[nolasmom]

Hello, I'm looking into renting a furnished apt in ChCh for two months. I was told by one building manager that two weeks rent and a bond equal to two weeks rent was due in advance. Seems excessive - is this standard practice? What purpose does the bond serve - damages, early termination?

[nippa&pippa]

Hello, I'm looking into renting a furnished apt in ChCh for two months. I was told by one building manager that two weeks rent and a bond equal to two weeks rent was due in advance. Seems excessive - is this standard practice? What purpose does the bond serve - damages, early termination?

yep he is right:yes
if you never rent before like us, then they will increase the rents to 3 or 4 weeks to protect themselves.
BTW, It is hard to find somewhere to rent a rental house at short term like 2months (Good luck!!) unless you rent holiday home per weekly.
In our case, we suppose to rent our house for 12months (instead of 6months due to our house in UK) with three week rent and bond as well as two weeks rent in advance till this november, but the house was so cold for children, finally sold house in april and with baby on the way in sept, we decide to move out asap. We found our house, brought it and moved in last month. We keep let our landlady know about the situations and we were so lucky to find the new tennants to take over the rental house on same day as we moved out so quickly. You will have to pay for advertising, rents while empty etc if you move out earlier and not found new tennant in time.

[kanatakiwi]

Hi Nolasmom
A bond is completely standard practice here, and I always thought it was standard practice nearly everywhere on the planet. I'm from Canada and the rule of thumb there is that in addition to the first months rent, 1/2 of the monthly rent is paid as a "security deposit" which in reality is a damage deposit, in case tenants damage the place.
So two weeks bond doesn't sound that bad to me.
Gloria

[DMcG]

Be aware that if you went through an agent, you'll need to pay THEIR fees too - which seems totally back to front. I pay fess to a letting agent in the UK to rent my flat in Edinburgh, but have to pay an agent here when I need to find a new place! Stung in both directions! :(

Dougie

[KerryS]

Agents often charge at least one week rent as their fee, and GST on top of this.

A bond can be a maximum of 3 weeks rent, and it is retained at the Govt Bond Agency in Wellington in case of damages, rent disputes etc. The bond money will only be returned after you have vacated the premises and the landlord (or their agent) is satisfied with the condition and that all rents have been paid.

[aberdian]

We have a rental property here in UK and we (well the letting agents really) ask for 4 weeks rent as a deposit to cover damages/cleaning/non payment of the rent. In addition, if the tenant has no history with the agents or can't provide a guarantor, they have to stump up an extra deposit to cover rent non payment only.

We know this as we are currently trying to evict a tenant who is 2 months behind on her rent and is allegedly using the place as a "house of ill repute", with a trail of gentleman callers at all times of the night and complaints to the police from the neighbours. Nightmare but the amount of stick and jokes I've had at work about the situation have made it all more bearable :)