Hull Estates, 1200 6 Street SW, Calgary

If you value money do not rent here. This place is advertised as ‘upscale’ but is really anything but.

The amenities are not at all as advertised; nicest amenity is the pool area and it shut down mysteriously for a week in the middle of summer this year, and its only open a few months out of the year. The gym has the absolute basics and is not really used by anyone. It does not have a squat rack or bench press. The tennis courts are perpetually covered in pools of water and are not useable if it has rained at all in the past week. There is no in suite laundry and you have to pay minimum $5 to do a load of laundry so you need to keep re-loading a laundry card (Again this is in a building where they are charging upwards of $1350 a month) The apartments are basic and even though most have been renovated they did the bare minimum. There was no dishwasher in the suite. Water pressure and heat in the shower were extremely inconsistent. The apartment is hot inside all year long even if its -40 outside. The building also allowed smoking up until a couple of months ago and the hallways constantly smell of smoke. You can guarantee any unit you rent there has been smoked in for years and years. If you want a parking spot you will pay minimum $175 for an unheated parking spot or $250 for a heated spot per month and the only ones that were ever available were the heated spots. The month before I moved out they had at least 10 people come in to view the apartment but it was still vacant a week after I left. Bottom line is the cost and the value of renting here are not even close to matching up and I would never even consider this place unless it had been heavily discounted to me on the lease takeover.

If thats all you care about then stop reading here. If you’re interested to know my gripes with management then I continue below.

My issues with this place began when it was time to pay the first rent which they would only accept in the form of a cheque (is this 1990?) but when I gave them the cheque it was $5 short as I had misread the agreement. They said they would not forgive the $5 and would not be able to add it to the next rental period so my only option would be to go get another cheque for $5. I finally was able to convince them to take cash after a big push back. ITS $5!!

In a couple months they decided they were moving to a different payment system called ‘rent moola’ which I can only assume was out of pure laziness as it requires the tenant to do all the work when it comes to changes in payments and I had to re-setup my banking info. When I went to move out I tried to cancel my recurring rent payment and was told it wouldn’t be possible since they needed 72 hrs notice to make any changes – the money will be taken out of my account and refunded in 2 weeks. I had to put a stop payment from my bank in order to prevent them from doing this.

Upon my move out I was notified that I would need to be out of the apartment by 12 on the 31st making things difficult when you are not able to move into your new place until the 1st. I made sure everything was in pristine condition when I left because I just knew they were going to try to chisel some extra money from me. They did the walkthrough and said everything looked great but I would need to remove a string of christmas lights left behind by a previous tenant or be charged $100. I came to remove them and thought that was the end until I got my deposit (3 weeks later by mail) $50 short (citing ‘lights’ which I came to remove) at which point I had the absolute displeasure of dealing with Elisha who was incredibly condescending and gave me the runaround for almost 2 months. After multiple emails she told me the $50 was justified because the apartment wasn’t left in perfect condition and needed ‘light cleaning’ even though they said everything was good originally. This was the cherry on top of an overall terrible experience.

DO NOT give these people your money.

I love living in this building, I always feel safe here and everything works. They give proper written notice in advance if they ever need to enter your suite and it’s a professionally run building. The elevators always work, the gym and pool are lovely and the location is amazing. Ensuite storage is great and the laundry facilities are secure and efficient as well. It’s extremely clean and I am very disappointed to have to move out! The biggest downside to living here is that parking is just not affordable (even though the parkades aren’t even full). I have been parking on the street for 8 months which is getting stressful with the bad weather. I am only moving because I can’t afford to live here alone any longer and don’t want to have a roommate.