When you rent a Property we all wish things go smoothly from check in, during stay and at check out with no surprises whatsoever. This is true in most cases but what then if some problems arise between Property Owner and Tenants?
Here the common scenarios that could lead to misunderstandings in regards to your rental experience:
- Wrong Expectations
- Booking Conditions
- Extra Costs
- Behaviors during stay
- Check out procedures
- Damages in the property
- Key’s loss and locking yourself out
- Forum of Florence & Chamber of Commerce
Wrong Expectations
When renting a Property Online you have to make sure you pay attention to what are you exactly booking, thinking of reserving a two bedrooms flat while you did not quite see the second bedroom was not a full separate one and this can also happen because the listing was not well self explanatory is a wrong expectation and lack of accuracy by both Client and Owner.
Booking Conditions
If you are booking on Firenze Lodging, each offer contains detailed information which, Property Owner or Manager need to fill out in order to specify all the fundamentals blocks of your rental such as property offered, booking deposit, total price, extra costs, cancellation policies. Even if you are not booking through us, keep in mind these are the details to ensure well understood for renting a property.
Extra Costs
Be always awared of hidden fees, every offer must detail out what the rates do include or do not include, additional services if they are mandatory or not and so on. This will avoid surprises and misunderstanding upon arrival, finding out for example that air conditioning in a hot month like July is not included could change the overall bill of your stay.
Behaviors during your stay
Florence is a reasonably small city with compact buildings, close neighbors, overlooking terraces and shared common areas. Noise after 10 pm in Florence is forbidden so pay attention inviting noisy guests or be noisy your self, you can expect police or carabinieri showing up because someone’s sleep was ruined.
This is a real warning for students, be aware that your rental contract can contemplate an automatic sign off for these reasons, and we can guarantee you it happened, your money is most likely not to be refunded and chances are that you will have to start searching for a new place!
Check out procedures
In most properties upon check in you are expected to leave a security deposit against breakages, the amount increases as the length of your stay does. For check out make sure you have made the proper arrangements with Landlord, scheduled a time when you will be checking out, in order to have the property checked through and refunded what’s need to be refunded.
Damages in the property
Long term rentals can get out of hand, people have a different concept of clean, order and damages so make sure to do one thing: leave the house as you found it, no more than this but certainly not less. For both short term rentals and long term rentals breaking a dish or glass isn’t a big deal as long as you kindly replace it but changing the layout of furniture, stapling new pictures on wooden doors, leaving marks on tiles and similar things do have consequences. Appliances such refrigerators, ovens, kitchen’s units, washing machines, dryers might just not work as in your country, make sure you are well informed about usage.
Key’s loss, Locking yourself out
Seems strange but countless time people loose their keys, in Italy locks are expensive most of the time you are handed keys that opens expensive mechanisms to avoid intrusions. These lock’s packages can cost up to 500 € plus vat 21% + cost of manual labor 40 € per hour and keys cannot simply copied without a security code, these key pairs can go up to 50 € – 90 € each so make sure you don’t loose them or expect to face a bitter bill during your stay.
People also often lock themselves out leaving one pair of key inside the deadbolt on the other side, once again if you are lucky this can be resolved easily depending on the type of lock, but calling the landlord to open your door while maybe is at the beach on a weekend, it’s really an unpleasant situation.
Forum of Florence & Chamber of Commerce
All the issues that might arise between you and the landlord are highly suggested to be settled first before they even come up, so that making a thoughtful decision when you rent and second if this is something that really got out of control and there is a consistent sum of money involved, then you can relate to the Chamber of Commerce of Florence that can help you sorting out issues with professional translators and certified lawyers.
Photos: begnaud