Moving Away From Home? Here are Some Things to Think About

Posted on 28/04/2015

After finishing high school, your parents are not obliged to support you anymore. If you have a regular income, it is reasonable that you pay for yourself if you live at home. But if you have decided to spread your wings and try and live alone, here are some useful tips.

Moving away from home will increase your costs. You will have to start paying rent for an apartment and you won’t get to share the phone, Internet, furniture costs if you don’t have a roommate. If you are well prepared on the extra expenses you will surely enjoy your move. The bigger the city gets, the harder it is to get your own place for a reasonable price at least if you want to try and live under acceptable circumstances. If you are a student you might be able go through a instrumentality but in cities like London those are rare and you will have to communicate with smaller agencies.

If you get an apartment, you will both have rights and duties. You must pay the rent on time and really take care of the apartment and the neighborhood. The landlord shouldn’t take advantage of you by for instance to repair the apartment. Talk to your neighbors if something seems strange. Do you have contract with the Tenants Association they might be able to help you to negotiate the values of repairs, for example if they want to raise the rent. Some landlords are better than others and unfortunately you won’t have any idea of how it will work until you have lived there for a while. As said before though, you can go to some neighbors and ask them for advice. If the rent is too high, maybe you can rent a room to someone or share apartment but before you do that try and check with the Social Insurance if you have the right to do so.

Should you rent an apartment in second hand make sure that the main tenant has a written permission from the property owner or condominium association’s board. Otherwise, you may be forced to move without you having a say. You must also sign a contract with the renter; how long you are going to rent the place etc. The rental period that you both agreed on will prevail, even if the main tenant would suddenly change his or her mind.

If you are buying a condominium, you should review the association’s two, three years’ annual reports. Read the statute. Talk to someone on the board and the neighbors. Inspect the apartment and the areas. Be careful, you cannot get compensation for the mistakes that you did because of carelessness.

Be critical.
As a tenant, you are the one who is responsible of the condition of your apartment. The more you and your roommates engage, the nicer the atmosphere in the house will be and you will find it easier to save on heating and water if you just communicate.

If you only buy new furniture and equipment for your new flat, it will become expensive. Maybe you can bring something from home? Borrow from family and friends? Or buy already used? Older furniture and porcelain are often both in good condition and cheap and will give you a personal home. Try and wait until you take a shopping trip to IKEA. It is only when you have lived in your apartment for some time that you know what you need and what works for you.