key: viewing title: "Viewing checklist: what to check before you say yes" description: "Twenty minutes inside a flat decide the next twelve months. Here is what to look at, room by room." category: sicurezza order: 2 updated: 2026-09-20
The viewing lasts twenty minutes and decides where you will live for a year. Almost nobody turns up prepared: you look at the bedroom, you nod, you say "it is great", and in December you find out the heating never reaches the second floor.
Save this page on your phone and open it while you are there.
Before you go in
- The neighbourhood in the evening. If you can, walk past the building after nine as well. A street that looks quiet in the morning can be something else on a Saturday night.
- How long it actually takes. Open your maps and work out the walking and cycling time to your department. Our listing pages already show an estimate, but try it on your own legs.
- Supermarket, pharmacy, bus stop. See what is within five minutes.
- The entrance and the stairs. How clean the shared areas are, the lighting, whether the entryphone works.
The bedroom
- Open and close the window: does it shut properly? Is it double glazed? Does it face the street or the courtyard?
- Check the corners of the ceiling and behind the wardrobe: dark patches or stains mean damp, and in winter damp means mould.
- Count the power sockets and see where they are in relation to the desk and the bed.
- Try the lights: how many bulbs, what kind of light, is there a desk lamp?
- Make sure there is a radiator in the room and ask whether it works.
- Mentally measure the bed and the desk: is there room to sit and study, or is the desk sixty centimetres wide?
- Ask whether the door has a key.
- Listen for noise: busy road, bar downstairs, church bells, railway.
The bathroom
- Run the hot water and wait: how long does it take to arrive? Does the pressure hold?
- Look at the shower: mould in the grout, does the door close, is the drain slow?
- Is there a window or an extractor fan? A bathroom with no air change in a flat of four people becomes a problem.
- How many people will use this bathroom?
The kitchen
- Try the hob and ask whether the oven works.
- Open the fridge: is it big enough for how many of you there are? Is there space for you?
- Look under the sink: leaks, stains, smell.
- Is there a washing machine? Where? How do the flatmates organise it?
- Is there a table where several people can actually eat?
Heating and bills
This is the part that costs the most and the one almost nobody asks about.
- Independent or central? Independent means you decide when to switch it on and pay what you use. Central means hours set by the building and a fixed share.
- If it is central, are there thermostatic valves or individual meters?
- Ask to see two real bills, one from winter and one from summer. If the landlord says "it will be about fifty euros" without showing anything, treat that as an optimistic estimate.
- The energy class of the building: it is on the APE, which must be attached to the contract.
The flatmates
If the flat is shared, the flatmates matter as much as the flat.
- Who is there now? Students, workers, how old?
- What hours do they keep? Somebody up at seven does not mix well with somebody back at three.
- How are cleaning and shopping split? Is there a rota, or does everyone just do their own thing?
- Can you have people over? Stay the night?
- Is smoking allowed indoors? Are there pets?
- Why did the room become free? The answer to that one tells you more than all the rest.
Questions for the landlord
- What contract will we sign, and for how long?
- How much is the deposit and on what conditions do I get it back?
- Who pays the service charges?
- Can I register my residency here?
- If something breaks, who fixes it and how fast?
- Can I hand over or transfer the room if I have to leave early?
That last one counts double: if the contract needs three months' notice and the landlord is inflexible, leaving early costs you a thousand euros. If they are open to takeovers, you have a way out.
Before you leave
Take photos of everything, including anything broken or damaged. This is not distrust: it is how you avoid losing your deposit in June over a mark on the wall that was already there in September. Those photos, with their dates, are your insurance.
And take a night to think about it. If they push you to decide, reread the guide on scams.