Water is absolutely necessary to stay healthy, but it can also make you sick: if your drinking water isn't clean, it can cause all sorts of problems. It can be hard to tell just how safe your water is, though.

You can live in a city with perfectly safe drinking water and still find that the water coming from the taps in your apartment isn't safe to drink. Maybe the pipes are old and contain lead; maybe there is bacteria in your water. No matter what the problem is, though, your first point of contact should be your landlord.

Ever seen a listing for a rental that just seems too good to be true? Perfect location, ideal building -- and the price is half what you would expect. There are plenty of listings like that on Craigslist and other sites. But if you dig a little deeper, those deals really are too good to be true.

When it comes to renting an apartment, there are more than a few landlords willing to do whatever it takes to get an apartment rented -- even to the point of attempting to scam unwary renters.

Brittany Espy attempted to rent an apartment in New York City and wound up in a credit card dispute. As part of her paperwork with a broker, Espy was asked for her credit card information: "They told me nothing would be charged to me. They just needed the info to do my credit checks." The broker went ahead and charged her card, though, telling her that she had the apartment and had to take it.

There are more than a few apartment landlords who really seem to think that two square feet are more than ample when it comes to bathroom space. You've probably seen plenty of apartments with bathrooms where you can't really even be sure how they shoehorned a shower into the room.