fdsafasdMoving to Sweden tends to happen in the summer months and around Christmas time. These two periods are usually the busiest months of the year when it comes to relocating or new hires. Relocating entails moving into rental properties and the preparations for this can be difficult to deal with while juggling your own holiday as well as covering for absent colleagues.
So what is required for a successful handover of a property? A lot of planning goes into this and we have put together a short guide with some pointers on what you need to think of. You can also attend our Webinar Series to learn more.
The aim is that the move in day should be a positive experience for all involved and a lot of preparation is required to ensure that the relationship between tenant and landlord is a great one. How things go on move in day has a big impact on the relationship. Meeting in person is a key element of establishing a good rapport, which is so valuable to both parties over the rental period.
A successful move is finished on the day of moving in, with no remaining issues, however small, to solve in the following weeks. We do all we can to prepare the landlord as move in day is Show Time!
We would like to share our internal guide with you;
- Coordinate times between all stakeholders on the move in day. The logical sequence of events is as follows: Firstly, removal of current furniture; secondly, cleaning company; thirdly inspection and finally, moving in of furniture. It is important to do an inspection after the cleaning and before the new furniture arrives as that is the only way to ensure that the tenant isn’t held liable for damage caused by the first moving company that empties the property.
- Official move in time is noon on the first weekday of the month. In short, this means that if the first day of the lease is on a Sunday, the move in can legally take place on Monday at noon. The property should be ready for move in then.
- Exceptions to moving in on weekdays. While we try as much as we can to work around everyone’s schedule, it is important to all parties that we conduct a proper inspection and that can only happen on weekdays. Plan the tenant’s arrival to work nicely with the inspection and recommend to the tenant to have a hotel reserved if his/her arrival is on the weekend or after hours.
- The move in inspection is usually held on the first day of the lease and both tenant and landlord must be present to sign the protocol. The ideal situation is that we do the inspection beforehand and just go through it with the tenant on the move in date.
- Check that the property has been thoroughly cleaned and liaise with the tenant landlord if there are any issues.
- After the tenants’ goods are moved in, the tenant is encouraged to go over the inspection protocol and add anything that may have happened during the moving in of household goods. The movers are well insured to cover this and you are responsible for the property, which means you should check against the inspection protocol after the furniture has been moved in.
- Remember flashlights in the winter for unfurnished properties, as daylight is a hot commodity and Swedish winter days are very short.
- Tenants should go over the inventory list in the case of furnished rentals.
- Be VERY thorough. Check each shelf, drawer, door handle etc and document everything so that there are no unnecessary discussions when it’s time to move out.
- Make sure all lightbulbs are working so it is clear whether the lamp is broken or just needs a new lightbulb.
- Make sure that all keys work and that they all have been received.
Good relationships between the landlord and the tenant require a little bit of psychology, but mostly planning and lots of good communication. We have a saying that “The Move out starts at Move in”. Many questions that the tenant and landlord have on this day lay the foundation for a successful departure. We run webinars on both move in and move out along with short films. Please contact info@newcomers.se and write “Move in” or “Move out” in the subject line so we can invite you to our next webinar.
Some other blogs that may be of interest;
http://www.newcomers.se/offering-departure-services-competitive-advantage-swedish-rental-market/
http://www.newcomers.se/why-landlords-should-care-about-the-inspection-more-than-the-tenant-2/
