Réjean T.
Yelp
10% of apt are rented as hotel space, 90% on the basis of a one-year contract. Maybe a nice hotel, but moderately recommended in the perspective of a medium-term rent contract.
I am a tenant with a one-year rent contract. 810/month for a 28m2 studio "fully furnished". I know that living downtown can be expensive, but there are some annoying quality of service issues. You generally have to wait for ages and send thousands of emails + see adm. in person many times, whenever you have a problem which the adm. is legally responsible for solving. Some examples:
- THICK ICE on the windows in January, February and March (because the windows are old and not air- or water- proof, which does not conform to city regulations by the way) : wait for 4 MONTHS until May or June. Actually I had to send a registered mail to Trylon where I quoted city regulations, to make them understand that they had to take action for the administration to send someone to do the repairs. In the meantime, windows were supposed to remain closed all the time;
- landline phone, included in my contract, not working : wait for 1.5 months until the adm. solves the issue;
- internet, included in my contract as well, not working : wait for 3 weeks until the adm. solves the issue.
More minor problems get solved fast (simple plumbing, issues with fridge/oven/microwave), BUT ALWAYS send request via emails to keep a written trace.
The administration does not seem to understand that if something is not allowed by the rent contract, building rules, city regulations and law, well it's possible that they don't have the right to do it. Such as: entering your apartment in your absence, with no notice and legally valid reason (no emergency situation). Also, have a good look at the building rules that goes with the rent contract before signing the contract, because some clauses could very well be... somewhat abusive.
A nice building, and SOME hard-working employees (thumbs up to the night shift employees at the entrance, they're super nice and professional, the clerks at the administration desk are OK or better though sometimes/some of them unhelpful, the cleaners super nice and do a great job, the concierges are sub-meh to unhelpful in general), but the administration is (in my opinion) NOT always reliable (hasn't been in most cases in my experience) and, often, legally and technically not very competent.
More details:
1/ common parts of the building
- the building has a great lounge, but its lighting is insufficient in the evening if you want to study/read/work there, and the lounge gets rented to private events with NO notice AT ALL (they did post a schedule for a month than no longer), therefore making the lounge inaccessible to tenants, one day out of five or so;
- there is a small swimming pool, a very small "gym" (never tried it, you need to pay an extra fee to access it) and a roof terrace, open in the summer;
- there are cameras everywhere, one wonders what purpose they are used for (apart from making it possible to receive a "don't vape" email when vaping is not forbidden by the rent agreement), but it does make one feel uncomfortable and not at home.
- lots of fancy decoration.
2/ apartments:
- very old windows, poorly insulated (drill holes done by the building staff for former tenants in order to install window A/C units), resulting in icing of the windows and then heavy molding/wood rot in the wooden sills;
- apartments are very basic in general, a "fully furnished" studio comes with a single lamp with a 10 watts light bulb - you are told NOT to use a higher wattage bulb on that lamp... when 60W fluorocompact is needed - for the main room, so you will end up buying your own lighting system for the main room;
- electricity is "included" (up to a limit of 20$ per month);
- ventilation of kitchen and bathroom done via a centralized ventilation system, active twice per day during maybe an hour at most;
- no power outlets in the bathrooms, which is not very convenient;
- some rust, wear and tear here and there, faulty corking around the bathtub, resulting in mold...