quote:

originally posted by M.C.:
[qb] My experience in renting it�s that you �never� receive the deposit back, because the landlord said something about the cleaning , or the paint or some other damage........Once I rented an apartment and ( of course) I hanged some pictures, well, the lady told me that the house was full of holes and she never gave me back the money...The next time I will hang the pictures with cellophan.
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I've already tried that and when I left the flat and took the pictures....well, the painting came after the cellophan!....so big holes in the painting was worse than little holes!!!! However I glued the painting back to the hole with super glue and you couldn't really tell....so I got my deposit back, thank God! (the rest of the flat was in much better condition than when we arived anyway...)
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And never, never...rent an apartment to a lawyer
[/qb]

Actually, I couldn't agree more!!!!!
That's why I say that I'm a lawyer AFTER I sign the contract!....he he he....anyway, I have only had 1 landlord and he tought that I was younger or more stupid that I seemed...so he kind-of-trusted me and almost fainted when he knew the lawyer thing!!!....but I really have to say that most of the lawyers I know are bastards....the rest are pretty nice!!!!

Besitos everyone!

Oh yeah Jer'...the Spanish landlord bastards have gotten me as well..kept the entire deposit because 15 different reasons - happened to me twice. I even had one say "what deposit"?

ok, since it seems there are a lotta suckaaaas like TJGuy and M.C. out there

i know a little way around the losing your deposit dillema. it is as illegal as the landlord ripping you off but take it for what it is worth.

the renter is supposed to give at least 30 days notice to the landlord before leaving so all one needs to do is not pay the last months rent and let the landlord keep the security deposit (usually 1 months rent anyway) for that last month.

this will not exactly put you on good terms with the landlord and it will most definitely not get you a reference for your next rental but it will save you the security deposit.

IMO, you can get a feel for whether the landlord will try to keep your deposit if and when you meet them and from the interaction you have with them over the course of your rental so if you think they will unreasonably keep your deposit, stiff them before they stiff you

they will NOT fight this too much since evicting someone who does not want to leave can take months and they do not want to get into that situation.

if you have a good relationship, have fixed the place up and are leaving it in better shape than when you moved in, you can even ask the landlord if you can use your deposit as the last months rent since money is tight.

saludos,
jer...

oh yeah...one detail...the knucklehead was a madrid cop..........i was sunk

Well I must have freaked out the lady who wanted the big deposit because she never called back or returned my calls! Oh well. Good news is I just signed today on a place where all they wanted was a one-month deposit. Got the keys and I move in tomorrow! Nice to have place to call home after living out of a suitcase for a month.

Thanks again, everyone, for all the great advice.

Hi, Sunny! Very glad to kow you got your place. Well, all's well that ends well! That other lady was sure pushing it. The comunidad is NEVER paid in advance. That's a stupid concept or SMART if you want to charge more. Normally, it's included in the monthly payment you make to her.

By the way, Starwarsfreak I hope you can help a bit. I'm renting something out now and as has been mentioned the contracts are yearly, but if in the middle of the year's contract I decide to leave the place, is that reason for the landlord to keep the deposit even if I give a month's notice? Can she say, since the contract is yearly, I am breaking it by leaving before the end? Thanks.

Hiya Tin!
It depends a lot...actually if you are a "good" tenant and you have a "nice" landlord as long as you warn him/her with one month in advance you get your deposit back...again, the best thing is to ask your landlord directly and put it written on the contract, stating that the refund of the deposit (of course) it depends on the state of the flat when you leave. As a lawyer I tend to be quite "fussy" about stating everything on the contract, even minor faults on the painting o little holes on the walls....just to be on the safe side.

I should have to read the contract to know, as is a private contract and if something "extraordinary" is on the contract the law doesn't apply. You could even have a contract that says that even if you leave you have to pay the whole year (i've seen some of those)...but I don't know.

About the law, if nothing is said on your contract, I can't remember properly what the law said about it, but I think that you have the right to leave when you want (warning one month in advance) as the law protects the tenant more than the landlord. but maybe your landlord has specified that in that case he will keep the deposit. As I said before, the landlord can do anything BEFORE the signing of the contract!!

If you are really interested on what the law says, I could call a lawyer friend who works everyday on those kind of disputes.
hope it helps u!!!
besiiitos

soooooo ogood to have a lawyer on the board

ok, when i took my office here in the puerta del sol, the landlord wanted a 1 year contract.

he was renting it via a real estate agency so i never actually met him but i was not sure how business would go so i told him i would take it on a 6 month contract. it had been empty for a few months and i guess he thought 6 months was better than nothing so he accepted.

the contract stipulated that i had to leave a 2 month security deposit and if i left before the 6 months were up, with 30 days advanced notice, i would get it all back

the real estate agency tried to get me to pay 1 months rent for their finders fee but i also got the landlord to pay that

i consider myself lucky since it is not easy to get a 6 month contract with no panalty for leaving early, in fact, it is next to impossible.

so, there are many diff. possible situations that can arise when taking a place, all depends on what type of contract yoou and the landlord agree upon.

saludos,
jer...

Thaaaaanks, guys! I will check the contract, starwarsfreak!

Hey--hope it's okay to tack this question onto this thread (or should I start another?)

Has anyone out there actually gotten an aval?

I'm wondering how exactly this works, since we don't have anything similar in the US...

--Do you need to have a Spanish bank account to get one?

--If so, does it need to be a resident account?

--Can "cajas" do an aval or does it have to be a commercial bank?

--How long does it usually take to set this up?

quote:

the real estate agency tried to get me to pay 1 months rent for their finders fee but i also got the landlord to pay that

HOW???????

hi Elizabeth, i guess i just got lucky.

it may have been that the office i was interested in renting had been empty for about 3 months so maybe the landlord was desperate.

god knows why, it is an awesome office/location and is sooooooo cheap

i simply told the real estate agent that i was not paying the finder fee but if the landlord paid it, i would take it.

pretty much an ultimatum and it could have backfired on me but it worked in my favor

he (landlord) did get something (aside from an awesome tennant , he got 2 months security deposit from me.

maybe he figured he was asking too much when he wanted 2 months deposit AND me to pay the finder fee.

saludos,
jer...