Searching for an apartment on rent in Milan – Warnings for students
Do you know you can’t visit the apartment when you are in Milan before booking it?
Do you know what is included in the price, the security deposit and the cancellation policy are different for each apartment in the same website?
Do you know the price never includes the agency fee, the cleaning service, the registration tax and usually some other taxes and hidden costs?
Do you know you can’t have a draft copy of the contract before booking?
Do you know most of the websites can’t show the exact address of the apartments?
Do you know during your stay nobody will offer you any support?
Do you know most of the listings have only pictures and no videos?
Do you know to order online from a grocery store you need the Italian Codice fiscale and if you need to stay in quarantine you can’t buy online any food?
Do you know the internet connection in Milan it’s often not good enough for online classes?
Do you know nobody offer you a private driver for the Malpensa transfer, but you need to take a normal taxi used by a lot of people?
… if you start to get anxious, wait! Because you have just found who is totally different from the others and you don’t need to worry about any of those issue!!
Enjoy your apartment searchand make a safe and stress-free booking 🦦
Hello, I’m Ottavia Tagliavini, your local personal assistant, the manager of this website since 2007 and the owner of the apartment called Otty. How can I help you?
Related posts
Renting an Apartment in Milan: Answers to Common Questions from International Students
Good day, Ottavia,
Let me remind you, I am Milica Damjanović’s mother. I want to thank you for the nice cooperation over the past two years. You were there for our girls whenever they needed help, and you provided me with additional relief by knowing they were not alone in another country and city. You carry out your work very responsibly and professionally. You have my warmest recommendation to all my friends whose children may wish to study in Milan.
Once again, thank you; who knows, maybe we will collaborate again in the future.
Aleksandra Damjanovic
lubna Adam
My son loved the apartment. Was as described and quite cosy and lovely. We felt safe and Ottavia and Mrs. Jim were a pleasure to deal with. Grace who we were connected with for weekly cleaning was also a delight- on time, always smiling and thorough at her work. Thank you so much to all of you.
Belinda Fu
I stayed in Milan for 4 months (Sept-Dec) while I was studying for one semester at Bocconi. Ottavia was helpful in the initial process, and Jim was always on call to support us if anything went wrong. The location of the unit and pictures are all accurate, the only thing that was unexpected as an international student was the policies about heating in Milan. The heating gets turned on around late October/early November, but the temperature can go down to below 15 degrees before that at night. Even after November, the heat turned off from 11pm-5am each day. Because of this, I purchased a small portable heater to use at night time. A few weeks after I left, the landlord claims from Nov 6 - Dec 20th my heater went 150€ over the normal electricity bill and would deduct this from my deposit. However when they sent us a copy of the electric bill, the charge clearly shows €250 for the period of Oct 1- Nov 30th. The usage for November was double the amount in October so by that calculation, 250/3, October would be €83, and November would be €166, and the true deduction should be €83. In Canada, my household of 5 people who use heating in the winter, our electricity bill does not exceed $100CAD in the winter, so this was unexpected for them to claim I went €150 over (the average monthly bill) in November and December. Then, they changed the argument to say that we went over all three months (Sept, Oct, Nov). When September and October are clearly at the same levels of the average before we moved in. In that case it is not all inclusive as they advertised. After going back and forth, they said they will request all of the bills and the landlord will ask for additional payment on top of the €150. They did not provide any further clarification on the specific justification for the charges in each month and I did not get to speak directly with the landlord. the communication was very confusing. As a customer I do not feel like there was good explanation and overall ended my experience badly.
Update: Ottavia has reached out to me several times to support on this case. The landlord didn’t provide any additional documentation, but Ottavia offered to refund the difference if i could fix my review. I didn’t accept any payment because it has already been several months and I still want to share my honest experience. I think overall I would recommend renting with her agency, everything was perfect besides this hiccup at the end. It’s my only hope to give curious customers a heads up in case to be mindful about!
Emily Kwan
I had stayed in Milan for more than one year for my Master study and I’ve stayed in an apartment offered by RentalMilan, which was good in condition, accurate as described and execellent service. Highly recommend to people who are having a long stay in Milan :)
Salvatore Bruno
This agency is great for landlords and tenants.
Pratika Kishore
The place was the definition of a home away from home.
Cosy, quite and a personal space that gives you an opportunity to make the best Memories.
Ottavia really helped us at every step from settling in to moving out.
She helped us out with every service and took excellent care of us. Found us solutions to every problem we faced during our stay. The entire time was very memorable and overwhelming.
A very genuine, kind and helpful agent, always ready to help us out.
Overall we loved the days we had in the house "Napoli". I would taken this opportunity to thanks for the warm servics and care provided by Ottavia. :)
Jonathan McKenzie
Ottavia was very helpful and my experience was very pleasant. I didn’t have any hassle when getting in touch with RentalMilan, I stayed with the accommodations agency for my entire years visit in Milano. I would mention that the agency fee is expensive BUT in all honesty if you don’t know a landlord personally to agree a contract, the agency fee will always be expensive and considering the all inclusivity of the service I cannot dispute the prices as they were reasonable. If I was new to Milano again I would definitely use this service.
Hope this helps!
Meghan Horntvedt
I used Rental Milan for a 10-month apartment rental while I was doing my MBA at SDA Bocconi, and the service was great. It is ideal for it's flexibility and the apartment had everything I needed from the first day. If you're looking for a short-term lease for school, I recommend it.
Tilda Simson
LRB
I would recommend Rental Milan to anyone moving/studying in Milan. Ottavia is super professional and helpful. She is very responsive to emails and organized. You feel you are in goods hands when dealing with them and it makes the move much easier. Best of luck