Off-Campus Housing Service

Western’s Off-Campus Housing Service has helped students find off-campus housing since the early 1970’s. Today, this service is booming with up to 6,000 listings posted online each year. Approximately 75% of Western students will use the service in their academic lifetime.

This service also offers advice, counselling, mediation between roommates, and mediation between students and their landlords or neighbours. This program started in 1988 and staff deal with 2,200 calls a year. Additionally, in 2000, Off-Campus Housing Service started hiring and training students as Off-Campus Advisors to deal with issues after-hours. These 18 advisors also spend time educating students about renting off-campus.

Housing Mediation Officer, Glenn Matthews, says some things to consider when renting include: talk to the current tenant without the landlord around; get everything in writing; check the safety of the place and get the locks changed from the previous tenants; make sure you have liability and content insurance; keep in mind that a joint lease means every tenant is liable for every cost on that lease; and before signing, students can have a lease looked over by a Western Housing Mediation Officer.

Matthews also notes that students might want to consider that more than half of all rentals are listed after March 1st.

For more information, visit the Off-Campus Housing Service web site.