Back to Back

I live in a city that is often referred to as a university town. Why you may wonder is it called something like that? Well, first of all there is a highly regarded university located here as well as one of the provinces first community colleges, the  University of Western Ontario and Fanshawe College respectively. I managed to attend both of these, earning my Bachelor of Arts Honours in History from UWO and my Business Diploma with Marketing major from Fanshawe. Both of these institutions manage to attract a large number of students.

Normally the population of London falls slightly under 400 000. Each September, this population manages to increase by over 10% when approx 40 000 students descend on this city. Incredible. Many of these same students tend to depart the city at the end of their exams some time in May but a few of their numbers do remain behind to enjoy London's very laid back summer.

London also happens to have the distinct advantage of being located almost exactly distance wise between Toronto and Detroit, which just happen to be much larger and livelier metropolises but less than two hours drive away respectively. For many, this is idyllic as one can live in a nice, quiet city most of the time but be barely a stones throw away from any and all crazed entertainment should one desire.

Now, one familiar with the rental biz would know that if a tenant is set to move out on the last day of his lease, which also tends to be the last day of the month, and a new tenant is set to move into the same unit the following day, which generally is the first day of the next month, that this particular situation is called a back to back. Building Managers, as a rule, loathe and despise this situation for a number of reasons, the least of which is the small amount of time remaining to get the unit to move in condition.

Regardless of the time of month or year, before a new tenant is able to move in, certain things have to happen. The unit has to be completely repainted and by this I mean all walls, ceilings, doors and cupboards. Some may only need one coat but some require two. Either the carpet has to be replaced or steam cleaned depending on its state and age. Same goes for the floors in the kitchen, bathroom and entrance. Obviously all appliances must  be spotless and replaced if necessary. Any other repairs need to be completed as well as any cleaning of the unit and balcony. At any given time this is quite a bit of work.

Now the building is not responsible for completing all of these tasks but we are responsible for coordinating them and ensuring that they are all finished in a timely manner. Normally this isn't too difficult to do but in September this can very easily turn into a logistic nightmare as it ended up happening to us this fall when we had to complete twenty three back to backs...

TO BE CONTINUED...