photo credit: thievingjoker

Hello Everybody, I’m so glad you came back to hear more about this important issue.

Good News!

We have a lot of support. I’ve been talking to a lot of people about this awful injustice and curiously enough a lot of the landlords I’m talking to are holding onto water bills that have been transferred to their taxes. In fact last week I was advised that I too was the delighted recipient of one of my tenant’s water bills in the townhouses I manage in Mississauga. From what I can figure out the city also billed two $45 collection service calls in addition to the outstanding amount for a total of $553 transferred to taxes.

Petition Instructions

1. Anyone can sign it. (Not your dog, but everyone else!)
2. The lawyer says ink copies are better so snail mail it in.
3. The more the merrier. We’d like to have boxes and boxes full.
4. The deadline is March 20th ! So get your rear in gear!

Step 1

Download the petition here> Petition About Water Bills

Step 2

Sign it yourself

Step 3

Get your wife/husband to sign it.

Step 4

Get friends and family and anyone else to sign it. I’ve even got my tenants signing it.

Step 5

Mail it to:

Kayla Andrade 

6 Glen Road Cambridge Ontario N1R 4L5

Step 6

Have a beer. You’ve done some great work for landlords everywhere.

photo credit: adrianpike

Getting Together

If anyone wants to go downtown next weekend to harass strangers into signing this raise awareness, I’ll be there. In fact it would be great if we could get a group of landlords together to protest with signs. Anyone interested can reach me on twitter @landlordrescue or on facebook or at my phone number 416-880-4126. It would be nice if you liked the Landlord Rescue facebook page while you were there.

photo credit: Douglas Arruda

Also please share this post as far and wide as possible. Seriously no one will do this for landlords we all need to work together.

photo credit: OakleyOriginals

Ignore this post at your peril, landlords of Ontario. Back in this post in 2010 I was upset about the City of Toronto’s Water Billing Tactics where you can hardly even send a bill to your tenants and they must pay $26 per bill to get it sent to your rental property in their name. If the bill doesn’t get paid by your tenants, no worries, it just gets transferred to your taxes. Why would you have a problem with that? You’re a landlord and therefore rich.

Tenants Treated As Subhuman

First of all these policies are very discriminatory against tenants as they remove the right of the tenant to not pay their bill without the landlord knowing – violating their privacy. They also penalize all tenants by not treating them as equals. Everybody else gets to pay their own bills. Tenants should also have the same rights as other people to get chased by collection agencies and have to provide deposits for services if they don’t pay their utilities. Landlords already know that many tenants are deadbeats and won’t pay their bills; however it’s not really our problem to collect the water charges for the city from the tenant. We have enough problems dealing with rental payments.

Landlords Expected To Pay Instead

The landlord rents the property in good faith to a tenant who they believe will pay their rent and utilities. They do not use the water, they cannot cut the water off if the tenant doesn’t pay for it and it’s a total miscarriage of justice to expect landlords to pay for the water bills. Every other business that provides services has a collections department, including landlords. In fact our ability to collect from tenants is already seriously impacted by the ridiculous delays enacted by the Residential Tenancies Act. To collect water bills from a tenant we would have to go to Small Claims Court at our own expense. How cool is that?

A Little Bit Of History…

I often hear the question… “How did it get so bad?” or “Landlord have no rights” For the most part this is true and there has been a marked erosion of Landlord Rights in this province because landlords allow themselves to be divided. For example our Water Billing issue was enacted in different cities at different times. It doesn’t affect each landlord right away. For the most part tenants do pay their bills. One poor sucker at a time the landlord gets the bill. At that time they are outraged, but $500 water bill is not enough to go to court for. Maybe he collects from the tenant. Eventually it will be your turn to take the hit on the water bill.

It’s the same with the Residential Tenancies Act and the delays there. In Toronto you can expect 6-8 delays for the sheriff. That’s two month’s rent! But again it’s only a few landlords at a time, and it’s not you. So no one does anything.

Landlords Working Together As A Cohesive Group

I’ve said for a long time that landlords need to get together and work as a cohesive group. Just because in your city right now your water bills aren’t being transferred to your taxes doesn’t mean they won’t. It means now now, not yet. So when I was contacted by Kayla Andrade a landlord in Cambridge who is getting a petition together and going to Queen’s Park I was more than happy to help and give her additional information.

Do You Want To Make A Difference?

Right now, we’re working on getting all landlords in Ontario to sign a petition. That’s it. Take five minutes of your day and download the form and fax it or scan and email it or mail it to Kayla. Make a difference for landlords.

Petition

Fax to: 1-647-724-1619

Email : andrade_k1985@hotmail.com

Mail To: Kayla Andrade, 6 Glen Road, Cambridge On, N1R 4L2

Call Kayla: 1-519-740-7903

Spreading The Word

Download the form, attach it and email all your friends and family and as many people as possible, share this post on Facebook and Twitter. Please folks care enough about your fellow landlords to make a difference. Seriously.

photo credit: Estify

Let’s talk a little bit about Mr. Landlord Rescue. I don’t really expound at length about how essential he is to the entire operation around here. I wouldn’t be nearly as fantastic seeming if he wasn’t working his butt off making my success possible.

Tech Support

If all my gadgets and computers work it’s because of him. Full Stop. If I have a computer problem which is almost daily he scares the computers into behaving. He claims he’s killed so many computers they start behaving around him. In fact just calling him over to the computer usually results in it working.

Child Care

When I’m out and about at night and weekends who do you think is making sure our son doesn’t eat the contents of the sugar bowl? Or play in the traffic? It’s Mr. Landlord Rescue, that’s who. Last week I got home after dear son was in bed three times. Weekends I also work. There’s not a daycare on earth that is open the hours I work. He doesn’t complain and does an excellent job.

Adventures

If I want company on the road, he can often be found driving me around. The whole family goes. During my appointment, he’ll find a McDonalds with a playplace and then come and pick me up after. This gives us more time to be together as a family and do interesting things.  This requires an inordinate amount of patience as I rarely know how long or short my appointments are going to be.

Shopping

I hate shopping of any kind. Grocery shopping, clothes shopping, shoe shopping, I hate it all. So if I have food in my belly and underwear without holes in it, it’s because of him. Seriously.

Cheering Section

My first year of business was far from busy, in 2008 there was a time when I received not one phone call for business in three months. It was scary. Through it all there was a special someone telling me that I could make it. When I’m down and out or upset, there’s someone who always thinks I’m great and tells me so. When I land a big client we celebrate. It’s really really fantastic. When I screw up, I can always count on him.

Thanks!

There’s no way on earth you can build a company by yourself without any support unless you are single. Once you have additional obligations they have to be taken care of. When you’re working 80 hours per week even the ordinary housework becomes an additional challenge simply because there is no time left. If I’m lucky I get to watch a show I want to watch but that means I’m skipping on my sleep. There is literally no day where I do not have a mountain of work in front of me  I could do. I’m really grateful because plowing into it requires that someone does the other stuff, cooking lunch, doing laundry, cleaning, doing dishes and all the other minutia of life that must simple be done.

I love you and thank you! And my clients thank you!

photo credit: Phillip Suddick

I can’t tell you how many good tenants there are. I’ve really met tons of fabulous people in my work as a property manager. For the most part I really enjoy the tenants I meet.  There are by far many more responsible, decent people quietly paying the rent and getting on with their lives then there are deadbeats. Now that I manage buildings I have tenants I have never met or even seen. As the big wig I end up dealing mostly with the problems no one else can handle. That’s so unfortunate.

Having A Chat

Some of the more rewarding parts of this work is just sitting down with your tenants and touching base. I have found that more people think I’m doing a good job and keeping things going well than not. Like in so many things, tenants have busy lives and the last thing on their mind is coming to my office and telling me how great I am.

In fact, most people won’t even notice that the halls are getting vacuumed, the chutes are getting cleaned, the garbage is getting taken away and countless other tasks required to keep a building running smoothly are getting done without a hitch. The rent gets collected and put in the bank, the N-4′s get delivered, maintenance gets done all without any major hassles.

Good Property Management Is Invisible

You won’t really get any fantastic accolades for doing your job well because the proper functioning of the property is something taken entirely for granted, until something goes wrong. The the screams are loud and clear.

Good Tenants Are Also Invisible

We don’t notice the people who are kind and cause no trouble. Rent gets paid on time and life goes on. Unless there is some kind of problem these people just go about their business.

Take A Moment To Be Grateful

Lets all spend a moment to recognize and be thankful for all our invisible good tenants who never give us a moment of trouble and make this business possible.

Do You Have Any Great Tenants You Are Grateful For?

photo credit: Tambako the Jaguar

Last week a nice lady emailed me about managing her property. She collects the money and does all the repairs…she just can’t take the total bull that her tenants are dishing out. Who can blame her? Tenant drama is probably the greatest problem that landlords actually face.

What You Can Do…

The most frustrating part is that in Ontario there is not too much you can do to evict a tenant for “social reasons” unless the problem is extremely severe and well documented and the tenant agrees to testify! 

Real Tenant Drama

There are many cases where conflicting lifestyles lead to infighting among the tenants. They will call you to complain. Sometimes the complaints will be valid. Partying, music too loud, parking in the wrong spot, using too much hot water, walking too loud, showering at the wrong time and waking the other tenant up, smoking in the house, smoking weed in the house, inappropriate nudity, this list could go on forever.

Sometimes you’ll end up with more serious complaints such as violence or stalking. Believe it or not you may still have to tolerate this kind of behaviour unless the abused tenant is willing to help you get rid of the troublemaker.

Imagined Tenant Drama

There are people who rent apartments below other people but do not want the upstairs people to walk on their floors. I had another tenant demand a transfer because she could here the noise of the elevator “humming” in her bedroom. It was barely audible.

Conflicting lifestyle drama is perhaps the worst drama you will have to deal with. I once managed a property with a Christian Fundamentalist with children on the main floor, two seniors on the second floor and Goths on the third floor. Every day I would get long telephone calls complaining about the children making noise or the Goths coming home late and walking up the stairs. Then the Goths complained because the main floor woman put up Christmas lights and occasionally called them heathens. All three tenants were complaining about each other all the time. It was like Kindergarden all over again with me as the referee.

You Are No Judge…

I agree with House MD. Everybody lies. Unless I am present at an altercation I have no real idea what has happened. I get reports and complaints but that does not mean that it is true. So deciding who is correct in any situation may be difficult.

Soundproofing Issues

There are tons of old houses in the City of Toronto that have been converted to rental apartments. For the most part they are decent places however they all suffer from lack of soundproofing. I have one owner who will only accept a single person in her upper apartment. If she has a couple she can clearly hear walking, arguing and any “bedroom activities” they might be up to in her living room. I can’t say I blame her.

Retrofitting the properties sounds like  a great idea except most of these owners lack the funds to perform the work. They rent their places out of necessity rather than some altruistic desire to provide housing.

Coping With The Problem

From a property management and sanity perspective, you want to eliminate all the nuisance complaints. Nuisance complaints are those that you cannot do anything about. Anytime the tenant will not agree to testify at the Landlord & Tenant Board, its a nuisance complaint that you cannot do anything about. Once the tenant says no I won’t testify, I don’t want to be bothered, they’ve just wasted  my time and yours.

Using The Tenant Complaint Form

I hardly ever recommend a form as a way to cope with problems but for tenant on tenant complaints you need one. You need the tenant complaint form for 2 reasons.

1. To document repeated incidents just in case some of the people being disturbed will agree to help you out.
2. To stop the constant flood of complete nonsense and minor conflicts caused by people living in close proximity. 99% of these people will stop bugging you and making these problems your problems. No one likes to fill out a form unless it’s a serious problem.

It makes you seem like you have a solution. Someone calls you, you tell them to fill out the form. You get to track the problem. It may well be an isolated incident or a foreboding of more serious problems. You’ll need the back up documentation.

So where can you get this blessed form? Well you can find one in the free documents section of this website. Just sign up over there —-> and you can download one.

Feel free to interrupt the next tirade with a clear directive to fill out the lovely and effecting tenant complaint form –  a boon to property managers everywhere.