Bantaba Rent
What to check before you pay
Bantaba never holds your deposit and never asks for it. The money goes from you to the landlord, in person, and these are the questions worth asking before it does.
1. See it, and see them
- Stand in the place before you pay anything. Photographs are taken on the best day of the year.
- Meet the landlord or the agent in person, at the property, not at a junction.
- Go in daylight, and go back once in the evening. Water pressure, noise and the road are all different after six.
- Take somebody with you. A second pair of eyes notices the things you will be living with.
2. Check they can actually let it
- Ask who owns it. If the person showing you is not the owner, ask what their arrangement is.
- Ask to see identification, and a document showing the owner's name against the property.
- An agent should give you an agency name and a way to reach the office, not only a phone number.
- Be careful where one phone number is answering for several different names.
3. Understand the money
- Work out the total on the day: the deposit plus the first month, in cash. It is on every listing here.
- Ask exactly what the deposit covers and what would be taken out of it at the end.
- Ask which bills are included. Water and electricity change what a rent really costs.
- Get a receipt for every butut, with the date, the amount, what it was for and a signature.
- Never send money to hold a place you have not stood in. This is the commonest way people are taken.
4. Write it down
- Put the agreement on paper, even between people who know each other. Memory is where disputes come from.
- It should name both of you, the property, the rent, the deposit, the term and the notice period.
- Photograph every room, including the damage, on the day you move in.
- Read the house rules before you sign, not after somebody objects to something.
5. Signs to walk away from
- A rent far below everything else nearby, with a reason why you must decide today.
- Anybody who will not meet you at the property.
- A deposit asked for by transfer before a viewing.
- Photographs that appear on another listing, in another town.
- Pressure. Nobody letting a house honestly needs you to decide in an hour.
What Bantaba does and does not do
- We list places for nothing and take no commission on a let.
- We never hold your deposit and we never ask for it.
- We check who a listing belongs to before it goes up, and we take down what is reported.
- We cannot inspect a property. Only you can do that, and you should.