I used to be a Landlord in the Town down below, before I moved to South Park,
SCA. Disillusioned by my experiences as
a Landlord, I bought my cozy, single family home here in SCA.
Based on my experiences with tenants, and thus, becoming very familiar with the Landlord &
Tenant Act of Ontario, I would never do it again. It’s no wonder Ontario has the lowest vacancy rate of
rental accommodation in the whole Western World. It’s my opinion, that the Landlord &
Tenant (L & T) laws are so slanted in a tenant’s favour, that no rational
person would want to be a Landlord more than once. Okay, okay, maybe some of the preceding is a little exaggerated, but really,
not much, in my opinion.
My last house was in the Town down below and was built around
1959 (and so just a bit younger than me).
The white, brick bungalow is on the curve of a crescent, set well back
from the road, surrounded by a very long, cedar hedge. The then-scraggly hedge ran the length of the
155’ lot (47 meters), with a small break near the east end, allowing access
from the wide boulevard and the driveway.
It is surrounded by parks on three sides of ravine areas. Originally built by a M.D., it is still
locally known as The Doctor’s House.
The house was owned by a woman in her golden years and her
daughter, and had been rented out, top and bottom, by them, for about 10
years. They also owned another house on
the same crescent, in which they lived.
Nice people and, coincidentally, I knew the older woman’s sister, who
worked in the bank I patronized near my office.
All very nice people, BUT, and you just knew there had to be a BUT,
somewhat deceptive when it came to what they had done to ‘enhance’ the property
for sale but that story will have to wait for another time.
The house was not very far from Toronto and almost exactly half-way between
the two major 400 highways. There is a
beautiful, three-bedroom basement apartment in that house. Before I bought the house, I made sure that
the apartment was legal and registered with The Town. At that point in time, I wasn’t sure that I
would rent out the apartment but so loved the house and especially its private
location on the crescent, I couldn’t resist buying it. I also made sure that I could manage the
mortgage, taxes and upkeep without having the rental income. At that time, I had a high-powered,
well-paying career and could swing it by myself, but I would have to tighten
the belt here and there, especially since most the windows and patio door would
have to be replaced soon. I was prepared
to do whatever it took.
There was no inside access to the apartment from the main floor,
where I lived, and it seemed like such a shame to have that beautiful basement
apartment sit vacant. After six months
or so and making some improvements, I naively found my first set of
tenants.
A couple, in their early twenties, along with their one year old
son convinced me that they would make excellent tenants. While they were at work, both of their
extended families, approximately 8 -12 people, stayed at the house pretty much
all day, ostensibly to babysit the child.
How many people does that take?
They were doing their laundry and washing their vehicles in the
driveway, leaving the hose running (yes, even during water bans). I’m not sure how many of them actually left
to spend the nights in their own homes.
The utility bills more than quadrupled.
One night while I was home, I could hear the smoke alarm
sounding for quite a few minutes. It was
finally silenced. A few months later,
the young couple gave me their sixty day notice that they were moving out at
the end of their twelve month lease, apparently because they bought their own
house. When I did my inspection before
they moved, I could see that the kitchen ceiling was black with smoke
damage. According to the husband,
something on the stove caught fire while he was occupied playing with his son
but it wasn’t his fault. “Who’s fault
was it?” I asked. “Oh, the stove’s
fault”, says the tenant, absolutely straight-faced. I was dumbfounded that he actually seemed to
mean it. It took many coats of paint
(applied by me) to fix that damage.
There was no compensation for the cost of the paint and my time and
effort.
Do you think that if Ontario Landlords could request a security
deposit, tenants may have to take responsibility for the consequences of
their actions and repair damage before they move? Or, at least Landlords would be compensated
for their tenants’ carelessness by being able to keep their security
deposit. BUT Ontario Landlords are not
allowed to ask for a security deposit.
Why not?
Tenants can be hard on a property. A Landlord’s frequent lament is, “Tenants
just don’t care about the property. Why
should they? They don’t own it.” After being a tenant most of my adult life,
I can speak from that persona – tenants should care, after all, it is their home but most of them don't.
Another set of tenants, two men, friends in their early
twenties, seemed promising. By this
time, I had learned a lot more about being a Landlord. I did credit checks, employment checks, and
previous landlord checks. While my
checks turned up an odd tick here and there (nobody’s perfect), they seemed
like nice boys and I decided to give them a chance.
Within three or four days of moving in, the roomie who had the
best credit rating, couldn’t stand his flighty friend anymore and wanted to
move out. I explained that if he moved,
his friend would also have to go. Oh,
and they would have to give me the equivalent of two months rent to compensate
me for moving out only a month into their six month lease. He chose to stay and I have to say, the next
six months were rather interesting. The
volume of their fights increased with the passage of time and I had no trouble
hearing their problems.
Then, the ‘flighty’ one moved his brother in, gratis. The brother had the chutzpah to say to me one
time that he was ever so grateful to his brother for giving him a place to live
after his marriage broke up and his wife kicked him out. Really?
Other than maybe making some space in a cupboard so he could hang up his
clothes, who was really paying the price for his presence? Who does he think was paying for the
increased utility usage? Not his
brother, for sure.
What inspired me to write this story? I finally got around to reading a newsletter,
published by an organization geared to Landlords who need help navigating the
maze of government gobbledygook. The lead story in this latest issue is
entitled, ‘Human Rights in Rental Housing’ and is about whether or not
landlords have the right to refuse to rent to same sex couples or gay
individuals. Oh, joy, now people have to
worry about that kinda crap. I can just
see our tax dollars at work on this particular subject instead of going towards
things like pensions (for the average Joe) or health-care, or education and so
on, and so on, and so on.
The inside story was even more interesting to me, because it
seems that there is at least one Judge out there who has developed a bad case of
reality and recently became enlightened.
He’s actually calling for legislative change, because as he put it, “My
recent experience sitting as a single judge of this Court to hear motions, has
convinced me that there is a growing practice by unscrupulous residential tenants to manipulate the law improperly,
and often dishonestly, to enable
them to remain in their rented premises for long periods of time without having
to pay rent to their landlords. It is
[this] practice that imposes an unfair hardship on landlords that reflects
badly on the civil justice system in Ontario. It calls for the Government, the Landlord and
Tenant Board and this Court to respond.”
The judge also stated that his case was ONE of many that went
before him in a five day period. The
judge was referring to a case involving a small landlord who has just one
residential unit above a store for rent.
The tenant owes a STAGGERING $22,445.00 in arrears.
The problem apparently began the FIRST month of the tenancy in
2011, with the monthly rent being $3,600.
Can you believe that? That poor
landlord. She didn’t let the situation
drag on and hope that the tenant would pay what he owed and, subsequently, pay
his monthly rent on time. She took
prompt action, following the rules and regs as set out by the Landlord and
Tenant Act. According to the landlord,
the problem began only 6 days after the tenant moved in, in late 2011. At the time of the printing of the newsletter
(September 2012), almost ONE year after the problem started, at least one media
report quoted the landlord as saying, “It’s not over yet.” What will it take before the Province of Ontario and its lawmakers realize that
they are shooting themselves in the foot by legislating landlords into the
poorhouse? As I asked, “Who, in their
right mind, would want to be a landlord in Ontario, especially after reading that
story?”
Apparently, that rental scammer has had one of his days in court, and provided a postdated cheque for the
entire amount owing. Then he persuaded
the landlord’s friend who appeared on her behalf to withdraw the application to
evict. The cheque, which was POSTDATED
only two days from the hearing date, was refused by the bank and returned it
about a week after the hearing because the tenant stopped the payment. Fun,
huh? Why didn’t the landlord insist on
cash, you ask? According to the Landlord
and Tenant Act, Landlords CANNOT insist that rent be paid in cash. Landlords cannot even insist that the tenant
provide postdated cheques for the term of the lease. Why not?
Granted, it sounds like the Landlord shoulda/coulda handled
things differently but, as we are fond of saying, “Hind sight is 20/20.” I believe it is exactly this kind of
experience that deters people who are of sound mind, to never even think of
becoming a Landlord. Oh, and I just love
tenants who think that their rent is
paying the Landlord’s mortgage.
My most favourite tenant scam?
I ALWAYS drew up a lease, which clearly stated the names of the tenants
allowed to reside in the rental unit, including any children. I cannot think of any tenant who did not
promptly ignore the stipulation of who could live there and moved in additional
adults and sometimes even children. You
know, oh, she’s my niece, or he’s only staying a few days (which stretches into
months). The agreed-upon rent included
utilities, based on the number of people.
What do you think happens to utility consumption when the number of
people doubles or triples? Especially
since there was a full-size washer and dryer in their very own private laundry
room. Oh, and, get this, according to
the bylaw person I spoke to in the Town down-below, the maximum number of
people who can inhabit a dwelling, is based on space -100 square feet per
person. Thus, if the apartment is 1,200
square feet, which it was, that means 12 people could live there. I was astounded that this could happen and
when I pointed out that there was a legal, signed document, that being the
lease, which stipulated the people who could live there, the reply was, “Bylaws
trump lease.” Nice, huh? Why bother with a lease?
Considering the lack of reasonable and available rental
accommodation in this province, especially in the GTA and just a bit north, I
really believe that Ontario has to be forward thinking when it comes to
Landlords & Tenants and enforce the terms of a lease, the onus being on the
adult tenants to understand what they are signing. It should also be province-wide, not
municipally enforced. It sure would be
simpler for Landlords to know that no matter where they buy a rental unit in Ontario, the laws will
still be the same.
I joined Landlord groups and organizations and read copiously to
educate myself in the intricacies of Landlord & Tenant laws. One of the organizations I joined enabled me
to do credit checks on potential tenants (for a fee, of course). It helped weed out some of the more
undesirables. Landlords have to learn
how to use ‘The System’ better than unscrupulous tenants or the tenant could
end up owning the Landlord.
What incentives are there for Landlords when government is so
concerned with tenant’s rights that it is ignoring the Landlord’s? What about giving Ontario Landlords the right
to request a security deposit? What does
the government think happens when a Landlord has to evict a tenant? The first thing many of them do is inflict
damage upon the rental property. A
security deposit would most likely deter this kind of retaliation in a lot of
cases, without the Landlord incurring additional financial stress by having to
take the tenant to small claim’s court to be made whole.
The above are only a few examples of the trials and tribulations
a Landlord faces, here in Ontario. I could probably write a book just about the
six or seven sets of tenants I endured, the last one taking the ‘peach’
award.
Oh, and nowadays, let’s throw bed bugs into the mix and how much
it can cost to get rid of them (thousands of $$$$), which a landlord is
responsible for, even though it was the tenants who brought them into the premises
in the first place. Nice, huh?
And another wrinkle on the Landlord horizon – at this point in
time, Landlords must only meet minimum
requirements for heating, usually
between September and June (it differs between municipalities as to temperature
and time frame) – ta da! coming soon to a theatre near you – they may also have to provide air
conditioning too! Can you image the cost
to retrofit? And who do you think will
be picking up the tab for that one? The
tenant, to some extent with increased rent, (and they’re already screaming
about the high rents in the GTA), but I can guarantee you, it will be the
Landlord who bears the brunt of the expense.
Whatever happened to a room fan blowing over a bowl full of ice cubes?
Give your head a shake, people, if you’re thinking about
becoming a small landlord in Ontario. Especially, if you’re planning to live in the
same building as your tenants. Given my
experiences and what I read in the Newsletter, I think I would rather live
under a bridge in a cardboard box than be a Landlord again.
Grandma always said, “Don’t go down in the cellar because…”
and just let the sentence trickle away. She would never finish that sentence. No
matter how much my brother and I tried coaxing her, Grandma remained mute as to
why we shouldn't/couldn’t go down in the basement. 
