Subletting the living room

[halfstep]

Hi,

I rent a two bedroom apartment and am thinking of separating the living room and sublet it as a third room to split the overall rent.
Has anyone done this before? any experience or tips would be greatly appreciated. Also, does anyone know if this is legal in Calgary? I am just toying with the idea and have not discussed this with the apartment management yet.

[K1LLswitch]

I have a friend living in downtown Dubai who lives in a 2 bedroom condo and the landlord turned the living room and the hallway into bedrooms. I guess he moved the hallway walls into the bedrooms a little and put a door at the end of the hallway and a folding single bed on the back wall.

Classy!

[halfstep]

I have a friend living in downtown Dubai who lives in a 2 bedroom condo and the landlord turned the living room and the hallway into bedrooms. I guess he moved the hallway walls into the bedrooms a little and put a door at the end of the hallway and a folding single bed on the back wall.

Classy!

appreciate the feedback, but do you know how subletting like this has any legal implications in Calgary? I don't want to rent out the living room and have the super find out and stir up some legal inconvineinence.

[bizaro86]

Hi,

I rent a two bedroom apartment and am thinking of separating the living room and sublet it as a third room to split the overall rent.
Has anyone done this before? any experience or tips would be greatly appreciated. Also, does anyone know if this is legal in Calgary? I am just toying with the idea and have not discussed this with the apartment management yet.

I would check your lease. Personally, this sounds like something that probably wouldn't be allowed, but I'm not positive. It's hard to tell if you're actually planning to add a wall in the living room to close it off, in which case that's definitely not allowed without the owner's permission. (and probably city permits)

If you're planning on putting a futon in the living room and charging someone to sleep on it that might be different.

[Tron_fdc]

This reminds me of my buddy that was a lifty at Sunshine in about 1997 who rented a room in Banff.

Turns out the "room" was the sauna in the basement, and he had the bottom seat (shelf?). All for the bargain price of $500/mo. IIRC there was 10 people in that duplex.

I say go for it.

[halfstep]

Appreciate the input guys.

To clarify my purpose here, I am just trying to rent out the living room for someone to sleep in. not going to do any renovation to permanently seal off the entrance to living room as restructuring is obviously not allowed. I am planning to temporarily block off space from kitchen to living room, with cardboard boxes or some other easy to add/remove furniture to give the living room renter some privacy.

My concern is that by having a third person in the two bedroom space, the building management might say it is uneconomical since utility and hydro is already included in my rent to the building. But then again, I remember growing up, I lived with my parents in one bedroom apartment, and that was three people. so maybe renting to a third person is not a big deal...

[ken0042]

The big thing is your lease. Is there a stipulation that only people listed on the lease can stay there for more that X number of days? Years ago I had a buddy come stay with me; in the futon in the living room. I had to let my rental company know who was staying there. They didn't care, but I also paid my own electricity.

Just don't use the word "sublet"; especially with your management company. Use the word "room mate." I don't see an issue with having a simple written contract between room mates; in fact I think it can be a good idea. But the word "sublet" can have some very different meanings than what you are talking about.