Your First Montreal Apartment

[@mr51406]

Except for July 1st, we have it very good here. You’ve given excellent advice. Putting it in US terms: ALL rentals in Quebec are rent controlled. The rental board is on your side. A bureaucracy takes its time, but it keeps landlords from being greedy. As I recommended to Treasure, there is lots of housing in Montreal, typically a duplex or triplex, where you live upstairs from the landlord and that’s wonderful. You take care of your reasonably priced 3-1/2 or 4-1/2, they take care of you. 👍🏼⭐️

[@Xachremos]

on the note of the sizing system, I went to go see an apartment and it was advertized as a 3 1/2 but it was literally a glorified 2 1/2 that counted both sides of the arch that "divided" the living room. And it was a tiny room to begin with.

[@treasureaamayah]

So glad I came across your Channel! I've been considering moving to Montreal for a few years but I had so many unanswered questions before your Channel. Looking forward to seeing more videos from you 😀

[@PaigeMTL]

Let me know those questions, will try to fit them in

[@treasureaamayah]

@@PaigeMTL hey Paige! That would be so cool! 1. What's it like working there? 2. How easy is it to find work? 3. I'm kiwi/Aussie- are people welcoming? 4. What's it like making friends? 5. What's it like navigating the city when you first get there? 6. Ive planned a trip there in September this year- would you recommend any places? 7. Are there any suburbs you dont recommend? 8. Being French i assume their really in to eatinh meat and most of the vlogs I've seen confirm this. Are there good veg/ vegan options? 9. Anything future you would tell past you before moving? 10. Do you think you could live in Montreal for the rest of your life?

[@PaigeMTL]

@Treasure Aamayah wow, that's a lot of questions. I'll have to do a Q&A video at some point. For now I think a lot of this stuff is covered is this other video I did: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jqHFoZKPZ9Z5rMk For the stuff that is not in that video. 1: Work Life: Great, the work life balance is better than anywhere else I've lived. I was often the only person working weekends or on holidays in the co-working places I've been. Large workplaces run French classes if you're lucky, totally dependent on the industry I would guess but generally businesses runs much like the rest of Canada. 3: Kiwi/Aussie experience: You get a bit of a linguistic break because we didn't have the French language opportunities in school, anglophone Ontarian gets a harder time of it usually. People seem to have an issue with Australians that they share when they first meet me, but they might just be trying to win me over. I think Canadians don't realize that New Zealanders and Australians generally have a very cordial teasing relationship. When they generalizing a dislike of 24 million culturally similar people, it isn't as great an opening move as they might have thought :) 4: Making Friends: Easy if you have a structure (Work, school, club) but like all big cities it can be cold if you're not outgoing 5: Navigation: The metro is well labeled and easy so try to find a place within walking distance of a station. Google navigation will even pronounce street names like an anglophone who just got off the 401. Biking is the way to get around in the summer if you're centrally located on the island, order a bixi key when you first arrive if you're going to be here for more than a month. 6: Recommended Places: If you have a friend grab some drinks and poutine (to go) from la banquise and sit on the bank in Parc la Fontaine. If you're alone, just get lost on a long walk up Mont Royal with an episode of the Heavyweight podcast playing. Enjoy Johnathan Goldstein's Montreal monotone washing over you as you stare into his soul and the urban core simultaneously. 7: Recommended Suburb: I don't recommend the suburbs if you're new in town and don't have kids. Everywhere is safe, it just sucks to have to sit in buses and cars for hours. Look for places on the Plateau, Saint Henri, Little Itally, Gay Village, Parc X (places around but not in downtown) 8: French Meat Eating: They only speak French, they're as French as an Australian is British. Sure you can get some great French food here but Quebec has it's own food culture. Smoked meat, bagels and poutine are all exceptionally good and worth breaking a diet to try at least once, but there's all the cuisines of the world here in large numbers. Aux Vivres is the most well known vegan joint in town, but we happen to have IMO the best pie shop in North America (Ta Pies) too if you want a taste of home or to stock up on Bundaberg. 9: Future Me To Past Me: Don't live more than 15 minutes from a metro, half the year isn't summer. 10: Montreal Forever? Pretty easily. Life still has it's ups and downs, but living in Montreal has resulted in some of the happiest years of my life.

[@treasureaamayah]

@@PaigeMTL amazing!! Thank you so much for answering all my questions!! 🤩 I've had to postpone my trip cause of Covid 19 but hopefully I get to experience the city soon

[@mr51406]

@Treasure Aamayah: I hope you can make it here. I live in Petite-Patrie, or Little Italy adjacent. Beaubien or Rosemont metro stations. The best place. And you have a nice mix of hip and ma-and-pa stores. And especially hip and/or ma-and-pa LANDLORDS. What we call the duplex and triplex is the perfect housing. Rent is cheaper. That said I’m exceptionally lucky, my landlord is... my sister! 😘 I would love to see a LOT more Aussies and Kiwis in Montreal! ❤️🇦🇺🇳🇿

[@joabran9011]

This is my true story of a horrific experience that happened to me on renting apartments in Montreal, i had to look for a new apartment to rent due to having to leave my apartment i was at due to fire damages that was caused by another tentant in apartment complex,anyhow i soon there after found a new apartment,this new apartment was renting for $1100.00 it had just been renovated and really nice and clean,however my horrific experience was just about to get much worse,just at the time the covid19 outbreak came around i was settling into my new apartment and really happy i had found a new place,so i thought...i soon began feeling very sick in this apartment and i kept trying to figure out why i was feeling this way,well to cut my true story short,i found out after 5 months and becoming really sick that there were drug dealers who had set up a crystal meth lab in an apartment agent to my mine and the fumes from cooking making this crystal meth drug had been seeping into my apartment and getting me very sick, still today i have lingering horriffic symptoms do to the meth poisoning, i have seen doctors and explained to them about my bad experience,i have persistance symptoms of lung problems, sinuses and bad headackes,i found out the chemical these drug dealers were using to make cook this crystal meth was called Ether,Ether is a mix of sulfuric acid and alcohol along with other very toxic dangerous chemicals,however the Ether chemical mix has a very deceiving sweet smell not a bad smell which makes it deceiving to the sense of smell leaving you thinking how wounderful the air smells around one, also very hard to detect in the air because it blends well with other smells if you`ve rented apartments before you know you will have all kinds of new smells around,how i found out there was a crystal meth lab next to my apartment is a long story,by that time i had found out i had been poisoned really bad, but what was just as bad as getting poisoned sick is that when meth contamination seeps into apartments,everything becomes contaminated,i mean everything,from cloths to furniture,tv ,bed,ect ect to the smallest objects,everything nothing escapes,i couldn`t take anything with me due to meth residue contamination,meth lab residue spores are really bad,they will linger in everything for years and continue making one very sick, it is very very hard to wash or get rid of,i had to dispose of everything i had,thousands of dollars lost,all my belongings,it was horrible so horrible,the land lord of the building had no idea this was going on and only later to find out, from what i have found out,these dangerous meth lab apartments are quite common,real scary,i only rent from a friend now and will never again rent from strangers,i still feel sick with lasting bad symptoms and fearing for my health,please i would like to know if any readers reading this had similar experience,please feel free to reply,the Ether mix is of sulfuric acid and alcohol making it very toxic and poisonous,very hard to detect it`s fumes in the air because of it`s sweet smell, other chemicals also used are ammonia and acetone in the making of crystal meth,Renter beware.

[@evedotcom]

Very sorry you experienced this. Any advice you’d give in terms of areas to steer clear of or other shady things about the apartment complex?

[@loveletterstothevoid]

this was so wonderfully helpful thank u sm

[@lisegravel]

Thank you for all this clear information!

[@timcooper6389]

I was renting a 3 1/2 in trois rivieres, I had to leave the place shortly after three months and had to pay the fine for leaving early, I was counting out more then 1200 in $20 bills to my land lady, but I was glad to do it instead of not paying the fine, which would be a bad thing to do to her and would also give my family's reputation in trois rivieres (Cooke) a bad reputation. But anyways (en tout ca) renting in Quebec was a good experience.

[@sangokudbz79]

I miss old walkscore (about. 2015-2017). It used to list kijiji's ad location on a map. Now it's mostly useless (for appartment looking) as everything here is on kijiji and it doesn't include them on the map anymore :(

[@quitebritish]

Loving the channel, thank you! I am planning to move to Montreal for work early next year, so this has been very useful. A couple Qs if ya don’t mind: How early do landlords typically search for tenants? Is it more or less difficult to find a place outside of the July 1st Moving Day?

[@PaigeMTL]

3-6 months before the moving day, February. I don't actually think it makes any difference. As moving day approaches and passes the landlords that haven't rented (in aggregate) realize their price was too high and drop them. There are always places to rent around, it's a big city. I've always gotten below market rent and never moved on moving day. The advantage of moving day is that the most options are available, but then you are also competing with the most people too. I think moving day is mostly for the convenience of landlords, because it lets you stack your showings and paperwork into a couple of weeks each year.

[@quitebritish]

@@PaigeMTL Damn, 3-6 months eh? Time to get crackin. Thanks for the response on your year old video 🙌

[@YDGxQC]

If you want the apartment, give them the security deposit, sign the lease, and once you've moved in ask to have it back. They have to give it back to you. If they don't, open a case at the Régie and they will be forced to do it. It's not an "offence" (there is no fine or penalty) to ask for a deposit, but since you paid something that they were not allowed to ask for, they have to give it back! Only thing they can ask for when you sign is the first month's rent.

[@DFTricks]

If you have a proof of payment for the exact amount for the rent that you gave as a deposit, it can act as your first month rent. If the landlord says he will bring you to the Régie for not paying the first month even if you agreed to a deposit and it's written on the lease. He cant legally require that on the lease even if you signed it, tell him to do so and bring all your payments proofs, he will most likely receive a penalty for wasting the court time and you can ask for a small reduction in monthly cost at the same time for fraudulent behavior of that landlord.

[@madeleine363]

Sign the lease first

[@andrewdalgliesh647]

I've read that simply walking around the area that interests you and looking for "for rent" signs may be a good idea. In looking up online apartment listings, something I am noticing is that there is somewhat of a "hollowing out of the middle" with those who advertise their apartments online; meaning that the online listings seem to consist of a few very nice and very expensive rentals that have very positive reviews and MANY listings that have very bad reviews (and I am not even looking up places with below average rental prices). It makes me think that for an average priced decent place that a landlord may not even need to advertise and good word of mouth gets around and if one walks through the area and sees the building that they can see the apartment right away and do their own "smell test". What do you think?

[@PaigeMTL]

Yes in a market with constrained supply the sellers do not have to work as hard. I’ve often found that the handwritten signs usually just lead to the same online listings or agents. Good deals get snapped up and if you’re a bargain hunter the best deals are lease transfers.

[@karolinadobiszewska813]

Great video!!

[@axelle5216]

Hi there, fantastic videos and heaps helpful. Are you an Aussie? 😉 Is moving day, from what I can see is 1st July the general rule for all rentals. I’m planning to move before July does that mean if I’m not entering a rent transfer, I better be looking at an air bnb for the interim? Also, will you be uploading Parts 2+3?

[@PaigeMTL]

Rents start every day of the year, but that is the day when an incredibly high proportion of them start. I would guess over 50%. If you're moving to town and can get here a few months earlier most people try to secure their lease around March. After July 1st the places that are left tend to be overpriced for a while. Moving to any new town often means a few weeks on a couch or AirBnB lining a place up, in my case I lived in a bit of a shithole for my first year which gave me a year to find a better place long term. I've recorded part 2, will get it edited some time soon. New Zealander BTW.

[@PaigeMTL]

Part 2 is up: kzbin.info/www/bejne/d5C8qZp4gJiirq8

[@cloudybrains]

Sadly the Walk Score aggregator doesn't seem to exist anymore T_T

[@MariaKhordina]

wait so for the cashback thing do we say no? or treat it like a "beer in the park" thing and say yes all the while knowing it's illegal?

[@MariaKhordina]

timestamp for this is roughly 11:00

[@PaigeMTL]

It’s a beer in the park. Although I heard this was being updated and made plain old legal.

[@ritasa6590]

Hi there, please please please!!!! help. I start work in the Multi Media City- in between Griffen and Old Montreal. The lease is for 1 year and will/might have to do a lease transfer as my work contract is 7months. How quick would it be to find a transfer for the lease in that area, in a luxury condo, at around $1200 monthly in including utilities? I from UK so a little worried about that. Thank you advance!

[@beatrizcarreira8562]

Hello Rita. When are you leaving the condo? I am Portuguese/Canadian moving to Montreal and I am interested in a short term rental.

[@karolinadobiszewska813]

I wonder, what about if a person wants to move in August 1st? Possible? Are there as many apartments / townhouses to choose from then?

[@PaigeMTL]

Yep, plenty. In fact I've never rented for moving day and always got a deal that people remark on as being good. I've often wondered when the best value time of year to rent is. Lots of theories but never found anyone with data.

[@karolinadobiszewska813]

@@PaigeMTL Thanks for letting me know :) I plan to move to Montreal with family this summer, if lucky maybe even in July - is there any "minimum time" in advance we should talk to the landlord and book the apartment?

[@PaigeMTL]

Mostly you just need to go hard once you arrive. Definately good to know the areas you want to live and if you're from a smaller place with less transit, make sure you're not too far from a metro. It's easy to forget in the summer how long the winter is.

[@karolinadobiszewska813]

@@PaigeMTL I'll keep the metro in mind for sure, can't live without it really. And I'm not sure what you mean by "go hard once you arrive"? We'll be moving (with all of our stuff) from the GTA by a truck, so I think we should have everything set beforehand haha :)

[@marketmagus]

How important is credit score in Quebec for renting? Can you have poor credit?

[@PaigeMTL]

You can have bad credit, not all of them will check. If they do, just be very up front. Propose a deposit with a quick explanation of why you have bad credit. Most landlords have experience with the rediculous credit rating system and are aware how easy it is to have your credit screwed up through no fault of your own. Don't give them some long story, just say "I had a change of address billing problem that affected my credit score (or whatever), if that's a problem I'm happy to pay a deposit"

[@tn98544]

Is Paige Aussie?

[@JCG79]

How long have you lived in Mtl?

[@PaigeMTL]

Coming up on 4 years

[@JCG79]

Oh great, I enjoy hearing your take on the city. I live near the lamp store too lol

[@PaigeMTL]

I used to call it shady shades, now I know better