May this year be a happy & blessed experience for you all!

To our new tenants – as an orientation of the accommodation part of your year in Stellenbosch, below a brief description of what to expect, but also a reminder to all tenants who will be staying on for another year:

March:  Return to Stellenbosch, settle into apartments.  Send us any snag-lists (within 7 days as per lease agreement) of things that need attention at your apartments.  A reminder that it is important to let us know immediately of anything that has broken or become dysfunctional for us to be able to give attention to it as soon as possible and to avoid any unnecessary damage to the property. The general rule of thumb: If it is a fixture in the apartment, eg locks, leaking toilets etc the cost will be for the landlord.  Blocked drains – if the plumber identifies the cause of the blockage as being caused by eg food, hair – the cost will be for your account.

Apr-Jun:  Always a good time to arrange for quarterly deep-clean of your apartment if you do not have someone cleaning regularly or if you do not get to those nasty bits yourself.

Jul-Sep:  We will start to contact you in Aug to establish if you will be staying on for the following academic year or not and start to advertise the available apartments.

Oct-Dec:  This will be a busy time of the year with preparations for year-end exams, as well as finding new accommodation if you are moving.  Please be aware that this time also comes with people wanting to view your apartment if it is available for rental the following year and we request your kind co-operation in this regard.  As it is impossible for us to take every single enquiry for hundreds of apartments out on viewings ourselves, we do provide your contact details for potential viewings to be arranged directly at a mutually suitable time.  You can always schedule a set day/time in the week to accommodate viewings and let us know and we can indicate such on the availability list.

November is also the month in which most lease agreements end and exit inspections are being done. This really is the craziest of times for us as agents and we really do need your co-operation and understanding in this time for everything to run as smoothly as possible.

On hygiene and cleanliness:

If you are sharing with flatmates, set up a daily/weekly cleaning schedule and CLEAN AS YOU GO, especially in the kitchen and bathrooms.  

A damaged stove/oven will have to be replaced at your cost. 

If you have bathroom windows, OPEN them after a shower/bath to ensure as much ventilation as possible and to keep mould at bay as much as possible. Cross-ventilation really is the best preventative measure for this, so open a window on the other side of the apartment too and even leave the shower doors open. 

Ensure that you have the following household toolkit in your apartment to help you with the above.

 For the kitchen & general cleaning:

• Handy Andy
• All surface/kitchen cleaner
• Dishwashing liquid
• Sponges & drying cloths
• Scrubbing brush
• Broom (best ones are the green plastic ones from Spar/Verimark)
• “Skoppie” & brush
• Mop

For the bathroom

• Windolene for shower doors/glass
• Mould buster & a scrubbing brush for showers/bathrooms
• Jik
• Scrubbing brush

For the bathroom

Please:

• let us know if you will be vacating prior to 30 Nov so that we can schedule inspections accordingly.
• show respect in how you leave your apartment behind.  Remove EVERYTHING.  It is not OK to leave personal items behind and expecting us to clean up after you.  Remember that you leave an impression of who you are to whoever enters your flat to come and clean it too.  
• arrange for the professional cleaning of your apartment well in advance. Remember that it is contractually required that carpets and mattresses be steam cleaned at the end of each lease agreement.  Hoovering is NOT enough.  Your own domestic or an unqualified cleaner is NOT good enough.  Hand the apartment over in the condition you would like to have received it.  It is ONLY by everyone accepting responsibility for this that we can hand it over to a new tenant with as little hassle as possible and with as little disagreements about deductions from deposits as possible.
• do NOT put nails into any walls – you WILL be charged to re-paint the wall entirely.  A patched wall is NOT returning the apartment in the same condition you received it.  Paint is expensive and a day’s labour is required to repaint it.  If you take the risk, know that it will be deducted from your deposit.

On losing your keys:

it is ALWAYS better to a sleepover at a friend or call a locksmith, even at or after midnight than to break your door to gain entry!  Perhaps also have a second set of keys cut and leave these at a friend in the event of you losing your keys.  We do not keep spare sets at the office as we do not gain entry during your stay without your permission or prior arrangement. Lost keys are a security risk for everyone in your block, so please take extra care with your keys when you do go out.

On safety & security:

• Don’t make yourself a target by being pre-occupied and not aware of your surroundings.  
• Don’t get yourself in trouble by overdoing the partying.
• Make sure you have insurance on personal items such as phones, laptops etc.

Some useful links: