My adventures in Toronto rental land have included the following highlights: two cockroach infestations, living with an ex because neither of us could afford to move, getting price-gouged while subletting, and a gas leak. While the apartment I'm currently living in is well below the average for monthly rent, I deal with a negligent rental company that has had tenants wage a full-on protest against them. It's all pretty commonplace for Toronto.
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The price of a home in Toronto went up 33 percent between March 2016 and March 2017. Renting in the city is increasingly expensive—$1,800 on average for a one-bedroom condo—not to mention even finding a place is difficult and can be time-consuming if you don't have some sort of plug. Inspired by all of the fuckery my friends and I have experienced renting in Canada's largest city, I gathered some housing horror stories from young Torontonians.I rented an art studio for $375 a month on the outskirts of the city for two months. It was a mostly private space, so if I was quiet enough I could get away with sleeping there. I showered at work and at my boyfriend's and ate out almost every day. I was like, if I can find [an art studio] I might be able to get away with this for a little bit while I try to save up and look for a place because it was summer and next to impossible to find anything. I was in all the [Facebook] groups constantly messaging people… I found a place in Little Italy that was really nice, but it was only a six-month sublet. At the end of the sublet, the landlord decided to kick everyone out to renovate.It's definitely more competitive than where I'm from and way more expensive. The amount I paid for the art studio I could probably find pretty easily for a room in a very spacious two-bedroom apartment in the city I lived in before. You might be able to find something for that price here, but it would be like a two-foot closet. Not that I'm planning on moving right now, but I'm habitually going through the Bunz Home Zone group because I'm always curiously reading through what's available. I don't know if you ever tried looking for apartments in Bunz, but one listing will go in like an hour because people comment so fucking fast. It's kind of a nightmare.
Sarah*, 24
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Amanda, 36
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She didn't lower my rent, so I was paying the same amount for less space… She eventually sold her house, and I had to move out anyway. What really pissed me off was she was finally moving her stuff out at that point, and she put her couch and a bunch of her shit on the curb like garbage.
Nathan, 28
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Dani, 30
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Ashley*, 20
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The guys said absolutely fucking not we are not living there… It felt like she was trying to prevent a sublet from happening so we would have to pay for the summer months. We ended up finding another girl who was willing to sublet. The same thing started happening again. But we got to the point where we were all together about to sign the lease, and my landlord starts acting up again, bringing up things that are very illegal… The girl ended up agreeing to it, and we felt so bad. But we needed to get out of the situation.[My partner and I] broke up in February, so we had to live together for about three months after that. I moved out in April because the relationship started to get really toxic and abusive, he was emotionally deteriorating me to the point where my mom stepped in and told me I had to get out of it.It was maybe the biggest headache of my life so far. It was during exam season too… She owns the whole complex and several other properties. We moved out in 2016, and the price of our old unit has now been hiked up to $1,900. The rental company's thing is renting to students. Their whole target market is people who are uneducated about renting and this is probably their first apartment, which is how they get away with taking advantage.These interviews have been edited for length and clarity.*Names have been changed to protect anonymity.Follow Allison Tierney on Twitter.