Hi folks.
Just looking for a bit of advice from possible landlords on here or other renters who’ve potentially been in a similar situation.
My husband and I have only ever rented properties- here in Canada and in the U.K.
At the moment we’re renting from a private landlord- a house in Calgary. It was built in 1910 and has clearly been erm, let’s say, added to (read bodged!) over the years. The furnace was also fitted in 1930. Not only that but it’s that super old “double glazing” whereby- it isn’t actually double glazing at all. Just a thin window pane, and then 2 inches set back, another window pane. So no air lock etc. Also metal frames. And the house clearly has no insulation.
Before we moved in last July the landlord promised there would be a new furnace fitted. The new furnace is actually sitting in the basement waiting to be fitted.
Nothing happened so my husband contact him a few times to try and get it done.
Obviously in the summer when you’re boiling hot it’s less of an issue!- and fortunately until the last 2 weeks the winter has been very mild!
But in December we asked again and he got several companies to come out and get quotes. Then all went quiet again.
Our contract was for 6 months. So mid January. The 6 months came and went and we all kind of forgot about the contract.
Unrelated, my husband contacted him again about the furnace and he basically said he had no intention of replacing the furnace because it wasn’t broken and that he apparently never told us in the first place that it was going to be replaced.
He asked us what we had our thermostat set to. We said 21 degrees, because as soon as it got to that and turned itself off, the house would cool down incredibly quickly. He then told us we had our heating set too high, and he has his in his home set to 15 degrees.
He then asked if we were going to sign another contract for another 6 months or not.
At the time we didn’t really have any other option as my husband travels a lot and we didn’t have time in that moment to look for a new place so we said we’d sign a new contract. As of yet- we haven’t had a new contract and haven’t signed anything or had anything signed from him.

About a week after that conversation this awful cold snap hit Calgary. (If you’re around here you’ll be as fed up of it as I am!) but basically we have our furnace still set to 21 degrees and the furnace won’t actually heat the house to more than 8 degrees. It’s literally been on permanently and if anything is maybe just stopping the pipes from freezing- but it’s never gotten to more than 8 degrees since this cold weather started.
We then have to have two electric heaters plugged in on top of that- with all 3 on the house gets to about 10-11 degrees if we’re lucky. So on top of that we’re buying wood for our wood burner (fortunately the house has one!) and are heating the house with that when we’re in. It means our utilities + wood are costing us a fortune- and this house is quite clearly not habitable and is making us miserable, not only because we’re freezing cold all the time, but also because it’s costing crazy money and leaving us with barely anything left!

So- we have since found somewhere else! Fortunately!- that has heating that works!
Anyway- as we haven’t yet got a new contract we’re sort of in this verbal month to month thing and are just paying the rent as set out in the original contract. We pay on the first of the month for that month. So we have already paid all of February’s rent.

With the new place we have been told we can move in on 1st March.
So my husband and I have read through our current but now outdated contract from top to bottom and there’s nothing in there about a notice period. I assumed there would be- but there’s not one word of it mentioned.

Is it acceptable for us to give a 2 week notice period to our landlord?- even though nothing is written in the contract?

Sorry for the long message- I just thought it helpful to explain the circumstances to see if it helps gauge a better understanding of where we stand.

Also- fully aware we can contact people about the furnace etc but I really just don’t want the hassle! I just want to move to somewhere warm that retains the heat!

Thanks for all your help once more!!

Monthly tenancy

Notice by a tenant must be given on or before the first day of the tenancy month. The tenancy will end on the last day of the tenancy month.

The furnace must be in good repair and be able to heat all living spaces to a temperature of 22 degrees Celsius. In the winter, when it is really cold, the furnace must be able to keep up a temperature of at least 16 degrees Celsius.

Thank you. I was worried it would be 1 month.
All I know is I can’t live in this house for another month with the state of the heating.
We’re just permanently cold to the core and it’s utterly miserable.
So we will just talk to him, ask him first if because of the current issues he’d be happy for us to vacate on 1st March.
If not, then I guess we’ll have to look at contacting the Alberta health people and see if they can help us out, which I really don’t want to have to do, as my husband isn’t going to be here until 28th Feb and I work full time so it’s tough dealing with these things.

I just want to live somewhere where I know I can go home at the end of my work day and know the place isn’t going to be like a fridge.

Thankd fkr your quick reply. Will share the info with my husband and we’ll see what we can do.
Either way, he’s breached his side of the contract massively by the house simply not meeting heating codes, so hopefully he sees sense & lets us leave the contract.

Fingers crossed anyway.

Haha
well, so far we have been very VERY understanding I would say. And have lived paying our rent early each month despite him not fully abiding by his side of the contract.
So- my husband has decided that despite the state of the place, if he wishes to make us follow the contract to the letter, then we’re also going to expect the same from him.
As we haven’t signed another contract (he hasn’t even provided us with one to sign despite our contract ending on 15th Jan) he has said we owe him a full months rent for March because he wants the 28 days notice.
Which- ordinarily fine!! Not something we’d have an issue with. But that would mean we have stuck firmly to our side of the contract when he hasn’t at all.
So we’re getting Alberta health in for the heating and electrics (which are a disaster and certainly not up to code.) this house basically needs knocking down and starting from the ground up- and I’m not usually an advocate of that!
I get super stressed out about this kind of thing and the tenancy etc is all in my husbands name- so he has said I don’t have to worry about it and he’s just going to deal with it. He’s away until 28th Feb, but I guess if we’re giving a months notice it means the house is technically ours till end of March anyway- though I won’t be living here.

One day I’m hoping for a landlord that is simply honest, has integrity and abides by the contract on their end. In all the 7 places my husband and I have rented together over the years, we’ve only had one landlord who actually did that. Others have flaunted the contract, several have stolen our security deposit etc and other have just made utter garbage up to get us to stay.
So, wishful thinking maybe. But I can dream I guess.