We have great news! We could secure the apartment we hoped for and moved in last week. This means this series is already concluded after two posts. That was unexpected.
To be honest, I was surprised that we were able to pass all screenings on the first attempt and could move on to signing the contract. This saved us from significant costs created by at a temporary apartment for several weeks or months. Also we only had to move once.
How did the accomplish this? We are not quite sure. But let me detail how we went about in today’s post.
The next step included the settlement of the first two months of rent and the contract fees, that included deposit, insurance and commission. All together it was good months worth of rent and it had to be paid by bank transfer.
While I could not open a bank account yet (because I was about to change my address), I was able to pay from my Wise account, so that was handy. On the day before the move-in day, we received the keys.
At this point it was important to sign up for electricity, water, gas and internet. All of this could be done over the internet. For the gas installation an appointment with a technician was necessary, and it was no trouble to schedule it on a weekend.
Different to Europe, we did not do a handover with the landlord but were asked to submit a letter with the previous damages on our own.
While the stove and lights were installed, there were no kitchen appliances so we needed to buy them on our own. The same applied to the washing machine which is usually not shared in the building.
We are now busy furnishing our apartment.