[thewongs]

We found a decent place (all be it up a big hill and a couple of flights of stairs) in Happy Valley. We negotiated the rate (about 10% less than asking price) and a start date of Feb. 1 so my questions are: When do I check to make sure all of appliances work (air con, stove, hot water, oven, washing machine and microwave)? Is this done before I sign any document? If I understand our agent correctly, we sign some form first (forgot the name) and hand over an initial deposit of 1 month's rent. In a month from now, we sign some other document and hand over 2 months rent. We asked that the landlord who I believe is also the current tenant to paint and patch the walls prior to our moving in so is it done after they have done all of the work?

I haven't rented an apt in about 10 years so I am a little rusty.

Thanks,
Jan

[Max Jian]

In your case, in Feb, right before you will enter the formal agreement, the renovation work should be completed. You request to take a look at the unti to check if the paint is done. If the landlord has not fulfilled his obligation, usually you will need to persist to ask him to complete the task before proceed to sign the agreement.

When you sign the agreement, the landlord needs to wait for the payment to cleared before releasing the key. As soon as the the key is handed over to you, the property agent or the landlord should go to the unit with you, that is the time you have a quick check on the fixture electric appliances including air con (most important item), cook hood etc. to ensure those appliances are working.

Bear in mind that the landlord is not necessarily fully responsible to provide warranty for electric appliances. Apartment rental is not by defualt a furniture/appliance rental agreement. There is a few items that the landlord will most likely be given warranty: those are the fixture appliance most importantly the gas water heater, the gas stove come with the buidling developer and cookhood, exhausted fans etc. But there are times that renters use the air con or electric water heater in a very abusive manner, leave air con running non-stop even in winter time and or left the electric water heater in boiling and reboiling stage at all time, the landlord may then be having the right to refuse fixing those items or actually has the right to deduct the 2 months rental deposit to compensate any financial lose.

[PDLM]

Make sure that all appliances, furniture etc that the landlord provides are detailed on the inventory attached to the tenancy agreement. (In general) things that are on the inventory are the landlord's responsibility to maintain; things which aren't are yours.

[KnowItAll]

1) Make sure the agent does a land search and verifies that the person signing the lease actually owns the apartment.

2) Technically, a landlord needs to have permission from the bank to lease a place that is mortgaged. I had a lot of problems when my landlord defaulted on the loan and then figured out essentially my lease could be ignored by the bank as they had not approved the tenancy.

This is not always possible .. as the landlord might not want to tell the bank they're leasing the apartment.

[thewongs]

I certainly had not thought of any of those things. Thanks for all that information, it is very interesting to learn of all of these nuisances and understand what things I would take for granted. It is all good to learn from everyone's experiences. I've got a better handle on the process now.

Much thanks!

[Max Jian]

Actually when you sign the temporary agreement, the agent should have already done the land search. I m sure Collier is very professional and wouldn't skip this critical step.

Regarding the bank consent mentioned by Knowitall, I don't see the use of this piece of paper from a renter point of view. In the case of the landlord unable to pay the mortgage, and the bank finanlly takes the property back for sale, the bank only needs to give a 1 or 2 months advance notice to the tenant to leave it vacant so that the bank can put it to auction. The bank consent to the mortgager is not a legal document to bound the bank to continue the tenancy agreement. It is just a procedure for the bank to manage its' own risk and increase the interest rate of the mortgage.

[Submariner]

This may be a bit late, but I disagree with Max Jian. Do not wait until February to do the appliance check. We are also moving into our apt on Feb 1, and we completed the appliance/apt check with our agent before we signed the provisional agreement and handed over the first deposit.

If there are any issues, you can then have the lease agreement take that into account.

[penguinsix]

If your assignment in HK is temporary or your are subject to a recall to your home office, you may want to discuss the options for 'breaking a lease' early. Many companies send people out for 2 years or so, only to have cutbacks in 14 months and leave the expats stranded having to get out of things.

Of course, this may not be relevant but I thought I should mention it because it is frequently discussed here.

[thewongs]

Thanks everyone for their advice! We signed the lease yesterday and checked all of the appliances, the landlord will fix anything that breaks within the next 2 months - after that, it's our responsibility. We can get out of our lease at 14 months if we need to. We have a clause that covers 1 dog. Can't wait to finally settle in - 8 months living out of suitcase is almost over!