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Health & Fitness

Moving Day- For everyone in the city?!

Recently we came across a unique story in our industry and wanted to share- At first we didn’t believe it to be true but come to find out it is a tradition that has spanned hundreds of years!   In Montreal, Canada- roughly 115,000 people move ON THE VERY SAME DAY.  One city, one date, and an old legal agreement from the 18th century leads to July 1st being a very chaotic, very messy day for the city of Montreal.

What initially started off in the 18th century as a requirement for every legal agreement to begin and ultimately end on the 1st of May, changed in the 1970’s- The original law was eliminated, and a new law was created in its place specifically relating to lease agreements, and stating that all lease agreements would end on the 1st of July.  For a population of 1.6 million on Montreal, roughly 62% (New York Times) are renters- and pack up each July for the next best apartment!  Moves are scheduled as early as August for the following July, and there are major issues that arise due to the strange scheduling requirement.

Technically the law is no longer enforced, however after years of leases beginning on a specific day it is a tough chain to break!  The local moving companies in Montreal experience a huge influx of appointments for the day, and often call in reinforcements from surrounding cities.  In addition, as with any move, there are typically always going to be items that are discarded, or left for later attention- Due to the unique circumstances, and tight turnarounds, this leads to some serious garbage issues for the city, to the tune of $10 million in cleanup.  Items are left behind for city removal, because a new tenant is moving in on the same day in many cases. This also contributes to maintenance issues because an apartment experiences no downtime to have routine services performed. 

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Not to mention the individuals that would have counted on help from friends and family are left with no other option than to hire a moving company, since it’s likely that many people they know are also moving on that day!  This seems like a great market for a moving company, however for the customers it means inflated rates, poor service and little attention to detail because of the tight schedules. 

For us at Moving Ahead Services, this made us quite thankful that no official “Moving Day” exists here, and we can continue to offer great service at great prices every day of the year!

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