In the very first days of my arrival, Olya gave me a bunch of contracts, including a housing rental agreement! The thing is, our employer rented an apartment from a real estate agency for their employees; each of us paid $450 for a spot in a triple room, and we also paid a $450 deposit! The contract rules stated that the deposit would be returned if the following conditions were met:

• nothing in the apartment is broken or damaged, and the apartment is perfectly clean.

• we did not bring guests who are not employees of our boss (when I was signing it, this point immediately outraged me, but there was nowhere else to go!)

• we do not leave the apartment before the date we signed the contract for.

What was my mistake! Naively thinking that I wouldn't want to leave such a wonderful place, I signed the rental agreement until September 1st! And I only lasted a month there! And guess what happened to my deposit? That's right, no one returned it to me! I signed everything myself, fair and square!

Don't fall for this trap! Sign a rental agreement, if there is one, for the shortest possible term; it's very easy to extend it later! If you move into an apartment and don't get along with messy roommates, you might want to move out in a week, but it will be a pity to lose your deposit! Do you need that? I don't think so!

By the way, my roommates Katya and Alina didn't get their deposit back for another reason – shortly before they left, the washing machine broke! $150 was deducted from their deposits after all, even though it shouldn't have been!

Remember! If there is no external damage to items, then your landlord pays for repairs out of their own pocket! Appliances tend to break, and not always because of you! If you smashed a TV screen with your fist, that's one thing, but if something burned out inside for an unknown reason, that's another. Why should you pay for it?! So these people took advantage of the girls' lack of knowledge about their rights!