 Okay, hello everybody and welcome to the KMC virtual housing briefing. You should have printed all of the documents that are necessary for this briefing prior to starting this video. We're going to fill out the documents together as we move through the briefing. So don't get a jump start on anything, just be patient and work with us. Once the briefing is complete, you will send your 1746, your TLA fact sheet and your government housing fact sheet to our org box, KMCHousing at us.af.mil. We will then put your information into our system and then we will email you back and confirm that your briefing is complete. When you send your documents, be sure to remember to send a set of your orders because we're going to need that information as well. So without further ado, let's get started. You should have printed this package from the link that was provided to you. So this is all the important information that we're going to cover today. This is the agenda that we are going to cover today. So we will cover our customer service hours and location. We will fill out the 1746 together. We'll talk about TLA, the process of claiming it as well as cover some of the regulations, government housing, living on the economy. Typically we have time for questions at the end. However, in this trying time, we do have the org box available for you to email in questions or give us a call. So first off, for those of you that are new to Bogleway in Germany and Ramstein, there are two sides to the installation. We have the side with the commissary, the bowling alley, the high school. There's a few other things on that side and then of course there's the housing side and we are the only thing on the housing office side. The easiest way to find us when you do have the opportunity to come see us in person is to Google Armstrong Club Kaiserslautern. That will get you to the Armstrong Club gate. Once you're inside the installation, follow the signs to our office. We are open Monday through Thursday from 8 to 1530, Friday 8 to 1430. When we are able to see customers, we only take walk-ins from 8 to 11 and then we start back up at 1300 and to go to 1530 Monday through Thursday. Thursday is only 8 to 11. We take walk-ins. Unfortunately, if you were to show up at 11.45, we can't always guarantee that there will be somebody available to assist you. We do require appointments to certify your rental agreement. So how we've modified that for now is once you've found a contract for a home on the economy, we will set a time where a counselor will contact you, that you will have access to a printer and internet and everything and we will go over everything with you on the phone, email you the necessary documents and then you will email everything back to us. Housing referral is also in our building. They're on the third floor. You can contact them on the numbers that are provided if you need to speak to them. During walk-in hours, they can also be seen when we are able to take customers. They are the folks that go out and do the inspections on the houses on the economy and they can also assist if there are ever any landlord or tenant issues. Furnishing's management is also part of our flight, but they're not on our installation. You do have to drive 10 minutes down to Eindsiedlerhof to go see them, but they're going to set you up with your loaner kits that will hold you over until your household goods have arrived, as well as items you keep through your whole tour, like your washer, your dryer, wardrobes, transformers, things of that nature. You do have to have your certified rental agreement in order to go see them though. We are closed on German and American holidays, as well as the second Wednesday of every month at 11.30 for training. So please keep that in mind. Easter is a very busy holiday time, same with Christmas and New Years around Germany, so if you're not sure we're going to be in the office, just give us a call so you don't drive over here for no reason. Let's get started on some paperwork. This is your 1746 that you should have printed out, and we're going to fill this out together. So Block 1, type of service desired in the top corner. If you want to live on post, you're going to check Block A, military housing. If you want to live off post, you'll check Block B, housing referral. Number two, name of sponsor. That is, of course, your full name. Block 3, your pay grade. 4, your social security number. 5, your DOD component. 6, physical address. So for those of you that are in lodging, we need where you're staying at. If you are in Ramstein Lodging, you can put TLF, Ramstein Lone Stool, or VogueAway, depending on the area that you're staying in. If you're staying at a hotel off post, that's fine. You can put TLF off post if you're not sure the name of the hotel or the name of that place that you're staying. If you're staying with a friend, you can also put that as well in this block, put staying with friend, maybe the village that they're in if you know that information. But we just need a physical location of where you are staying. Block 7A, we need your home number, your cell phone number. If you have that long German cell phone number, I know it's a small space in this block. But definitely try your best to fit it in. We have a little bit more room further down in the paperwork. If you still have your stateside number and can receive calls on that, you can absolutely put that in this block as well. We can call you on your stateside number. If you don't have either, you can put your sponsor's phone number, and we can call your sponsor. Just maybe put SP in parentheses so we know we're calling your sponsor, not you directly. And we'll update your information later. Block B, your duty number, your DSN. So this is your work number. You may not have that yet, and that is absolutely fine. So if you don't, please leave this blank, and we will get this information from you later. But if you do have it and you know it, go ahead and fill it in. Status of applicant. So everybody here is going to check block 8A, military member, because everybody should be military member. If we have any dual military that are here listening in today, you can check block 8A and B, because you're a military member and military spouse. Block 9, your marital status, you're going to put whether you're single, married, or divorced. If it's complicated, maybe don't put that. Our system doesn't recognize it. Block 11, we are actually going to skip block 10. But block 11, requesting housing for self-only or self-independence. You're going to check the block that applies to you. Number 12, the installation and the organization that you transferred from. That is going to be your last duty location and last unit or squadron, whichever applies if your army or Air Force. Number 13, the installation and the organization that you've transferred to. So this is your duty location and unit or squadron that you're going to be working for while you're stationed in the Kaiserslautern military community. Number 14, this is where I have to test everybody's memory, because we need to get some dates. So if we have any dual military couples that are listening in with us today, if you are the primary applicant, your dates are going to go in military applicant. Your military spouse dates will go in the second block where it says military spouse. So first, we need your effective rank date. And that is the day that you put on the rank that you're currently wearing. If you don't remember that date, you can just put the first of whatever month in year, excuse me, that you put on that rank best to your ability. Block B, your active duty service computation. So this is when you join the military. And again, if you don't remember that exact date, you can use the first of whatever month in year that you believe that was. We don't need C, time remaining on active duty. So you can leave that blank. But we do need D, your effective change in duty station. This is when you left your last duty location. So this is a very important date because those of you that are going on the wait list, this is when your application becomes effective. Block E, your report date. This is the day that you landed in Germany and you checked into your hotel. This is also for those of you that are in lodging when your 30 days of TLA starts counting. And then block F, your estimated family arrival date. For those of you that have family that traveled with you, you're gonna put the same date in this block that you put in E, your report date. But if you have family coming later on, you're gonna put your best guess on when you think they're going to be arriving. So section three, number 15, dependents residing with me. This is all of the dependents that are on your orders that are command sponsored and are going to be here with you through your whole tour. For my dual military couples, if you have your military spouse here with you in the remarks, just put mil to mil. So moving on to number 16, housing desired on the paperwork. Block A, you're going to put your DROS. This is when you believe you're going to PCS from Germany. If you're not sure what your DROS is, the easiest way to determine that is to take the day that you landed here in Germany. So just for an example, maybe you touched down on 19 March. You're gonna take that date, add three or two years depending on your tour and subtract a day. So if you're on a three year tour, your DROS would be 18 March 2023, two year tour 2022. Block B, we need your DOD ID number. If you have a dual military couple, maybe just do a slash and put both of your numbers in the space as well. Date of birth and date of marriage in block C and D. We do need that information. And as I said in block E, we have more room for you to write that really long German cell phone number if you had trouble fitting it up at the top. Block F, your personal email address. So this is the personal email address that you check regularly. And then block G, your military email address. I know some of you may not have access to that yet. However, still put it in there because that is where we're going to reach out to you most of the time. Block H, if anybody has a line number is promotable. You will check yes in this block, but we do need your ERB, ORB or SURF in order to document that as well. This could prevent you from receiving any TLA offers, which we'll cover later. And it also could change your entitlement. So if you are a junior NCO with a line number to promote to senior NCO, it changes your entitlements. A government quarter section. So for those of you that know you want to live on the economy, you are going to initial in the block that says I do not want military family housing. If you do want to live on post, you're going to initial here where it says I do want military family housing. We do have three areas for military family housing that you can choose from. Vogelwe, Ramstein and Lawnstool. You can circle your area of preference. It can be one area, it can be all three. It's certainly up to you. If you choose an area that does not have your category, our waitlist team will reach out to you and let you know. And if anybody is arriving here in the KMC area from a UDR, AOR or ITT tour, you can circle it in this spot as well. If you don't know what any of those tours are, it doesn't apply to you. Once you're done filling out this application, we need two signatures and two dates. So you're going to sign block 17 and block 20. And then you're going to date block 18 and 21. Next, we're going to talk about TLA. So when it comes to TLA, we are following the Joint Travel Regulations, Army in Europe 37-4, you safety supplement, AFI 32-6001. There's a lot of regulations that we do have to follow. So the first thing that you have to remember is TLA is authorized to partially reimburse you for more than normal expenses that are incurred as a result of occupying temporary quarters. And it's only authorized if you're in the PDS area. So if you're driving more than an hour to get to Ramstein Air Base or Claibor concern, you might not be in the PDS area. The first block does talk about claiming your TLA. So as I do have to read this word for word, please bear with me. Reimbursement is based on availability of either government or off-base housing, whichever is earlier, regardless of whether you're applying for government housing or prefer to live off-base. If you elect off-base housing, you must aggressively seek off-base housing and provide a landlord contact sheet when you file your TLA reimbursement request. Your TLA must be reviewed in 10-day increments and continuation of TLA will be based on your demonstrated diligence in seeking permanent housing and availability. So the first thing that's very important in this block is that you make your TLA claims every 10 days. So you've checked into your hotel, you sleep 10 nights, the morning of the 11th, you're gonna get a zero-balance paid lodging receipt and you're gonna email that to our org box. We also have a questionnaire that we will provide to you so you can answer a little bit of information so we can be sure we process your claim correctly. So just make sure you're doing that claiming every 10 days because it's very, very important. Also when you claim your TLA, we need this landlord contact sheet. So this can be found in the packet with the big logo that you printed off before we started this briefing. When you're making contact with landlords, you're going to write down every contact on this sheet that you have made. Even if they don't answer your email, your phone call, your text message, you still tried to find housing. It's not your fault if they didn't respond. When you're doing your house hunting and you're making your TLA claims, when you do your first 10-day claim, we need at least two houses on this contact sheet. Each claim after that, we need five additional houses. So if you're house hunting your full 30 days, you would have a minimum of 12 homes that you have contacted. And you can certainly do more than the minimum. We always like it when folks go the extra mile. Once you have found a house and you have signed, or had a landlord sign your rental agreement, you do not have to continue filling out this form. So if everybody understands the first block on the landlord contact or the landlord fact sheet, excuse me, TLA fact sheet, you will initial on the little line in the first block. The second block, if a service member refuses to occupy available housing, whether it's government or economy, or refuses or requests a later delivery of loan or furniture or household goods, TLA's terminated the first date that furnishings management or TMO can deliver temporary or household goods based on the date that quarters are available. A no-show for a scheduled FMS delivery or self-pickup within the PDS area from the warehouse constitutes termination of TLA. So this is unfortunately where we might have some bad news for some of you folks. Basically, with government housing, there have been houses built on military installations for service members to occupy. If you are in those homes, they're not paying overseas housing allowance, they're not paying utility allowance, and we also don't have vacant houses sitting while you're in a house on the economy. So if we have housing available for you in your bedroom entitlement category, you may receive a TLA offer. If you receive one of those offers, you have 24 hours to accept or decline the offer. If keys are available, the waitlist team will contact you and let you know. We will be able to make the keys available to you so you can take a look at that unit. If you turn down that TLA offer, the waitlist team will contact FMS and they will determine the earliest available delivery that FMS could have gotten loaner items to that address. At that point, your TLA will terminate the day FMS could have delivered. We could have had a roof over your head and a bed for you to sleep on. It was your personal preference not to accept those quarters. On the other side with your TLA termination and FMS and TMO, say you have a house on the economy, you come in and you certify your contract and you go see FMS and you ask for delivery on April 1st when they could have gotten to you on March 25th. They're going to make comments in the system that we are able to see and that will let us know that you did request a later delivery date for personal preference reasons. So be sure to take the earliest available delivery for FMS items or transportation to get your household goods delivered. And then if everybody understands this block here, you will initial on your paper. The third block, if you choose to enter into a rental contract for a home that's not readily available or has not been inspected by our office, TLA may be terminated if it is determined that a sufficient number of adequate homes are available for immediate occupancy. Essentially, we want you to find homes that are already housing approved and they are ready to be moved into. So make sure you're looking for homes that are available within your 30-day TLA entitlement and that's already housing approved. If you find something not housing approved, it could eat into your TLA time and you may have to file for an extension. And unfortunately in those situations, we can't always guarantee that it will be approved by our commander. If everybody understands that block, you'll initial the sheet right there. And finally, the last block that I have to read verbatim to you. Personal preference issues such as pets, furniture, limitations, school districts, and size are not justification for an extension beyond 30 days. To continue to receive additional TLA, you should only look at rentals that are immediately available due to the limited number of days TLA's authorized and the time it takes FMS or TMO to deliver loan or furniture to the economy. TLA extensions will not normally be approved when referral listings are available within your bedroom entitlement, OHA ceiling and commuting distance. TLA extension requests must reach the housing management office before the end of the 30 day arrival period. This block mainly covers again, personal preference. If you've brought two dogs with you to Germany and you're having a hard time finding a landlord that's willing to accept those pets, that unfortunately does fall under personal preference category. Same with furniture. The homes in Germany are built very differently than they are in the States. So sometimes it can be difficult to find a home that will accommodate all of our big American furniture. Again, with extensions, if you have to apply for one, you do have that option. If you do have to go beyond the 30 days, we do request that you come and see us before the end of that time period though. So that way we can advise you on the best course of action for your situation. If everybody understands this last final block, you will initial the little line beside it. So on top of your lodging, you will also receive per diem money. We don't know what that number is. However, the folks at the finance office, whether you're going to Ramstein Finance or Claibor Kecerne Finance, they can answer your questions regarding that. So just to recap, it's possible for everybody to receive up to 30 days of TLA. You're gonna file those claims every 10 days. And in order to process your TLA, we need your landlord contact sheet, your itemized paid lodging receipt, your orders. And for those of you that are staying off post, your statement and unavailability, as well as the VAT form that you're using with that off post hotel. In those cases, we're gonna make a copy of that VAT form and we're gonna send it in your packet and you will be reimbursed the $5 that you paid for that VAT form. And if everybody's good to go on this TLA fact sheet, you're going to sign the bottom date and initial that you do have a copy of this fact sheet. Now we're going to talk about government housing. Even if some of you are not interested in living on post, we still wanna cover it for you. First, we have your bedroom entitlements. The way we determine your bedroom entitlements is we take your category and your dependent number. So if you have come over here and you have two children and you and your spouse and you are E6, you would be in junior NCO housing. You would have a bedroom for each child, so we're at two bedrooms. And then unfortunately, you and your spouse do have to share a room. So that would be a three bedroom entitlement. Same if you have three kids and it's you and your spouse. You have three rooms for your children and then you and your spouse have your own room and that would be a four bedroom entitlement. The largest we have is four bedroom. The smallest we do have is a two bedroom. Weightless position. So your position on the weight list unfortunately can change week by week. Somebody might come in next week on a UDR tour and they could potentially bump you. We always tell members to give us a call and we will try to get you in touch with our weightless team if they're available at the moment you call. But if not, we're gonna take your information and we're gonna get them to give you a call back within three duty days. If you get me on the phone and you have a preference for Ramstein and I pull up your weightless category and position, I might tell you your number 55 when you're really only number five. So we definitely want you to talk to the weightless teams to get a better idea of where exactly you are on that list. Turn down options. So for those of you that are maybe moving onto the economy and decide it's not working for you and you wanna apply for on post housing at a later date, you will come into the office or email us and we will put you onto the weightless after you fill out the necessary paperwork. And then when you get to the top of that list, we're gonna give you an offer. If you turn down your first offer, you will receive a second offer. But if you turn down that second offer after 24 hours, then you will be taken off of the weight list and you have to reapply in 90 days. Bypass. So for folks that move on to the economy and do have to sign a one year lease with a landlord, you're gonna let us know and then we're gonna put you in bypass. So in theory, you will fulfill your commitment with your landlord and you'll move up to the top of the list. And then once your lease is over, you should hopefully receive an offer. Government paid moves. So we are going to pay to move you on post for the first move. So if you're living on the economy and then you applied to live on post, it's gonna be paid for. We're gonna process all the paperwork that you'll take to transportation. They will pack you and move you and take care of everything. We do require one year minimum residency for on post housing. So if you move on post and decide in six months that it's not working for you, unfortunately you do have to fulfill that commitment to us. If you decide to move on post after that, move off post, excuse me, after that one year, unfortunately it is at your expense. Pets. So we have recently redone our pet policy. The current pet policy is that you can have two pets of any type, so two dogs, two cats, a dog and a cat. Or you can have three pets as long as they do not exceed 150 pounds. So in theory, if you have 350 pound dogs, you're great. But you could also have two dogs that are 150 pounds a piece. So if you have any questions, feel free to contact the housing office on our pet policy. Unfortunately, some pets are not allowed on post such as ferrets, farm animals, reptiles, they are not allowed on post. And we do have the usual breed restrictions with dogs. There is unfortunately non-temp storage, so that is not authorized. So if you have a lot of furniture, you can certainly store it, but it is at your expense. There is of course no smoking in stairwell units. You do have to use the designated smoking areas. And then number 10, this can be the best news for some of you guys that are gonna live on post. We do have a building leader program. So if you're the highest ranking member in your area, you are the building leader and our facilities section will let you know if you're that lucky winner. So if everybody is good on your government housing fact sheet, you're going to print your name down at the bottom, you will sign it, you will put your rank and your date. And this is the last of the paperwork that you do have to fill out to send to our office. So make sure you have printed everything legibly and that we can get a clear read on this. And then you're gonna send it to our work box. Again, that email address is KMCHousing at us.af.mil and don't forget your orders. Now, everything that we're going to cover from here on out is in this packet with the big logo. So in that packet, you have a map of the PDS area. You do have to live within this PDS area in order to receive full housing services. Ramstein Air Base is in the middle and it's about an hour drive in either direction. We do also require the 291 Alpha rental agreement and we'll cover that in just a moment. FMS, again, they're only gonna deliver in this PDS area with that certified rental agreement. So you have to get your contract certified by our office before you can go see them. So for those of you that are wanting to move onto the economy here in Germany, you're gonna find your rental listings on homestotmil. That is the only housing approved and housing controlled website. If you choose to use other websites that is up to your discretion, however, we do recommend that you cross reference. Check homestotmil, ask the landlord when their last inspection was. We usually do the initial inspection and homes get reinspected every five years. So if you ask your landlord when their last inspection was and they look at you like they're not really sure what you're talking about, that might be a red flag. Real estate agents in Germany are known as immobiliens. You can certainly use one. Just be aware that if they do charge a finder's fee, you will not be reimbursed that fee. So always ask upfront before you decide to go with an immobilian if you will be paying any fees. Sometimes landlords will use an immobilian to manage their rental property. And of course, that's fine. That landlord is paying that fee. However, if you go look at that home and decide it doesn't fit your family's needs and the immobilian offers to show you some other homes that she has, just ask before you agree to take a look at any of those homes. So you're not caught off guard paying any additional fees that you were not anticipating. The rental contract is between you and your landlord. Of course, our housing office, we certify it, we review it, we make sure everything in the contract is accurate. But it is again, a negotiation between you and your landlord. Of course, we did have a policy change in November of 2019 where we no longer regulate the rental rates. So again, you're gonna negotiate with that landlord what's the best option for you and your family in your contract. If you do have any concerns or issues with your landlord and your rental contract, you're welcome to come talk to the housing referral office during our walk in hours over the phone or through email. If they're not able to solve your issue, there is a legal office on Claiborke Stern as well as Ramstein Air Base that you can go in and have assistance. And if they're not able to offer assistance, they can refer you to a group of attorneys on the German economy that might be able to help you out. The security deposit in Germany can be anywhere from one to three months of rent. It's perfectly normal to see a security deposit be two or three months rent. The security deposit is designed to protect the landlord for any damages that might occur in their home while you're occupying it. It's also not able to be used for your first or last month's rent. Because these rental amounts and security deposits are typically due on the first when you move into the home or whatever your move-in date is negotiated as, the military has the advance to receive advance OHA. With this option, you can get your security deposit and your first month's rent as an advance. Your first month's rent is going to be divided into 12 interest-free monthly payments and deducted directly from your LES. Security deposits are often deferred and paid back when you move out of the home. But you can pay them back early if you choose to. For our Air Force members, if you want to get the OHA advance, you will let our counselors know and we'll provide you the paperwork in order to do that. You can also get that paperwork from the finance office. For our Army members, you will get a 4187 from your S1 and you will get your commander's signature and then you will turn it into the disbursements finance area on Kleber. If you find a home that's not housing approved, you can certainly have that landlord reach out to housing referral and get that house housing approved. Just be aware that it can take time for that process. That or value added tax. So there is a 19% tax on all utilities with the exception of water. It's only 7% and if you are paying those utilities directly to the utility company, you can enroll in UTAP and that's going to allow you to save those tax dollars on your utility bills. We will give you the paperwork that you will need to have with UTAP. They need a copy of your contract as well as your orders and discrimination. So finally, if you're out house hunting and you feel like you're being discriminated against, please, please, please reach out to housing referral and let us know because we do take it very seriously and we will take action if we need to. We do, again, take discrimination very seriously. So let's move on to the 291 alpha. This is your rental agreement. So in your package, you have a sample and you have a blank one. I would just like to let everybody know not to make multiple copies of your blank contract and fill it out with multiple landlords. Basically, once you fill out a contract with a landlord, they are expecting you to occupy their home. If you fill out maybe four contracts with four different landlords and come and ask us for help on deciding which one to choose, you may be responsible for paying 30 days of OHA for each home that you filled a contract out with and you're only gonna receive OHA for one of those homes. So please, only fill this contract out with one landlord. Once you find the home that is going to meet all of your family's needs here in Germany, the landlord is going to fill the contract out and the only thing that you will have to fill out is what's circled in red here on our slide. So your name, your duty phone, organization and pay grade. Again, landlord will be able to fill everything else out. We do ask that maybe you have your landlord put a current phone number on the contract as we have here on this sample where there is a phone number next to the landlord's address. Sometimes they change their phone numbers and they don't necessarily update us. You have your squared meter living space that does have to be in the contract and you have your rental period starts on. So this particular contract starts on March 30th, 2016. This is when your OHA kicks in. Now for those of you that are in TLA status, you are going to receive TLA and OHA at the same time. So in this case, if the contract starts March 30th and your FMS delivery cannot come until April 5th, you're going to stay in lodging as long as you're waiting on that FMS delivery to get to your house where don't expect you to move into an empty house with no bed. So do not stress about that. Your monthly rental amount is 800 euros. Security deposit, 1600 euros. So two months rent, completely normal here. In this case, we have a 40 euro charge for the garage in this home. What we will do, we will do your OHA paperwork for a total of 840 euros because we cannot include the garage in the rental amount. Your heat and electricity on this contract is metered and that means it's paid directly to your utility company. And again, this is how you get to utilize U-Tap. There are three types of heat here in Germany, oil, gas and electric. You will hear many people have preferences on which one they prefer. I do not have a preference to share with you today, unfortunately. Your water, your garbage and your other charges are paid directly to your landlord. So you're going to take that money from your utility allowance that you receive and include it with your OHA amount that you're paying your landlord as well. So you have two different pots of money that's paying your landlord. With these particular utilities that are paid directly to the landlord, it's very important that you reconcile on a yearly basis. You may have paid for more water than you use. So we do recommend reconciling yearly to make sure if the landlord owes you money, you have that. But again, you may owe your landlord money if you use more water than what you paid for. Other charges see back. Most contracts are going to have this other charge fee and it does have to say what those other charges are. In this case, the other charges are covering your chimney sweep and your heating maintenance. This is a gentleman that's gonna come by once a year and he's going to check your system to make sure it's operating safely and efficiently. They usually come by on the American holidays. They do know when those are and they do anticipate that we are home. They don't really understand that we do tend to travel on our long weekends when we're able to. When they arrive, just let them in. It'll take about 15, 20 minutes and they'll be out of your way and you don't have to see them again for another year. Renal period suspended for one year. So this is what your contract is going to say if the landlord would like you to stay there for one year. Most of your contracts in Germany, I would say maybe 80, 85% are month to month and you would just give 30 day notice. But sometimes a landlord will require one year lease. If this is the case, you fulfill your one year lease and then after that, you would just give 30 day notice if you decide to move out. Pets allowed, yes or no. If you have pets, I always say it's not a bad idea to have it notated on this part of the contract. Tenet takes care of yard, garden and sidewalk. This is pretty standard if the landlord is expecting you to mow the lawn, take care of the garden and of course everybody in Germany is expected to maintain the sidewalk in front of their house. So if that is going to be your responsibility, it will be notated on the contract. Tenet is responsible to remove snow and ice from sidewalk. So this is a very important thing in the winter time here in Germany because when it snows or we have freezing rain that freezes on our sidewalk, it is our responsibility to have that sidewalk clear of that by 7 a.m. So please make sure that you have salt, a broom, anything that you need to maintain that sidewalk in the winter months because if you don't sweep the snow off your sidewalk and the mailman is coming and delivering the mail on your street and he drops some mail in your mailbox but then slips on your sidewalk and breaks his leg, unfortunately you're gonna be paying those medical expenses. So it's very, very important. If you're gonna go on leave or go on a TDY, make sure you have a friend or a neighbor come by and keep an eye on things because unfortunately not being home is not an excuse. You still have to make sure you get it done. See attachments. Sometimes you'll have a landlord that has an extra love letter of things they want taken care of with their home. If that is the case, please make sure it says see attachments on the contract because we review those and we make sure that the landlord is not asking you to do something that is against German law. This also ensures that if you forget to send that extra attachment, we can ask you for it when it says see attachments and you forget to attach it. The IBAN and BIC number, typically your landlord will provide this information to you. You will most likely get a bank account that has this as well here in Germany. That is the way you're gonna set up your electronic transfer to pay your landlord because I would say 99% of them prefer to be paid this way. Once the landlord has filled out the contract, they're going to sign it, but you guys are not gonna sign this rental agreement. You'll sign it with us at the housing office either in person or over the phone. You're gonna scan it, take a picture, email it to KMChousingatus.af.mil. Again, this is our org box and we check it daily. So once you have moved into your home here in Germany, you're going to fill out this triple three alpha. This is also in the packets that are provided to you. We encourage you to be very, very picky when you fill out this paperwork because the landlord is gonna be picky with you when you move out of their home. We encourage you to take pictures, but just don't send us the pictures because we don't have the storage space. What you're going to do after your initial walkthrough is you have two weeks to continue taking notes on the condition of the home when you receive it and then you're gonna send a copy to our office. You keep the original, landlord can have a copy if they request, but we have a copy in the event that when it's time for you to move and TMO packs all your paperwork that you told them to leave alone, we can get you that copy and it's for your protection. Make sure that both you and your landlord sign this, or the triple three alpha before you send it to our office though. So one thing that's mostly on everybody's mind is wondering how much you're gonna receive for OHA. So of course in the slide here, this is our generic slide that we always have in our slideshow, but you can get the most recent OHA rental amounts on the DOD website. One thing also to remember, you are gonna pay your landlord in euros, but you're gonna receive your OHA in dollars on your LES. OHA is also one month behind here in Germany. So really what you're going to do is you'll pay your landlord April's rent, but finance will reimburse you that rent in May. So always keep that in mind. The other thing that folks don't realize when they get to Germany is back in the States, if your cap was 1500 and you found a place for only a thousand, you got to keep that extra money. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way here and you're only going to receive what your contract is for. My accompanying members are going to receive the 100% OHA amount and our unaccompanied members would receive the 90% OHA amount. If we have any dual military folks tuning in with us today, you both receive your own entitlements, so essentially you guys get to live in a castle. You do have to clean that castle and you have to heat that castle though, so please remember that. So members will also receive a MIHA, a move in housing allowance for 576 euros with your first OHA. You can use this money however you choose. You can go out and buy new appliances for your home, new linens, maybe a piece of furniture. It's however you choose to spend it. If you're not sure how to spend it, you can invite the housing office over and have a MIHA party. You will also receive a utility allowance. Members with dependents will receive a little bit more than members without dependents. If you have any questions about what you're going to receive for your utility allowance, you can email us and we can provide you the latest numbers in a spreadsheet. If you're renting a fully furnished apartment, you typically do not receive a utility allowance because that's included in your rental amount. However, with the new regulations, you can negotiate to pay your fully furnished apartment rent and also pay utilities separately. These will be dealt with on a case by case basis. Any situation that affects your housing allowance, whether it be a change in family size, if you get a roommate, you lose a roommate, you definitely want to let us know and you want to let finance know because of course this could affect your entitlements and you might receive monies that you're not entitled to and we don't want to put anybody in a financial hardship because you didn't let anybody know that you had a change. Now finally, we're going to refer to the housing referral office we care brochure. We're not gonna cover everything in this booklet. You can certainly read that on your own time. However, there are a few things that we do feel are very, very important. The first being home ventilation. You can find information about this on page nine. Mainly here in Germany, we don't have central heat and air conditioning, unfortunately, so you have to open your windows to get the fresh air in on a daily basis. My German colleagues tell me twice a day for 15 minutes a day, especially your kitchens and your bathrooms. Those are the rooms that usually generate the most moisture so you need to make sure those are aired out properly. Failure to do so may result in mold growing on your walls and that can be expensive to fix and it would be your responsibility to handle. Quiet hours, you can find information about quiet hours on page 11. So quiet hours are taken very seriously here in Germany. Quiet time starts at 10 at night and goes until six o'clock in the morning and it's all day on Sundays and all day on German holidays. So please, if you like to mow the grass on Sunday afternoon, I would very much advise you do not do that here in Germany because you may get in a little bit of trouble with your neighbors. Worst case scenario, the police might come and pay you a visit. Some villages also have an afternoon quiet time and that starts at 1300 and goes to 1500. You should ask your landlord if your village goes by that quiet hour in the afternoon. If you know you're gonna have some friends over on a Saturday night and it might get a little bit loud past quiet time, just let your neighbors know. Maybe drop a note in their mailbox, knock on their door, or even invite them over too. They're not gonna be upset if they're having a good time with you. Page 13, oil heating. So oil heat is something that folks love or they hate. The thing you have to remember with oil heating is that you have a big tank in your basement or somewhere in your house and you're gonna have to fill that tank. So if you're good with budgeting your utility allowance and making sure that you don't spend everything and you have money set aside from that utility allowance to fill that tank once, maybe twice a year, you'll be fine with oil heating. But if you're the type of person that drives to the cars on E and goes paycheck to paycheck, you might not wanna get oil heating in your home. On page 15, we have information about the Tenant Protection Agency. This is not something that you have to join. However, if you choose to, they are available. It's 100 euros a year to be a member and you do have to be a member for three months before you can utilize their services. We also have, of course, housing referral and the legal offices on both installations available to you, but some folks do like the extra benefit of the Tenant Protection Agency. And then last but not least, on page 18, we talk about recycling. For your short time that you've been here, you've probably seen that recycling and trash collection is very different here than in the States. We have a whole slide that tries to break it down for you. When you get moved into your home on the economy, you have these three different bins, residual, paper, and bio. Your residual is for your everyday waste like bathroom waste or pet food waste or kitty litter waste, anything like that. Don't be fooled by the can when you see it because if you have the smallest can possible, that little line underneath the R is actually where the bottom of the can lies. You will probably only be able to fit maybe two bags of trash in it and it's only gonna get picked up every other week. So, of course, you have to recycle because that is going to keep that can from overflowing. Of course, if you have a big family and you get to your home and you have the very, very small can, talk to your landlord, they can provide a bigger can for you. You next have your paper bin and that is for clean paper. So, don't put that pizza box that's got pizza cheese and grease and pepperoni smushed into it in this can. It's only for clean paper. The biodegradable can, that's for anything that will biodegrade naturally like coffee filters, vegetable waste. Let's see, your tea bags, anything that would compost you're gonna put in this biobin. This is also where you put your grass clippings when you mow the lawn, just not on Sunday. Your yellow bags are for your light fraction. This is what your plastics, aluminum, styrofoam, milk cartons, things of that nature go in this bag and you can put as many of these out on yellow bag day as you'd like. There's no limit and usually you can get them for free. There is a person that will come around at the beginning of the year and leave you a roll and you can also purchase more at your local stores. In each village as well, you see these bins here. This is for your glass if you didn't pay a deposit. So if you paid a fan, you're gonna wanna take that glass back to the store that you bought it from so you can get that fan or deposit money back. Otherwise, you're gonna take it to these bins just not during quiet time. The bin with the white sticker is for your white and clear glass. The bin on the other end with the brown sticker is for your brown glass and then the bin in the middle with the green sticker is for green glass and anything that doesn't fit into the other two categories. Again, just make sure you don't dump during quiet time. So if you have that party on Saturday night and you wanna get rid of the beer bottles, you're just gonna have to wait until Monday. And again, if you don't live on base, you can't dump your trash on base, unfortunately. So there are also for the trash schedule because it can be difficult to learn. There's a few different apps out there that you can look up. One is the Kaiser Slaughter and County Garbage Guide. That's gonna send you a notification the night before your trash is to be picked up so you can make sure you have whatever is being picked up out and ready to go. You can also pay attention to your German neighbors because if they put their paper bin out, you should probably do the same thing. So definitely lots of ways to learn the trash schedule and don't get intimidated by it. It's a little bit difficult at first, but once you get the hang of it, it's pretty easy. And this is all of the information that we have to cover today. So now you should have had all of your paperwork filled out and signed. And again, this is what you're going to send us to Artworkbox, KMCHousing at us.af.mil. We need that 1746, your TLA fact sheet and your government housing fact sheet and your orders. We'll receive it, we'll input your information and then we will email you back to confirm that you have completed the housing briefing. Don't forget to claim your TLA in 10-day increments and we'll see you at the housing office soon.