On the first of July Joanie and I moved into a new and bigger apartment. The new place has some great features: A working fireplace, a small yard/garden, and a garage, for not much more money. This was my first move within Quebec, which is quite an experience.
Moving day in Quebec is usually July 1. This has a rather long history, but in a sentance it has been law since Quebec was a colony that landlords could not evict their tenants before the snow had melted. When laws started to be written down all leases had to begin on June 1 and end on May 30. Then, in during the quiet revolution the law was changed. On Jan 1, 1974 a law was passed making all leases that were to end on May 30 last until June 30. This was to move moving day so that it was no longer during the school year. Since then, although it’s no longer required by law, most leases start on July 1 and end on June 30.
This means that here in Montreal, where about 70% of residents rent, things are crazy on July 1. On my old street there were no less than 5 households moving. Also, there is little to no time between when the old tenant moves out of an apartment and the new tenant moves in, (read: your new apartment is dirty). Finally, and truck rental companies make a killing. Prices for truck rentals rise by 300-500%, (tried to rent one).
For us we did pretty well. We had reserved a truck for the evening but found we were able to move everything with the minivan we had at our disposal so cancelled our truck. Luckily there were people waiting for trucks so we didn’t have to pay any type of a cancellation fee, (I was expecting to pay the full rental price, just not have to pay kilometers). We got everything moved in in just a few hours with lots of help from Joanie’s family.
Something else that happened this year was that July 1 was a Saturday, plus it is Canada day, so the next business day was July 4 – and that is when our phone was supposed to be hooked up, however, that didn’t happen. If you were trying to reach my by email during the beginning of July you will know that it took until the 14th to hook up my internet, (phone went in a week before that).
But, now it’s all done. Most of the cleaning and a lot of the painting is finished, and my tomatoes are going crazy in the garden. The office hasn’t been redecorated yet, and we’re still waiting for the old tenants to pick up some of their stuff from the garage, but we’re getting settled and are looking forward to making some memories here.