Property on Hua Hin Today

A Basic Explainer of Apartment Leases/Rental Agreements

The apartment lease or agreement is meant to protect both you and the landlord, by setting down your obligations to each other. Therefore, before you sign the apartment lease, please read all the fine print! It is your right and in your best interest to negotiate any of the terms you are uncomfortable with!

Below you will find the most common clauses and information you are likely to run into and what they mean.

The Basics: Must be Included
For your protection, check that the following pieces of information are listed on the lease or agreement, and if not, insist that they be included.

- All the names of the prospective tenants and the name of the landlord
- The address of the apartment that is being rented
- The amount of rent
- The amount of the security deposit
- For leases - the length of time that the lease will be active. This means that the tenant cannot evacuate the apartment and the landlord cannot rent this property to another party before the end of the duration without consequences.
- For month-to-month rental agreements, the document should stipulate that it is month-to-month and the amount of notice which must be given to either party should the tenant decide to move or the landlord decide to rent it to someone else.
- The start and end date
- All the tenants and the landlord must sign the lease (in some situations, only one person may sign the lease as the official tenant and then choose to sublease any additional rooms).

Additional Clauses:
- Policy on pets - can specify what kind of pets are allowable.
- Consequences of late rent payment.
- Services the landlord will be sure to supply, such as heat, hot and cold water.
- Policy on altering the apartment, such as painting, wallpapering, adding walls, railing, etc.
- Policy on subleasing - not all landlords allow you to sublease, or sublet, the apartment.
- Policy on repairs - what to do if something breaks and the conditions upon which a landlord will fix it. For example, if you wait too long to report it, and the damage is costly because of it, the lease may stipulate that you are required to pay for part of the repairs.
- Policy on renter�s insurance - some landlords require you to buy renters insurance.

Riders:
Many management companies use a standard lease for all their apartments, which they modify by tacking on "riders." These are basically amendments to specific clauses in the standard lease and/or additional clauses not mentioned in the lease.

As you see, a lease or agreement can contain many specifications on exactly what you and the landlord may or may not be allowed to do and the procedure to follow should various situations arise.

Source: About.com