Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with housing and toronto

What happens when you report an illegal rooming house in Toronto?

Anonymous — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:52:05 -0800

What is the likely result of reporting an illegal rooming house in Toronto? e.g. How often do they end up getting cleaned up, repaired, and properly licensed vs. shut down (whether by the inspectors or by an owner who doesn't want to bother fixing it up)?

location, location, location!

evadery — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 08:31:41 -0800

Am considering buying a house both on a bus route/busyish street and a few houses down from a school. What should I be aware of before I make this purchase? Found a very reasonably priced house in downtown toronto - almost TOO reasonable. One of the reasons is that it right next to the pretty tree lined streets, but it is itself on a decently-busy street. Not afraid to cross the road busy, but one lane each way, wait for a couple cars to pass busy. On that road is a bus. While I know this drops the price, I actually think this is convenient and will help in my commute to work, but I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts both positive or negative about living on a busy-ish street with a bus route.

As well, another positive (or negative) is that the house is a couple doors down from a school, kindergarden to grade 6. While this would be very convenient when we have kids, is there anything we should worry about due to the proximity, or is there any way to effectively check out if this is brings bad elements out in the neighbourhood?

A third question - any idea how much these factors above would influence price (either percentage-wise, or something like 'greatly', 'hardly at all' would be helpful).

Other than those issues, we like everything about the place. So, should we be nervous about them? Thanks!

Can my landlord really kick me out?

krunk — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 12:19:28 -0800

My landlords want to kick me out and move into my apartment. They gave me the 60 days notice, but I have some questions about the validity of their notice. I was checking out the Residential Tenancies Act, and it seems that there is a clause that says they can't move in unless they have previously lived there (72 b), which they haven't.

Also, they said they would rather take over the apartment of the guys who live upstairs, but can't because they have a lease until March 2010. Since we are on month-to-month, they said they could take over our place instead.

Are either of these things true? Could they in fact take the other apartment instead?

American moving to the GTA

the dief — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 06:32:56 -0800

American moving to the greater Toronto area... I've landed what is quite possibly my dream job in Hamilton, Ontario at McMaster University and am moving up there in August. So this is not the typical "American-looking-to-emigrate" sort of ask mefi, because unless something terrible happens the move absolutely will happen, and my employer is going to give me assistance with the immigration stuff. However, I've got loads of questions apart from that. Let's get started, shall we?

1) I'm married. My spouse is Canadian, so there shouldn't be any (legal) problems on that end. However, the SO doesn't drive, and I'm trying to work out the logistics of where would be the best place to move so that my commute to Hamilton won't be so long, but the SO will have as much access to transit and thus employment/fun stuff as possible. Just looking at a map suggests something like Oakville, but if you've got better or different suggestions, I'd like to hear them. If I too can get away with using transit as opposed to driving, big bonus!

2) I've got a car. It's pretty late-model, never failed any sort of emissions testing. Is it possible to import it into Canada? Would I have to pay some enormous importing fee? If so, should I just sell it before I go?

3) Doctor stuff. My health is generally excellent so if there's some delay in getting me on OHIP no real harm, but the SO has prescriptions that absolutely must be filled or Very Very Bad Things happen. SO's OHIP has long since lapsed having lived outside Canada for many many years. Is there anything I can do to make sure the SO gets doctors and the necessary medication in a timely fashion? I know it can take some time to see specialists in Canada; I'm not sure if I can, say, persuade the doctors here to fill out a bunch of prescriptions in advance and have them filled at Shopper's.

Thanks a lot for reading this far! I'm completely stoked about this move and your advice will help out a lot.

What does 'month to month' entail?

Capn — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 09:31:48 -0800

I don't understand leasing and renting in Toronto [great deals and spectacular lake-front views inside]. I've been renting my current apartment for a number of years. And every year the super comes around with a lease to sign. After doggedly perusing the management for a couple of months and negotiating a fair rent, I sign the lease.

The lease looks like a standard form and is written in Leagalish, but it seems to me that I can just tell my landlord that I'm not signing the lease and then my tenancy becomes "month to month".

What does this mean? I assume it means I can move out easier, but is it easier for them to, say, evict me without cause? What are the supposed advantages to the renter and landlord of a lease? If I've signed a lease, and want to break it, can I do that if the landlord doesn't want to let me? Surely they can't force me to stay (or pursue me for the rest of the lease's term's payments) if I needed/wanted to move to another city, can they?