If you are coming to Florence and renting a property such rooms or apartments you will most likely asked to leave a Security deposit, what is it and what it serves for?
The Security Deposit does not have to be confused with the Booking Deposit which is the amount needed to secure an accommodation.
The Refundable Security Deposit is an amount of cash you are asked to leave in the Landlord’s hands to cover eventual damages caused by you in the property rented.
The amount can vary from few hundreds Euros for weekly rentals and smaller properties, up to 2 or even 3 month’s rent for larger properties and for long term rentals of one year or more length.
Let’s see what you should expect:
- Daily or Weekly rentals from 200 € to 500 € depending on how luxury the property you rent is.
- Monthly rentals from 1 month to 12 months usually the security deposit equals one month rent so if the property is 1000 € / mo the security deposit will be 1000 € or 2000 € (two month’s rent), Italian law sets a maximum of 3 months that can be asked.
It’s important to remember that this amount cannot be used to pay the last month’s rent but only in same cases to balance utilities and final cleaning. Some property owners might though accept to keep the deposit as the last month’s rent.
The amount is kept in the owner’s hand until the day of the check out when you will do a check of the house / room and see if there are damages. If there are damages in the property you have rent then you will have to pay out of the security deposit to refund the landlord, if no damages are found you are entitled to be reimbursed the entire amount deducted balance of utilities and eventual final cleaning.
Keep in mind in some contracts could be stated that the security deposit might be refunded within 30 days from the day of the check out, this is rare but can happen so make sure you read the contract in detail.
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