For newcomers in Australia, the first headache is renting. Renting a comfortable room will affect your work, study and life for a long time. Even if you have professional rental experience in China, there are many key points to familiarize yourself with when you first come to Australia.
Rent a house at a Chinese forum
For our native Chinese speakers, we must be more accustomed to Chinese browsing and communication, so many of our newcomers to Australia will choose to rent or co-rent at a larger Chinese forum.
More than half of the rental information on Chinese forums is released by landlords (second landlords), and the element of luck is very important at this time. Like falling in love, everyone is happy to meet the opposite eye, but to meet the wrong eye, it is very painful.
Good landlord, do not say, must be obedient, bad landlord can be bad to what extent?
For example, the deposit is called Bond Gold in Australia. In Australian law, the landlord can only charge no more than two months' rent as the Bond gold. This is mainly a case where the equipment grade of the house is high, new and old, and so on. When I first came to Australia, Renting a shabby co-tenancy, the bond gold landlord took two weeks. Meet a bad landlord, know that you just came to Australia do not know the situation, may be a higher income.
Another example is disagreements, some landlords live very carefully, rented out, always worried that you "ill-treated", so three or less 05:00 will come to see, and then tell your life. The most troubling is to meet those smiling, courteous, let you angry and not angry, but really affect your normal life.
In addition to some of the above questions, there is one more important. In the Chinese forum because most are landlords or two landlords rent their own housing, so the relevant rental procedures are not very perfect. I also knew a friend who told me that he had rented a second landlord's house, paid Bond money and was driven away by the landlord less than a week later because the second landlord himself was in arrears with the rent, or the lease had arrived. This time often two landlords can not find, Bond gold and rent must be gone.
I have not filed a lawsuit, I do not know if this situation can be sued, but in any case, this is also a troublesome matter, especially in non-native-speaking countries, the communication is even more troublesome. So let's take good care of ourselves in advance.
If you are worried about being cheated, it is relatively safe to find an intermediary rental house. So what issues do we need to pay attention to when looking for an intermediary?
1. Prepare all the required materials for the application
Most intermediary companies use the 1form website to process rental applications. Now you are rarely asked to fill out forms. When applying, you are required to upload a variety of documents: passport (medical insurance card), driver's license, and previous address certificate. Bank deposit records, (Bank Statement), work certificates, etc., are necessary to show your current financial situation. If you are a family member and a student in school, you must write a letter asking your parents to sign up to cover your living expenses. The more money the bank records, the better. After all, agents and landlords are also afraid of renting their homes to people who can't afford to pay continuously, so your financial condition is a prerequisite for consideration.
2. When you look at the room, ask the agent for "Property Inspection Code."
Don't be surprised why this should also be reminded, because when you go home and submit your application to the final step, you will collapse if you find that you need this "Inspection Code" to complete! This "Inspection Code" is not available online, and the number of each agency is different. Remember to ask the agent who showed you the same day before finishing the house, usually on a note, or by text message and e-mail.
3. Don't believe in the pictures. You must look at the house yourself.
I believe that in daily life, we are all photo to deceive feelings, the so-called seller show and the difference between the buyer show. The same is true of renting a house in Australia. Don't be deceived by the beautiful house in the picture. It could be a dilapidated house. Through the intermediary rental, most of them rent a year, so you must go to the scene to see the house in person, do not because of a moment of laziness and let their year is not happy. Some houses allow you to apply without looking at the house, especially a broken house.
Don't go outside, make an online reservation before you look at the house. This is not one of the most important things in front of the house. There is no first-come-first-look rule in Australia. If you don't register, you need to wait until they have finished processing all the registered people to you. When it comes to popular houses, you may need to wait for dozens of people to read them, so don't waste more time waiting for other contractors to see them because you're lazy, lazy to spend a few minutes making an appointment online.
In addition, we should remind you to consider clearly before renting a house. Australia's contract is very serious after it has been signed. If there are some things that need to be refunded in advance, I am sorry to say that the deposit will not be refunded, if the contract is signed one year after the signing of the contract is one year. The landlord also has the right to pursue other losses caused by your default, even if you find him the next home willing to take over the house, depends on whether the landlord is willing to rent it to him, and if the landlord does not want it, you will still breach the contract. So you must be careful before signing a contract.
4. All the facilities must be seen and asked clearly.
For the house, but not just look good-looking, a variety of facilities is the most critical. After all, if you have to stay here for at least a year, if the facilities are broken or the use is not convenient, it is a very painful thing, like wearing a pair of shoes that do not fit your feet, what if it is beautiful? Facilities include household appliances, storage space, bathroom kitchen, mailbox, parking garage, if there is a garden, including how to maintain the garden.
After looking at the house, be sure to keep a good record, including the advantages and disadvantages of the house, if you can remind the photo better. We often look at many apartments at the same time, waiting for one or two of them to call you to tell you that you have successfully applied for a rental, and maybe you forget what the house looks like. Of course, you can choose to see the house again, anyway, if you can not know what you are going to sign the house, do not lightly sign the contract.
Although you have problems with staying in, you can contact an intermediary to handle it, but you know that Australians are "very efficient" at work! It's too much trouble for you to email, call, maybe take a photo certificate or something. So it is safe to confirm all the situation of the house before signing the contract!
If you have just arrived in Australia and do not know where to find an intermediary to look at the house, the following rental sites can help you, this can see all the intermediary rental houses
- Real Estate, official site: https://www.realestate.com.au/rent
- Domain, official site: https://www.domain.com.au/?mode=rent
- Rent.com.au, official site: https://www.rent.com.au
- If you want to find share house or roommates, and want to live with foreigners and practice English, you can go to Flatmates to check it out, official website: https://flatmates.com.au
Hope to help you have just come to Melbourne, I wish you all a smooth rental of a good room!
In addition, I need to point out separately about Bond King. I rented a house in Australia, paid $2000 in bond, and still haven't collected it for years.
Many intermediary companies will ask you to pay Bond gold to an independent company, not to the landlord! You will get a Bond gold contract, this contract is very important and must be collected, because when you check out, if you do not have this contract, maybe Bond gold will not be given. I just lost the contract because of the mess of the move. When I checked out, the landlord said very well and would give you Bond King! So I am still normal to ask someone to clean up, hand over and check out the room. After a few months of Bond gold, the landlord turned his face, saying there was no contract, he had no way, or go to court.
Of course, you have a contract, there are a lot of traps will let the landlord withhold your Bond gold, such as your check-out hygiene, ah, broken equipment needs to be repaired ah, the loss of things in the room ah, and so on. So you want to remind your rental friends to take pictures before they check in, and leave behind evidence that they won't get away with it.
