no. this blog won't only be critiquing quebec, but also to revel in what wonderful things it has to offer. the first thing that i will rave about is this: apartment hunting. oh yes, i can hear it now. my montreal-based friends scoffing at the cost of rent here and how hard it is to find a nice place. i can hear my other canadian friends tell me how much cheaper it is to rent in montreal (i know!). and i can picture my australian friends asking how it's possible to enjoy apartment hunting. surely, i must be joking. i'm not.
'cause here it is. 4 years ago, when we were looking for a place to live in perth we were exposed to the brutality of it all. most places are run by property managers who are (as best as i gather) out for no one but themselves. they are the middlemen of all middlemen. the people who hold your ability to find appropriate housing (and then gouge you for it) in the palm of their hand, always blaming the owner, who generally knows nothing but nothing and does whatever said property manager tells them. if you ask for something to get fixed, you can generally expect a few weeks of waiting because they have to take your request, sit on it for 2 weeks, ask the owner, wait for the answer, go out for dinner on your recent rent increase, file their nails, stop in for a quarterly rent inspection (yes, quarterly), sit on it a few more days, then get back to you.
perth (and most of australia i think) doesn't have a cpi, or a maximum percentage increase per year. instead, as we discovered, it is entirely at the discretion of the property manager. increase your weekly rent by 20$ after 6 months? sure, why not? do it again 6 months later? absolutely. increase it by 15% when you resign a lease? might as well. because if you don't, they'll just tell you that you can leave in 2 weeks and they'll find someone else willing to pay a ridiculous price for a crappy place to live. so you do it. and you hate yourself for giving into them, but what are you going to do? with a rental availability of under 4% (i think it was down to 1% when we rented), you're kind of stuck. they know it, you know it. it's not good.
when we signed our initial lease, we had to offer more money per week to secure the rental. more money! how that is even legal, i don't know. but everyone does it. it's pretty much expected when you submit your application. with a full week's rent. that you only get back if they don't take you. if you want to apply for more then one place at a time you need a good amount of disposable income. you also need to be unemployed (which contradicts the last point, but keep reading) because they schedule "viewings" at the most obscene times of day (2:15 on tuesday afternoon, for 10 minutes. don't be late or you'll miss your chance). when the lease is finally up, it's a battle to get your "bond" back. and i know very few people who ever get it back in full, because the property manager will always find something wrong. always.
so, imagine my glee when i started apartment hunting in montreal to find that not only were there an abundant amount of rentals, but most were through the landlords themselves and many were very reasonably priced. when we called people they were, get this, friendly. they were more then happy to show us their apartments at times that were (wait for it) convenient for us. so i happily went around from place to place, asking what was included (and things were included!), and when the rental started (whenever i like? oustanding!). i was even offered more places when i spoke to a few people ("maybe you'll like this other place better. why don't i take you there?")
when we finally decided on a place (which, i'll add, is awesome), we were pretty stoked. not only were we encouraged to paint ("sure, no problem") but the super in our building was very concerned when we told him the door-lock mechanism was not working well ("i'll call someone today"). he was nice to us. nice. we have an amazing view. heat and hot water included. lots of space. secure parking. secure entrance. didn't have to give a security bond and we negotiated our rent down. down! ha. take that perth.
yes, i know what you're thinking by now. and yes, you should move here too.
xo
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