As a tenant, the most important thing to know is that the landlord will take care of any repairs or problems with the property right away.

Before you sign your lease, make sure it spells out what the landlord is responsible for. We know that your landlord is responsible for structural damage and, since he owns his property, he will probably do so fairly quickly. But he also has to put in his lease that he is responsible for heat, air conditioning, gas, refrigerator, oven, plumbing, carpeting, or flooring, whatever it has, and if your property comes with a washer, dryer, dishwasher, or anything else that can break and needs to be fixed or replaced, and that part should also be in the lease, that your landlord should be responsible for repairing or replacing any of these things, that that has that be on the lease too. It should also stipulate how much time the landlord has to make those repairs. Make sure you have everything in writing.

Recently, there was a news story about a slum lord in the United States who owned some 350 properties that were in deplorable condition. They were dangerous to live in and the landlord kept saying he would do the repairs and never did and eventually the city took him to court. The judge in all his wisdom found him guilty and sentenced him to live for a few months in one of those dilapidated units, while his mansion that he actually owns was left empty. So for the next few months he will be under house arrest with electronic surveillance that does not allow him to leave his apartment. That doesn’t happen very often. So, to protect himself, he should have in writing what the waiting period is between the time he reports a fault and the time he comes to fix it.

First of all, try to find a property that appears to be in good condition; if possible, one that is newer and already has a good heating/cooling system, a good kitchen and bathroom. This isn’t always a guarantee that new appliances won’t break, but at least it gives you a fighting chance that you won’t have to keep calling your landlord or property agent every three days to fix something else.

In the current economic downturn, with more properties than ever on the market for rent, it’s not so easy to find good tenants. So you may be able to get a reduction in rent, negotiate agent fees, and ask for more things, for example, lawn service. Many landlords will paint the place before trying to rent it out, but for those who don’t, you can negotiate where you buy the paint and they provide the labor. Too often, the landlord would rather buy the paint and have you spend your money on labor, because the labor costs so much more than the paint. So if you are negotiating, try to negotiate that he will provide the labor and you will provide the paint.

But let’s start negotiations before the landlord. Let’s start negotiations with the real estate agent or management company. Try to negotiate that these fees are charged by the landlord and not by you. If it’s too hard a sale, try negotiating a 50/50 split. After all, in this down economy, homeowners don’t want to have a property that sits empty. If the management company is charging two weeks’ rent in advance, you may be able to make the landlord pay for one week and you will pay for one week. In some countries, tenants have to pay inspection fees every three to six months; that should be the owner’s responsibility. This is your property. Anything the landlord has as part of his property, those expenses should be yours. If he wants to put curtains on his windows, it’s his responsibility. If the floor begins to sag, it is the owner’s responsibility. But if you plan to live in that property for a long period of time, I suggest you treat the property as if it were your own. Don’t make unreasonable demands on your landlord so that when you have real problems that need to be addressed, he may be more willing to respond quickly and make those repairs right away.

Changing locks after a tenant leaves and before a new tenant arrives can be one of those negotiable things. It is not necessarily the owner’s responsibility. He would be within his rights to say, the locks work perfectly fine, just like the appliances work perfectly fine, if you have a problem with security, that’s your problem, not mine. That is one of the things you may want to negotiate with the management company or the owner directly. A colleague of mine had a terrible experience recently when she had just moved into her new property. She was getting out of the shower and a strange man appeared in the hallway. It turned out that he was the previous tenant who still had the keys to his house and wanted to collect a plant. In his case, he was lucky to be able to negotiate with the management company to have the landlord replace the locks, while someone in the US was asleep at the time his new landlord used his key to get in. to the house. There was no negotiation there. He had to pay to change the locks.

To sum up:

– make sure the landlord’s responsibilities for repairs and replacements are clearly written in your rental agreement.

– try to negotiate everything from agent fees, inspection fees, changing locks and any extras you can think of.