The Speed of the Rental Process:
Securing an apartment from the rental market is a fast moving process. This is the case because the rental market is very competitive: there are more people looking for a place to live than there are reasonably priced places to live on the market.
This means that rental units go not only to those with the best financial qualifications, but also to those who are able to provide their materials the fastest.
→ This means that in order to be competitive in the rental process, you need to have your materials from the Housing Materials Checklist ready to go.
→ It will be helpful to have your Housing Materials folder up-to-date and ready to go, so you can send out your materials to your prospective landlord within 24 hours.
Things to Keep in Mind During the Application Process:
It is important to be aware of certain considerations when you are applying for an apartment:
Annual cost of utilities: The landlord is legally required to provide prospective tenants with documentation of the previous year’s utility bills upon request. This way you can get a sense of the total cost of living in the unit.
Tenant and building history: The landlord is legally required to provide prospective tenants with information about the length, price, and circumstances of the previous leases on the apartment and the conditions of the building in recent years.
This includes health and habitability conditions, such as whether the previous tenants had bed bugs, or other pests in the unit, and how many times it was treated for this.
→ This also includes information about any infrastructure problems or changes in the building, such as plumbing, gas and heat.By knowing how long the previous tenants have stayed in the unit, and what they paid, you can get a sense of whether you are getting a fair deal on the rent.
Rules about Subletting and Airbnb: If you are interested in letting one of the bedrooms in your potential unit, it will be important to know what the building’s rules are regarding subletting and airbnb. This may also be determined by zoning regulations in the area, which will be outlined further in the document.
Negotiating
Taking into consideration the annual cost of utilities for the unit, the tenant and building history and any other information you can collect about the prospective apartment, and rents in the surrounding area, you can try negotiating the terms of your lease and the cost of rent with your landlord.
If you are interested in subletting or hosting an airbnb in your unit, you can negotiate this into your lease, provided zoning regulations in the area permit you to do so.
If the apartment has a negative health history which you can see in the documents you have requested from the landlord, such as a recent case of bed bugs or rodents, then you can negotiate for a lower rent.
Record Keeping:
It is important to keep a legally valid record of your financial dealings. What this means is that your personal financial documents, legal documents, and correspondence with your landlord should all be saved on your computer with a timestamp attached to them.
By maintaining a record of the above information you will have a secure and legally valid record relating to your housing arrangement in case a legal issue should arise with your landlord.
In order to keep a record of correspondence with your landlord, simply corresponding with them by email will create a record because each email you send and receive has a timestamp on it. You can also take a screenshot of these emails when you receive them to keep in your folder.
In order to have a timestamp on any images you may take of your apartment, simply download the images onto your computer and email them to yourself, or add them to your google drive. This will provide a reliable timestamp.