how to rent a house.

Munacra

My roomates and I are thinking of renting a house, however I have a lot of questions. For instance, what is the security deposit? After paying the deposit, do we get to choose when to move in and pay rent, or does the landlord determine when you're moving in and paying rent?

Any advice on pitfalls would be very appreciated. Just kind of a "how to rent a house" guide would be good, so we don't get ripped off or anything.

Another questions. Since we want to save money, we're thinking of converting the garage into a makeshift room. How do we make the place livable and comfortably cool? (without opening the front door of course.)

Thanks beforehand.

khain

A security deposit is security for the landlord against any damages you might cause while you live there. AT the beginning you go through the hosue and mark anything that is broken or marred or whatever and then when you leave the landlord comes through and does the same thing. Anything that isn't normal wear and tear comes out of teh security deposit.

Move in/Move out is covered in the lease you sign. You can probably talk about the dates with the landlord but the lease will say moved in at x time on this day and you must be out by x time on this day.

Read the lease make sure you agree with everything in it before signing it because once you do your pretty much bound to whatever is in there. Also either make sure that everyone who will be living in the house is on the lease or that you guys have some sort of binding contract to whoever has the lease. The big problem with renting a house is that the rent is most likely a lump sum owed to the landlord if one guy can't or will not pay you will all be effectively held responsible and either get the money somehow or be evicted. This is all covered in the lease and it is possible to have each of you guys pay the landlord individually but for a house thats not normal.

The garage thing is probably against code assuming you don't modify the garage and the landlord may not like it. however if he doesn't care then its one of those things that may be illegal but no one will ever get caught for it. The garage is also most likely the least insulated room in a house and is therefore most likely to stay somewhere near the temperature outside. There really isn't a way to change this unless you insult the room which may not even be possible. If you live somewhere where its cold just use a space heater, a hot place use a portable AC.

The biggest thing like I said is the rent issue. You need to make sure you have that covered before you rent the place. Its not a good idea to go in with no contracts and believe all your friends will make payment as that potentially could screw your credit for a long time.

Munacra

Thank you very much

Anything else I may need to watch out for?

DaySleeper

Part of the lease will be whether or not you pay utilities. For 90% of houses, you will be on your own for gas, water and electricity. This can be sticky amongst friends, particularly if you have one friend who runs an electric heater on 'hi' all winter and you are all splitting the hydro evenly.