Moving off campus and into a house with friends seems to have become a sort of milestone in student lives. But, many of those students have never lived on their own, not to mention rented their own house.
All of the house hunting can be a fun experience, but it can also be very stressful. Things can come up that complicate the process. Maybe one of the people you planned on living with changes their mind and you have to find a replacement. Maybe you can't find a house with enough rooms for your group, and you have to split up. Maybe the house is too far away from campus or a bus line and none of you have a car.
The possibilities are endless, but here are some questions that you can ask your landlord to make you feel better about the house you want to rent.
1. Do you give separate leases or do we all have to sign the same one?
This question is very important. In short, if you all have separate leases, and someone drops out, either the landlord or the person moving has to pay the costs until there is a replacement. If you all sign the same lease and someone drops out, the rest of the tenants have to pick up that portion of rent and utilities. Separate leases can be very beneficial if you do not know all of the people you are moving in with. That way, you will not be responsible for picking up the slack.
2. How does maintenance work in the house?
A lot of the houses that college students rent are not in the best condition. If something breaks, you will want to know if you will be responsible for getting it fixed, and any costs that will go with it. Many landlords will take care of fixing anything that breaks. So, make sure to ask before signing the lease.
3. How much is rent and what does it include?
The rent is usually always on the post that you look at when browsing for houses on the Internet. That does not always mean that the rent stayed that price. There have been times where it could have been either raised or lowered. It is always safe to ask. Many times there are utilities that the landlord pays for. Everything is not always on the posting, so it is good to ask what is included in the rent, and what you are responsible for.
4. What is an estimate of the utilities per month?
They will often go off of how much the previous tenants paid. Take what they tell you at face value. They could either be underestimating or the tenants before you could have not been cautious when it came to the use of their utilities. Either way, having some sort of idea of the monthly payment you will be making is better than not knowing at all.
5. How do you take care of rodent problems?
There are stories of all sorts of rodents making their way into the houses around the area. Everything from mice, rats, squirrels and raccoons have made their home in other people’s houses. They might be cute, but they can cause substantial damage to the infrastructure of houses. Just two months ago, a friend experienced a raccoon falling through his room’s ceiling in the middle of the night. Their landlord covered the costs of the incident. Make sure whether or not your landlord would do the same.
Although these may not be the most important questions, and there are definitely more than just these five, they might help you feel a little more at ease when it comes to your first house rental.
