Student blogs

Last week, I was queueing on an advertised apartment for rent, then I got a notification that my account has been suspended for one whole year. Very shocking! After that, then I thought of (re)reading the terms and conditions parts that applied to the membership within the housing queueing portal. You should too if you have not done it before, so that you will not suffer the same fate as me.

As a first-year student, we are approaching the end of our first semester. Also, as an international student, maybe we already start to think of where we would stay for the next year as our housing is guaranteed for the first year only. Some of us might already have sufficient queueing points to start hunting for a new apartment. We might look for one which is closer to the campus, more affordable, offers social life that met our expectations, offers the opportunity for a new roommate, or any other considerations.

One of the methods to acquire a new apartment is by being the member in the housing queueing portal. Some of us maybe tend to overlook the terms and conditions part, including me. This whole time, I was raised in the principle of learning by doing, thus I used to be involved in some kind of situation and experiencing it while I learn something new about it. Regarding this housing queueing matter, since I have just registered and only has relatively low queueing points, I submitted my interest on a certainly available apartment with the purpose of knowing the step of getting a new apartment. Although it is already written in the website, as I have explained before, for me, experiencing is believing, in this case, it did not turn out well. So, after I submitted my interest, I unexpectedly qualify for the next step. I was surprised when I was contacted for contract signing in just a couple of days.

Since I did not really intend to move, aside from the new apartment’s rent cost reason, I was not preparing for the contract signing. In the end, I did not manage to sign the contract on the designated deadline date. The consequence was shocking, my account was suspended for one year. It will not be available for submitting interest for any available apartments. Lesson learned.

Luckily, I have registered on several housing-queueing portals, so I still have backups to search for apartments through different sources. After experiencing, and thus believing, then I read thoroughly on all the terms and conditions, policies, information on the process of getting a new apartment, anything which is available within the portal that I was registered into.

As a conclusion, for you to not experience the same fate as me, here are some suggestions:

1. Register to several housing-queueing portals, also beneficial to broaden your options of available apartments.
2. Pay attention to the terms and conditions, whether you need to pay for some fee, what information you should provide, how the process is conducted, and be sure you comply with
3. Submit interest only on your targeted apartments, rather than “shot-gunning” on every advertisement you found.

Until next post then!

Contact me at:

• email: winner.ng@stud.ki.se
• LinkedIn: Winner Ng