Logistical Questions about McGill

violindad
Thu, 07 Apr 2011 00:21:00 +0000

In April McGill sends out an email to students that lists three or four storage companies. At least one of them will pick up stuff at the residence.

McGill guarantees space only for first-year students, and has a chonic dorm shortage (many years McGill has to rent space to make good on its guarantee for first-years). McGill is presently converting a third hotel into a dorm which will help somewhat.

Some students move into their off-campus apartment at the beginning of May at the end of their freshman year. Some sublet the apartment over the summer. Others find leases beginning in July, August or September.

I’ve never heard of any problems with renewing the lease each year. If students like their apartment and its location, they tend to stay there for three or more years.

I’ve found the whole Montreal renting scene is quite different from what I’m accustomed to in a couple of respects: there is no damage deposit (Quebec law forbids it). The law seems to protect the tenant to a larger extent that I am used to, but this means that some apartments are not in the greatest shape.

In my son’s apartment search, he rarely meets a landlord, but instead is usually dealing with the tenant (or occasionally a real estate agent). While finder’s fees are illegal and McGill warns students not to pay them, the tenants in many apartments in choice areas close to campus “sell their furniture” for exhorbitant amounts and often conduct bidding wars for the furniture. My son and his roommates fell in love with the first apartment they saw and were told that the furniture would cost about $6500–when he described the furniture, I valued it at about $1200 to $1500.

As for moving in to residence, I don’t think that there was anything unusual about moving into a McGill res. Because McGill is on the edge of downtown and the streets around it are busy (and often narrow), parking is an issue. For move-in, son flew to Montreal on his own with two suitcases, had an aunt meet him with bedding that she had picked up at Ikea, and had no problems with the move in.

We have paid tuition etc. online using internet banking. It has been simple and hassle-free. I would be surprised if you couldn’t do the same through your local US bank. Son did not open an account in Montreal. He withdraws money from his home account using ATM’s.