Any professional in field of real estate may surely announce that the initial action in the process of selecting of apartments Ukraine ought to be the thorough study of that market. If you ask for assistance of real estate organizations it would cost you more but you may select the appropriate apartment significantly faster if it is compared to dealing directly with holder.
If you need to rent apartment on some prolonged time, that is important to sign a contract with a person who offers such service and certify a document with help of notary public. If of any problems appear, the basic document that can help to resolve them is an agreement which was signed at the beginning of your stay in Kiev. The agreement signed between the landlord and the leaseholder is the warranty for both of them that the other part doesn't intend to perform any unlawful actions. Leaseholder is interested in signing an agreement as he can easily lose a place to stay and all the funds given for it.
Persons that offer you to rent their apartment clearly realize that you may perform some unjust operations and not to pay for being here or make some damage to their apartment, but lots of them don't desire to sign an agreement. People don't want to pay duty for the money they receive for the rental actins. It would be almost not possible to prove that you have given any funds to the owner of the apartment if he decided to cheat you. So think twice about the singing of the contract. Legally, in case there is no contract, there is no money operations, so don't carry out any money operations before the contract is signed.