Rental nightmares in Hungary

Only rented a flat for 6 weeks back in 2000 while on holiday.

Found an add in a local Hungarian newspaper for a short term rental available in the 5th district.

My husband speaks Hungarian and handled the details.

No issues although the flat was sort of dirty, a bunch of old returnable bottles were in the kitchen.

We left it there thinking she can deal with it herself; I was on holiday and not going to be cleaning up her former tenants mess.

She rented out to students mostly and we did her a favor renting in a off season.

Rented a villa through a HU friend of a friend also in 2000 for 5 months.

It was a quiet and peaceful but a strange thing happened once.

Our young adult son was alone one day while we were out.

2 or 3 men we did not know just walked in!

Not sure if the onwer had planned to rob us when we were not home or what was going on.

They were surprised to find our son in the living room watching tv;

They made up a lame excuse that they came for the fire poker, took it     and left!

IDK,be sure to use a reliable rental agent to rent anything. Read the contract twice!

@Cheryl

Apart from holiday accommodation or a few overstays when in the process of buying my place I have not done long term rentals.

Talking to friends that rent the biggest rental irritation is not giving people their deposit back.

@Cheryl
Apart from holiday accommodation or a few overstays when in the process of buying my place I have not done long term rentals.
Talking to friends that rent the biggest rental irritation is not giving people their deposit back. - @anns

For short term, best thing is to use a booking agent and if from the UK, pay by credit card so there's a chance to get a refund from the credit card issuer (in the UK).

I also lost my deposit from a nasty landlord in Germany way back.  It was all nonsense excuses not to pay. I was leaving for Hungary so I had to just forget it. 

But here, the landlord was determined we repaint the apartment which was way too much work so we just said, keep the deposit and get someone else professional to paint it.  We just didn't have the time - we had two little kids and were moving into our own house 300m away.  Contractually. it's a fairly common thing that apartments are repainted further West but in my mind, it's a stupid idea as no-one will waste their time doing that AND anyone who does will not make a good job of it.   Needless to say the landlord was very angry we did not repaint it.   It did not stop him selling the place 6 months later.

True, they hate giving back the deposit.

We got ours back on that short term rental in the 5th district but that was over 25 years ago.

Scammers will scam!

We are getting tried of they way people with a bit of control abuse it.

In the US we never had any issues ever getting our deposit back. It is normal there for any rental to paint at their own cost . Of course you can not paint the wallks black and expect your depsoit back, normal wear and tear is part of what they have to eat, not the renter.

Our apt. managers even had to make arragements to give us new carpeting,they said we lived there long enough, 5 years. They had professionsal come in and do it all in one day.We stayed another couple of years in the same flat before buying a home. Got all the deposit back even after so many years.

Our son leased a large 2 story home in Las Vegas.

IDK exactly the deal but the builders did something out of code and all the plumbing lines had to be changed, overhead in the kitchen and in the 3 bathrooms.

The onwer had a really nice condo she gave us the keys for to use for a week all covered by her. Only requirement was to keep it clean. My husband and I slept in the house while the work was going on since we had the time and felt like watching our sons things. I went back and forth from the house to the condo.

He still paid his rent for that month but she gave him a nice condo to use for putting him out.

Never would happen here in Hungary, doubt they would cover a hotel room while work was bing doen that they had to do even legally.

If it is left in a reasonable condition and rent is up to date, they should give back your deposit. It is IDK a full month?

I would recommend any renter to take before and after photos.