R E N T !

Alberta is likely the only place in Canada which does not have any sort of rent control at all. The only guideline is with a monthly tenancy, the rent cannot be increased more than every six months. There is no limit to how much the rent can be increased.

I remember living in Calgary with a couple of housemates in an apartment building. The people upstairs were really annoying tenants. However, they weren't really doing anything that could be eviction conduct. But, most of the building had complained about them, in addition to us. The property manager couldn't do anything about them because their rent was paid on time and in full every month. However, I do remember that one time, when the property manager was quite tired of those tenants, she raised their rent from $900 per month to $1150 per month. And they accepted it!!! The property manager thought for sure they would move out. But they didn't! We ended up moving because we couldn't handle the neighbours' sex life.

Just yesterday, I got served notice of rent increase. 7%.

7 %

Considering I won't be getting a raise in salary at work until March, and the raise in rent is effective in January, and my salary raise won't likely be more than 3.5%, I think it's time to move.

The sly thing about this is that the notice was served on Friday, "sometime before midnight". Well, I didn't find the notice in my mailbox until I checked for the regular mail on Monday. I saw the superintendant in the lobby today and I suggested that I should be able to give notice for the end of October. He said no, because that wouldn't be a month.

Waiting until two minutes before midnight to serve a notice of rent increase is kind of underhanded, considering that many people may consider moving, or will be forced to move, because of the rent increase.

I've already started looking. But it is kind of premature: most rentals will be available for November, and I can't move until December.

Bah!