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Simeon Mitropolitski is a Canadian analyst, of Bulgarian origin, and a former syndicated columnist with the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). He is the author of several hundred articles dealing with hot political and economic topics, both national and international.

He was part of the first group of Bulgarian intellectuals and students that began the opposition movement that finally put an end to the communist regime in this country in 1989, and in 1996-1997 participated in international observation teams during the elections in several Balkan countries - Romania, Albania and Bulgaria.

In 2002 Simeon and his family moved from Bulgaria to Canada where they live now in Montreal, province of Quebec. Simeon is a Master of Political Science from McGill University and a B.A. of Political Science and History.

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Do you want to leave your apartment? Are you scared that you won't find anything suitable for you once you leave your previous rented house? Don't worry, there's a new trend just for you on the rental market in Canada - lease exchanges. Once you had to go looking around for landlords' offers. Now you have more options. Today the right thing to do maybe isn't to find the right landlord, it's to find the right tenant and to exchange your lease with his.

It's cheaper, it's more convenient and above all, it's more secure to change your location if you're looking for new place to call home. Let's take some examples when and how this new system applies. Suppose that you're living in the residential area "X" and are working in the same area. You change your job for area "Y" and want to move there too. At the same time someone from "Y" wants to move into "X" for the same reasons. Thus, the solution is obvious, after ending your lease in area "X" you can exchange it for a similar space in area "Y".

Take the next example. The family in area "X" has a new baby. The family is growing, so the apartment has to grow too with one additional bedroom. In the same area another family has a kid going to university far away from home. It's inconvenient to have one empty bedroom so the two families decide to exchange their leases.

Take the third example. A family in "X" is going up on the social scale and wants to live in a larger apartment. Another family in the same area is going down the scale and prefers to diminish its expenses. The lease exchange for them can be the most convenient solution.

Last but not least, students in Canada as well as anywhere in the world prefer to take their regular courses in one university but have their post-graduate studies on a different place. For them the system of lease exchange will be an ideal way of going cheaper to a new place without risks of inexplicable rent increases.

There are some additional bonuses for those who prefer to make lease exchange, which don't exist for people sub-letting their premises. First of all, they are freed from all responsibilities concerning the use of the apartment or the house after they leave. On the other hand, one of the main driving forces behind the "lease exchange" movement in the major Canadian cities is to stop the rents speculation of the landlords. The new tenants know very well from the old tenants the exact rent to be paid so the landlords can't increase the rents betting on the tenants' lack of knowledge.

To exchange your lease with someone else or to sell it to someone is a matter that has been recognized to be perfectly legal by the Canadian courts and that has been made against the claims of the landlords. Now the landlords want to reverse these court decisions because they claim they have a right to choose among new tenants.

The same applies to the lease selling. According to the Canadian law any tenant has a right to sell his lease without taking into account the opinion of the landlord. So the next time you have to choose your new apartment, maybe it will be wiser to look for tenants instead of landlords.

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