The average Toronto resident spends over 100 per cent of their income on rent - "the average individual in Toronto spent 119 per cent of their income on rent last month. The figure is based on the city's average income and average rental rates. The only less affordable Canadian metropolis included in the report was Vancouver, where the average resident spent 124 per cent of their income on rent in October. Toronto's unaffordability is driving the need for "creative housing solutions," the report noted, including roommates, multi-generational housing, and subletting. It also leaves tenants with less financial security, and landlords with less confidence that rent will be paid each month. According to the report, larger households face similar levels of unaffordability, with the average family in Toronto spending 74 per cent of their household income on rent... the concept of only spending 30 per cent of income on rent has become a thing of the past... With the Bank of Canada expected to raise interest rates once again in December, the report expects that "more pain" will be felt by renters. The impact of higher rates will trickle down to tenants for "the foreseeable future," Rent Panda predicts, as landlords look to offset their own increased costs by raising rents."
Clearly, more rent control and more regulation deterring people from being landlords is the answer
The Real Problem With Corporate Landlords - The Atlantic - "corporate landlords, especially large institutional investors, were far likelier than other owners to evict their tenants. Other research in Atlanta suggests that such landlords are also more likely to use threats of eviction—and serial court filings that deepen tenants’ financial woes—as a routine business practice. Tenant advocates around the country have long observed similar patterns. Other profit-maximizing practices are less drastic but still work to renters’ disadvantage: In Los Angeles, where I work, one corporate landlord has been steadily cutting back on services and amenities, such as parking, that had been routinely offered to tenants. The same landlord is asking tenants to pay in person at off-site, third-party electronic kiosks that automatically add on extra fees. Another local corporate landlord is notorious for drafting unusually restrictive leases that charge tenants stiff fees when they slip up... some housing experts have suggested that the entrance of private equity into the single-family housing market could increase the supply and diversity of existing rental units... Real-estate investors with a large number of properties frequently assign control of each one to a separate limited-liability company—an arrangement that renders opaque the ultimate ownership of buildings and units, obstructs outside research, and limits the ability of tenants and code-enforcement officers to hold landlords accountable for misbehavior. Such complex structures also enable harmful investment strategies such as “milking”—in which investors acquire distressed properties; rent them at relatively low prices, in many cases to tenants with few other options; and still realize steep short-term profits by cutting back on upkeep. According to one study, institutional investors report making more improvements to their rental property than individual owners do, but overall the latter spend more money upgrading their holdings. A 2019 study of rental properties in Milwaukee found that maintenance suffered when units passed from individual ownership into the control of limited-liability companies."
More regulation is needed, because small landlords are able to deal with regulation better than big companies!
Ayanna Pressley, 'cancel rent' advocate, discloses thousands of dollars in rental income
UK tenants face blame for causing toxic mould and deadly hazards under new rules - "Under the updated housing health and safety rating system (HHSRS), environmental health inspectors will be told to consider detailed “behavioural factors”, such as whether residents are taking enough steps to ensure their property is heated and ventilated, including using heating, running extraction fans and opening windows. Other factors they will be required to consider include whether people are exposing themselves to excessively low temperatures due to ignorance, a “stoic and often embedded attitude” to cold or desire to “reduce carbon emissions”... experts said the new requirement for inspectors to consider “behavioural factors” risked opening the door to people’s lifestyles being blamed for “really serious problems”... This contrasts with the current guidance, which says landlords have a responsibility to ensure dwellings are “capable of being occupied safely and healthily by a range of households with a spectrum of lifestyles”."
Clearly, if a tenant wrecks a place, it's the landlord's fault. Of course, if the landlord tries to ensure the dwelling is safe, that will be sticking his nose where it doesn't belong. Amusingly, climate change hysteria can make your home unsafe
Mom, daughter face homelessness after buying home and tenant refuses to leave - "Elsie Kalu says the ordeal led to her losing her job, plus she is now at risk of getting kicked out of her rental and faces threats of foreclosure — losing her property to the mortgage lender. She is begging Ontario's Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) to grant her a hearing so she can state her case to evict her tenant and finally move into the home she bought. "Why would the government allow another person to take everything from one person? It's like robbing the poor to pay the poor," said Kalu, standing outside of the home she hasn't entered since buying it... she purchased a townhome in the city's eastern suburb of Orléans. Small landlords — those who typically own just one or two rental units — can become homeless when a tenant refuses to pay rent and leave a space the landlord needs for their own accommodations. CBC previously spoke to landlords who were homeless due to major delays in getting a hearing and eviction order... Kalu moved across the river from Gatineau, Que., to Ottawa in 2021 to access better health-care services for her daughter, who has autism. She bought the townhome sight unseen during the pandemic real estate boom through a real estate wholesaler, which buys and sells off-market homes at below-market value, and avoids realtor fees — a risky move, she acknowledged in hindsight... after signing the purchase agreement... she found out she had an unco-operative tenant and a male occupant. Kalu closed on the home in April but says she's received no rent so far... CBC has tried to contact the two occupants. When a reporter knocked on their door, which was barricaded from inside with plastic boxes, they did not answer and shut their curtain as music blared from inside the home. A lawyer representing them said Kalu should go through the LTB "if she believes that she is actually owed rent." The LTB has a service standard to schedule hearings within 25 business days. An update this July says it should take seven to eight months. Kalu filed an eviction application... she's trying to fork out more than $5,000 a month for the home she's currently renting, and utilities, plus the mortgage, condo fees, and property taxes... Kalu lost her job this August as a financial adviser, which required her to pass a regular credit score check. She's been taking out loans and racking up her credit card debt, so her score didn't meet her company threshold... Kalu's four-year-old daughter was diagnosed with autism last year, but still can't attend the school near the new home, which promised to provide her a speech therapist and other resources. For the past three months, Kalu said she stopped critical therapy for her daughter because she can't afford it... Kalu's lender sent her an email indicating it would consider legal action should she miss another mortgage payment... "If the LTB doesn't help me ... everything I've worked for, all that I've invested, I could just lose it"... Kalu's current landlord also issued her a notice to end her tenancy for missing one month's rent. Kalu says she's called three local shelters — one that had a wait list of two years, and the others said they can't accept her until she's actually homeless... Kalu's paralegal filed a request to expedite her hearing. The LTB refused in September saying the case isn't urgent enough... Kalu gave her tenant an N12 notice this April — a form under Ontario's Residential and Tenancies Act to notify tenants about a landlord's intention to move in. She's also served the tenant multiple N4 notices for non-payment. Lawyer Michael Thiele, who represents the tenant and the male occupant, said in an email that his clients have "the right to occupy the premises for an indefinite period of time."... When asked why the tenant hasn't paid rent, Thiele suggested Kalu take it up with the LTB "if she believes that she is actually owed rent," but didn't elaborate or provide proof of payment when CBC followed up. Kalu has a separate application open with the LTB for the tenant's non-payment of rent. According to Kalu's submission, the occupants refused to let her inspect the home four times despite 24-hour notices — by posting doctor's letters on their door citing COVID concerns stating they're unvaccinated. Thiele responded to this stating the household is "entitled to protect themselves." A landlord can enter a rental unit after giving 24-hour notice to carry out an inspection to see if it's in good repair, to carry out repairs, or for "any other reasonable reason" set out in the lease, according to the Residential Tenancies Act. The occupants also refused to let an appraiser in to appraise the home, the LTB submission states, so Kalu couldn't get financing with her bank — forcing her to delay the closing and use a private lender with an 8.99 per cent interest rate and two per cent lender fee. "The rights of entry are stipulated in the Residential Tenancies Act. This is not one of them," Thiele wrote. "Why should a tenant allow a landlord to enter a property to snoop around? This is the tenant's home and arguing that the tenant should open her door to the whims of the landlord disregards the fact that a person has the right to privacy in their home. The tenant doesn't need a reason to refuse. The landlord needs a legal reason to enter — the difference is significant." The Act states a landlord can enter to allow a potential mortgagee or insurer to view the unit. Kalu's LTB submission also states an occupant told her "the house is dilapidated," but refused to allow tradespeople she hired to enter. Thiele said his client disagrees with this characterization, and said the tenant may file against Kalu at the LTB for the condition of the house, citing rent abatement. Kalu said in her submission that the first time she met the tenant and the male occupant, they closed the garage door on her and her daughter's head. In response, Thiele said tenants may have the right "to repel trespassers who refuse to leave" and said landlords can call police should they feel they have been wronged. CBC asked the LTB for submissions or responses filed by the tenant in relation to Kalu's eviction and non-payment applications, but the LTB said it found none... the previous landlord... began having issues with the two occupants just before the pandemic, when he notified them he wanted to sell the home after getting diagnosed with cancer. The former landlord said the LTB had failed him, too, as he never made it through an eviction hearing after applying for one... Ontario's Landlord Tenant Board blames the Ontario government's temporary moratorium pausing eviction hearings from March to August 2020 for its longer-than-average wait times and backlog"
Of course, the liberal conspiracy theory is that the government wants the LTB to fail so it can abolish it. But if evictions had not been paused, they would've been very upset
Meme - Dan Licata @danlicatasucks: "My landlord just told me rent is going up by a lot"
"YOUR SHOPPING CART
Termites, Workers, Living, Pack of 100
#143736
In stock & ready to ship
Shipping: Second Day Air
$252.50"
Damn slumlords not maintaining their properties!
Berlin’s Rent Cap Drastically Shrank Supply of Rental Properties - "The supply of rental properties in the Berlin has shrunk by up to 60 percent due to the city’s rent cap and has been holding at that level since the cap was lifted, finds a new ifo Institute study. “As soon as the rent cap was announced, the supply of rental apartments in Berlin plummeted. In areas outside the scope of the rent cap, there was an above-average increase in supply, but the lifting of the cap has reversed this trend,” says Mathias Dolls, Deputy Director of the ifo Center for Macroeconomics and Surveys."
The commies will just claim shock therapy is needed for a longer period
Berliners voted for a radical solution to soaring rents. A year on, they are still waiting - "A year ago today, Berliners voted in a historic referendum that proposed one of Europe's most radical solutions to soaring rents. Asked whether they backed seizing property from so-called mega landlords, voters in the German capital screamed a resounding "yes". The referendum passed by 59% to 41%... “I will admit that socialising housing won’t expand the city’s housing stock. Expropriation doesn’t create new housing. You also need to build, and not the profit-focused construction we typically see”... “Many politicians have argued that we just need to build, build, build to produce more housing and solve the issue. But this ignored the fact that building is really quite expensive, even before the crisis with inflation, and the war in Ukraine, so it’s not that simple to just build that much”... Given that Berlin’s mayor, the SPD’s Franziska Giffey, spoke out clearly against expropriation before the election, campaign organisers didn’t expect the implementation of the referendum -- which is technically non-binding -- to be a walk in the park."
Maybe this time, Communism will work
Solar mandatory on new buildings in Berlin from 2023
The Battle for Munich′s Skyline - "Georg Kronawitter started an initiative to limit the height of new buildings to 100 meters in response to plans to build three new high-rise buildings in the Bavarian capital. Should the projects be approved, Munich would be in danger of losing its "uniqueness""
Clearly, greedy landlords are why housing is expensive
BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, Monday's business with Dominic O'Connell - "I don't think the landlord wants to evict me. I've been a good tenant, but he makes income out of this. It's his retirement fund. It's his job."
Man sleeping in his car says tenants owe more than $31K, won't leave his rental property - "Marco had two houses to his name, but for months has been sleeping in his car — all because his tenants, whom he's been unable to evict, haven't paid their rent. Marco, 33, lost his marital home in a separation agreement in January. He still owns an income property — a two-suite house in Collingwood, Ont. — but says his upstairs tenant hasn't paid up since June; the one downstairs hasn't since February. "I'm covering all housing expenses, the mortgage and property taxes and can't afford to rent in the terrible financial situation I'm in," he said. "I'm drowning in debt."... He's filed complaints about both tenants with Ontario's Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB). But because of a backlog that formed during the pandemic, an adjudication process that once was supposed to take no more than one to three months has ballooned to roughly eight. Year-long delays to fully address disputes are becoming more common... The problem appears to be widespread, with tenants across the country refusing to pay rent, refusing to vacate a property, or both. In B.C., the normal waiting period to have a dispute heard has mushroomed from about one month to over four. Nova Scotia is also reporting delays... Marco estimates he's owed over $31,000. "It boggles my mind that people can get away with this," he said. "If I stole that much money from a store, I would be charged."... in Abbotsford, B.C., a tenant refused to pay rent for most of 2021 and the first half of 2022. When he was finally ordered evicted, he demolished the inside of the house, cutting support beams in the roof, tearing off drywall and tossing about insulation. "I've never seen anything like it," said realtor Morgen Yuan, who told the offshore homeowner that he would check in on the property. Yuan says police told him no charges would be laid, because tenancy issues fall outside police jurisdiction. In Brampton, Ont., Hasan Khan, his wife and their one-year-old are sleeping on a single mattress in the basement of their own house, because a couple renting the main floor with their adult son refuse to leave. The Khans rented the space while they were in India for six months... The family spent most of the summer in the backyard and drove to Toronto's Pearson airport a couple of times to sit and watch airplanes take off and land. "We do things where we don't have to spend money," said Khan. "I feel bad for the kids and how my wife feels." It's been six months since he complained to the LTB, which rejected a request that his case be expedited, saying Khan failed to prove he was experiencing "significant financial hardship." "[The tenants] laugh when I threaten to go for eviction," he said. "It looks like they are very aware of the loopholes."... He hopes one day to recover what he's owed, evict the tenants and move into that house himself. He also vows he'll never rent to tenants again."
Clearly, greedy landlords are why there's a shortage of affordable housing. And all the commies mocking landlords for not properly accounting for financial risk bitch about "greedy landlords" when landlords increase the rent or take other measures to account for financial risk
Ayanna Pressley on Twitter - "You can't be anti-racist if you're anti student debt cancellation."
BDW on Twitter - "“You are a racist if you don’t pay off my gender studies degree.”"
Dan McLaughlin on Twitter - "This tweet is infrastructure."
Ministry of Truth on Twitter - "You can’t be anti-racist if you don’t do what we tell you, believe what we tell you & say what we tell you."
The internet had a field day with this tweet from Rep. Ayanna Pressley - "Lefties were also angry at the post because the majority of student debt holders are, you guessed it, white. So Rep. Pressley pretty much alienated the entire political spectrum in one fell swoop."
Facebook - "Alexandra Ocasia Cortez recently said “I have over $17,000 in student loan debt, and I didn’t go to graduate school because I knew that getting another degree would drown me in debt that I would never be able to surpass. This is unacceptable.” Rashida Tlaib similarly complained “I worked full time, Monday through Friday, and took weekend classes to get my law degree. And still, close to $200,000 in debt. And I still owe over $70,000, and most of it was interest.” They both are calling for their debts (and other student debt) to be forgiven. They both get paid $174,000 a year. I'm very concerned that with that sort of salary, neither can figure out how to pay off their debts? And yet they get to vote on the US budget. One last important questions. There are plenty of people who scrimped and saved to put themselves or family members through college. Are they being punished for not taking out massive loans? Could we solve this problem simply by the government not guaranteeing loans any more? Why can you default on any loan except for student loans?"
A lot of liberals claim that opposing student debt is just sadistically wanting people to suffer - they think that debt is just numbers on paper, and cancelling it will have no negative consequences
How to Fix American Higher Ed - The Atlantic - "A mega-bailout in the form of student-debt forgiveness would prop up and excuse the broken parts of this system—missing the opportunity to go bigger and help college-age Americans from every class and community learn skills, enhance persistence, find work, and embrace the dynamic opportunities of the coming quarter century. Massive forgiveness of student debt would most help upper-class Americans who are going to be just fine without a bailout. It’s a regressive mistake. Only about one in eight Americans carries student-loan debt; of the $1.6 trillion or so of debt that students have racked up, 56 percent is held by white-collar workers with advanced degrees. About one-third is owed by the wealthiest 20 percent of households, and nearly two-fifths was acquired in pursuit of graduate credentials. The fact is, the typical student-debt holder is more likely to be white, is more educated, and has more earning potential than the median American.. A student-debt bailout rewards wealthy kids at the expense of middle-class families, but even more destructively, it perpetuates the lie that our current pedagogical arrangements are sufficient... Far too often, higher education equates value with exclusivity, and not with outcomes... Elite schools compete largely to attract greater numbers of applications and then to reject larger shares of those prospective students. Rejection rates north of 90 percent are seen as hallmarks of “excellence.”... The famed Harvard Business School professor Clay Christensen argued before his death in 2020 that much of what is wrong with higher education lies in our political class’s fetishizing of the Ivy League, and the consequent status-chasing of so many “almost Ivies” in pursuing activities that help in rankings but do little for students or social mobility. Too many policy makers, thought leaders, and donors assume that most college experiences are like an Ivy League experience. The data tell a different story... Debt forgiveness would pour gasoline on the bonfire of education costs. According to the Education Data Initiative, “the average cost of college tuition and fees at public 4-year institutions has climbed 179.2% over the last 20 years for an average annual increase of 9.0%.” (For comparison, personal health-care costs—another disproportionately inflationary sector—have increased 58 percent over the same period.) The universities that take in federal dollars without useful tools to measure student outcomes have had too little motivation to resist price hikes. Meanwhile, students are taking out huge loans at artificially suppressed interest rates without considering whether their degree will justify the debt. Right now, there aren’t many guardrails against inflation on the supply or demand sides. The debt conversation is dominated by demagoguery... To ignore root causes is like cleaning up a polluted beach downstream, while leaving the factory upstream pumping ever more contaminants into the water. We need to be talking about institutional reform... Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa’s landmark 2011 study on college outcomes, Academically Adrift, tested 2,300 college students on what they learned in college. After freshman and sophomore years, 45 percent demonstrated essentially no learning improvements; after four years, 36 percent of students still demonstrated no improvements in key areas, including writing and critical thinking. Despite these embarrassing results, reform didn’t come...
End the tyranny of four-year degrees
Ditch the credit hour
Rethink metrics for teaching and learning
Encourage corporate-led certification programs...
Accreditation should protect students from snake-oil salesmen, but unfortunately it has become its own racket. Existing schools try to lock out potential competitors. Timidity, ideological homogeneity, and red tape are all structurally encouraged by the accreditation processes...
Target funding to better help students
Align government policies to encourage experimentation
Make higher-ed institutions put more skin in the game
Differentiate prices by field of study"
This won't stop liberals claiming more people going to college is inherently good. Presumably if over a third of students don't improve their critical thinking, society still benefits by giving them a piece of paper
Meme - Taylor Hale @TheTayMack: "I'm a girlie that's obsessed with a soft launch and this is the easiest form I've ever filled out in my life. Go get your student loans forgiven"
BrotherMan @BrotherMan555: "You just won 800k. You can surely pay your own debts."