In the latest expansion pack, Sims can be property owners as well as Sims 4 For Rent tenants. While there’s profit to be made as a property owner, there’s also a lot of time and money that needs to be invested into those owned properties to keep them profitable. If being a property owner sounds too involved for you, maybe renting units as Sims 4 For Rent tenants suits your play style better.
Life as a tenant can be a lot less of a hassle than being a property owner!
The upside about Sims 4 For Rent tenants is that when things go wrong in their unit, they can call the landlord to come and fix it for them free of charge. Assuming you have a good landlord, this can make being a tenant preferable to owning property. The downside is you might not always have a good landlord and you are subject to any of the rules laid out by the landlord in your tenant agreement.
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The Sims 4 For Rent Tenants Guide
Learn all about how being a tenant works in The Sims 4 For Rent! It’s much simpler than learning how to be a property owner but there’s still some important facts you should know if you plan to play as a tenant in For Rent.
Finding a Unit
Turning your Sims into Sims 4 For Rent tenants starts with picking a unit to move into. Thankfully, this is very straight-forward. It’s as easy as picking a regular residential home to live in, except you won’t have to buy the whole property. You’ll just need to pay rent, so initially, renting out a unit can be a lot cheaper than starting life out as a home owner.
Select any Residential Rental in any world you like. Tomarang already has 2 with available units but if you have built or placed Residential Rentals with unoccupied units elsewhere, you can choose to move there, too. Click on the property to select the unoccupied unit you’d like to live in.
When you are selecting and viewing possible units, make sure to pay attention to the unit rating and any rules set for that unit. Some property owners have rules that their tenants need to follow, such as no noise after 10pm or no social events. Make sure any rules for the unit don’t conflict with your Sim’s lifestyle, or they may find themselves very unhappy living there. A social butterfly who can’t host parties is bound to be miserable, for example. However, a loner bookworm will probably love living in a quiet atmosphere with no parties or loud noise late at night when they are trying to read.
Once you’ve found the right unit for your Sims, select it to move in. You can choose to rent the place furnished or unfurnished but you will have to pay extra for the furnishings.
Review the Tenant Agreement
When your Sims 4 For Rent Tenants first move into their new unit, their landlord will either be a playable Sim who owns the building or the game will assign a random NPC to act as the landlord for the property.
Although you should have already reviewed the unit rating and tenant rules before moving in, it’s still a good idea to review the full tenant agreement again. You can access the tenant agreement through the Home app on your phone or on the computer. Your tenant agreement will break down all the important information you need to know as Sims 4 For Rent tenants, such as how much rent you will pay per day, the length of your lease, the unit rating and condition of the unit, any tenant rules for the unit, and who your landlord is.
Although the rent is broken down per day, you actually only need to pay your rent once a week. The rent will be the daily rent rate x7 for the full week. For example, if your Sim is paying $50 a day in rent, their weekly rent payment will be $350. Most leases last for 7 days. At the end of the lease, your Sims 4 For Rent Tenants can move out without penalty but giving the landlord your notice in the middle of the lease will slap you with a $500 fine for breaking the lease.
Bills Breakdown
Sims 4 For Rent tenants can check their bills breakdown just like Sims living in a regular Residential home, but for tenants, rent will be a part of their bill breakdown. You can see your bill breakdown in the Home app on your phone or by clicking on your mailbox.
If you were hoping the rent on your unit included utilities, sorry to be the bearer of bad news but nope. Your Sims 4 For Rent tenants are responsible for covering the cost of their utilities on top of their rent. Hey, this ain’t the good ol’ days anymore, you know. It’s almost 2024 now and times are tough for everyone! We can’t just be offering all-inclusive rent anymore! Wake up and smell the reality!
Ahem… Anyway. You’ll be able to see exactly how much you’ll be paying in rent and utilities by checking your bills breakdown. Make sure to view it often so you don’t get an unpleasant surprise when it’s time to cough up the rent and utilities.
The Do’s and Don’t’s of Building in a Unit
One cool thing about being a tenant in The Sims 4 For Rent is you have a lot more freedom to build and customise your unit than you would in most places in the real world. Very little is off-limits to you which is a nice little piece of fantasy in an expansion that is otherwise almost depressingly realistic.
Sims 4 For Rent tenants have the freedom to change absolutely anything they want within their own unit and in the shared space! Add or remove objects as you please, knock down and rebuild walls, change the wall coverings and flooring. You can even change anything you want on the exterior of the building as long as it part of your unit or shared space.
The only thing in a Residential Rental that Sims 4 For Rent tenants cannot change is anything that is part of another unit. So you can’t go into your neighbours’ units and go rearranging all their furniture, as funny as it might be to do that. Otherwise? The whole building is yours to do whatever you want with.
Who You Gonna Call? The Landlord!
Of course, when things go wrong in your unit, you have the added benefit of being able to tell your landlord to fix it. Sims 4 For Rent tenants will periodically have appliances break or spontaneously be met with unique maintenance and emergency events such as insect infestations, sewage leaks, and even hauntings. When these things happen, pull up the Home app on your cell phone and Call the Property Owner for a Visit.
If there is a maintenance event happening, your landlord will automatically go take care of the issue for you. If they successfully solve the problem before the event timer runs out, it will improve the unit’s overall rating.
However, you can also call the landlord to fix broken appliances such as a leaky faucet or a clogged toilet. In this case, you’ll have to ask the landlord to inspect that specific object. To do this, click on your landlord and under the Rent category, ask them to inspect the broken appliance. They will do so and then repair it for you if it’s broken. You can ask the landlord to inspect and repair any broken appliance within your unit or the shared space.
Of course, if you really want to, your Sims 4 For Rent tenants can also choose to complete maintenance events and fix broken stuff themselves… but why? Save yourself time and money by making the landlord foot the bill. That’s what they’re for.
Tired of playing as Sims 4 For Rent tenants? Want to dip your toes into property ownership? Our Property Owner Guide has you covered!
