Housing

Are you looking for a place to sublet or rent, or trying to get your own place subletted? It’s inevitable that you’ll find yourself in this situation sometime during your undergraduate career. So where do you start and when? You should start early, so you’re not in a last minute rush before finals trying to find a place or trying to sublet it out.

Renting a place

~ University Housing

If you are looking for a place to live for next school term, the first thing you want to consider is whether you want to live on campus or not. Of course, depending on the season and the number of first year students, this might not be an option. Fall term is the hardest one to find on-campus housing since Waterloo guarantees housing for its first year students. You would have more luck if you tried for winter or spring term.

The price range for a residence room depends on where you decide to apply to, what term, and whether you want a roommate. Check out the housing website (http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infohous/) for more details and information. Also check out the housing section of the first year’s corner (*link’s to keith’s section on housing in first year’s corner*), which lists pros and cons of each residence that Waterloo offers.

You could also try applying to become a don of one of the villages. Generally dons are upper year undergraduate students, but it is possible to become one in your 2A term! Some perks are you get free residence and meal plan/watcard money, along with meeting new people and helping them out.

~ Off-campus housing:

Once you decided to live off-campus, you should start looking for roommates if you don’t already have a group. It’s easier to find housing in groups of 4 or 5 than 1 or 2. Make sure that all of you can live and work together or else the next term is going to be brutal. Before you even start looking at all, all of you should sit down and discuss some key issues.

Now you can actually start looking for a place. People place lots of housing ads all over campus. Be sure to check out the bulletin boards in the major buildings (RCH and MC are good places to start). Or, if you prefer, check out the following websites for listings.

Discuss the house with the rest of your roommates and make a decision ASAP! Most likely, you are not the only group looking at the house, so the quicker you decide, the bigger the chance that you’ll get the house first. Now, all that’s left is to sign the contracts and you’re set! Use that opportunity to ask any last minute questions about the place (e.g. when is garbage day?), since you will be calling it home for 4 months, so it’s good to be thorough. Make sure you get a copy of the contract for your own personal record, as well as contact information for the landlord and the subletters if you are not leasing. Be sure to point out anything you think is in need of repair to the landlord before you move in, otherwise the damages might be blamed on you. Also check for anything that might be a health hazard, like mould growing on the walls or ceiling or even stained carpets. It is the landlord’s responsibility to make sure that the previous tenants clean the house before they leave. In addition, the house should have at least one working smoke detector and at least one working fire extinguisher that has been inspected recently. You can confirm that by finding the last date on the tag of the fire extinguisher.

Subletting your place out

You should start advertising for your place while you are still in school, as it will be easier for you to show the house to potential sublettees. Depending on what term you are subletting it out for, you might have to adjust your rent price a little. Fall term is always the most expensive term, as it’s the term with the most students on campus. You should be able to charge the same rent price and hopefully find someone who will take your place. Winter term is a little cheaper, considering only co-op students are looking for housing, so you might want to reduce the rent by $20 or $25. Spring term always hurts, since most of the school is gone, only co-ops are looking for a place to live. Be prepared to offer your place for under $300 a month. You might even have to go as low as $200.

If you’re going to be posting online, the first place you should check is the UW off-campus student site and click on the information they have on subletting sites or just follow this link http://www.housing.uwaterloo.ca/content/studentsublet.htm a good site to sign up for is http://www.morefornothing.com/welcome.asp which is free. Another good place is http://www.ezide.com/ You need to get a login and password from the Turnkey desk at SLC, which costs a dollar. However, the posting on these sites do expire so be sure to find out when, so you can extend your posting. The off-campus housing website linked to UW Residence website is the most expensive, offering a 28 day posting for $20. If you choose to renew it, it costs an additional $10 for 28 more days. Basically, you’re getting the same thing from each of these sites. So why pay if you don’t have to? If you do find that you’re not getting a lot of interest in your place, you might want to consider lowering your rent price a little, and perhaps writing a better description of your house. You might also want to think of listing your place at more websites, even the UW website that costs $20. Remember, it’s better to pay $20 now, then not finding anyone to take your place because you’ll be losing the entire amount of rent per month.

~ presenting your house

One thing you have to do is CLEAN UP! You don’t need to do any major cleaning but at least try to make sure that there isn’t food left out all over the kitchen and that the bathroom is at least presentable. These are two places that people care the most about. As for your own room, tidy up as much as you want, but the cleaner it is, the more appealing it will look.

Be prepared to answer typical housing questions, some of which are listed in the off-campus section of “Renting a place”. Hopefully, with any luck, they’ll call back in a couple of days!

~ signing the deal!

Congratulations! You’ve find someone to sublet to! Now all that’s left is for them to sign a contract, but where are you going to get that???? If you’ve subletted in the past, you could use your previous sublet agreement as a template. There’s also a sample template on the UW off-campus website at the following link: http://www.housing.uwaterloo.ca/content/subletagreement.pdf

If you feel that the sample is not adequate, you could use your current lease form and modify it into your sublet agreement. After the contract has been signed, collect your 4 checks, postdated on the first of each month. In addition, if utilities are not included in the rent price, be sure to draw up another contract discussing utilities payments responsibilities. Take in a deposit of at least $500 in case they do not pay for their bills.

NOTE: IF YOU ENCOUNTER PROBLEMS WITH YOUR LANDLORD, HOUSING, OR ROOMATE(S) DURING YOUR SUBLET/LEASE TERM, GO TO UW OFF-CAMPUS STUDENT WEBSITE OR FOLLOW THIS LINK http://www.housing.uwaterloo.ca/content/studentproblem.htm

THERE IS A LINK OF NUMBERS YOU CAN CONTACT WHO CAN HELP YOU IN YOUR SITUATION.