9 Essential Things To Consider Before Renting An Apartment in Accra

It's well known that searching for a room or an apartmenT in Accra could be a daunting task characterized by dissapointmments, frustrations and sometimes fraud.

Because we are in a hurry to rent and move in to the appartment, we overlook certain key things that are really crucial in the process of renting. Below are essential factors you should consider before renting a house in Accra.

I. Have a budget - Before you venture out searching for a room or an apartment to rent, ensure you have a budget you are working with and stick to the budget. Do not be forced to rent an apartment above your budget.

2.Have extra money for agent fee - If you are searching for a room, an apartment or a house ensure to factor in an agent fee in addition to your budget for rent. Some agent would charge each time you have to see an apartment or room you show interest in although, you may not eventually rent that particular room or apartment. Some housing agent even charge 10% of the amount you would pay to the landlord when you settle for a particular apartment.

3. Know kind of apartment you want - Knowing the type you want would speed up the searching process as you are able to identify the kind of apartment you want immediately one is up for grabs.

4. Seeing the apartment- This is very important in the hunting process. In Accra where some landlords/ladies fail to provide toilet facilities in the buildings, you need to ensure that the apartment you are intrested in has a place of convenience, flowing tap, gutters, space for drying line and so on.

5. More often than not Landlords/ladies woul request that you pay for the rent so they can use the money to renovate the apartment or build a toilet facility for you. I'll advice that you give a careful thought about such offers before giving out the money. There's been several instances where people have been dissapointed with such agreements.

6. Do not pay for the rent while the one occupying the apartment you have shown interest in still lives in there. Most people have fallen victim to this scheme where after payment, they never get to live in the room because the occupant still lives in.

7. Ensure that the day you pay for the apartment is the day you are handed the keys to it.

8. Do well to ask people living around where the apartment is situated about the landlord/lady and how the people live in the apartment.

9. Ensure that you park in immediately the keys are handed over to you. This is because most landlords or ladies take money from more than one person for one apartment so if you don't move in early, another person will and trust me when that happens, it will take a miracle for you to retrieve your money back. I guess you don't want to find yourself in such a situation, right?

Copyright (2017) Modern Ghana
All rights reserved. This article, or any portion thereof may not be reproduced, paraphrased or used in any manner whatsoever without giving full credit to modernghana and the author of the article. However, it could be used in brief quotations and in reviews.