Originally posted by BlaqueKatt
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1.) Ask if your room will be lockable, and whether you'll be the only one with the key. If not, ask why not. You deserve privacy and security as well as the next person. This one alone will eliminate most of the problems listed above. If the person renting the space takes offense at the idea of you wanting to secure the room (or blows it off as unimportant), move on and write that potential landlord off.
2.) Ask for personal shelves in the community fridge - where your stuff goes, and nobody else's. Many times in communal arrangements, people eating other people's stuff happens because it's not clear who owns certain food items. At one house I lived in, each of the roomers had their own fridge (the owners of the house rented out each of the five bedrooms), and it was an ejection offense to take anything from others' fridges. In a worst-case scenario, you CAN bolt a ring-and-padlock setup on the outside of a mini-fridge. Or just get a mini-fridge in your own room, secured by #1.
3.) Get the rules for community spaces set down in writing, and stick to them. If there's another renting roommate causing problems, you want to make sure that the owners don't have any reason to look at you over it.
Renting a room can be a great way to save money, even if you're rooming with total strangers. And if there isn't any suckiness going on, you can end up with some new friends, to boot. =^_^=
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