I sincerely hope that renting is a temporary situation for my family and I, and that one day I might actually achieve my dream of having a charming little cottage in the countryside, but for now it's where we live and that's fine for the time being.
We've made the most of the house we're living in and we treat it with respect, just as we would if it was our own house. We've repainted the rooms, but in neutral colours, as in keeping with how it was when we moved in and we've decorated accordingly, making sure not to tailor it to our own tastes too much.
I do find living in a rental property quite restricting as I've love to have white, bright decor instead of all the natural wood and there's furniture in the house that I really could do without just to have more space, but it's not the end of the world - I'll just have to keep pinning things away on Pinterest for decor inspiration for my future home instead.
We're incredibly lucky in the fact that our landlord is a good one. He doesn't bother us, knowing that we are equally good tenants - trust built up over the last four years of us living here, but if we report any problems or repairs needing to be done, he gets them sorted straight away.
As we've been renting for many years now I thought I'd share my top tips for renters, just things for people looking into renting a property to keep in mind.
1. Don't sign a tenancy agreement until you have read and understood all the information and terms completely. Also, it's important not to sign a tenancy agreement until you're 100% sure that you definitely want to rent the property.
2. Know your rights. Tenants have just as many rights as landlords, if not more and it's important to be clued up on them all, especially if any future problems arise.
3. Pay your rent on time (or before time if you can manage it). This is such an obvious thing but something that gets a lot of tenants into trouble. See your rent as being a bill that HAS to be paid on time every month.
4. Treat the property as if it was your own. This means you treat it as respect and maintain it as you would with a a house/apartment/flat that was your own. This doesn't mean that you have to shell out from our own pocket to maintain the property, just keep it clean and in good order.
5. Establish a good line of communication with your landlord/letting agent. It's better for all parties if you and your landlord/letting agent get along, so establishing a good line of communication from the get go is so important when it comes to renting a property.
6. Let your landlord/letting agent know of any problems/repairs needing done straight away. If you put off reporting any damages or repairs that are needing done to the property, then you could be made liable for them - something which no tenant wants, so reporting them in a timely manner is so important.
HomeLet have put together a very useful infographic, detailing the ins and outs and recent statistics of rental insurance, both from a landlord and tenant point of view. Having insurance is such an important aspect for landlords when it comes to renting out their property, however, it's equally important for tenants as we want to be protected too.
Happy renting!
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