sure there are no ants, cockroaches, bedbugs or other insects.

If any problems were found during the inspection, check with the owner of the property at whose expense the repairs and elimination will be carried out.

If you rent a room that is not locked with a key, or a bed, then you do not need to pay a deposit.

The windows of the apartment must be in good condition, otherwise in the cold months you will be blown out, and in the warm months the air conditioning will be difficult to operate.

Write down emergency numbers for emergency services.

In a copy of the agreement, note the monthly rent payment and require the signature of the property owner.

Decide on the furniture issue: will you use the owner’s furniture or bring your own.

Since prices in the rental market are unstable, It is not recommended to sign a long-term rental agreement for a fixed price. If prices drop, you can find a cheaper rental option or ask the owner for a discount.

When signing the contract, the apartment owner must give you a set of keys. Check them out. Remember that it is illegal to demand payment for keys.

Typically, the duration of the contract is one year minus one day. This is in the interests of the apartment owner, since such agreements are called short-term and reduce the tenant’s ability to illegally move in co-tenants. If you wish to extend the contract, sign the appropriate agreement one month before the expiration date.

Try to find a common language with the apartment owner and neighbors, maintain good relations with them.