This weekend, thousands of students will either return to Waterloo or arrive in the city for the first time.

Although university classes don’t start for another week, the Labour Day weekend is the city’s traditional student move-in period.

In recent years, the busy streets and sidewalks of the move-in period have been joined by another type of chaos – that of students waiting apprehensively to find out when their building would be safe to move into.

With new buildings going up in the university district on a regular basis, many students find themselves arriving in Waterloo only to find that the building they had signed a lease to live in starting in September might not be fit for human habitation.

The same scenario could play out this year, based on occupancy numbers from the City of Waterloo.

As of Thursday, 799 of the 2,289 new student bedrooms expected to be online for September had been granted occupancy permits.

Inspecting and providing permits is the full extent of the city’s role in the process.

In response to the issues seen in recent Septembers, the city has started posting daily updates on its website explaining which buildings have seen permits granted and which have not.

“We wanted to provide the best service possible, so people have the right information as soon as they possibly can,” says Coun. Jeff Henry.

The 1,490 bedrooms awaiting occupancy permits stretch over nine different buildings in the university district.

Henry says he expects a number of the units to be finished and ready for tenants by Monday.

“It looks like a bit of an ant farm out there – there are contractors all over the place,” he says.

The city isn’t the only organization trying to take a more proactive approach to the issue.

Legal clinic Waterloo Region Community Legal Services is meeting with students and offering legal advice for anyone affected by a delayed move-in.

“They’re really wading into unknown territory, and they may not know what their rights are or even who to reach out to,” says Shannon Down, the organization’s executive director.

Down says the clinic’s lawyers will provide advice based on documentation students bring them and also consider what alternative arrangements a landlord may have offered.

With reporting by Brandon Rowe