Moving In to a Bloomington Rental: Here’s the 4-1-1
So you chose one of our places and you signed a lease. Now you want to know all about moving in? Got it!
There are only a few main things you really need to know about moving in:
When can you move in?
You can move-in when you have paid your first, last, and security deposit installments and anytime on or after the day and time specified in your lease. I know, that seems evasive! But the date does vary from lease to lease and from year to year. Be sure to double check the date because it may be later than you think. In a perfect world, everyone could move out of one place and into another on the same day, but this isn’t likely most of the time because people have to move out of units and we have to have some time to fix them up. Sometimes this time is very short, and sometimes former tenants trash the place — we know you would never do that, but believe us, it does happen, and that slows “turnover” down a little as well.
We will try to accommodate any requests for moving in early. You can submit an early move in request via email any time. If you are granted an early move-in, there is a per day fee for this accommodation which covers costs of maintenance overtime and administrative overhead as well as your extra time in the place.
Please remember that if you are granted an early move in, it means we are going to rush repairs and their may be problems with your place that we cannot correct prior to your early arrival. If this is the case, we expect you to be more than a little accepting of this situation. You are welcome to report any issues with your unit, but if you find it unacceptable or are very difficult about it, we may ask that you vacate the home and return no earlier than the date of your actual move in. We truly hope this doesn’t happen; however, we have had several times when inbound tenants have been very difficult with our office staff when they move in early, and this truly isn’t fair since we are simply trying to do the best we can, and are, in fact, doing such early tenants a favor.
Thank you for your consideration in this! Together we can get going in a smooth and equally satisfying way!
Doing a Move In Inspection
So when you move in, the first thing you need to do is a move in inspection. This is a walk through of your place to make sure everything is okay and to report any problems that may remain from the previous tenants so we can fix them. You’ll get a form for this. You can grab one from the office, or email us and we can send you one. Be careful with your walk through. With all the turnover we do, especially for the IU year, sometimes things get missed when we walk through for the move out with the outbound tenants. If its missed then, then the maintenance crew may not handle it. Moreover, sometimes at turnover things are missed or not done as well as they could be. We’d love to hear about this, both so we can fix it for you, but also so we can provide feedback and track performance of our contractors.
Submitting Maintenance Requests
If you run into things that are not working, or you happen to break something, during the year, please just submit a maintenance request.
Whether you are buying, begging, selling, or giving, you CANNOT leave anything in a home for the next tenants without getting explicit approval from Elkins Apartments to do so. Just telling us is not enough, and we have to approve it.
Why do I have to get approval in advance to leave stuff for the next tenants?
There is a purposeful and important gap between tenant groups. You have to get approval because the 10 days or so in between tenants does not belong to either group, and is an important and very short time, and is our only opportunity to turn the place over, get it fixed up, and make sure its ready for the new folks who want to move in.
Also, lots of bad things can, and have, happened when people leave stuff for other people.
Folks leaving things for other folks is a giant hassle for everyone and creates many many opportunities for issues to arise.
Some of the things we have seen happen include:
How do I Request Permission to Holdover Furniture or other Belonging?
Okay, so it may cause problems, but you still would like to do it, because its a fine fine futon, and you really like the old tenants’ collection of Pizza X cups…. so how do you request it?
We have a electronic signature document for that. First, send a note to the office with:
Or simply use this handy Furniture Holdover Initial Request Form.
Once received, we will evaluate the reasonableness of the request, and, if reasonable, then send out the electronic Furniture Holdover Agreement. You then all sign the form, acknowledging the request and its terms and conditions. Finally, it would then be reviewed by the Property Manager, and, if approved, executed, and you would receive a final copy along with any additional instructions.
Incomplete requests may not be considered.
Is there a Cost to Holdover Furniture?
Yes. Because leaving furniture at a property is a non-standard procedure that creates additional burden, there is an administrative fee charged to the incoming tenants. This fee is several hundred dollars. Additionally, the requestors acknowledge that all sorts of inconveniences and issues may arise as a result of their desire to holdover furtniture, and as such you will work cooperatively with us regarding your move-in and any approved furniture arrangements.