{"id":4622,"date":"2017-01-05T15:07:44","date_gmt":"2017-01-05T20:07:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/content-manager\/?p=4622"},"modified":"2023-07-24T13:51:18","modified_gmt":"2023-07-24T17:51:18","slug":"7-warning-signs-of-a-bad-place-to-rent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/7-warning-signs-of-a-bad-place-to-rent\/","title":{"rendered":"7 Warning Signs of a Bad Place to Rent"},"content":{"rendered":"
New York City<\/a> renters! Please be careful<\/a> when you’re signing away a year of your life and thousands of dollars on a new apartment. Leases signed without thinking and in a hurry tend to be way worse decisions than they appear at the time. Admirable human traits like youth and wide-eyed trust in the world make inexperienced renters not ask really important questions before losing money, time, and sanity. Because we care, we’re going to give you a checklist of 7 warning signs you shouldn’t dismiss.<\/p>\n Landlords with undesirable units and scam artists pull this stunt. They’ll tell you “Oh, this is our model apartment, the one you’re renting will look just like this!” Even if that were true, which it often isn’t, they have definitely not been identically <\/span>damaged<\/span><\/i> over the years.<\/span><\/p>\n Before renting an apartment, call their maintenance or landlord number and see if it’s possible to get connected to an actual human. Some landlords are sweet to your face\u00a0but are <\/span>literally<\/span><\/i> impossible to reach by phone. Some\u00a0people might be unfortunate enough to land in a situation without once getting through to the landlord over the phone.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It’s always important to spend a few minutes checking out the utilities<\/a> yourself on any apartment or house as landlords can and will grossly exaggerate the quality of their facilities. At the very minimum, you need to get an assessment of the air conditioner, turn all of the lights on\/off, run all water taps for a few minutes, and check how badly the house echoes when you shut doors.<\/span><\/p>\n This might be oddly specific, but the landlord of every apartment or house that will turn out to be a car crash of a living situation says this. If they have really ridiculously low standards for who they want living there, you absolutely should not expect to receive such red-carpet treatment as “functioning water” and “doors that lock,” you spoiled brat.<\/span><\/p>\n This one requires you to get a lawyer to look over your lease, but you should probably do that no matter how good you think the place is. If a Florida landlord has in their lease that he could sell the property at any time and force you to vacate at will, which is completely ridiculous, they are disorganized and dishonest. Don’t forget, you have rights too.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This is an insidious lie that a landlord will tell an inexperienced and trusting tenant. They’ll typically pull this out to get them to move into a hard-to-rent and undesirable property. If a landlord truly cares about the quality of a place, they’ll fix it <\/span>before<\/span><\/i> signing a lease. When a landlord tells you, “we’ll fix the door and the pipes after you’ve legally bound yourself here for a year” run far and fast. The apartment you tour is the best condition that you’ll get, unless they complete the work prior to your lease signing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n1. They won’t let you see the actual unit you’re renting<\/h2>\n
2. It’s impossible to get maintenance on the phone<\/h2>\n
3. The utilities don’t work<\/h2>\n
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4. They tell you “Short of murder, they’ll approve anyone”<\/h2>\n
5. They use a lease with items that can’t actually be legally enforced<\/h2>\n
6. They’ve promised to do a lot of work “after you’ve moved in”<\/h2>\n
7. It doesn’t feel right<\/h2>\n