Renting your first place

Renting is the first property market you will actually enter, and it runs on documents. Three of them decide almost everything: the lease, the bond lodgement and the condition report. Handle those three well and most rental horror stories cannot happen to you.

The lease and the bond

A lease is a contract between you and the owner, usually for a fixed term such as 6 or 12 months, after which it can roll on month to month. Read it before signing, especially the rent, the term, and any special conditions. The bond is a security deposit, in most states capped at 4 weeks rent, and here is the rule that matters most: the bond must be lodged with your state's bond authority, a government body that holds it until the lease ends. It is never the landlord's money to keep in a personal account. You should receive a lodgement receipt from the authority itself. If a landlord wants cash with no lodgement, that is not a quirk, it is a warning.

The condition report: your future money

At the start of a tenancy you receive a condition report describing the state of every room. You get a short window, about a week in most states, to check it, correct it and return your copy. Do it properly and photograph everything: every mark, crack, stain and scuff, with dates. This feels tedious on moving day. It is also the single document that decides, a year later, whether damage was yours or was always there. Tenants who skip it are betting their bond on an agent's memory.

Repairs, and living with others

Landlords must keep the property in reasonable repair, and urgent problems, no hot water, a burst pipe, a failed toilet, gas leaks, must be fixed promptly. Report problems in writing so there is a record. In a share house, understand whose name is on the lease: everyone named is responsible for all the rent, not just their share, and a housemate who leaves can create a bill the rest must cover. Rules differ by state, so your state tenancy authority is the source of truth for notice periods, rent increases and everything else.

Rent rises and leaving early

Two moments catch first renters out: when the rent goes up, and when the tenancy ends. Rent cannot be raised whenever the landlord feels like it. During a fixed term it usually cannot rise at all unless the lease specifically allows it, and once you are on a periodic month to month agreement there are rules about how much written notice you must be given before a rise, and about how often one can happen. Ending a tenancy has notice periods too, on both sides, and they change depending on whether you are inside the fixed term or past it. Leaving early, called breaking a lease, is allowed but it is not free: you can be liable for costs such as advertising and the rent until a new tenant is found. So before you sign a 12 month lease, be honest about whether you can really stay 12 months, because the exit has a price.

One trap is worth calling out because it targets people exactly your age. A listing looks perfect and cheap, the person cannot show you through right now because they are interstate or overseas, and they ask you to transfer a bond or a holding deposit to secure it before you have seen inside. That is almost always a scam, because a real agent lets you inspect first and lodges the bond through the state authority, never into a personal account by bank transfer. The rule that protects you is simple: never send money for a rental you have not stood inside, and never pay a bond anywhere but the official lodgement system.