Rentals for Law Students

[AKS2024]

Does anyone have insight into the best area for law students to live in and when to sign a lease?

I'm hearing Brentwood, University District and Kensington right now.

Also is there any buildings or rental companies that are known to be high quality? 

[e4bu]

Kind of depends on the lifestyle you want as a whole. If you want to be as close to campus as possible and your priority is school convenience over being close to potential work opportunities in the summer (on the assumption most are downtown) for example, uni district is a good option and is quite modern. Brentwood is also close to campus, definitely will have cheaper options, but the housing/rentals in that area are definitely more dated. There's also some housing options (townhouses and a few apartment buildings) just south of campus across from McMahon Stadium which would be in walking distance of the law school. Kensington would be a good option too as it is close to Sunnyside train station. If you're interested in being downtown and would want to prioritize being near the train, I'd check out Bridgeland, East Village, and any buildings north or south of 7th ave.

If you're not set on being as close to campus as possible, but want a convenient/quick-ish commute to campus, I'd look along the red-line (C-train) generally for rentals that aren't too far a walk to the station. Anywhere around Tuscany-Erlton would be quite reasonable, it just depends on how long you're wanting/willing to be on the train. 

I don't have much to say as far as recs for specific buildings/companies, but I can say I've lived in a Hazelview building before and they were really great. I know they have a building at tenth avenue and first st SE and one closer to campus by COP. I'd also avoid The Hat in the East Village with a ten foot pole, their management is terrible

[CroffleKing]

From my experiences and what I hear from people, the mid sized companies and individual landlords in Calgary are safer bets. That could just be luck, though as obviously there are many more people who have had experiences with the larger companies. The problem with smaller companies is you'll really be rolling the dice if you can't meet with them and get a good feel for how they operate first - I feel like with bigger corporations there is a minimum as to how bad it can be and you can sort of plan for the worst in those situations. With the smaller places or individual landlords with one or two properties, I don't think there is a limit to how terrible it can be.

I know of a few places that you should absolutely avoid due to reputation of  gouging, terrible management, or other significant issues that come up over and over but I don't want to call out a company or individual landlord on a public forum but if you DM me I can pass that on.

Those criteria @e4bu mention are solid. I constantly complain about the transit system in Calgary... because I'm more than a half hour walk to the train station and the bus to get to said station takes about the same time as it would take me to walk. The walk isn't so bad in the summer, but is miserable in the winter. If you're closer to a station, the transit system is fine here unless you're going somewhere that requires you to take a bus. If you don't mind transferring trains downtown adding more time to your commute, some of the options along the blue line aren't too bad. I wouldn't go further than Westbrook or Bridgeland/Memorial in the other direction, and if you want to be nearer to the action (work opportunities in summer, and night life/events generally) I'd say Bridgeland is a better option than East Village - East Village has always been a bit sketchy, and it's worsened substantially in my opinion in the last few years. Bridgeland can feel sketchy at times too but no more so than the rest of the core inner city neighborhoods. 

As another note: the landlord tenant relationship in Alberta is heavily stacked against the tenant. If you're coming from Ontario especially, it'll be a pretty big shock to you if you do run into issues or when it's time for re-negotiating your lease every year realizing they can adjust your rent however they like, and will do that based on how much they want to retain you (or be rid of you) as a tenant which makes for a difficult time if you like where you live, but find yourself making a lot of maintenance requests or don't feel like you are getting along very well with the manager or landlord and feel they're getting annoyed or being weird. If you don't like the amount they want to charge you and feel like it is a huge increase at your yearly (or other fixed term period) renewal or find out none of your neighbors are getting a rent increase and feel like it's personal, you don't have any recourse and would have to relocate. The exception in my understanding would be going to human rights if you can somehow show it's discriminatory based on protected grounds, but you'd still have to move out. There is a residential tenancy dispute resolution service, but I've known people who have gone that route, won and had the landlord sanctioned, and then literally nothing changes or happens to the landlord and you're then likely to lose your place at renewal time if you did go to the RTDRS for whatever reason. I'm lucky to have a really great landlord, but I've gone through a few bad experiences and have heard some horror stories through work or friends.

If you do find a place you are considering and think of/want to send a DM, I'd be happy to give you my take on the area and/or company/landlord if I know anything about them.