7 Renter Habits to Break Now

By L. Roberts on January 3, 2020

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College students usually double as renters, rarely able to buy their own place. Most of us settle for on-campus living during the first year (or two) and then venture out on our own as we become upperclassmen. The thing about renting is that it’s not really yours. It’s someone else’s, and they’re just letting you live there under certain terms and conditions.

As a renter, you have a responsibility to follow the guidelines you’ve agreed on in your lease. Whether you rent from someone independently, or you live in a community of renters, there are certain things you shouldn’t do as a renter – otherwise, you’re going to pay the price later.

If you have any of these 7 renter habits, you should break them immediately:

1. Leaving stuff behind

You might think it’s not that big of a deal, but when you leave behind trash or stuff the landlord has to get rid of it. Sometimes that means a trip to the dumpster, and other times that means getting a whole bunch of people to carry trash bags out of units. Somehow they have to be removed.

If you live in an apartment complex, you likely live around lots of other tenants. When it’s time to move out, which is often at the end of the semester, imagine that every single unit leaves behind one bag of trash. That would take your management company hours to get rid of… it’s not only inconvenient, but it’s also straight-up rude. If you’re a renter who leaves stuff behind when you move out, it’s time to kick that habit now.

2. Only vacuuming the carpets

You should definitely vacuum the carpets before you move out of your place. But you should take it a step further and clean the carpets. It’s not too expensive to rent one of those carpet shampooing machines. It’s actually quite stress-relieving to clean your carpets and see the difference between what you’ve walked around on and carpet that’s nice and clean.

If you have a pet, you should definitely shampoo your carpets. Otherwise, you’re likely to get slapped with a cleaning charge – not to mention the inconvenience you’re causing your landlord.

3. Poorly re-painting your rooms

via Pexels.com

We all know that painting an apartment’s walls means you have to paint them back before you move out. But when you’re painting, you should be overly conscious about the quality of the paint job you’re doing. Your apartment complex will likely hire someone to come in and spray down the walls with a fresh coat of paint (in fact, I think it’s required between tenants in most states), but if you come in and re-paint the rooms and door a poor job, you’ll probably end up having to pay some kind of fine. If you’re going to take on the job of painting the place you’re renting, you should be sure you put it back exactly the way it was when you moved in.

4. Leaving the fridge full of food

Just like leaving behind trash and your stuff, leaving behind a fridge full of food is nasty. Your landlord will quickly come to hate you if they (or someone they hire) has to clean out the fridge because you neglected to do it before you left. One of the most frustrating things is people being lazy, and refusing to clean out the fridge before you leave is just a bad renter habit.

5. Damaging the walls from hangings

If you hang up a television, a big painting, or shelving units, you should be extra careful to make sure you don’t damage the walls. It’s annoying to be a landlord and have to constantly fix drywall because tenants aren’t careful. If you’re going to hang anything up, make sure you putty back over it before you leave. It’s easy enough to do – just cover up the nail holes and make sure the place looks nice before you head out.

6. Carelessly moving furniture

When you start moving, make sure you’re careful about removing furniture from your place. Banging up walls on the way out, ripping carpet, or scratching floors are all causes for your landlord to fine you after you’re gone. If you’re a renter who’s careless on the way out, you should nix that habit in the bud right now.

via Pexels.com

7. Failing to clean an apartment before you move out

Simply failing to clean the apartment before you move out is all too common when it comes to college student living. Tenants are supposed to clean the place before moving out, but when they don’t, it requires the landlord to do a lot more work. It’s annoying for a landlord to deal with, and it’s frustrating when tenants simply don’t care.

If you’re renting a place right now, make sure you stop these seven habits (if you engage in any of them) before you decide to rent another place. More than likely, these bad habits are going to catch up with you at some point, and it’s likely that you won’t be able to keep renting from people because of it.

If you’re getting ready to move to a new location and you’re needing to rent some new furniture, CORT Furniture Rental can help you out with everything you’ll need.

Looking for an easy way to furnish your off-campus apartment? Renting furniture from CORT saves you time and money. See how easy it is to get great looking furniture without breaking the bank.

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