Real Estate Matters | The Definitive Guide For Tenants Part 2 Securing Your Home

Juliet Risdon

Juliet Risdon is a Director of JML Property and a property investor.
Having been established in 1994, JML Property offers Investment Property & Homes. It specializes in managing properties for owners and investors, and providing attractive and comfortable homes for tenants.

The Yearly Guide For Renting A Home:
Last week we looked at how to find a property. This week we look at what you have to do to make it yours!
The process is broken into three sections:

Deposits
Fees
Documentation

Deposits:
Two month’s security deposit is normal when renting an apartment.

To secure and hold the apartment for a short period of time, you would usually pay one month’s deposit immediately. The second half of the deposit can be paid later to make up the two months security deposit.
You will also be required to pay the current months’ rent in advance.
For some owners this means a whole month, and for others the remaining part of the month (from the move in date to the end of the month).
Combined with the agency fee (detailed below), securing an apartment will require the equivalent of four month’s rent.
Usually you will not be handed the keys of the apartment or allowed access until all fees are paid and the correct documentation process is completed.
A point to note is that if you return the apartment in the same condition in which you entered, the two-month security deposit should be returned to you at the end of the Tenancy Agreement.

Fees:
If you have used an agent to find the property and accompany you on viewings, you will have an agency fee to pay prior moving in to the apartment.
In most cases the agency fee is the equivalent of one month’s rent. Some agencies charge more, and you may find ‘discount’ agents eager to close a deal that will consider a lower fee. Most credible full service agents will charge the one month fee.

Documentation:
There are three types of documentation in these transactions.
Firstly the documentation you need to PROVIDE as a tenant, secondly the documentation you need to SIGN, and lastly the documentation you need to RECEIVE.

Documentation to PROVIDE:
Copy of your passport or Macau ID
A copy of your employment contract or letter confirming employment
A copy of your Blue Card or Blue Card receipt
Sometimes references are requested

Documentation to SIGN:
Three copies of the tenancy agreement

Documentation to RECEIVE:
An invoice for all of the money that is being charged
Receipts for all monies PAID, and especially a receipt for the Security Deposit paid that has been dated.
It may sound a little daunting, but the agent should be able to guide you through all of this in a relatively painless manner.

Next week join us to take a look at Part 3 “The Process of Moving In”.

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