What is a lease? [part 2]

Part 1 of this article dealt mainly with what would commonly be found in most leases. We will now look at other things your letting agent might also include in your lease.

Additional costs

You may be lucky enough to have your electricity and water charges included in your monthly rent. If not, your lease will stipulate additional costs you will be responsible for. In addition to electricity and water, you might have to also pay for levies. Your lease should stipulate this.

Number of occupants

The lease will often stipulate the maximum number of tenants allowed to occupy the residence at any given time. If you are married with children, then although a one-bedroom bedsitter might suit your budget, it definitely won’t suit your family.

Repairs and maintenance

This section deals with whose responsibility it is should anything in the dwelling malfunction or break, the circumstances regarding the breakage and the procedure one must follow should it happen. Remember, if it’s due to negligence on your part, you would be fully responsible for having it repaired. You wouldn’t expect the landlord to pay for plumbing repairs to a blocked toilet that was caused by you throwing newspapers or disposable nappies into it.

Pets

If you are a pet lover and are thinking of keeping a pet, you need to ensure that the lease states that pets are allowed on the premises. There are a number of establishments that won’t allow tenants to keep pets at all. If pets are allowed, more often than not there will be conditions for keeping them, like a limit to the number and the size of the pets, and the type of pets permitted.

Visitors

Often included is a section on visitors. This would include things like visitors’ parking and disruptive behaviour. Please ensure you inform your visitors to stick to the parking allotted to visitors and to keep the noise levels down when coming and going. After a dinner party where a few glasses of wine may have been consumed, visitors can become noisy and boisterous.

Make sure you understand what is in your lease before you sign it. If there is anything you are not sure of, get someone to clarify it for you. Remember, claiming ignorance is not an excuse should anything go wrong.