Hi all,

Just a quick question. I am planning to return to TO in the summer with DH and 2 kids.

Our intention is to buy a property in the Pickering area and need to rent somewhere in the interim period. My question is - if we rented somewhere and we did not stay for the full year lease period could I cancel and posted dated cheques to landlord and therefore just lose my last months rent.

I know this is not the most ethical thing to do but all my friends are saying everyone does it.

Any advice would be helpful. Or if anyone knows somewhere I could rent short term even better.

Cheers

rent for a year why would you
and u can get loads of places without getting in to any contract .. stay away from them .. :scared:

I guess I am looking in all the wrong places, all the apartments/houses I have been looking at are all asking for an initial lease period of one year

www.Homerent.ca is a good site. There are long and short-term rentals, furnished and unfurnished. Doh I just had a quick peek, and it doesn't seem to have a lot in Ontario !! Come to Calgary

Our place was up for a year's lease but we negotiated it down to a 7 months.

If all your friends are saying everyone does it, I'd look for new friends, but that's just me. Are your 'friends' from the UK or are they Canadian? Are any of them landlords?

I'm new to this forum and in fact this is my first response. I have to say I'm surprised someone would post about such an unethical thing to do.

My advice is behave as you would want others to behave if you were the landlord. It is possible to find short term month to month rentals.

There is quite a lot of rental property available in the Ajax/Pickering areas. Lots of people bought property in the last couple of years so there are often more rentals than there are tenants. If you look at rentals on the mls it is often possible to negotiate via the estate agent to do a short-term lease or a month-to-month. We nearly had to do this when we weren't sure if our house would close and we had to be out of the rental. We found a place where the owner was prepared to do it month-to-month rather than have it empty.

I wouldn't cancel post-dated cheques as it would affect your credit ratings. Friends of ours are landlords and have been to court over this and won. Just be honest. You may find that you need to rent for a few months anyway until you find a house you like, if you want a new house you also would have a long wait until it was built.

I didn't at any time say my friends did do this.

And if you had read my post, I also stated that is was not ethical

Hi Gail

Thanks for that, I have had on look on mls and as you say, I am sure we could come to some arrangement.

Did you buy your halo polish in bulk?

Yeah. Think he must have.

After all it was only a general question that needed a simple answer, not a lecture.

Anyway he has been banned now.