Advantages and Disadvantages of Renting a House or Renting a Flat

There are many reasons for choosing to rent a flat as opposed to renting a house,  or for choosing to rent a house as opposed to renting a flat.

To help you make the right choice for your personal circumstances, I have listed below a number of the most common areas to be thought about,  discussed with your partner, your family and  with your potential landlord or rental agent.

Personal factors

The rental property you finally chose is subject to so many personal factors.  These personal factors include what your family situation is, are children, or more children planned for, is privacy an issue, is parking a problem ….etc.. The list can become quite lengthy!

Space and Privacy

A house gives you space.

Often the house will also have some kind of garden which is great if you need this space for your young children or your pets… or even both!

The outside space “garden area” often includes a driveway or parking area for your vehicle.  In fact, more and more families have more than one car, and parking within your own boundary walls may be a big incentive when trying to decide on the house that you want.

If the house is totally detached, you will have the most privacy.

Flat maintenance

A flat as a rental property means you will have low maintenance involvement.  The costs of maintenance tasks can be spread throughout the number of residents in a particular block,  and whatever the cost of a particular task,  it will be diluted greatly by the number of fellow renters in the block.

House maintenance

Obviously,  if you are renting a house,  you will have to consider the extra time and or cost requirements that will be part of your tenancy to keep the property and the ground within its boundaries suitably maintained.

It may seem trivial, but, a house has more windows to keep clean, more carpets to vacuum, more lawns to cut  and more garden to weed.

Maintenance Issues to Remember

When renting a house or a flat it is always prudent to check and confirm what maintenance you, the tenant, must carry out, and what maintenance tasks are the responsibility of the landlord, and, who is responsible for paying for maintenance.

Location and Location

A flat will give you a better chance of finding a place to stay in or near a particular prime city or town location.  Also, there is more chance of finding a flat close to your place of work.

Houses in town centres or near your work, normally tend to be few and far between, as family houses are usually found further from town centres and city centres.

Who is responsible ?

Often, if a house is being rented,  it is being rented by the owner,  and there is a good chance they are not fully up to speed on their responsibilities,  and,  the rights of the tenant.  Therefore, it is important that you, the tenant,  should know at least the basic rights you are entitled to before you sign your property rental contract.

Invasion from around you!

If you are living in a block of flats you are more likely to have infestation problems which are outwith your control.  Your flat may be clean and tidy, but infestations (like roaches or ants) may creep in from above,  below or from next door.

Heating

Normally you find that a flat is less expensive to keep warm due to the other flats in the block providing a kind of insulating effect and keeping your energy costs down.

A house will not gain the same energy saving effect.

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The information in this article will go some way to helping you make your mind up between renting a house or renting a flat.

The next article will look at lease contracts and what to look out for!