Young tenants told about the problems they faced when renting their first apartments
According to the National Center for Financial Research (NAFI), almost one in ten Russians rents housing. Among the renters of apartments and rooms there are many young people aged 18 to 24 years. This age group includes undergraduate and graduate students, as well as graduate students, many of whom leave their hometowns to study in metropolitan areas or large regional centers. We understand what they have to face in the rental housing market.
Sergei, rented a room on Leninsky Prospekt
In the summer of 2015, Sergey graduated from the Yaroslavl State Technical University (YaGTU) with a degree in Management on Technical Systems. The young man decided that he wanted to continue his studies in the magistracy. In his hometown, there seemed to be no prospect of getting such an education. Sergei decided that he would try to enter Moscow, and thought about housing. The choice was between a hostel, an apartment for relatives and renting a room, but I didn't have to think long.
“Relatives complained that they had problems, there was no place, and the dog got sick in general,” Sergey laughs. - Nothing was clear about the hostel. Usually, there are not many places for masters, and this was a risky option. In addition, the university and the city are new for me. Everything was conducive to renting an apartment ”.
Through friends, Sergei was offered to move into the room. Neighbor - retired, small business owner. A two-room apartment on Leninsky Prospekt. Price - below market, 10-12 thousand per month. Just in case, having looked at the ads on the Internet, Sergei decided that he would not be able to find anything better in the near future, and moved.
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The apartment was located in a Stalinist building, and the rooms should have been spacious, but there was a critical lack of space for the student. The landlord allocated a room, which turned out to be crammed with Soviet furniture and cluttered with old things. It was probably the dirtiest dwelling in his memory, Sergey admits. He could not throw something away or clean the room freely - those were the rules. Valuable and rare, according to the landlord, furniture could not be moved without permission, and even more so, put dishes on it.
“I was allocated limited space. Things had to be brought into the room according to the seasons, they did not fit into the closet and hung outside. There was a table and a bookcase - in short, uncomfortable, ”he describes the conditions in which he found himself.
The tenants concluded the contract between themselves orally. They managed to agree on something: after 24 hours they agreed to listen to music or watch movies only with headphones. However, conflicts did occur and were invariably accompanied by threats of "revision of the terms of the contract" or eviction from the side of the pensioner.
“I was told: in two days with my things - to the street,” recalls Sergei. "And I sat in a panic and did not know what to do."
Sergei recommends that students who are looking for an apartment write down the conditions of cohabitation on paper - this will help to defend their innocence during a dispute when the tenant is in a knowingly vulnerable position.
Otherwise, he runs the risk of being in terrible conditions. Sergei warns that it is problematic to get off the ground, find new housing and move in the middle of the school year.
Zarina, rented a kopeck piece with her friends in Yaroslavl
In 2015, Zarina Israilova and three of her classmates graduated from school in Rostov. In the second half of August, they realized that they would continue their studies in Yaroslavl, and together they decided to look for a two-room apartment. The girls wanted to save their parents' money. Very often, upon learning that the girls were going to live together, the landlords refused their friends. “I don’t know whether stereotypes about young people, or bitter experience,” smiles Zarina.
The company of applicants tried to find an apartment on one of the resources for finding housing. Unsuccessfully: local advertisements offered to move into the "killed" dwellings without any decent repairs. Often, against the background of general disorder, the wall was decorated with plasma - obviously, the main advantage of housing, according to landlords.
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In the end, the friends still managed to find a suitable option. Even if not with the best repair, but with excellent owners. According to Zarina, the couple lived in the neighborhood, they were always ready to help if something broke, and they took all the accompanying expenses.
“Everything was human. They didn’t come to the apartment if we weren’t at home. It made me very happy, ”says the girl. Nevertheless, the students stayed in the apartment for a year, and the next they decided to look for another.
Hoping to find a better option, Zarina and her mother turned to a realtor. The apartments offered by the office hardly differed from those that Zarina and her friends had seen in the year they were admitted. It so happened that the tenants
By surprise, they found out that they were in the database of a real estate company.
Problems soon began. The landlord came to the apartment while the students were not at home, or did not warn about their visits. He refused to help and each time blamed the residents for the breakdowns of household appliances or furniture. In the middle of the second semester, the owner sold the apartment, and the girls had to urgently look for a new one.
Don't be lazy. It is better to describe or record the state of all valuable things in the apartment, advises Zarina.
Repairing equipment or replacing furniture can be expensive - and try to prove that you didn't ruin things.
Sergey, rented a cold apartment without Internet access
In the fall of 2016, Sergei was expelled from the 4th year of St. Petersburg State University. Then he was told that he could no longer live in the hostel, and after a while he would have to move out. I didn't want to go back to his hometown, and Sergey decided to urgently find an apartment.
As luck would have it, it didn't work out with landlords. It so happened that a former student came to look at the apartment, called the owner and in response he heard: "Oh, we have already rented out the apartment." Most annoying, he complains, the good options in St. Petersburg were located far from the center - for example, in the area of Devyatkino and Begovaya stations.
“The situation was further complicated by the fact that I worked 40 hours a week. He lived in a university hostel, which is far from the city. I didn't have time to travel, ”says Sergei.
One day the owners asked me to bring my student's record book to see my grades at the university. I refused.
There was less and less time left before the eviction from the hostel. Sergei had to lower the bar - and the apartment was found within a week. Housing was rented out by a 50-year-old woman who demanded 30 thousand rubles a month for rent and payment of utility bills from above. She took the same amount as collateral.
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It was not the best option possible: closer to the beginning of winter, the rooms became cold, says Sergei, the old wooden windows did not protect from the wind, and the batteries did not heat.
The apartment also did not have a modern internet cable. Sergei had to use DSL Internet, which worked through a telephone wire. “Since I was placing orders remotely back then, the low speed got in the way and made the working day a pain,” he admits.
If the rented accommodation has old wooden window frames, you will probably chill to the bones during the cold season, so check if the apartment has plastic windows, advises Sergey.
And he adds: "To prevent it from happening that you have been rented out housing with a debt of 100 thousand rubles, be sure to look at the receipts for payment of utilities."
Pavel, rented an empty apartment with thin walls
Pavel decided to leave his parents immediately, as soon as he got a permanent job and decent money. The main thing, he thought, was to start life separately from the family. I was looking for housing on one of the resources, not too legibly, as luck would have it: I got to the owners, then to the realtors.
“I never understood why realtors don't care about their duties,” says Pavel. "Their faces are always gloomy, they themselves are taciturn and irritated in response to clarifying questions."
In a few months he had to change housing three times. Once Pavel was unlucky enough to move into an empty apartment, for which he had to pay 10 thousand rubles.
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There was nothing in it - just a sofa, an armchair and a table. The water was heated from a gas column, so it was impossible to take a bath and not get burned. Moreover: there was no internet in the apartment. And since there was only one provider in the region, it was also impossible to quickly connect it. "They put me in line and wished me a good mood!" - Pavel recalls.
However, this was not even the worst of all: the apartment had excellent audibility. During the day, Pavel was rarely at home, but at night he heard absolutely everything - conversations on Skype, music, TV.
He laughs: “Sometimes I said“ be healthy ”from the bedroom, and from the bathroom they immediately answered“ thank you ”. I can't even call it an apartment. I moved out of this gallery, where I listened to the neighbors all night, and they listened to me. " The landlords just wished them luck in the end.
When choosing housing, Pasha advises to be sure to communicate with neighbors - to find out how they sleep at night and what kind of person is renting an apartment.
At worst, you can ask, he notes, how quickly the previous tenants fled.