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Almost always the flat and nothing else. In most buildings here water and electricity are billed on top of the rent, and the question that matters is whether your flat has its own meters or pays a share of a building meter.

Own meters mean you pay for what you use and you can see it. A share of a building meter means your bill depends partly on your neighbours, and in a hot month that difference can be more than a thousand rufiyaa. Every listing of ours says which it is. Where anything genuinely is included, such as a tank pump or common area lighting, we name it.

The custom is a deposit of one month plus some months paid in advance, and the number of months in advance is the part that varies. Two or three is usual on a flat and six is common on a shop, but it is set by the landlord and it is negotiable more often than people try.

What matters more than the number is that it is written down: how much, what it covers, when the deposit comes back and what may be taken from it. Get a receipt for every payment, including cash. We will not let a tenancy start without those, on either side.

No. Nothing at all, for viewings, for the agreement or for the handover. Our fee on a letting is one month of rent and it is paid by the landlord when the tenancy starts.

We prefer it that way because being paid by both sides of the same letting makes it impossible to give either of them a straight answer.

Ownership of land by people who are not nationals is restricted, and in practice most foreign residents rent rather than buy. Where a company is the buyer the position depends on how that company is held, and it is not something to work out from a web page.

We will tell you plainly what we understand to apply to your situation, put it in writing, and send you to a lawyer before any money moves. We are not lawyers, nothing here is legal advice, and we will not guess at a rule in order to keep a transaction moving.

It varies, and finding out exactly what is on offer is the first fortnight of the job. Sometimes it is a plot somebody holds and can transfer. Sometimes it is a long lease. Very often it is a share of a family holding where several people have to agree and not all of them are on the island.

Add to that a measured size that disagrees with the paperwork, a boundary wall in the wrong place, a building nobody ever recorded, and an access track that is a habit rather than a road. All four are ordinary. The island council is involved in most routes and the practice differs from island to island, so we establish what applies to that plot at that time rather than quoting a procedure.

Who appears on the documents and whether everyone who needs to agree has agreed. Whether anything is owed against the property. What the building's arrangements are for the roof, the tanks, the lift and the common stairs, and what the service contribution has actually been for two years rather than what it is meant to be.

Then the physical things, which cost real money: the state of the tanks and the pipework, any sign of water coming through a ceiling, and the age of the lift. We set all of this out in writing and then a lawyer takes it. We will never tell you a purchase is safe.