Tips on how to rent an apartment correctly so as not to be deceived. How to rent an apartment or room without intermediaries

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 on the VKontakte social network, 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 cheaply almost luxury housing: a one-room apartment with European-quality renovation in a 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 users Internet.

The site is pre-moderated, all ads are checked, this is stated on the main page. Access to content is paid - 399 rubles. There are no suspiciously low or outrageously high prices here. 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 suspiciously 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 apartment rental options on their own behalf).

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.

In the Moscow rental market, there are frequent cases of deception and misunderstanding between residents and owners. The only way to avoid problems is to be armed with knowledge of the difficulties that can be expected when looking for and living in a rented apartment.

Rental fraud

Providing false or outdated information about rental apartments - one of the ways of deception. There are a huge number of housing search agencies on the market, and some of them are actually scammers. Most often they work according to the following scheme: for a “moderate” fee, the agency provides a list with telephone numbers and addresses of apartments. In fact, it turns out that most of them have either been given up a long time ago or have not been given up at all. There is no point in making a claim to the agency: the information (service) is provided, no one will return the money. It is very simple to distinguish such an organization from a real estate agency: in the second case, the price of the service is 100% of the monthly rent and is paid only after the required option is found. News agencies charge less for their “services”.

Re-letting of short-term rented housing for the purpose of deception - the most popular method of rental fraud. You can often see advertisements for apartments for rent on lampposts, bus stops and information boards, and the prices of such offers are an order of magnitude lower than market prices. In this case, the deception scheme is as follows: the fraudster rents an apartment for a short period of time, after which he advertises. Trusting citizens come to look at housing. Under various pretexts, they are asked to pay a month's rent in advance and a deposit, and are given keys. When the victims arrive at the apartment with their belongings the next day, they may well encounter other “tenants” at the entrance. Another option is also possible: some time after moving into the apartment, the “real” owner of the apartment, who has just “left the zone,” or some “relative” of the tenant appears in the apartment, who declares his rights to the living space and demands that it be immediately vacated.

After the conclusion of the contract

When an apartment is the subject of a property dispute , employers can’t dream of a quiet life. There are times when the owner’s real brother returns from the “zone” or his ex-wife appears on the doorstep. In this case, the tenants find themselves involved in material disputes, and they themselves are to blame for this: when renting, it is imperative to check whether the apartment is privatized and whether its owner is the sole owner. If the apartment is owned by the municipality, you must obtain written permission to rent it out. Without such a document, any person registered in it has the right to prohibit it from being handed over. If privatized housing has several owners, you must obtain written consent from each of them to rent it out.

Sudden rent increase - a common way to “make money” from tenants. It happens that after two to three months the owner, without any reason, suddenly announces that the rental amount is increasing. In this case, he expects that residents will prefer to pay an extra few thousand rather than go through the hassle of finding housing and moving again.

Disputes about timely payment of rent often lead to the termination of the employment contract. There are cases when, having received a month's rent, the owner of the apartment “suddenly” forgot about it. “Memory problems” may be caused by the desire to get rid of the tenants (after all, according to the agreement, they can be evicted if they fall behind on the monthly payment) or simply by the inadequacy of the apartment owner.

The owner's complaints about the condition of the apartment most often occur when a tenant is about to move out. According to the terms of the contract, he must do this in a month, and during this time the owner often begins to make complaints about the condition of the housing. He may suddenly forget that the parquet floor was scratched, the sofa fell apart, and the upholstery on the door was torn long before the conclusion of the contract. Most often, the purpose of such claims is not to return the security deposit to the tenant.

Safe rental rules

1. Look for housing only through friends or with the help of professional agents.

2. Be sure to carefully check the owner’s passport and documents for the apartment, and give money only against a receipt.

3. Draw up a rental agreement and an apartment acceptance certificate, which must indicate:

• passport details of the tenant and landlord;
• characteristics of the apartment being rented (address, area, state of wear, furniture, etc.),
• the cost of the monthly rent and the time during which the lessor has no right to increase it;
• tenant rights (the ability to carry out repairs);
• the rights of the landlord (the number of visits by the owner of the apartment, the time and days on which they will take place), the time frame within which he can announce the eviction of the tenants.

4. Discuss all the important points in advance: who will repair the plumbing in the event of a breakdown, how payments for utilities and long-distance negotiations will be made, etc. This must be done even if the owner is your good friend.

A modern person, when looking for an apartment, first of all turns to the Internet and enters 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;
• an extract from the passport office about people registered in a given 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 a detailed description of the condition is compiled for each piece of furniture and equipment.

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.

Regular reader of Lifehacker.

A few words about intermediaries. When the owner of an apartment wants to rent it out, he just needs to call an agent and he will quickly organize the whole process. The intermediary most often takes from the applicant 50% or 100% of the commission from the monthly hiring cost. Wherein the agent does not become a party to the contract and is not responsible for anything.

Today, when Internet services directly bring together sellers and buyers of a wide variety of goods and services, it looks strange that there is still a place for the human factor in the apartment rental market. But the force of inertia and banal laziness will determine this state of affairs; it is very difficult to find an advertisement for renting an apartment directly from the owner. Indeed, you need to force yourself to register on a free classifieds site, enter a description and post a photo of your apartment.

Together with those who are fundamentally not ready to pay large sums of money to unknown people for unknown reasons, they can figure out how to search for “direct” advertisements. I will be glad for additions to this article in your comments, we will try to collect as much information as possible.

Classmates

Direct ads are hard to find.

Facebook

A search in user publications for the queries “apartment for rent” produces too few results. But pay attention to the following groups: facebook.com/kvartira.msk ,
facebook.com/norealestateagent.

In contact with

1. Groups

Pay attention to large closed groups:

2. Global search VKontakte

The most interesting…

We type “apartment for rent” into the search and select the “news” tab in the resulting results. All publications from the walls of network users are displayed here. Further searching for “direct” advertisements is like panning for gold from river sand. Fine-tuning search settings would be very helpful, but they are not there. You will have to wade through numerous advertisements from real estate companies, private agents, advertisements from other cities, numerous duplicate humor jokes containing search words, dozens of identical advertisements from people clogging up the entire search. But in the end you will definitely find what you are looking for.

Other sites

Avito.ru

There are quite a few ads on the site that pretend to be private but are posted by agents. But nevertheless, I would recommend looking there, because there are also “direct” advertisements. This can often be seen in the style of the text and its details. Don't forget to select "private" listings in the top right corner of the search results page.

Thelocals.ru

The site positions itself as a platform for direct rental housing, but there are very few advertisements.

Posrednikovzdes.net

The site is similar to CIAN (a database of apartments from agents), there are few advertisements.

Good luck in your search and be careful!

What do you need to know to avoid unpleasant situations, quickly find affordable and decent housing, and rent it correctly for a long time?

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.