I´ve been lucky enough to have a very open agreement with my landlord here in Madrid , but I´m looking for a new place to live .
I´ve see somewhere I like but am a little confused and need some clarity .
The landlady is asking for one months Fianza ( €750 ) , and the agency is also asking for the same . I understand that the landlady will pay this back on my departure , but I´m told the agency keeps the €750 as a commision . Is this normal ?
Steve

Yes, this is standard here. When you go through an agency, they charge you, the renter, one month's rent. If you don't want to pay this, then you have to rent from a "particular."

Steve, I don't know how anxious you are to move but you may have better "marketability" when/if you have your residency sorted out.

Also take a look at the hundreds of rental properties on http://www.Idealista.com .

Saludos, MadridMan

MM . A lot of , if not all of the negotiations will be done by my Spanish flatmate . I don´t think residency will be a problem . However , I´m not happy at paying a full month´s rent to the agency for doing nothing !! I certainly didn´t do this when I hired my present apartment !

Madridmadridmadrid ... Maybe we´ll have to do a back door deal and bypass the agency .

Well I went to see 2 apartments in Alcalá .. Pueblo Nuevo .. Aaargh they were horrible ! And I have told my flatmate that I refuse to pay an agency so much money for so little work and that we have to have direct contact with the owners .
Later I´m going to meet the owner of an apartment in Avenida de America ... Looks nice . Fingers crossed !

You went to see 2 apartments in Alcalá - DE HENARES? - or de la Calle de Alcalá. If the former, YIKES! That'll make it rather problematic getting into the city of Madrid when you want to, and the last trains back to Alacalá aren't very late.

Do you have to be out of your current apartment soon?

Saludos, MadridMan

They were in CALLE Alcalá .. Metro : Pueblo Nuevo .. I didn´t like them .
The place we just looked at yesterday and today was in Call Mataelpino ... Very quiet BUT 3 minutes walk to Metro Avenida de America .
Very Spanish .. The owner asked us to meet him at a terrace bar for a beer to discuss the contract . How civilized !
It´s on 2 floors , 2 bedrooms : No view like I have now , just of the Ministry of the Interior and the offices of Interpol !
It´ll save me €500 a month !
Oh and it has a fully operational , beautiful woodburner which has a circular panel on top that you remove and you can put you cazuela to cook . AND it has a dishwasher . 85 m superficie .
A bit rough around the edges but I love it !

That street's about a block or two from the Avenida de America bus station! How convenient if you want to travel! I've been as far as that Ministry of the Interior building once after accompanying someone to that bus station, looking for someplace for lunch. That's a decent area, indeed. Can't wait to see the flat. But it's a duplex on two levels?? So you have to go up stairs to the bedrooms, probably?

At this location you won't very well be able to walk home after a long night out like you could before, though, but you'll surely find a taxi to take you.

When do you move?

Saludos, MadridMan

The great thing is MM , that despite it´s proximity to that huge Avenida de America intersection , the street is quiet ... The front of the apartment is even quieter as it looks over a large communal patio where , yesterday people had their tables and chairs out , drinks , reading newspapers etc.. and to the side there´s a small children´s playground .
We offered the owner´s father "un señal" of €500 to secure the place which he has accepted ... That will of course be offset against the fianza . Totally different way of doing things than in UK , but quite civilized ! I loved the way he called us to meet at a terrace bar for a beer to discuss the contract ! Pure España !!

If all goes well we´re looking at May 1st to move in .. It´s not furnished so I may have to sleep on the floor for a week or so but I´m Ok with that
.
steve

Actually you quite lucky if the landlord is only asking for 1 months rent. Because of the crisis and unemployment many landlords are demanding 6 months plus an Aval. (rent guarantee given by the bank). That is about the time it takes to kick out someone.

Just a note when reading I suggest not paying the last months rent in lue of the deposit for the simple reason once your gone the landlord has no incentive to return it,heard too many horror stories about tenants losing their deposits.

He´s actually asking for 2 months "fianza" , refundable when we leave . My friend tells me that legally they can only ask for 1 month rent as security ... but this is Spain . I´m still concerned that the owner ( in Paris ) is not going to be happy with the finances ( Even though I´m solvent ) . I really do NOT want to have to start showing my bank balances etc....

A landlord can ask for two months deposit if the apartment has furnishings.

Strange that Rob in Madrid finds landlords asking for more... I'm apartment hunting and found just the opposite to be true--the landlords seem completely desperate and almost none are requiring avals if you can prove that you can afford the place. The prices have dropped like crazy, too, eliminating most of the increases in the past five years. It's a very good time to be looking, especially for bigger places.

How frequently can the landlord raise the rent? Is there some limit or is a fixed rate usually written into the contract? I'd imagine so since a landlord may be tempted to raise the rent soon after getting a tenant moved in.

Saludos, MadridMan

Increases are very strictly regulated. Landlords can only raise the rent once a year and it cannot be more than the cost of living increase (IPC) for the month when your rental started. Some unscrupulous landlords try to write bigger, yearly fixed increases into the contracts, but these are illegal and a tenant is never obligated to pay any more than the ipc. You can calculate it here: http://www.ine.es/calcula/