How can Australian students prevent renting houses from being cheated?

Everyone goes overseas to study in Australia, and most people need to rent a house. Of course, there are a few people who don't need to worry about this trouble:

1. There may be relatives and friends abroad, so you can stay directly;

2. Maybe the family bought a house and went to live directly. Oh, this classmate, shall we meet?

)

Several Australian natives I know as real estate agents say that China people are so rich! Although several people don't know each other, they all have similar experiences-China customers buy houses in full, some buy several sets, and some use cash directly.

For those who buy several suites, I didn't quite understand it at first. I think an international student doesn't need to buy several suites even if he has money at home.

Later, it was found that they sold the house after graduation, and the price was much higher than the original price. Plus the income from renting vacant rooms during school, it is actually a very profitable investment.

So qualified partners may wish to consider it. Moreover, the investment threshold for buying a house in Australia is low and the policy is more favorable. Instead of buying a luxury house, we buy a house rationally for the purpose of investment.

Of course, a poor man like me can only choose to rent a house silently. ...

Around my house

Today, I will give you some references based on my personal rental experience, including how to find a house, how to pay rent and deposit, how to deal with black-hearted landlords and so on.

At present, I am studying at the University of Queensland. Two months before I went abroad, I started looking for a house online. I finally negotiated with my current landlord through email and Facebook/Messenger. The deposit is four weeks' rent, and I signed a one-year contract. The rent includes all bills.

After getting off the plane, I went straight to the motorcycle I had made an appointment with the school. Free shuttle service can be reserved on the website of the University of Queensland, which saves the trouble of calculating the taxi fare and worries about the driver's tricks. School services are safe, convenient, punctual, comfortable and free. Other universities should have similar services.

Get to the point, the following detailed analysis of various matters needing attention in renting a house:

1. How to find a house

If you make an appointment to live together before going abroad, you can rent the whole house and live with people you are familiar with, which will make you feel more at ease. Generally, the whole rented house needs to bear the daily expenses such as water and electricity network.

If you choose the whole rent, you can find an intermediary, so as to ensure that it is a formal rental contract and the legitimate rights and interests are guaranteed. Several large intermediaries in Australia, including Ray White and LJ Hooker, can also search for suitable houses on the website of realestate (as shown below).

Students who rent a house alone can search on the school website. The University of Queensland where I study has a special rental website uqrentals. I used to rent a house on this website. My three roommates are a Turkish girl, an Australian girl and a China girl (shy, taking a language class, not very confident about their English).

We often encourage her, but it doesn't have much effect. We didn't realize that we had an English environment until we moved away, but we didn't use it effectively. So if your roommate is not from China, practice speaking and listening boldly. Remember what I said before, take the first step bravely.

UQ rental

In addition, you can also search directly on flatmate.com and facebook, which is more suitable for students who want to live with students from other countries, because there are not many China people renting houses in these places, and most of the time they share them with non-China people.

If you want to live with China people, you can pay attention to some Weibo (for students in Brisbane, we recommend "Universal Pudding") or micro signals. They will release rental information, idle items, job hunting, and ask various questions. As long as it's not a commercial, it's free. I use it when I need it, and it works well every time.

Easy sauce:

For the information on the internet, everyone should learn to identify it! Some students have been cheated before, so try not to pay before seeing the house. You don't know who's on the other end of the phone and what kind of thoughts you have.

2. How to calculate the rent and how much is it?

My kitchen

Rent in Australia is settled on a weekly basis, and the rent price is naturally related to the living conditions. Generally speaking, several people share a house, and the price of each room is about 150-250 dollars, which fluctuates according to the location and room type (single room, double room, master bedroom), but living in the suburbs is mostly cheaper than living near the shopping center or downtown (except the school district room).

Moreover, there are many apartment buildings in the city center, and the houses shared nearby are relatively old (Brisbane is commonly known as queeslander), and the living conditions are not ideal. The price of apartments is relatively high. Several people share an apartment, and the price of each room is about 200-350 dollars.

The advantages of the apartment are: good supporting facilities, high safety factor (neighbors are usually office workers or students, the background is not very complicated, there is monitoring in the building, and some apartments have people working at the front desk 24 hours a day) and convenient transportation (generally near the bustling shopping center, the bus frequency is more frequent).

In addition to sharing, you can also rent a unit or an apartment with one room, one living room and one bathroom, which is suitable for students who like to be alone.

My bedroom

When you sign a contract, don't just look at the money, you must pay attention to:

Is the room furnished?

Some houses say they are fully furnished, but the details will be said except for the bedroom. In this case, all kinds of electrical appliances are available except the bedroom you want to rent.

You need to communicate seriously. Some landlords can provide mattresses or some very simple furniture, and some landlords just tell you that it's up to you. If you want to live, you need to consider buying furniture.

Does the rent include the bill?

Some advertisements say that bills are included, but xx bills are split monthly/quarterly, so you need to consider expenses other than rent. Some directly say that the hydropower network is included.

In this case, please confirm whether you pay the rent every week, and there is no extra charge, because some houses may have swimming pool maintenance fee, gardening fee, gas fee and so on besides the water and electricity network.

3. Will it waste water to move the deposit in advance?

living room

The normal rental deposit in Australia is 2-4 weeks' rent. Of course, there are cases where there is no deposit. Don't judge whether the rental contract is standardized by the amount of deposit. Although most homeowners who don't charge the deposit rent their houses privately (this behavior is not standardized in itself), it is convenient for both owners and tenants, and there are not too many constraints. If you want to move out, you can inform the owner a few weeks in advance, but there are also formal rental contracts that stipulate that no deposit is charged.

Therefore, before signing the contract, you can go to the website of Australia's rental management agency RTA (as shown below), or inquire whether the owner is registered in RTA lodge bond (that is, formally registered in RTA) by telephone. It is faster to make a phone call and the email reply time is longer.

If there is no lodge bond, even if the tenant unilaterally breaks the contract and wants to move out early, the landlord has no right to detain the deposit.

RTA official website

Some "black-hearted" landlords in Australia, seeing that international students don't know how to bend, make students feel that the lease is a formal legal contract, and it is normal to break it and leave a deposit. Many people I know have left their first deposit in Australia in this way.

In fact, the lack of lodge bond is definitely illegal. Most landlords in China and some local landlords still do this. In this case, the lease signed by everyone is not formal. If we move out early, we can ask for a refund of the deposit. If the landlord forcibly detains the deposit, the tenant can apply to RTA for investigation, explain the situation by phone or email, and they will send you the corresponding application form. You can fill in and submit it, and the acceptance period is about one month or more.

balcony

The house where I used to live was not very convenient for transportation. At the time of renting, the landlord said that there was a bus nearby, but one usually ran at 1 hour and one at 8: 00 a.m. and 7: 00 p.m., which was basically useless.

Besides, I haven't arrived at school yet. You have to change trains to go to school, so you have to walk to school for 5-60 minutes. So I told the landlord to move out early, and the landlord said that the deposit would not be refunded. I went to RTA to verify that the landlord didn't have a lodge bond, and then I agreed to refund the deposit immediately after consulting with the landlord.

Remind students that it is one thing to confirm whether there is a bus around the house, and it is more important to confirm the bus frequency! (You can communicate with mobile apps such as google, tanslink, moovit, etc.).

Place of residence

The behavior of renting a house without permission is not standardized. If you apply to RTA for investigation, the landlord will face greater trouble. If you encounter a stubborn landlord, the tenant can directly apply for investigation and follow up the corresponding legal procedures. Although it takes time, we should also safeguard our legitimate rights and interests and avoid unnecessary losses.

RTA has many detailed regulations, so you can have a good look. It's good to live in peace. When you meet a rogue landlord, you can use what you observe as a bargaining chip to ensure that you won't suffer too much.

In short, when looking for a house, everyone must pay more attention to it, leave all their troubles before moving, and avoid moving in advance or breaking the contract if they are not satisfied after moving in, thus adding extra burden to themselves. I hope to share so many rental experiences for the time being and help everyone!