Tuesday, May 18, 2021

Links - 18th May 2021 (1) (Tenants and Landlords)

Ontario COVID-19: Northern Ontario landlords say some tenants are taking advantage during pandemic - "one particular pair of tenants have not paid rent since October 2019."The most stressful part is we're paying for them to live," said McPhee. "I could understand if this happened during COVID, and they lost their jobs. I would be more than willing to say let's work something out, let's decrease the rent. I would have more of an understanding for it. But this is pre-COVID... "This has been stressful, stressful on my wife, stressful on myself," said McPhee. "We feel stuck because we cannot even sell the unit because nobody is going to purchase it. We thought about let's just sell it and take a hit, whatever sort of hit."... "Too many tenants in town are deliberately doing this because they know they can get away with it," said Goulet. "Landlords get desperate. They don’t know what to do. Their hands are tied and they are supporting these tenants who just don't want to pay."... "We've got some cases in town where a tenant hasn't paid -- deliberately hasn't paid -- for 15 months," said Goulet. "Their garbage is out in the back ... They can't even put their garbage out on the street for the city to pick up, that's how bad it is with this tenant. We have other tenants who are trashing another house. This landlord's going to lose his house if he's not careful, he's had to dip into his retirement funds."Goulet said he recommends all landlords do a thorough background check prior to having anything signed... "If we can't find somebody that we're 100 per cent sure about, we're just not going to rent the place," he said. "It's just not worth it because once you get somebody in there, the process to get somebody out is just way too long. You're looking at six months.""
All the Communists still hate landlords regardless. Maybe they should sleep in the streets instead
All these shitty tenants are just screwing other tenants who then find it harder to get a place

Toronto landlord forced to refinance condo as COVID-19 stalls eviction of lawyer owing $16K in rent - "Danish Chagani was excited when the lawyer who lived down the hall from his Toronto condo wanted to rent his unit after Chagani bought a house for his young family.But the first-time landlord says the feeling was short-lived — and about $16,500 in unpaid rent has left him strapped for cash to make his mortgage payments.Within a few months of moving into the fully furnished downtown condo in November 2018, tenant Christopher Roper's cheques started to bounce and come in late... a tenant who knows the system can take advantage of the lengthy process at the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) to delay eviction, and live rent-free... The lack of rent is particularly frustrating for Chagani since he discovered Roper has had problems with previous landlords, including a condo owner in Chagani's building, just a couple of doors down from his unit."When I heard the stories of the past, I was floored," Chagani said. "It just matched what I was going through perfectly."... The landlords got eviction orders, but then Roper appealed the tribunal decisions to Divisional Court.In one case, the appeal meant that Roper was able to "reside in the property rent-free for another 10 months" because the eviction was ordered in December 2012 and the appeal wasn't heard until October 2013, according to the decision dismissing the appeal... There's an added layer of difficulty in situations where someone might be "gaming the system," FRPO president Tony Irwin says."There is no registry; there's no system for people to go to understand if someone that they want to rent to is this kind of person""

Non-paying tenant tells landlord to buy a smaller house - "Harpreet Kaur rented out the two-bedroom basement apartment in her Mississauga home to a tenant in December of 2019 with rent paid up until September of last year.That’s when things started to fall apart.First the tenant — a WestJet employee who lost his job during COVID — moved in a friend and both refused to pay the $1,700-a-month rent... Sometime in October, when she texted him that she needed the money to pay bills, buy groceries and pay for her daughters’ university education, he texted back: “I’m sorry, times are hard. With all due respect, find a cheaper schooling option and feed them less expensive food.”... The two friends have now ramped up their harassment, smoking weed in a non-smoking unit and playing drums at 11 p.m... She said she went to the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) in November but hasn’t got a hearing yet.“I’m getting depressed and angry,” she said, noting she’s the sole breadwinner for her family and they rely on the rent to supplement their household income.She’s had to take money from her credit line to pay her mortgage.Kaur said she cried when she read my front-page story this past Monday about how many tenants are taking advantage of the government’s no-eviction edicts and the pathetically slow pace of the LTB not to pay months and months of rent... Since Monday’s story, I have been inundated with similar horrific stories of landlords being harassed, threatened and intimidated by tenants — some of them seemingly mentally unwell.Another woman, who bought a 110-year-old historical home on Toronto’s Seaton St. in the summer of 2018 with the dream of fixing it up and becoming a small landlord, will be moving out with her 90-year-old mom at the end of March.She’s given up.Jane (not her real name), a civil engineer, decided to sell the house last June after being harassed by two male tenants while she was trying to deal with the impact of throat cancer and a hip replacement."
Tenant-friendly laws which supposedly protect human rights just means it's harder for tenants to find accommodation as landlords screen more intensely and others withdraw from the market (or never enter)

Landlord in New York state spray paints his own property to expose tenants' names and rent debt - "Kevin Nowak Sr. is at his wit’s end.  “We can’t just sit back idle and let this government do what they’re doing,” Nowak Sr. said.  The Lancaster property owner said some tenants have fallen behind on rent and he has no recourse because of the state’s eviction moratorium.  “I know I can’t evict them," he said. "I can’t even take them to small claims court to get $3,000 for, let’s say, an $11,000 claim.” So, he took matters into his own hands and exposed his tenant's debt. He spray painted the roof of one tenant's home with their names and what they owe... According to the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development, on average, renters owe $8,150 in unpaid rent. Nowak Sr. believes the problem is a product of a government policy."

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