Renting
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Category: General Chat
Forum Name: General Chat
Forum Description: For mums, dads, parents-to-be, grandparents, friends -- you name it! And you name the topic you want to chat about!
URL: https://www.ohbaby.co.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=39558
Printed Date: 29 August 2025 at 5:16pm
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Topic: Renting
Posted By: Plushie
Subject: Renting
Date Posted: 13 June 2011 at 10:48am
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What are some key things to ask and look for when viewing a property?
I flatted as a student so i have references etc, but my priorities were different back then (and i lived in some real dumps.) All i know is to check that all rooms have powerpoints and ask who will mow the lawns! |
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Posted By: nikkitheknitter
Date Posted: 13 June 2011 at 10:52am
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Fenced property?
Bond and rent in advance? Ask what chattels are included Errmmm... someone else will add to it! |
Posted By: catisla
Date Posted: 13 June 2011 at 10:59am
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smoke alarms
who pays water etc also check out tenancy tribunal on line http://www.tenancytribunal.govt.nz/ - tribunal orders to see if the landlord has had previous problems ------------- |
Posted By: High9
Date Posted: 13 June 2011 at 11:03am
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Check the position of the clothesline (big one for me - no dryer!), is the house warm (MIL said winter and rainy/cold days are good days to view to property to see what it's like). Condition of carpets, walls, ceiling. Smell... We walked into one place and it reeked of air spray stuff and turns out it was a horribly damp and mouldy place and they were trying to 'disguise' it!
I thought LL didn't have to provide smoke alarms? We move into a rental on the 24th of June took almost 2 months to find a decent one! ------------- http://lilypie.com"> 
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Posted By: Plushie
Date Posted: 13 June 2011 at 11:05am
| Oooh good ones, thanks guys. Its through LJ Hooker - i've rented through a different real estate company before and seem to recall they charged 4 weeks rent in advance, 2 weeks bond plus 1 extra weeks rent as their fee - is that normal practice or was it just that company? Because that was a whopper of a payout. |
Posted By: AngieBabe
Date Posted: 13 June 2011 at 11:15am
Defintely check for damp and mould... see if there's an extractor fan in the bathroom and enough towel rails (haha, a little bug bear of mine!). Condition of the oven (seals around the edge/bent front door)... I would also ask/check about the condition of the guttering and when it was last cleared out (my landlord is useless at this, and I get curtains of water pouring over when it rains  ), which reminds me, also if there is a heat pump, check if the outside bit has had any filters cleaned and when.
That's about all I can think to add at this stage - good luck for finding a nice place! ------------- http://lilypie.com" rel="nofollow">  
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Posted By: Babykatnz
Date Posted: 13 June 2011 at 11:24am
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most rental agencies charge 1 weeks rent + GST as their letting fee, 1 or 2 weeks in advance and 3-4 weeks rent as bond. gets very expensive to move! ------------- Brandon - 05/12/2003  
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Posted By: High9
Date Posted: 13 June 2011 at 11:27am
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I think it really depends. Some places don't have a letting fee other's do and it's about 1 weeks rent + GST. But depends if you are going through an agency or privately (ie through TM).
Ours was 4 weeks rent bond + 2 weeks rent in advance + letting fee of 1 weeks rent + GST. Agree about the bits and bobs Angie mentioned! We're lucky our new place was the LLs house so everything is up to scratch! ------------- http://lilypie.com">
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Posted By: High9
Date Posted: 13 June 2011 at 11:28am
Yup, can be very costly! Our weekly rent is $350 and so total move in cost was just over $2500. Ouch! But we got a great place - 3 bedrooms, heat pump and DVS, huge back yard... Sunny, nice neighbourhood, etc  ------------- http://lilypie.com">
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Posted By: High9
Date Posted: 13 June 2011 at 11:29am
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Also ask if anything is included in the rent - for example ours includes the cost of someone coming out to mow the lawns... (Could have done it ourselves though!). ------------- http://lilypie.com">
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Posted By: catisla
Date Posted: 13 June 2011 at 11:58am
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no - landlords don't have to provide smoke alarms, but they're obviously good to have! ------------- |
Posted By: kiwigal
Date Posted: 13 June 2011 at 12:04pm
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We sold our house in Auckland and moved out of the city. We managed to find a place where we can have our two labs which was a huge plus. The place has got a huge gate which is great as it keeps our cars locked away at night, new curtains and carpet and place gets lots of sun. We are only staying here until we eventually build or buy a existing house. |
Posted By: High9
Date Posted: 13 June 2011 at 12:41pm
Of course!  We've just always taken our own with us! ------------- http://lilypie.com">
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catisla wrote:Posted By: Nothing
Date Posted: 13 June 2011 at 12:55pm
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If its got a fire, when the chimney was last cleaned, and if there is any wood there, do you have to leave any if you move out.
Who maintains the gardens- what are you alloweed to do to them. Do they mind if you put a vege garden in. I really love dishwashers. A kitchen that you can block off from little kids, and the rest of the house is easy to baby proof. Fenced back yard. Warm, dry and very sunny. Ask what the neighbours are like. Winz will give you up to $1000 towards a bond, but will only do it once a year- so def talk to them to see if they can help out. ------------- 
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Posted By: _H_
Date Posted: 13 June 2011 at 12:57pm
| Really important one- who to contact when something goes wrong! Our first flat was through a company and we didnt have an after hour contact. Second flat we private and we had his home plus cell phone number |
Posted By: blossombaby
Date Posted: 13 June 2011 at 1:18pm
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we made a list of what we wanted/expected/needed.
We ended up doing witohut a few of them tho .. In wellington/lower hutt it is SO hard to find a rental and some of them are total dumps or very $$ We had said we wanted a modern kitchen (ended up with not so modern - but tidy) I also wanted no carpet - we ended up with half carpet half floorboards! and we also wnated a small section - we have a huge one lol!! But our list included - garage, off st parking, not on main road, wordobes in bedrooms!, sunny/ not dump and a heat pump, sep washing house/laundry! those things i was not prepared to compremise! also wanted new/tidy plain curtains and tidy walls/paint work. I would ask where the landlords are based eg nz/overseas, if you have right to renew lease when it expires, i would expect my landlord to supply smoke alrams after all it is THEIR house, and also if you are alowed to change anything - we took down some shelves, painted dd room and changed her curtains. I guess be prepared to look at lots of duds before you find anything ok! ------------- http://lilypie.com"> 
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Posted By: High9
Date Posted: 13 June 2011 at 1:54pm
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Our LLs going over seas on her OE so we contact our property manager who we got the place with but for us our LL had given the property manager a list of what we could/couldn't do. We aren't allowed to put picture hooks up and can only hang pictures on existing hooks. Can't redecorate in any way. ------------- http://lilypie.com">
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Posted By: fallen
Date Posted: 13 June 2011 at 2:42pm
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How about if the place is insulated. ------------- |
Posted By: Plushie
Date Posted: 13 June 2011 at 3:30pm
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^^ ooh thats a good one!
All excellent, thanks everyone. Might have to make a list. Don't remember asking any hard questions last time, just if there was a fridge big enough for all the beer  .
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Posted By: nikki89
Date Posted: 13 June 2011 at 4:11pm
| Make sure you check out the pressure of the shower too, when I was flatting I didn't even think to consider it....til I ended up in a flat that had a shower that dribbled.. |
Posted By: pudgy
Date Posted: 13 June 2011 at 5:15pm
Def this ^^^^ and make sure all lightswitches and powerpoints work. I'd ask about insulation as well with a wee one. ------------- http://lilypie.com">  http://lilypie.com">
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Posted By: MummyFreckle
Date Posted: 13 June 2011 at 8:06pm
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Also check that they are happy for you to "childproof" ie put locks on cabinets etc....we did this at our last place and obviously removed them all before we left, but still nice to ask. Also check that its okay to use any storage like the attic / under the house. After we moved into our place we discovered that the LL had locked the door to under the house and with no garden shed it means that we have nowhere to store things like lawnmowers / garden stuff etc.
------------- http://lilypie.com">  http://lilypie.com">
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Posted By: sbeach
Date Posted: 13 June 2011 at 8:20pm
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another thing to check if the phone is connected/working. Especially if place is already vacant...I stupidly took it for granted that the phone worked when we bought our house. Costs $250 to fix and get up and running. ------------- http://lilypie.com" rel="nofollow">  http://lilypie.com" rel="nofollow"> 
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Posted By: High9
Date Posted: 13 June 2011 at 9:15pm
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Some good points on this page so far. Agree about storage. The place we are moving to has storage under the house and is filled with the LL's bits and bobs - wood, etc but she isn't moving it and we aren't to touch it either.
Agree about the childproofing, one of the places we looked at - the LL agree to put gates in and locks for cupboards etc but we didn't get the place in the end. Ask about heating and how easy/hard it is to heat or cool in summer. ------------- http://lilypie.com">
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Posted By: MamaT
Date Posted: 13 June 2011 at 9:24pm
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Why the last tenants moved? And how long they were there for?
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Posted By: julz85
Date Posted: 13 June 2011 at 9:34pm
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i dont know what its like where you are but here in chch i avoid property agencys like the plague as i have only ever had negative experiances and i personally find going private to be alot cheaper and so much easier to contact if something goes wrong altho i guess it completly depends on the landlords you get , for example when i moved into my current house my bond was $1000- cheap as chips compared to a bond through an agency, my bond at the new rental im moving into next month is just $1400 and the rent is a hell of alot cheaper than other houses around the same same area too so i would suggest to have a look privately too (trademe or paper) as you may be able to find a wee gem and not have to pay as much to get in . Im getting a 3 bedroomed warm , insulated brick house with a heat pump , nice modern kitchen with all new stainless steel apliances,near new carpet throughout with beautiful polished wooden floors in kitchen and dining , plus freshly painted nutral colours, massive fenced backyard plus a one roomed sleepout for $335 a week and anything else round the same through agencys is like $370-400 minumum . i guess its a game of luck too tho . My cousin recently moved to an area down the road and got a house not nearly as nice and alot smaller and her rent is $360 and her bond was $2500! needless to say she was a bit miffed lol
also someone else mentioned the phone- thats a good one! i work for telecom and deal with all the new connections and moves and we are forever getting people that have rented a place and then find out afterwards that the phone has never been connected and this by law is actually something the landlord does not need to supply so we get people needing a brand new connection which ranges anywhere from $160-$600 (area dependant- rural is alot more than city) plus jackpoints installed if you need them . another thing to do is make sure a house you are looking at is capable of getting broadband (if you need/want broadband) because there are still areas in nz that either cant get it or have a full exchange with no internet ports available and you will ussualy find that if one provider doesnt supply it then another wont be able to either as just about all providers now share the same network so its equal for all providers (im talking about standard fixed line broadband ) ------------- http://lilypie.com">  
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Posted By: blossombaby
Date Posted: 13 June 2011 at 10:03pm
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we did the testing of the shower trick ..
also think of the hosue with your furniture not their we looked at a couple of nice enoguh houses but the tenents currently in them didn't have it very well "presented???" ------------- http://lilypie.com">
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Posted By: Plushie
Date Posted: 14 June 2011 at 8:09am
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This is brilliant, but who knew it was so complicated! Would never have thought about asking about kiddie proofing..
Does anyone know if they have to replace the locks with a new tennent? Every other place i've lived they've just done it like standard and its my preference (never know who has a key!) |
Posted By: ....
Date Posted: 14 June 2011 at 9:03am
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Yes, they should replace the locks, but you'll have to ask.
In my experience, LJ Hooker (Timaru, at least) really suck. I used to be in that huge flat on Latter Street, I was there for about two years and in that time they tried to increase rent from $300 to $500 with no improvements to the place whatsoever. They also take weeks (sometimes months) to fix anything (or expect you to do it), are either very late or don't even show up for inspections, and halfway through our time there they tried to make us renegotiate our lease so they'd get an extra lot of their fee. I would never go with LJ again. Find out what the area and neighbours are like. There are loads of decent places around, but come night time or the weekend it's party central. Ask the neighbours about the area once the land agent leaves, as they either never know, or are dishonest. If there is a garage or shed make sure there aren't 'left overs' from the owner or last tenants, and have them clear it out. Check the grounds, make sure it is in decent nick, if there is litter, weeds, long grass have them fix it up before you move in, same with inside the house, needs to be clean and tidy, carpets clean as sparking clean is the condition that you're going to be expected to leave it in. Definitely check the shower! Nothing can ruin your day more than a drippy, cold shower. |
Posted By: High9
Date Posted: 14 June 2011 at 10:37am
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Nope they don't have to replace the locks... Most agencies generally ask that you return ALL keys including any duplicate keys you've made etc. What would be the point in keeping the keys ?? (I can obviously think some people would though). If it really concerned you though, tbh I couldn't see most landlords willing to change the locks each time they got a new tenant, that would get costly but perhaps you could offer to pay...
Ask them what they expect of you as a tenant as well... Our new LL has given us a list of what they expect us to do... Which tbh is stuff you should be doing anyway!  ------------- http://lilypie.com">
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