From the very start my wife and I knew we wouldn't be able to afford a mortgage straight away as we have no capital in the UK.

We are planning to rent, at least whilst I train.

I understand renting isn't that popular in Calgary, but I have been looking.

However most of the web sites I look at don't have a great deal of information, I just want to find out what extras are there on top of your rent. i.e Obviously we'll have our utility bills, but what about a council tax equivalent or tv licence etc.
I just want to make sure I'm fully aware of any hidden extras.

thanks in advance Dave

You won't pay property tax (council tax equivalent), the landlord pays that. But of course it'll be buried in the cost of your rent somewhere

If you're renting fully furnished short-term that will likely include elec, gas, phone (local only), sometimes internet, usually cable, condo fees, water and sewage, buildings insurance (but not contents insurance, that's your responsibility).

If renting unfurnished, you're probably liable for all of the above minus property tax and buildings insurance. In some places water is in with the property tax, some not. And possibly minus condo fees too - not sure.

Sort term rentals, can be found but are not usually advertised as they are in short supply and are usually rented with contacts the landlord has made. I do have a few contacts that do short term, furnished and unfurnished rentals, (infact I do have one for either end of Jan or Feb) and having several friends in the CPS. I can certainly lead you in the right direction.

Please PM me for more information

www.sublet.com

Look through there.

Dave,

The realtor we used to buy our house in Cochrane has some rental properties that she may be able to help you with.
Her name is Chloe Cartwright. PM me and I will send you her e-mail address.

Her service was excellent.

Jay

We found rentfaster and homerent useful. We have a 7 month rental which is unusual , most tnenacies are 1 yr, although 6 month tenancies at this time of year seem more available as the landlords get twitchy. Property tax is included which is a big financial bonus. You need tenants insurance, which is pretty cheap- $200-350 pa. Bills no idea as we haven't had any yet. I think you need to pay for telly here really, which we never did in UK.

Gryphea

There is no TV licence here. However, there is only a small selection of channels that you can get off the air. It's been a long time since I've accessed TV channels off the air. If I remember correctly, there are four channels, and one of the four is French. If you want more channels, you need to subscribe to a cable service or get a satellite dish.

To get an idea of monthly costs, over and above rent, check out Steve_P's figures in the thread entitled to go or not to go (calgary).

Postscript. Back to the topic of TV, many of the Britons who post on this forum say that Canadian TV is totally crap compared with TV in the UK, so perhaps the questions about TV are irrelevant.

Hi
We used rentfaster.ca to find a 2 bed apartment. We were looking for only a 6 month rental, whereas most rentals seemed to be for a 1 year term. We just emailed the ones we liked that were one year and the vast majority were happy to take us on a 6 month rental with month to month after that. Also we went for a place that had utiltiies included so that we knew what we would be shelling out for the first 6 months.
Good luck
Flossie

Thanks to everyone who has replied to me, all very helpful.

I'm working all over xmas and new year so wil be back in 2008
Best wishes to everyone and have a great holdiay.

Regards Dave and Family