Hi,
I have been living in Bucharest for over 6 years and have looked for apartments for other Japanese for numbers of times. I'm not sure what is exactly called scams here but generally apartment hunting is the hardest process to move in.
The problem happens mostly when you look for your apartment. Especially if the rent is under 350 eur including tax, we must prepare ourselves.
If we try to apply for a resident permit in Romania, the lease agreement must be registered at the local tax agency called ANAF. It means tax and social insurance will be put on the top of the rent, which ends up being about 25% of the rent. Most of the owners under 350 eur would want the tenant to cover it. Besides, most of those owners don't want to be involved with ANAF. Then what happens ? owners cancel the meeting in the morning of concluding a lease agreement, or tell the tenant a lie that it's tenant's obligation to register it at ANAF, or knock on the door at the first night after moving in, and show the tenant only the last page of a secret new contract to force the tenant to sign.
I should not be naming the area but those owners are often seen in mid~west area of Bucharest. Kind of conservative zone. However they are everywhere of course.
And as mentioned above, some agents are the trouble too. I think most apartment seekers check OLX or other similar sites. You should check if the "owner" posts many other properties too. If he or she does, most likely it's an agent pretending to be the owner. and the property that you like doesn't exist. It's just a bait. Once you call the number, you'll get to have many calls from several different phone numbers, but you never get to see the property that you liked. and you pay 50% of the monthly rent most of the cases.
I have once worked with an agent. They seemed ok to me. The day before when we were supposed to conclude the contract, they emailed me a draft of the contract. It looked good too. The next day, I signed and paid the rent and guarantee as promised. It was when I tried to cancel the contract a few years later. I noticed the clause about guarantee was deleted on the actual contract that I signed. it was the clause to stipulate my guarantee shall be reimbursed when the contract is expires.
My conclusion is it's all up to the owner's personality. Don't expect from low budget apartment. Find the owner who has a job, common sense, is educated, and hopefully got the property by inheritance from parents.
From my experience, in order to see 5 apartments, you must call at least 20 ~ 30 apartments. and if you can conclude a contract with one of the 5, you are lucky. Good luck.
