Viewing Checklists for Parents

You may be paying. You may be driving from another city. You will not be the person who showers in that bathroom in March. A ManjeProp viewing is still worth doing with a list, because adjectives on a screen do not survive a Durban summer or a shared kitchen.

This is a parent’s walk-through. It is not a building inspection report and it is not a promise that any one listing is vacant until we have walked it ourselves.

Before you travel

Open properties. Note the exact address, what the listing claims is included, occupancy, and the rent you are prepared to discuss. Write three questions the page did not answer.

Enquire with times you can actually arrive. An enquiry is not a reservation. Do not pay a holding amount to a private number that is not on manjeprop.co.za. Do not send your child’s ID on the first message.

If your child already lives in the house and something is broken, they should use Report a fault, not wait for your visit to become the ticket.

Outside, on purpose

Stand on the pavement at the hour your child will come home. Look at the gate, the pedestrian latch, the lighting, the bins, the slope. Time the walk to a taxi, a shop, a campus gate. Write the minutes. “Close to campus” is not a number.

Ask what happens to the gate when the motor has no power. Ask to see the manual plan. You are not being difficult.

The actual room

Insist on the room they would occupy. Open the cupboard. Try the window stay. Smell the corner behind the door. Look at the ceiling, especially under a bathroom. Sit on the chair if the room is furnished. Look at mattress corners.

Do not open a DB board. Do not lift a geyser cover. If a socket is scorched, photograph it from the room and tell the person showing you.

Shared wet rooms and the kitchen

Run a tap. Look at the shower tray after a short run. Ask how many people use that bathroom. Look at the extractor. In the kitchen: stove plates, a fridge that is cold, a sink that drains. A viewing Saturday kitchen is tidier than a Wednesday. Still, fittings do not lie if you test them.

Paper questions, asked in ordinary words

Who is on the lease, and how many people the room is for
Deposit, how it is held, how inspections are done
What utilities are included, and how meters are read
Whether wifi is a house service or a tenant SIM
How faults are reported after hours (the answer should be the form and +27 60 313 6961)
Notice, and what happens if studies change
Guests and subletting — usually: no unofficial extra occupant

Ask to see a sample lease before you pay a deposit. Pay the business, on the business banking details.

Photographs you may take

Empty corners, the bathroom floor, the gate, the street. Not another student’s desk, medicine or face. Not keys. Not a written code. Not children at the neighbour’s wall.

After the walk

Write what you saw within an hour. Compare two houses on travel time, bathroom share, and whether the door actually latched. Do not let a same-day “someone else is coming at four” rush a payment you have not read a lease for.

If the passage and the listing disagree, believe the passage and put it on the enquiry form. We would rather correct a caption than inherit a complaint.

If you see a live leak or a lock that does not lock, say so immediately. Staff should log it. You should not sleep a child in an unsafe room while everyone “sorts it after payment.”

When you cannot attend

Ask your child to use this same list and send you minutes and photos of empty corners. A vibe is not a checklist. If you still have questions, write them on the enquiry form with the property name.

Parents are useful when they test fittings and read paper. They are less useful when they send identity documents into a chat. Bring the list. Leave the ID at home until a proper onboarding channel asks for it.

Viewings: properties · +27 60 313 6961. Faults in a house you already rent: the fault form.