The Escapea

Hi,

We are hoping to move out to Toronto early next year (Feb/March) on a work permit. We'll be shipping everything, as we'll be hoping to stay (will be submitting PR application soon) - and that includes our cat and dog.

I'm assuming that when we arrive it will be best to rent a place for the first 6 months, until we know where we want to live - so I wondered if it is easy to find rentals that accept pets?

Also, can anyone recommend a 'good' area within commuting distance of Toronto for rental initial and also to focus our property search (we're planning to visit in January for a couple of weeks so would like to start looking at a couple of areas then). We'll be looking for a property for around $600,000.

Thanks.

dbd33

This is a good guide to the areas of Toronto :

http://www.boldts.net/Toronto.shtml

I would think it sensible to rent for a year (standard lease, six months might be tricky to arrange) somewhere actually in the city at first. That woud allow ease of exploration without the horror of commuting. High Park and the Beach are the usual areas where people from the UK with money behind them rent initially.

Walking the dog last night I passed lots of "For Rent" signs, many of them mentioned this site : http://www.viewit.ca/

skigordi

Depends a lot on where you will be working in order to balance lifestyle and the commute.

We moved here in January with 2 kids and a dog. I work in the Markham area and rented initially for a year in Aurora. There were restrictions on who would rent with a dog but in realiy we found enough that would take us all. We rented a very nice house here and struck lucky with a nice are, great school etc. So much so that e have just bought and moved into our own house in the same area.

jcexit

Do you want to live in the city or in a town outside of the city?

jcexit

The beaches used to be a fairly good area until it was terrorised by a load of Britishexpats who decided that nothing should stop them from running their dogs leash-free on the local beach and in the local parks against local bye-laws. These same people do not adhere to the poop and scoop law either. Someone is looking into the relationship between these Expats and professional
soccer hooligans from England and Scotland.

britishvixen21

I live at younge and st clair (also known as Forest Hill) and I love it here very family orientated close to the city (approx 15 minutes to Union Station) and transit system and schools in the area.

www.viewit.ca is an excellent resource for renting, it has pics and also says whether they take pets in most ads.
I would look for somewhere where Hydro (electric) is included, I just got my bill yesterday and its $97!!!! for one month. and i live in a batchelor :scared:

It cost me more for them to deliver it, than the hydro itself.

dbd33

Plainly you've not been to the beach, if you had you would know that the owners of free running dogs hereabouts tend to be north American born lesbian couples. I chatted with two such couples this very morning while our dogs splashed in the waves. If you had been to Toronto, you would also know that in the beach, almost every household has a dog and consequently there's a great social stigma to not picking up after them. Furthermore, you would know that the beach is specifically signposted as a leash free zone, there are signs with little pictures of dogs running free all along it. I have read that there's a conflicting by-law banning dogs from the beach but that was in the National Post (it was pointed out in the pub copy, I didn't buy it, honest!) so I didn't attach any credence to it. This is an astonishly dog friendly area, I stopped at the bakers on the way from the beach, the woman beckoned for me to bring the dog in and fed it roast beef.

Do you have beaches in your suburb and , if so, are dogs allowed on them ?

What's a professional soccer hooligan, who finances hooliganism ?

The Escapea

Thanks for all your suggestions - it's a relief that renting with a dog and cat shouldn't be an issue. We want to live in the Suburbs (well, we're used to living near Surbiton...!) rather than in the city, and the more rural (within a 'reasonable' commute to Toronto) the better. That has given us a good start on some areas to look into. Thanks.

dbd33

If you can define "reasonable commute" and where you'll be commuting to, you'll likely get better answers. skigordi commutes to Markham which is the far north east corner of Toronto, that gives him more options than someone who has to work in midtown, say Yonge and Eglinton. I've just driven from Burlington to downtown, on a traffic free Sunday, it was about an hour. I'd say that's a reasonable commute if you work nights or weekends, if you work approximately 9-5 but not on a fixed schedule, then it's far too difficult, two or three hours each way.

Incidentally, jcexit, how does one catch a bus in Burlington ? We were in a housing tract, that bit between the QEW and the 407 along Appleby Line where all the houses look the same. There was nothing resembling a bus stop so I asked a woman in a shop, in a plaza (Millcroft ?) if there was public transit in the area. She seemed rather confused by the idea and told me how to call a taxi.

jcexit

See for yourself - sorry no time to tarry

http://cms.burlington.ca/English/Rou...Dundas-St.html

The Escapea

Specifically, it would be a commute to Bay Street, Toronto, mainly 9-5, but not always in these hours. Thanks.

dbd33

Then your choice is GO transit, which operates a radial pattern of commuter trains, www.gotransit.com, the TTC, which operates subways, buses and street cars, or driving. The GO transit trains go a fair way out of Toronto, maybe 60 miles. If you want a rural feel your choice is pretty much limited to driving or a combination of GO and driving.

There is the possibility of driving to the end of the subway but, if the destination is the financial district on Bay St. the GO train is better as the central station, Union, is close by the TSE and the major banks. The subway would be slower. All GO trains have a decent, if crowded, service based around working 9-5 but only those that run along the Lakeshore offer much of a service out of these hours. I fired someone who lived north-west of Toronto (in Georgetown) because he was a slave to the train schedule, it was just too limiting.

The problem is, of course, that the good train schedule attracts people. I'm not that familiar with the east but, along the lake from Toronto to Hamilton there's dreary urban sprawl stretching north to highway 401 and, in some cases, to the 407. Note that modern Canadian tract housing uses all of the land for the houses, there's no space left for grass on housing estates, even $600,000 houses have much less lawn than a typical UK council house.

I think that, for the feel of being in the country, you need to go a ways out and you need to take into account the ever expanding sprawl. New cheap estates are constantly being thrown up along all the major roads. You'll have to decide if you can deal with driving to the end of the GO train and riding from there. If you can, then there are still fields just beyond Milton, Stouffville, Bradford and the rest.

jcexit

These should help. The first one shows a map of the GO Transit system. The schedule finder will help you work out journey durations.

If you like the look of somewhere and want to know more send me an PM or email.

http://www.gotransit.ca/PUBLIC/gettogo/localtr.htm
http://www.gotransit.ca/PUBLICROOT/schedule/sysmap.htm
http://www.gotransit.ca/publicroot/schedule/lstser.asp
http://www.gotransit.ca/publicroot/s...&New=&station=