Landlord Rescue

How To Play The Credit Game And Win

January 27th, 2012 · Property Management

A tenant emailed me a while back asking why landlords rely so much on credit scores and how it just wasn’t fair, because he was basically a cash only guy but he paid his bills in full and on time.He didn’t have bad credit he had no credit. So he was better off than I was 10 years ago when my husband left me one day, took the furniture and moved in with his new girlfriend. While it was a good thing looking back, at the time I was heartbroken and hid under the bed for 6 months and when the phone got cut off it was a real relief because at least bill collectors would stop calling me. It was a pretty dark time. Needless to say by the time I glued Humpty Dumpty back together again my credit was destroyed.

Shit Happens

Situations occur that will completely ruin your credit. At one point you’ll want to establish or reestablish your credit. I am very conservative about how much debt I carry. Unfortunately whenever you want something such as a renting an apartment, mortgage, overdraft or a even cell phone you need credit.

1 – You Have To Play The Game

Games are all about the score and so is your credit. Certain things you do can lower your score, or take away points and other things you do can increase your points. One thing is for sure, if all you do is sit on the sidelines, you’ll never get one single point. For a long time this was me, I didn’t have a credit card and I did not care to have one. Here’s how to play…

2 – Pay Bills On Time

Cell Phone companies are notorious for slapping your unpaid bills on your credit report. Ditto Cable or other utilities. So make sure those bills get paid pronto. Paying the bills on time doesn’t really increase your score just keeps it from getting lower.

3 – Getting A Card

This is the first card I got in my wallet…People’s Trust Secured Mastercard I sent them $1000 and they sent me a card with a $1000 limit. They also charge me extra every month and $50 something bucks a year. Don’t make the same mistake I did and get a Money Mart prepaid card or one of those Vanilla Mastercards. They don’t report to the credit bureau.

4 – Using Half

Use only half the limit you are allowed to use. If your limit is $1000 use $500. This is because other credit lenders look at your credit utilization percentage. If it’s 100% it looks like you’re a credit hog and about to go bankrupt. Even if your limit is $500 it looks bad on you if you use your entire credit limit. So to recap… 50% of your credit card good points – 100% bad points.

5 – How To Never Miss A Payment

In my business, I often get large lump sum payments. So my instinct is to say…I’ll wait a few days then pay it off. Then If that large payment is late it’s a problem because I missed a payment. What I do now is…as soon as the bill comes in before the due date, I’ll take that bill and pay the minimum payment immediately. When the lump sum comes in I pay it off. Missing a payment = mucho bad points.

6 – Paying It Off

There are no rules that say that you cannot put all your pay on there and then use the credit card to pay bills if you have to. The point is that the balance went to $0 Paying your credit card bill off in full = Lots of good points.

7 – Using Other People’s Credit

Let’s say you’re a student and you want good credit but don’t really want a credit card. If your parents have a credit card, they can put you on theirs. When you get the card, shred it or leave it with your parents. Now every time they pay their bill you get points. Don’t do this if your parents don’t pay their bills on time.

8 – Wait

This may be difficult for some people, but you can’t apply for 87 credit cards the same day. It makes you look like a crackhead looking for a fix. Every credit inquiry is reported so wait about 6 months or a year, make your payments and chill. Too Many Inquiries = Bad Points.

9 – Apply For Another Credit Card

If you wanted to get another card faster you could get another secured card pretty much right away. Otherwise wait until your credit builds up and you’ll find people offering you cards. The other day I walked into my bank and they offered me a credit card. A Few More Cards = More Points Every card gives you some points as long as you follow the rules of the game.

10 – Use It Wisely

It’s easy to get out of control when you have lots of credit. Credit Cards are not Santa Claus you have to pay it back. If you don’t use it wisely, then interest rates go up and up. So sometimes less is more. Honestly I have no idea what I’ll buy with the credit cards I have now when I can just use my debit card. I’ll have to make an effort to buy gas or something. Seriously.

If you already have good credit following these tips can get you better rates and if you have none or bad credit you can work on your credit to improve it. Anyone else ever get themselves in hot water with their credit?

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PETA’s Killer Resources For Landlords

January 25th, 2012 · Weird Landlord News

photo credit:

Seriously people, like I don’t have enough problems in my life right now. Some idiot reader of my site decided to sign me up for PETA’s email newsletter and report my post Mice, Rats & Vermin In Buildings Oh My! to them. Curiously I cannot unsubscribe to the PETA emails because I don’t have the password…

Helpful Tips From PETA for Landords

Ms. Berube,

Respectfully, did you receive my email (below)?

Sincerely,

Jodi Minion, PETA

Dear Jodi,

Yes I did receive your email, however; I was hoping you would go away. Unfortunately you have not.

Rachelle

Dear Ms. Berube,

We hope that this letter finds you well. PETA is an international animal rights organization with more than 3 million members and supporters globally, tens of thousands of whom proudly reside in Canada. Our office has been contacted by visitors of your website regarding your blog titled “Mice & Rats & Vermin [i]n Buildings – Oh My!,” which recommends that property owners deal with unwanted wildlife by killing them (or by “kill[ing] yourself” in the case of raccoons). We hope to offer your readers suggestions about how to effectively deal with unwanted wildlife in order to prevent frustration as well as animal suffering.

(Sigh) I don’t have any raccoons around… can I still kill myself? Everyone in the developed world knows who PETA is after watching Pamela Anderson run around bare chested covered in fake blood at the Oscars last year or whatever.

Removing/killing wildlife never works in the long run, as you’ve no doubt noticed, and will actually backfire. When animals are removed from an area, a spike in the food supply results which causes survivors and newcomers to breed at an accelerated rate. Populations increase, and residents will wind up with even more unwanted animals than they had before. To keep raccoons, squirrels, rats and other animals away, property owners should be advised to trim branches away from structures and power lines, to seal garbage tightly (ask landlords/tenants to use bungee cords on lids or lock Dumpsters), and to never leave pet food outside or deliberately feed wildlife. Applying pepper-based repellent sprays (available at garden centers) to branches, and installing motion-triggered lights also keeps animals away. Trunks/poles can be wrapped with aluminum or plastic sheeting to prevent climbing. Wildlife can be evicted by placing ammonia-soaked rags in attics, sheds, and dens. Once the animals are gone (this usually happens quickly, but it can take mothers a few days to move babies), all entry points should be sealed.

Dear Minion,

There are too many people in Toronto that create garbage and almost unlimited eating, nesting and breeding opportunities for wildlife while simultaneously completely eradicating large predators because they might devour my neighbour’s 5 lb chihuahua and infants. Thank God for cars or we’d be three feet deep in racoons in this city.

We have rather stringent tenant protection laws in this lovely province of ours so, as landlords, we are best off to hire a competent wildlife control expert rather than climb up in our tenant’s attics with ammonia soaked rags only to confront an angry raccoon mama protecting her baby while perched on the top of a 20 foot ladder. Also I’m pretty sure that our tenants would not enjoy the smell and stinging eyes caused by the ammonia in their attic. Fortunately I’ve heard it’s rarely fatal to tenant’s children except of course the asthmatics, but we all know what Darwin would say about that. Right?

I also have strict rules about the proper use of pepper spray, it works really well on loitering tenants who smoke weed in my stairwells and is absolutely delicious on Spaghetti (You learn something new every day) but the first rain washes that crap off branches rendering it useless.

No one but an idiot tenant would feed wildlife, one of which I knew knew fed the area racoons cat food while her landlord who lived upstairs had to have wildlife removal technicians at his house every other day.

Boy, I’ll tell you those racoons are not potty trained, as the landlord discovered when his bedroom ceiling collapsed and 37 baby racoons and about a cubic meter of raccoon shit fell directly on his Ralph Lauren 600 thread count designer sheets.

The babies were sooo cute and she fed them right out of her hand. Where is a rabies epidemic when you really need one?

If wildlife removal is insisted upon, then animals can be live-trapped and immediately transported to an animal shelter for humane euthanasia (via lethal injection, inhalant anesthetics, or CO2 gas). Relocating wildlife beyond their natural territory (a one mile radius for raccoons/squirrels) is inhumane as relocated animals have trouble finding adequate food, water, and shelter; and they are commonly badly mauled in territorial attacks, or succumb to foreign diseases and parasites to which they lack natural immunity.

Minion,

What is the difference between “kill them” and humane euthanasia? Doesn’t the animal end up dead? Personally I’d prefer a quick shovel blow to the head rather than a nasty cage. Animals have pooped in there and there are germs. If there was Purell in the cage it would be better. Does PETA put Purell in their animal cages?

In Canada we are a much more advanced civilization than the United States from whence you hail. Killing wildlife is illegal here period. It doesn’t matter how nicely you do it or even if you give the raccoon a kiss and a steak and lobster supper before, something legal and bad will happen to you. Don’t tell anyone we are more culturally advanced than you, we’re so enlightened that your huge egos and continual propaganda about how the USA is the best country on the planet doesn’t bother us.

FYI this is just my opinion as a human and not a raccoon but I’d rather be alive and scrounging for food in the City of Toronto than dead no matter what the method used. There is probably a great meal to be had in the local Tim Horton’s trash bin and water in a puddle. Clearly, unless the raccoon is retarded, if it’s within city limits a puddle and a Tim Horton’s can be found within a one block radius. This is another reason why Canada is a much more advanced civilization than the USA. Tim Hortons. I mean those bathrooms are squeaky CLEAN!!!

If lethal control of mice/rats is insisted upon, glue traps should be avoided at all cost due to their extreme toxicity. In fact, The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Health Canada both caution against the use of glue traps due to disease risks. Glue traps are also extremely cruel. Panicked, ensnared animals struggle mightily, tearing flesh, breaking bones, becoming more entangled in the adhesive, only to die exhausted, frightened, injured, from shock, dehydration, asphyxiation, or blood loss. Research shows that death can take days. And the screaming of ensnared rodents is extremely upsetting people who are then stymied as to how to “dispose” of these living creatures. Glue traps are also cost prohibitive because they aren’t reusable, and because they must be changed bi-weekly as the glue becomes inert. Poisons are extremely toxic/cruel too, and should never be used.

I used a glue trap on a tenant who was avoiding me, I bought a whole case of crazy glue and put in front of her doors. When I went back the next day to check if my ingenious trap had worked…she was indeed crazy and I found that that she was screaming and much louder than a mouse. I did help her out by carefully stepping over the Crazy Glue trap and going to get her purse so she could write me a check for rent arrears. I too was stymied on how to “dispose” of her but then I told her to take her shoes off and she was OK. Dodged a bullet there.

Also I have a question about the disease risks of glue traps. Is it more likely to make you sick to stick a rodent on a glue trap and then throw it down the garbage to the compactor where it dies a ghastly crushing death far enough away to muffle the screams or is it more likely to have a rodent make you sick by pissing and shitting all over your counters, gnawing your kids cereals boxes and eating all the Chocolate Cheerios? How many double blind human trials on the disease risks of ingesting mouse defecation vs the risk of picking up a sticky piece of paper with a small helpless mouse stuck to it has PETA paid for?

In any case the chances of you getting sick via mouse vectors is extremely improbable after all wheat and subsequently flour has generous allowances for allowable amount of rodent feces. Normal people understand the necessity to rid their homes of pests and vermin anyways.

I agree that poisons are toxic. It sure is nice to finally agree on an issue. I’m very agreeable or at least that what’s my grade school teacher Mrs. Armstrong said after I finished my one hour presentation on the parts of the flower.

As for the mice, they are indeed quite cute, and even delicious according to Farley Mowat.

The safest lethal options available for mice/rats are the D-Con Ultra Set Covered Mouse/Rat Trap and the Victor Electronic Trap. These are readily available, cost-effective (reusable), clean/touch-free, discreet, safe to use around food and children/tenants, and they ensure a quick death. Even ordinary snap traps are far preferable to glue traps or poisons.

Minion, while I respect that you must have an affiliate link to the $50 mouse trap, you are bat shit crazy if you think I’m going to buy a $50 mouse trap. Seriously after paying property taxes, mortgage and maintenance I usually have to put the $1.99 mouse traps on my credit card. Occasionally I have to shop lift them, if I have a tenant that isn’t paying rent. Just saying.

We hope that these tips are useful and you’ll be willing to offer this information to your readers. Please let us know if we can be of further help.

Jodi, thank you very much for your kind offer of help, I currently have one unit infested with bedbugs and the tenants that live there are highly questionable life forms. They have serious problems with complying with regular treatment protocols such as washing their laundry and cleaning up their unit. They are also being very cruel to the bed bugs. They are not careful when they sleep and crush the poor helpless souls mercilessly. I have seen with my own eyes the carnage of bed bug entrails and their little tiny helpless feet on these beast’s mattress. It’s just awful.

I have tried to get someone to rehome the bedbugs but no one is willing to save them. I figure if you could find a lady to save chickens and let them shit all over her house as they run around freely like in that TV show I saw once, you would be able to find these cute, little, cuddly bugs a wonderful new home. You might even like to give them free reign of your head office. Bugs after all are animals too and you wouldn’t want to poison them. I heard poisons are toxic. I’m sure many landlords would agree to ship the bedbugs you in humane shipping containers, such as a shoe box filled with those tasty styrofoam pellets.

Also the tenants, I am not sure but I suspect that some of the tenants in my building are not human, they may be a form of the elusive sasquatch aka Big Foot come to live among us. My reason for this line of reasoning is that they have curious nocturnal habits, when the other tenants are sleeping they are drinking and hooting and hollering a lot, during the day they sleep while other people work. They are hairy although this is hard to ascertain due to advances in razor technology such as the new 200 blade razor for $187 manufactured curiously by the same people who make those $50 mousetraps. There are variations in the species but…the one common characteristic they all share is a complete inability to pay their rent. Because of your impressive credentials as a Wildlife Biologist for PETA I was thinking I could ship you a few of those and you can dissect them and tell me if my suspicions are correct. I must insist that if you do discover that they are indeed a “sasquatch or Bigfoot species” that I have perceived due to my keen eye and scientific methodology, you must name it deadbeatimus sasquatchus.

Best regards,

Cheers to you too!

Jodi Minion, Wildlife Biologist

Emergency Response Team

Cruelty Investigations Department

Rachelle Berube, Property Manager

Chief Cook and Bottle Washer @landlordrescue

Peta Antagonizer, Common Sense Empress, Queen of Rock & Roll

Favourite Saying “Take me off your damn email list, I’ll eat baby seals for breakfast and I won’t stop till you take me off, Thank you!”

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More Trademark Crapola

January 24th, 2012 · Landlord Rescue Trademark

photo credit: Viktor Hertz

Over the holidays I had to file another round of documents to prove my claim to my own business name. Old invoices, contracts, business registration and general “stuff” all got scanned and renamed Schedule 1, Schedule 2, Schedule 3 etc. It was all very boring and upsetting.

Paying The Lawyer

Ughhh! More dough I would rather spend on Christmas presents for my 4 year old.

Back & Forth

So now that I’ve mailed off my round of documents, it’s their turn to continue to pursue it if they choose. The next deadline for their side to send me more paperwork is in April sometime.

Everybody wants to know what is going on, but the entire thing is about as interesting as watching paint dry.

Sorry This Is Soooo Boring! But something exciting might happen soon because I did something interesting… Shhhh.

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The Shocking Truth About Your Solid Waste Management Bill (Garbage)

January 23rd, 2012 · Landlord Advocacy

photo credit: Alex [Fino] LA

Sometimes you discover a large dirty secret you were not supposed to figure out…

Application To Vary A Rent Reduction

Folks, I have an unfortunate flaw. I hate people getting ripped off and screwed around. Earlier this year the City of Toronto thought it would be a good idea to reduce every single one of my tenants rent because we had a property tax decrease. Yah! You’d think that would be good, less to pay right?

Wrong! The only reason we got a tax reduction is because the City of Toronto has decided to take the Solid Waste Management part of the property tax bill and shift it to the utility bill with Water and Sewer.

Here’s the math roughly…

Property Taxes: – $4,000

Utility Bill: +$10,000

Loss to us : – $ 6000

Rent Reduction: – $ 5000

Total Loss - $ 11,000/year

How To Fill Out An Application To Vary A Rent Reduction

Get your 2 property tax bills together
Get your notice of Rent Reduction from the City
Get all Your Utility Bills for the last 2 years together
Fill out the Application to Vary a Rent Reduction
Fill out a Schedule of Parties and name each tenant
Go file the case at the Landlord & Tenant Board

That’s how far I got. I’m waiting for the city to mail me duplicates of two missing bills and then I’m going to file.

Looking At Your Solid Waste Management Bill

Going through this process caused me to look at the bill. The City of Toronto are really devious. When you see elaborate, extensive calculations required to figure out a simple thing like like garbage pickup you have to know you’re really getting screwed. This is what I found.

I have 2 three yard bins that get picked up twice each week. That’s a total of 4 bins pickups per week X 52 weeks = 208 pick ups annually X 3 yards per bin or 624 cubic yards of garbage annually.

Now if you look at your bill, you will never figure this crap out. If the bills had identical amount of days on them the charge would be the same every month. Your bill is prorated to the number of days. Even when I break it down to the day, the bill charges vary for some inexplicable reason. THE VOLUME OF MY CONTAINERS STAYS THE SAME!

There’s A Rebate!

Good luck with that. Your rebate adds another level of complexity to an already tortuous calculation. Why bother? Just give me a straight price.

There’s An Excess Volume Charge!

So I’ve been a bad bad property manager and I have failed my tenants education in the art of recycling. Because I have failed to teach them they continue to make garbage like we all wish we could. No sorting, wrapping, separating or blessing the garbage. They walk over to the chute and throw it in. Simple, easy and costly but they’ll never have to pay for a dime of the excess charges so… very nice for them and not so much for the owner who does have to pay.

Compacted VS Uncompacted

I have 2 bins one is for the compactor and the other is for garbage too big to go down the small opening in each chute room. The city of Toronto charges me for 2 compacted bins even though one is never compacted. I should be charged for two compacted and two uncompacted bins per week. This calculation also affects the amount of garbage you can put out without excess charges. The City allows you a certain amount for your “rebate” according to the number of units you have. You can put out twice the amount of uncompacted as compacted garbage.

So basically I can put out less and get charged double if all my garbage was compacted. This makes sense because you can put more compacted garbage in the bin than uncompacted. Unfortunately the reality is that every building needs at least one bin of uncompacted garbage for the stuff that does not go down the chute. The compactor is at the bottom of the chute and compacts only that garbage.

When I called the City to ask why they are overcharging me I got some cockamamie story about supers in a mythical stacked townhouse complex rolling the bins around to compact all their garbage to save them money.

July 2008 is when they started charging for all compacted garbage even if all your garbage is not compacted.

Charging For Every Bin Lift

In the City of Toronto documentation it states that you are charged for the full fee as if that bin were completely full.

Close The Chute!

I still want to save money, so if I were to pay for only uncompacted garbage that would save me money. There is a pilot program for this except… it requires 51% of the residents to vote to close the chute rooms. Then the residents can at any time decide to unlock them by gathering 51% of the residents to vote again. You must also apply to the City to be approved for this wonderfully democratic program. I wonder if the City got every one of their stupid garbage initiatives passed by petitioning everyone that lives in the city? No they did not. They just said “Hey! from now on you minions are going to put your garbage out the way we tell you to.” Finito.

Recycle, Recycle, Recycle…

Here’s an article about how unprepared buildings and condos were for the new fees. So how much would your residents have to recycle to save money ? One whole dumpster’s worth. In our case 25% of the garbage of the building would have to be put into the recycling containers per week. I would even suggest that that is close to impossible. If you had more dumpsters you might be able to avoid dumping one per week. But..when I suggested this to the super – he asked me for bigger containers. The other thing you could do is get smaller bins and get charged less per load.

My Conclusions

The city had deliberately set out to obfuscate your Solid Waste Management bill with overly complex calculations for a simple problem
Even after spending several hours on phone and looking at the sample bills on their website, I am still unable to determine how much garbage I am allowed to put out without incurring excess charges
I am unable to figure out the rhyme or reason to their volume charges, They should be charging me for the exact same volume every year, every week, every month unless I change my bin size.
No allowances are made for the size of the apartments, a building like this one with 90% three bedrooms with families is going to generate a lot more garbage than one with the same amount of units but one bedrooms
I am being overcharged for compacted garbage when only 50% of my garbage is compacted. I am being overcharged twice, once in my volume allowance and twice with excess charges for uncompacted bins. This is 50% of my output. The difference is about 25% of the bill since 2008.
The chute closure program is idiotic, I’d be surprised if the City has closed even one chute with their “initiative”.
The only way to save money is to eliminate tipping of one or more bins, if the bin is half full you get charged full price.
Recycling programs are a waste of time for money savings for building, you will not save money unless you can recycle enough to eliminate one bin tipping which is unlikely.

Asking For The Money Back

I began the task of speaking to the City last week. I want the money they’ve overcharged since 2008 back and obviously I want them to charge properly going forward.

The last time I was this frustrated by a bill was when I had a cell phone with Telus. The billing system is broken if you must be a rocket scientist to figure out your bills. Is there anyone out there who can actually understand the Solid Waste Management billing system? Anyone from other cities have incomprehensible bills?

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Calling All Class Action Lawyers…

January 18th, 2012 · Landlord Advocacy

photo credit: sybarite48

Welcome back folks!

It’s a new year and I hope you haven’t screwed it up already. I did and in an absolutely awful way.

A Novice Mistake

I had a call in date for the sheriff (Eviction) and I forgot to call in.

How I’m Making It Right

Everybody screws up every once in while and when I told Jeff that I had forgotten to call the Sheriff, he informed me that it happens all the time. The difference is that most property management companies are not as transparent as I am. So I called the owner and apologized and told them I will pay the difference in rent from January 4th to February 28th. A couple thousand dollars will ensure I never forget the sheriff again. In a decent system, I’d be able to call them and schedule for the next week so not such a big deal.

How It Works – Residential Tenancies Ontario

N-4 gives 14 days to pay
File L-1 with N-4 and Certificate of Service and pay $170 to the Landlord & Tenant Board
Upon Filing you get 2 Notices of Hearing that state your hearing date. One is for you, one is for the tenant.
Deliver the tenant’s Notice of Hearing and send in another Certificate of Service
Wait for the Hearing Date
Go to the Hearing and hopefully get an Order or Mediated Agreement
Wait anxiously by your mailbox for the official copy of the Order
Once you get Landlord & Tenant Board Order wait 11 days for the tenant to pay
Then finally take your Order down to the Sheriff’s Office and pay $330 to $380
Wait Some More
Get a paper that tells you when to call the Sheriff to tell them if your Delinquent tenant is still living a free a life
You have two hours in which to call and leave a message stating your file number
Wait until the Sheriff calls you back
The Sheriff calls and tells you what date and time to be there for the actual honest to goodness eviction
Sheriff comes to evict your tenants, you change the locks.
Deadbeat has another 72 hours to remove their stuff and themselves from your life

So long story short January 4th when I was supposed to be calling the Sheriff I was not. I had two apartments one next to the other. One was for January 4th and the other was for January 17th. I thought both call in dates were on the same day. When I discovered my mistake, I had to refile. This cost an additional $240 and I have to wait until February 28th.

How It Works – Commercial Tenancies

Wait 17 days
Call Bailiff
Bailiff comes within a couple of days – Charges $95
Change locks

So Why A Class Action?

A class action lawsuit is designed especially for cases like this where many people are harmed but the amount of each case is not enough to justify suing the government of Ontario. At the end of day of the day these delays cost landlords as a group hundreds of thousands in losses every single year. Individually the unnecessary delays cost each landlord $2000 – $3000 per case. Individually we cannot sue but as a group we might be able to. This is the entire purpose of class action lawsuits.

The Residential Tenancies Act states…

Expeditious procedures

183. The Board shall adopt the most expeditious method of determining the questions arising in a proceeding that affords to all persons directly affected by the proceeding an adequate opportunity to know the issues and be heard on the matter. 2006, c. 17, s. 183.

I have news people! A landlord is a person! Now of the 12 provinces only Ontario manages to be so unbelievably slow. Seriously, I think the Landlord & Tenant Board is waiting for your predatory tenant to die of old age so they can avoid evicting them.

Do Landlords Want To Evict Tenants?

Hell No! We need tenants money so we can turn around and pay the bank and property taxes and maintenance bills. After that if we have any money left over we could buy a nice chocolate bar. Evicting tenants for no reason is stupid and expensive. You need to advertise for new ones, renovate, have vacancy loss and so on and so forth. Plus every landlord I know is proud of providing housing for people. We provide an essential service.

Give Us A Bone!

Would it kill the government of Ontario to let landlords use private bailiffs? Imagine a world where we could pay $95 and not wait 6-8 weeks for the Sheriff. By the time the landlord gets around to the Sheriff in the GTA the tenant has received 5 notifications that they owe rent and a court order that gives them 11 days to pay or stay. Why give another 6-8 weeks?

The government has a legislative monopoly on this service and they charge over 3 times what private companies doing the same task charge. If they were fast as they are in some regions like Hamilton I wouldn’t bitch so much about it. (Hamilton Sheriff’s are fantastic by the way!) But triple charges and an unbelievably slow, slow, slow service? It’s too much, because the law says I should get expeditious service. The Ontario Government should be sued into the next century for the way they treat landlords.

A lawsuit for millions of dollars would wake them up to the fact that they can indeed be slow as long as they pay for the rental losses the landlords have to suffer. The situation is unacceptable.

Am I onto something here? If you agree with this, comment or shoot me a tweet. If you’re a lawyer what do you think? Am I crazy or crazy wonderful?

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