What Comprises the Rent?
What costs are built into the monthly rental differs from one apartment to another. While most apartment complexes give several items as comprising the rent, some other apartments charge additional sums to their renters by way of various charges over and above the agreed monthly rental. There are yet some other apartments that inform the renters to get registered directly with some public and private utility service providers and to pay their utility charges direct to them.
It is seen that while some apartments consolidate charges on amenities like swimming pool, conference room, exercise room and the theatre in to the rent payment itself, some apartments prefer to charge the renters for using amenities separately over and above the normal monthly rental.
Identify the Costs of Utilities
When you compare the rentals charged by different apartment complexes, it is pertinent to qualify whether the rent includes any charges in respect of any of the utilities, facilities and amenities provided. It would be very misleading to just look at the rentals without any indications or qualifications as to what items are considered in the composition of the monthly rent.
For instance, the utility costs of cooling / heating could be very significant though they may vary widely according to the apartment size, the climate in the area, the particular season concerned; and also on the quantum of actual usage of electricity on other aspects such as working other electrical equipment and appliances such as ovens, hot water geysers, refrigerators, fans, polishers, vacuum cleaners, TV / DVD Player etc., and lighting, which too could differ from one user to another.
It is observed that many apartments get the renters to directly register with the separate utility provider companies who will then bill the renters and collect payments direct from them. In yet some other apartments, and depending on their agreement with the renter, a standard sum is recovered from the renters towards utility bills, in addition to the monthly rental that is levied separately. Private owners of apartments, who give them out on rent as distinct from big apartment complexes, may have their own different ways of charging the renters for utilities and other facilities provided.
What actually comprises the monthly rental of the apartment is indeed something every renter should find out in detail before taking an apartment on rent in order to avoid big surprises, disappointments and disputes in the future. To site an example to illustrate this very important point, lets take an apartment renter in a rather cold climate who rents a very large apartment for a certain monthly rental which he thinks is a decent bargain.
At the end of the month he is surprised to find a separate bill for electricity charges amounting to a thumping amount inclusive of the power used for cooling the spacious apartment. He now finds that he can no longer maintain or stay in this apartment paying for electricity separately, when the impression that he had got earlier before signing the contract had been that the monthly rental was an all inclusive amount. He decides to move into a smaller apartment in a different climatic location where he may not have to use so much of electrical power for cooling and heating purposes.
Identify the Amenities that are “Free”
Just as much as identifying utilities/facilities that are built into the monthly rental and what are not, it is equally important to find what amenities are built into the monthly rental and considered as “free”, and others for which a renter is billed separately on an actual usage basis, or on a monthly subscription basis. However, you should realize that what goes as “free” too are not actually free, but already taken into consideration in the calculation and composition of the monthly rental.
As a further example of how the cost of some amenities declared as “free” actually form a “hidden charge” by way of a higher monthly rental could be illustrated by taking two apartment complexes in the same locality with equal floor areas and almost similar layouts and with comparable number of rooms etc., rented at two significantly different monthly rentals.
When we examine why, we find that the apartments with the higher monthly rental offers “free” amenities of a swimming pool, a theatre and an exercise room, whereas the apartments with the lower monthly rental have no such amenities at all. Thus we see that the renters in the apartment complex with a higher rental are actually paying the difference between the two rentals for the “free” amenities enjoyed by them.
The need for renters to critically analyze the difference in the rentals payable for two identically similar apartments is seen from the above examples. If a renter in the more expensive apartment had no interest for swimming and was already a member of a gym just outside the apartment complex and had no time or much interest to watch movies is simply paying a higher rent for which he does not get value. He should have actually rented an apartment from the other complex at a lower rental with no amenities rather than simply pay an exorbitant amount monthly for some amenities he does not want!