We signed the lease on an apartment yesterday but can't move in till next Friday. They approved our application without even apparently contacting our references. The current occupant is the owner. This building has a "Mediterranean" style and maybe 20 or so apartments on 3 or so floors. On the other side of the street is a park. We can just see the mountains on either side of the Canberra Valley from our two balconies. And we're walkable distance from the CBD (downtown for Americans) and to Snork Maiden's office.
My cold got worse and am not sleeping much at all, so huge effort getting stuff done, but still it is happening. Probably today we will sign up for all utilities - ACTEW/AGL/TRANSACT covers electricity, water, gas, phone, and internet in one office/bundle. We don't need water but do need the others. Unlike the US, internet packages here come in different prices according to maximum allowed downloads. The problem is that upfront I have no idea how much download capacity we need. You can check how much capacity you are using so far in the month at any time and they also send warning e-mails. Over-running the package results in charges of 13 AU cents per MB! You can change the package for $A20. So I guess we'll get a midrange one and change it if neccessary.
Yesterday was our first day of browsing in the industrial area of Fyshwick. We got a basic idea of what is available in appliances but can't buy until we get into the unit and measure the space available to fit a fridge etc. We need to move out of this accommodation a week from Saturday so it is going to be a big time crunch. Therefore, our priority is that a bed can be delivered Friday or Saturday. Any other stuff is lower priority.
Last night I tried to log on to Interactive Brokers TraderWorkstation but couldn't. After discussion with one of their support people seems that the university, whose campus we're staying on has a firewall that blocks that application from reaching the IB servers.
3 comments:
Thank you, thank you, for your detailed descriptions of your move! I feel like I can visit via your experience (as I've always dreamed of moving back to Oz!). Good luck with you continued "settling in", and hope that cold clears up really soon. Happy weekend!
Tenant references and credit details are generally not checked - there's a "bad tenant" database available to agents (but not private landlords) that lists those with a history of trashing rentals, not paying rent etc. If you're not on that "black list" then the agent will tend will rent to you if you're breathing and can sign a lease. In my experience agents are happy to get the letting fee (one week's rent) and aren't too concerned if the tenant turns out to be a dud - it would just mean that the owner has to pay another letting fee for finding replacement tenants!
Good to hear that you and Madame X appreciate the blogging on Oz. In this case the agent is property manager, which has been my experience last time here too. When we applied for utilities the guy phoned someone for a credit check. They obviously didn't find anything for Snork Maiden and then told them her US address which I guess they checked in a different database.
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