Frequently Asked Questions

Am I responsible for snow removal and such at your condo unit? The main lease seems to suggest so...

No. You are not responsible for snow removal or gardening at the Varsity Villa apartment.

The part of the lease that you may have found confusing looks like this:

This is part of the purchased standard contract which addresses all types of housing. The section states that it is applicable to houses and duplexes (see above), however this is Apartment Condo, an therefore the entire section does not apply to you and you can disregard it.

The condo board hires their own maintenance team for grounds; they would not allow tenants to interfere with this type of work unless they had special permission which you have no reason to request.

Can I rent month-to-month right away?

No. All our leases are locked in for the first 12 months. You cannot start a month-to-month contract with us immediately at the beginning of your tenancy.

After 12 months the lease switches automatically into a month-to-month mode and continues so until the end of your tenancy.

The AB Residential Tenancy Act and describes most of the legalities relating to both locked in and the month-to-month mode and shows the ways notices are to be given and what each party is accountable for.

Do I have to to pay for my rental application?

Typically, the cost of the application is NOT passed on to the tenant, and is considered an incentive to rent.

The landlord incurs a cost for processing rental applications. These costs are: credit checks, the price of the main lease and/or other legal costs, office supplies (the tenant receives a paper binder with information and forms, and digital data) and overall man-hours required to process an application, show the apartment, verify references, and respond to the tenant's initial inquiries about the condo bylaws, the lease, operating appliances, and facilitating move-in inspections.

Incurring this cost is reasonable assuming that the tenant signs a 12 months contract, in which case it becomes worth while on the long run. However, if the tenant - for a reason that is not the landlord's fault - decides to break the contract within a number of months after starting the tenancy, then the processing cost becomes a loss to the landlord. Even if the tenant finds a new prospective tenant to take his/her place, the landlord still has to incur new added cost for processing such individuals within less than 12 months away from the first cost.

If tenants break the first 12 months aspect of the lease as described, then the cost of their application will be applied to the security deposit at the end of the tenancy. This is NOT applicable to notices given to end a tenancy in a month-to-month mode that followed a complete 12 months of rent. Once 12 months have been completed the cost of application is no longer relevant.

Free Days as an Incentive

Some tenants after viewing an empty apartment ask for the incentive of being allowed to move in for free prior to the start date of the paid part of their lease. That's typically some days before the first day of the following month.

This incentive is not always possible, but when it is applied the prorated discount can provide some cost relief to the tenant at the landlord's expense.

Such incentive makes sense only if the tenant stays for at least 12 months. This is the minimal duration of our locked-in standard lease. Therefore, if a tenant breaks the lease for a reason that is not the landlord's fault, then the cost of the incentive translates into a loss for the landlord. Providing tenants with free rent when they stay less than 12 months is not cost effective. In such case the incentive days are prorated based on the amount of the monthly rent stated in the lease and is applied to the tenant's security deposit at the end of such reduced tenancy.

This is NOT applicable to notices given to end a tenancy in a month-to-month mode that followed a complete 12 months of rent. Once 12 months have been completed, the cost of the free days of rent incentive is no longer relevant.

Why can I not hang whatever I want on the walls?

As you may have noticed, this topic appears in the standard (purchased) part of the contract and is seen frequently in leases around our city. Historically, other wording was used such as “a reasonable amount of nails” but this was problematic as it meant different things to different people. Placing a restriction on the damage allowed on walls has become fairly standard in Alberta.

Walls that are made of drywall (such as interior walls) may not be able to support heavy hanging objects like shelves (even smaller sizes), massive pictures and heavy frames. These can tear off pieces from the drywall which is not very resistant. Such installations can be hazardous to the Tenant and their guests as they can fall off unexpectedly and injure. When drilling over parts that cover water pipes this can flood the apartment with water from the punctured pipes, especially in the kitchen or bath.

There are special fixtures that can help hang heavy things but we found in the past that most tenants are reluctant to spend the money on them.

Permission is required from the landlord to prevent drilling over electrical wires (an electrical device can be used to detect these within the wall). Whenever possible, using standing rather than hanging shelves is the safer choice.

The appearance of walls when there are many holes or when visible patches are present can be one of neglect and makes an apartment much harder to rent in spite of its otherwise good value. All new tenants have an expectation to have a clean wall. However, some tenants leave so many holes and of such magnitude that professional patching and painting is absolutely required. Most painters are not interested in fixing one or two walls, they prefer larger jobs, so they charge per wall at a much higher cost than when painting an entire unit. Matching the exact color without painting over the entire wall does not always work, paint saved for more than a year can oxidize and will not appear seamless.

Having things hang off the walls is not a crucial requirement for living, it is rather personal and esthetic in nature but such that can not be inherited by the next tenant. When only a few small nails were used, the work required to patch will be reasonable and the cost to the tenant will be fairly low as well.

Payments, and do you need my bank account?

No. We do not need your bank account information.

Our tenants pay with pre-dated cheques. You probably already know that no bank will accept a deposit for a cheque unless the date is appropriate and cheques for future dates cannot be deposited until their time has come.

Unused cheques are returned to the tenant or professionally destroyed.

Please ensure you have a sufficient number of cheques prior to signing the lease.

We do not accept the following methods as payment for rent: Interac email, Credit cards, or cash.

Cash can be used only once at the beginning of the lease and only if the tenant wishes to move in less than 3 days prior to the security deposit and 1st month clearing (when using cheques from Canadian banks). We do no accept cheques from banks that have no Canadian subsidiaries.

For the remainder of the tenancy only pre-dated cheques will be allowed dated for the 1st of each month. The day of the month is non negotiable.