The "key" money for the previous renter?
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Hi everybody 
I was just told that when renting a place in a western compound, we gotta pay some "key" money together with the rent (to the Saudi government) for the first rental year. The "key" money goes to the previous renter and it can be twice as much as your rent. Anyone had the similar experience? Is that common?
My other question is:
Is it true that once I choose a rental place and have my residential address, I have to use the only address (which means I can't move) unless I change my job or position?
Thanks a lot!
zoe ,,, Nothing here at SA like that .. Key Money ??? thats the first time ever i have heard about it !!
and also about Q2 .. if you come here alone " not with your husband " you must to stay at Company Balding or a special compound for the same Hospital or Company ,,,
but if your family come with you ,, you can rent at any other compound you want ,,, the compounds here are more safety than any other houses ,,
and about the address if talk about Messages or something like that ,, Often address is the same title company or hospital ,,
i hope this will help you
NaderHamza wrote:zoe ,,, Nothing here at SA like that .. Key Money ??? thats the first time ever i have heard about it !!
and also about Q2 .. if you come here alone " not with your husband " you must to stay at Company Balding or a special compound for the same Hospital or Company ,,,
but if your family come with you ,, you can rent at any other compound you want ,,, the compounds here are more safety than any other houses ,,
and about the address if talk about Messages or something like that ,, Often address is the same title company or hospital ,,
i hope this will help you
Helped a lot. Thank you! 
I will go with my husband. I assumed that looking for a place was very simple, because there are just two of us and we have simple criteria for what we'd like. Well, now we find that it's very different than the "regular renting" in most of the countries. Each compound seems to be unique in its own way.
Hmm, we'd try and hope we can finally find the one suits us the best.
borntobemild wrote:i think somoene is trying to scam you. although i have heard of store owners asking for "key money" for when they empty out a store for someone else to move in. because they are loosing income from having to close the store. but never heard of such about apartments.
ive never used my home address. i move around too much to have a permanent address out here. just use your work address.
Thank you for your info
The culture there is sooooo different. If something sounds crazy to me, I'm not sure if it's considered crazy there as well. We will be given a very short time to pick, or rather, "grab" a place after we arrive, so just to be safe, we think we should start the preperation now...Just heard about the compound "waiting list", so we are probably already a bit late~ 
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