1) Be nice and; have fun
Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them
2) All posts must end with a '?'
This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?
3) No spam
Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.
4) NSFW is okay, within reason
Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com.
NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].
5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions.
If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.
6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online
Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.
Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
Pets - From experience, people are AWFUL with their pets. Mostly dogs, I've never seen anything go wrong with cats, unless the owners don't care enough to let them run around until they're kidnapped or ran over. But dogs, they just let them go and go with the barking. Not to mention the dog shit on the ground they refuse to pick up.
What a complicated way to say that you dislike dogs/pets.
Any broken glass in parking areas, no age diversity, dirty smelly unlit damaged hallways at all, smell of smoking in the buildings at all, not up to fire code in any way, the free parking around the area is totally full at any time of day, decorations of decks or windows banned, they don't start off with you previewing THE EXACT unit you'll be renting, they ever walk you through what seems to be a preview unit.
If you're there when the mail is being delivered, talk to the mail person. They're there every day and can have some good insights you won't find anywhere else. For instance, once when I did this he told me he gets a lot of mail forwarding notices, and more often than not the boxes are staying empty after that. I didn't know why that place had a lot of people leaving, but it was enough to make me keep looking.
Find out if any of the neighbours smoke and if the smoke gets into your appartment as well.
If something seems too good to be true, it probably is. I was shopping for a 1br apartment, and I found a listing in a good neighborhood. I was suspicious before I even saw the place because I knew the neighborhood was all duplexes with 3 bedrooms. Normally a duplex in that neighborhood was $1800 - $2100. I went to see it and sure enough it's a duplex where each unit was 3br apartment that has been converted into 3, one-bedroom apartments. They were asking $800 for a 1BR you couldn't event fit a twin bed into the bedroom. I spent 5 minutes looking around and told them no thanks straight away. They called me back 1 month later asking if I would consider for $600 a month. I was like I wouldn't live there if you paid me.
Here are a few suggestions.
Go to the place at around 10 pm on a Saturday night. Most places are quiet during the day; you get an idea of what the area is like after dark.
Bring a phone charger and test every outlet. Check every faucet and see if the water gets hot.
Step into the shower or lay down in the tub.
Be sure you can bring in the furniture you already have. Some places have weird, narrow passages.
Make sure that there's a grocery in walking distance.
edit = I forgot something. A lot of places these days are illegal conversions; houses designed for one family that now have several apartments.
If you place is a walkup, make sure that you can get out in case of a fire.
Make sure that there’s a grocery in walking distance.
laughs in american 😅
In the US, make sure there's a well stocked grocery store that sells fresh fruits and veggies in close car distance.
There are places where even that isn't possible
One thing about the electricity check, get an outlet tester with a ground indicator and use that, some places don’t have grounded plugs, your UPS and some power bars might tell you this info as well, would be a tad late at that point though.
Also look for burn marks on the sockets while you’re testing, improperly set up outlets also sometimes spark a bit when things are plugged into them.
a grocery in walking distance.
Sounds like communism to me. >:(
All my homies hate communists and their groceries.
If you can, talk to the previous tenant. They might be moving out because of problems with the apartment. Whether that's an annoying neighbor or a mold problem, you probably don't want that either.
If you live in a place with proper winter, look at how well the sidewalks around the property are maintained after snow or a bad freeze thaw cycle or the like. It's a good indication if property management is on top of their shit or if problems will just be ignored until the city gets involved.
Do you really want your landlord to play judge, jury and executioner?
That can easily backfire against you
In my jurisdiction, the enforcement of quiet enjoyment laws are pretty much only used for 'LL is harassing me'
While the law requires LL to prevent others from preventing QE, a suit against a landlord for failing to protect QE is going to come down to 'were the police called and document disruption in a report, and did they handle it?' If no, theres no proof, or it was deemed not a problem (and therefore not interfering with QE) and if they did intervene, theres no more disruption, so problem was solved and no QE claim to be made.
On the other hand, a landlord trying to enforce QE on their own, risks the problem tenant calling the police on LL, alleging LL interfered with their QE, and when police show, first question is going to be why the alleged infraction the LL showed up about wasnt called in, and is going to be dismissed as alleged, with only the LL's interference as documentaries.
Back in our 20s one of my friend was a little shit. Lived in a split lot with his LL. Almost every night, hed play music loud, LL would bang on door, hed tell him to fuck off, and LL would threaten to call the cops. Hed wait 10 mins, turn the music down for 30, then back up of the police didnt show. If they did, theyd talk to an angry LL, then come to the door and hed be pleasant and invite them in, where theyd hear perfectly normal levels of music, and agree with him he was within his rights to enjoy music at that volume. Police report would document noise complaint as unsubstantiated, and LL as having showed up at his house and then called the cops over nothing, both invasions to his QE
After a month, LL got labeled a nuisance caller by the PD. At one point, he came to the door, knocked and friend just didnt answer. Landlord started snooping around, looking in windows with his cell camera, and friend videotaped him doing so, and called the cops on the LL.
Landlord got arrested, and friend was presented with temp restraining order paperwork, over 'dozens of documented harrasments.' When landlord was being released, he was asked if he had anywhere to stay that wasnt on that property, and it turned out he had a vacant unit across town, that he was advised to stay in pending the hearing. (Idk if they would have held him the extra day or so before the prelim hearing or what)
The prelim hearing was the next day with just my friend in court, (tro is granted provisionally or not, depending on claimants evidence, then a hearing is scheduled in 30 days where both sides gets to present their case. The dozens of lopsided police reports were plenty, and he was awarded the provisional RO, and the LL advised to stay where he was already staying until it was worked out.
When it came to tbe actual hearing, both sides' stories were dismissed as anecdotal with the police reports still being the only thing counted. Judge upheld the RO. LL tried to claim the house adjacent to my friends was his residence, and the judge basically said 'youve been living in the house across town for 30 days so im not granting that exception to the RO. The order was set to last the 3.5 years left on the lease, LL was advised to hire an agent to conduct all buisness on those 2 properties, and friend ended up getting awarded 6months of rent for the QE violations.
Shoddy or delayed repairs.
Before you rent, open all the cupboards and drawers, look for tell tale signs of pests. Feces or dead bodies, hairs.
The longer the list of what you're responsible for the less likely you'll get your security deposit back.
Not letting you take pictures while inspecting an apartment.
Check all the drains and faucets, flush the toilet. Make sure there's good water pressure and drains are cleared.
When you have seen the apartment e.g. during daytime during a weekday, have a look at the area in the evenings and on weekends.
There was a story in the news where someone had rented a flat close to the city center, only to learn that two roads over is a amusement mile of national renown. Which was rather quiet during the visit, but lout and filled with drunkards and criminals every evening and weekend.
I pay attention to the condition/cleanliness of the hallways and stairs in the building. If the owner can't be bothered to maintain any of that then you already know the apartment itself is going to be a mess as soon as something goes wrong.
A bit harder to judge but if it looks like other tenants/random people make a habit of hanging out in the hallways/stairwells then that's a massive red flag. One time I went to see an apartment and a guy inside the building on one of the stair landings was chilling out smoking a massive cigar next to the window.. I knew right away that building is always going to have cigar smoke.
This one might sound silly but I have a habit of testing the water in the bathroom and kitchen. That tells me what the water pressure is like as well has how well the hot water is working.
Maybe a bit nit picky but I usually bring a tape measure and do some quick room measurements to figure out if furniture is going to fit & whatnot.
Oh and like the other comment said it definitely helps if you know what the area and the building surroundings are like at night.
The no-bite management is so true. At first "cool they're chill", but when our baby's bedroom was getting smoked with weed coming from the downstairs through the a/c vent every single day and the neighbor downstairs ignored my requests to smoke on the balcony rather than in the room below my baby, all I got from management was "so what? I smoke too".
Don't let them bait and switch you with an apartment.They might show you an apartment that's in really good shape and act like that's the one you're gonna get, and then they give you a different one that is not in good shape, so make sure that the apartment you're looking at is the exact apartment that you'll be getting.
Also, don't skip this one, talk to the neighbors. I know it's awkward and you're not going to want to do it, but it's really the best way to get information. They will tell you how things actually are.
Fully illegal in EU
Don't rent apartments with cardboard walls.
if at all possible, check to see how old the buildings/property is. My dad noticed that my first apartment was from at least the 1960s or 1970s because of how high the light switches were (it was before regulations that required those to be handicap accessable). Also when I started putting furniture in, I put a shelf against one wall near a hallway and the wall was slanting inward, which I wouldn't have noticed if not for the shelf
I had a place once so crooked all our ice cubes in the trays were slanted. This was the third (and top) story too. Floor just sort of rolled off to the northwest
If you see any empty beer bottles on nearby doorsteps, know you're not gonna get any sleep on the weekend if you move in.
If you use electric heaters and have gas, your a fucking idiot costing everyone money.
....What?
Don't be rude dude. But you're correct. Not using your payed for part of the gas just shifts your neighbors gas cost in part to you. Using electric heating costs you the power in top.
One red flag is when your landlord lives in the same building or on the same property. That is never a good sign.
I once rented a room where the landlord lived in the house next to the appartement. He (and especially his wife) was very nosy; during summer they did lawn work and tried to eavesdrop at any opportunity (although I always was offered fresh home-grown vegetables, so at least I saved money on that). The landlord had the switch for our heating inside his own house. During winter I and the other roommates had to go over to him and demand that the switches the heating on again.
IDK, it worked out well for me. I lived in a duplex for about 3 years where the landlord lived upstairs. He took pride in keeping up his properties really well. Super responsive for any issues. I remember texting him about the heat one time, he was at my door to look at it in under 10 minutes.
It turned out to be a pretty simple thing - he bled the radiators and added some water to bring the boiler pressure up - but still. 10 minutes on a Sunday morning!
A pretty obvious red flag would be a listing that looks well and good in the ad, but when you peel the curtain back a bit in a pre-rental inspection, major problems start showing.
Related: a place listed as having new appliances and such but the HVAC system is 20+ years old, like, and this is more unique to single-family homes than apartments, but if you go to a listing that's advertised as having new stuff in it, but when you go around the back yard and see an A/C condenser unit from the '00s or earlier sitting there, that's not the best of signs that everything else about it is on the up and up and in line with the ad.
Also, someone charging $700/mo+ for a beat-up flat worth, maybe, $250/mo.
Similarly, if a place uses electric baseboard heat, that's a very good sign that it's probably a slumlord special as electric baseboard heat is one of the simplest and cheapest, if not the simplest and cheapest types of heat to install, and the place probably uses windowshakers for cooling. Like, say someone buys up an old home that predates central HVAC, and they got by with the minimum viable to make it somewhat livable, they could just put some windowshakers and electric baseboard heaters in, and there's your cheap and easy HVAC system, and then they could charge some stupid rent amount for it.
-sigh- No wonder landlords get a bad rap pulling scummy shit like that.
is a police report
If they're in contravention of city by-laws, then that's what's needed. Ofc they might be saying that just to scare you or whatever, but having an actual police report about the issue really lights a fire under their ass. I did this with one neighbour that would always start blasting music at 2am, like it was his own personal nightclub. It took months, multiple phone calls, and visits from the police but when I finally filed that police report they were evicted a couple months later. Don't be shy about calling the police to deal with those issues (unless you're American) as that's one of the services they provide (unless you're American).
One tip I can give is see how many people have ac units in their windows. If there's a lot, then the building doesn't have good insulation. Which is an issue one can deal with (using window mounted ac units), but the rent should match that.