The inability of owner-occupiers to renovate and make their rental properties functional combined with short-term rentals (the Airbnb) to have limited the availability of properties to students and parents looking for homes to rent. But even when they do find a house to rent, parents and students should arm themselves with patience for the paperwork and tax obligations.

For many reasons (obsolete buildings, predatory rent taxes, damages and debts from previous tenants, etc.) , the number of homes available for rent has also decreased. In order to end the perennial suffering of new students and their families, POMIDA has proposed to the government to create a simply configured digital platform software for supply and demand of student housing, which will operate permanently either on the portal of each University, or centrally on Gov.gr. In this platform, the owners of residences available for rent to students, as well as interested real estate agents, will be able to declare the offered residences in time, so that interested students and their parents, as well as the owners of these residences, can be served immediately.

As far as obligations are concerned, the main issue is the so-called electronic leases, i.e. how they have to be filled in as the case may be and obligations that both children and parents have. After the “closing” of the student residence, the tenancy agreements must be completed and submitted exclusively electronically. All those who lease properties and all those who are tenants are required to take the following actions: the former must register the lease details (tenants’ VAT number, amount of rent, duration, electricity supply number, property ATAK) and the latter must accept them.

Through the Real Estate Leases service, the property owner can submit the lease electronically from his/her computer and the tenant will automatically be informed with the contents of the lease.

Attention: for the property you are leasing you are required to issue an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC). This must be completed in the relevant fields of the online rental declarations.

After logging into the application with the codes, you follow 6 steps:

1. fill in the Lessees’ VAT numbers
2. Fill in the tax identification numbers of the tenants
3. I fill in the date of the agreement, from – to and the total monthly rent
4. I fill in the ATAK of the property
5. I fill in the electricity supply number
6. Fill in the Energy Certificate

Inland Revenue: Answers to common questions

– The criterion is whether the parent or the student contributes. If the parent contributes to the agreement, then the parent’s VAT number is entered as the tenant. If the student contributes, the student’s tax identification number is entered as the tenant.

How to declare an apartment (declared by the owner normally on one line of the E9) where 3 students live together having a common kitchen-bathroom, but each has their own bedroom and each pays a different rent?

– It depends on how the tenancy agreement is entered into i.e., whether it is a single tenancy with three tenants or whether it is three separate tenancies. Therefore there are 2 possibilities:

– For the landlord to submit, for this house, 3 different property lease declarations, i.e. ONE FOR EACH tenant where each declaration will record what corresponds to each tenant. In other words, the tenant’s VAT number, the amount of rent actually paid and the percentage of the total floor area (e.g. 1/3 of the total house of 120 sqm, i.e. 40 sqm) will be entered as the sqm of the house.
– A lease declaration should be submitted by the landlord, where the tenants will be listed with the 3 VAT numbers of the tenants. In this case, both in the amount of the rent (received by the lessor) and in the square meters of the dwelling, the participation of the tenants will be considered equal (1/3 each). It should be noted that the above also covers any other case of a lease agreement where the tenants are more than one party.

POMIDA recommends the following:

– Don’t look for a house outside the University gate, (common mistake of parents…)! A few streets or a few stops down, there are many houses waiting for you, discover them!

– Organize your search and don’t rush to end up at the first one you see, but book the first one that fits you right away!!!!

– If they ask you for a rent that exceeds your finances, don’t accept it, because you will definitely find what you are looking for a little further!

– There is no restriction on either the amount of the security deposit or the number of rents advanced.

– Arrange to live with other students you know, in duplexes, triplexes and generally large apartments, which are always rented much cheaper than smaller ones.

– Check carefully and without haste the house you have found and the condition it is in. If it is evening ask to see it in daylight.

– Complete and sign a lease document, both you and the parent concerned, but be careful, never pay rent or deposits unless you are sure that the person asking for them is indeed the owner of the house you are renting.

– Stay away from so-called “information agencies” that promise that if you pay them a certain amount up front, they will immediately find you a house just the way you want it! Most of the time their “information” is outdated and of no value.

– Contact only official real estate agencies, to which you do not advance any amount as a fee until you sign a lease and take possession of the house!