Renting a house in Sofia - advance rent question

Its not normal. In extraordinary measure in case when the house is fully furnished with expensive furniture and appliances some landlords may require to have 2-3 months as security deposit.
But for 3 months paying ahead is just nonsense. If you feel convenient with it you can prepay for the whole period, but this is not mandatory also is not a good thing to do at start of the lease.
If you already signed a contract look for the monthly payment clayses if you haven't done this yet run away you may have problems on the future if they started harassing you from the start.

Hi Laura

Greetings,

It is not normal.. If you have not signed any contract. Its better to look for another rented flat / change.

Good luck & Have a nice day

Rishhi

The two months deposit can be fairly normal (It's usually first, last, and a month, but sometimes first, last, and two months).

But paying three months in advance every three months is absolutely strange, especially because as far as I know most people pay taxes monthly, not every three months. It sounds like they are trying to trap you, get as much money as possible up front and then possibly kick you out or something. In Bulgaria getting back deposits or advanced payments can be nearly impossible.

I would walk away, personally.

Thank you so much everyone for replying. Really appreciate it.

Definitely going to take the advice and keep hunting. Luckily no contracts were signed or money exchanged. So bullet dodged. Hopefully this is an exception not a rule! It was over 10,000 euros that he wanted up front so alarm bells were ringing.

Is there anyway to avoid this kind of thing?!

P.s. Emanuela the house was partiallly furnished and we had actually asked for furniture to be removed , we did the deposit on proviso of a full inventory and pictures to be taken before we moved in. Maybe we were too keen and they sensed an easy target...

Hi there,

Renting a house in Bulgaria is an easy thing. Deposits are a normal practice. Usually 1 or 2 months deposits. The purpose of the deposit is to serve as the last rent, when you're moving out and in some cases as a guarantee that all bills will be paid by the tennant.
That is all.

In your case there's a suspicious increasing of the requested deposit. This is not a standard practice. Generally the terms are announced in advance and no modification is made - neither by the landlord nor by the agency.

So - find a better agency, and you can also ask them to locate the same property for you and negotiate better conditions.

Good luck,

Thanks Kristiann,

More helpful info! We did tell them to jog on and we are looking elsewhere, the house was good but not perfect so we will keep looking!

Thanks for all the help everyone.

It looks like you're having some fun here ... sounds good and the weather is just perfect for this excersise 

If you need any help drop me a line, I will put you through my eal estate agent.

Yes. Fun indeed! The weather is certainly perfect and hopefully on his jog he got nice and sweaty.    The real estate agent apologised and suggested that it was because we are relatively young and he was worried we would damage the property. Maybe he should have met us before making such a decision!

I'll update this post again when we find something without any issues!

It's always wise to view the property and landlord before you agree on anything. I know its not always possible, but it does save trouble in the future. Sometimes its also best to find a short term let, then you have a base to find something better for a long-term stay.

Again good luck on your search

Individual landlords (not companies) are obligate to pay rent income tax every 3 months.