Posts Tagged ‘landlord rescue’

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Lots of hearings cancelled tomorrow (Wed. Feb. 2, 2011) at LTB

Tuesday, February 1st, 2011
Due to extreme weather conditions LTB hearings scheduled for Wednesday February 2nd, 2011 at the following locations have been cancelled and will be re-scheduled:

Simcoe:
Best western Little River Inn
203 Queens Way West,Simcoe, ON,N3Y 2M9

Brantford:
Best Western Alexander Graham Bell Room
19 Holiday Drive Hwy,(403 and Gretzky Pkwy),Brantford, ON, N3T 5W5

Owen Sound:
ServiceOntario, Boardroom – Main Floor,1400 1st Avenue West, Owen Sound, ON,N4K 6Z9

Cobourg:
Best Western Inn & Convention Centre, 930 Burnham Street, Cobourg, ON, K9A 2X9

For up to date information regarding hearing cancellations please contact our Call Centre 416-645-8080 or Toll-free 1-888-332-3234

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Landlords want tenants to clear snow

Monday, January 31st, 2011


BYLAW: A city hall committee is set to consider a proposal for a new bylaw that would govern who has to shovel what

By KATE DUBINSKI, The London Free Press

If there’s ever been a time when snow removal has been on Londoners’ minds, this has been the year.

But some landlords are crying foul over suggestions they be made responsible for clearing snow from their London tenants’ walkways and driveways.

“What’s next? Are landlords going to be responsible for making sure their tenants eat their vegetables every day?” said a member of the Ontario Landlord Association.

“It’s Canada. We all know we’re going to have to deal with ice and snow. I don’t think the city should be involved in these issues,” added her husband and fellow landlord, Mike Schweitzer. The couple are based in Brantford.

The Ontario Landlord Association represents landlords with properties that have 10 or fewer units.

The city’s built and natural environment committee will hear arguments Monday for a new property-standards bylaw to deal with snow removal in rental units.

“There’s no recourse for Londoners. Right now, you either kick up a fuss with the landlord or property-management company, or you go before the landlord and tenant board, which takes time and money,” said Tiffany Roschkow. She is proposing the city consider a new bylaw to make landlords responsible for shovelling or plowing walkways, driveways, ramps and parking spaces.

“It makes sense. You move into a rental property and you expect that kind of thing to be done for you.”

Roschkow lives in a three-storey walk-up in Wortley Village.

Several days before Snowmageddon, the building manager there died, leaving no one responsible for the snow clearing, Roschkow said. Piles of snow built up around cars and around the dumpster and recycling bins. Tenants began leaving their garbage bags in the hallways.

“For the garbage, I called the city and they came out right away because it was a property-standards issue but for the snow, we couldn’t do anything about it,” Roschkow said.

Someone eventually cleared a pathway to the front door about the width of a standard shovel. that didn’t help much when an elderly tenant out doing errands fell on the walkway, she noted.

“There was nothing being done about it, so I started nosing around and I realized that London doesn’t have a bylaw for rental units like Toronto does,” said Roschkow.

In London, landlords are responsible for keeping rental units in a good state of repair as required under the Residential Tenancies Act.

In Toronto, an additional property-standards bylaw states, “Steps, landings, walks, driveways, parking spaces, ramps and similar areas shall be cleared of snow and ice during and immediately following a snowfall to provide safe access and egress for persons and vehicles.”

The Ontario Landlord Association recommends leases include a section about who is responsible for snow clearing.

Ward 11 Coun. Denise Brown supports Roschkow’s proposal for a newer bylaw.

She has a visually impaired acquaintance who was stuck in his house after Snowmageddon in December and whose landlord told him to shovel his own driveway. “Eventually I had my son and husband do his driveway, but I can’t do that for the entire ward,” Brown said.

“I want staff to look at Toronto’s bylaw and what happens in other cities and to bring back recommendations so we can set something up here.”

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Landlord Training Courses – NEW DATES ADDED!!

Wednesday, January 26th, 2011

“A Landlord’s Rights & Obligations in Ontario, 2011”

Niagara Falls: January 27, 2011

Burlington:   February 3, 2011

Toronto:        February 10, 2011

**OTTAWA!!  TWO DATES ADDED DUE TO DEMAND:**

Feb. 24, 2011

Feb. 26, 2011


Good Afternoon Katherine

Just a sincere note of thanks for the EXTREMELY informative course you ran yesterday on ” Ontario Landlord’s Rights & Obligations 2011 “.   I have been a Real Estate Broker with Royal LePage since 1985 and am a Second Generation Rental Property Owner, whose late Father, Arthur Wheeler, was one of the First Organized Property Manager’s listed in the Yellow Pages in Toronto in the 1950’s – 50 years of Property Management experience can never replace the valuable information gained from this course !  This one day course has changed how our Family will be managing our Properties to save thousands of dollars and reduce potential hours of unwanted stress !

In addition to the day to day management of our existing Rental Properties, Katherine’s Course has also impacted how we are dealing with the acquisition of new Investment Rental Properties.

Again, Katherine, I can’t begin to thank you enough for all your knowledge and experience that you imparted to me yesterday.

David Wheeler

Real Estate Broker

Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd.

Katherine Paliwoda, tells everything you need to know, and then some in her latest seminar. “A Landlord’s Rights & Obligations in Ontario, 2011″ will give you the leading edge information that you need to properly and safely represent your client, or rent out your property.

Katherine is a “first class” facilitator who is far from new to the real estate industry. Participants in her live events find themselves spellbound and hanging on her every word. With 27 years of experience, Katherine Paliwoda comes highly recommended by The Ontario Landlord Association, and by virtually every student she has taught.

In this 6 hour course; “A Landlord’s Rights & Obligations in Ontario, 2011″, you’ll learn about the critical things you must do, and things that you definitely shouldn’t do when purchasing, renting, and managing a residential rental property in Ontario.

Do you want to protect yourself from issues that are likely to happen when you purchase, sell, or rent your property? Katherine will break it all down for you in understandable bite sized chunks. You’ll be lead through several potential scenarios and give you solutions that can only be acquired through several years of experience in dealing with landlord tenant matters in Ontario.

If you’re a real estate investor, seasoned or novice, a real estate agent in Ontario who wants to properly protect your investor clients, or you’re a landlord in Ontario, this full day seminar was designed for you.

You will leave with a clear understanding of your rights and obligations as a landlord, which will help you to avoid unnecessary and costly legal issues. You’ll understand the Residential Tenancies Act (RTA), and how it effects you as a landlord in Ontario.

This is a full day course jam packed with money saving information and tips for anyone who is a landlord in the Province of Ontario.

Katherine is offering a 15% attendance discount to members of the Ontario Landlord Association. If you are not already a member of OLA, join today!

For other dates location & registration information please visit us at

http://www.landlordtenantmatters.ca 1-866-548-6358

Please note that this course does NOT qualify for CEU’s.

Landlord Tenant Matters respects the industry guidelines and governance of RECO’s educational mandate.

Our mission is to educate and coach Ontario landlords so they may have peace of mind when navigating and understanding the rules of tenancy in Ontario. Due to the nature of this training, the program has been fortunate to attract landlords who are also real estate practitioners and real estate practitioners that serve and work for the best interests of landlord investment clients.

Our program requires timely, up-to-date information and access (if needed) to the instructors during and after the educational programs we provide.

It is in our opinion that we are better served by offering our program exclusively of RECO and their CE Credit guidelines.

The Landlord Tenant Matters Team
“Peace Of Mind For Todays Landlord”
http://www.LandlordTenantMatters.ca

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Rental Application, Guarantor Form, Notice of Intent to Enter…all updated documents for 2011!

Saturday, January 22nd, 2011


1. 2011 Rental Application

2. 2011 Guarantor Form

3. 2011 Notice of Intent to Enter

 

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Stacking the deck against Ontario landlords

Monday, December 13th, 2010

Stacking the deck against Ontario landlords

Remember the early-’90’s thriller Pacific Heights? A young San Francisco couple buy their dream house and rent out a portion to help pay the mortgage. When slick Carter Hayes — played by an oddly menacing Michael Keaton — rolls up in a Porsche and fancy suit, he seems like the perfect tenant. Twenty minutes later, Hayes becomes a slippery cockroach-breeding con artist who changes the locks on his door and quickly becomes a domestic bête noire.

It’s a made-up Hollywood tale — yet an instructive one. Consider that if Carter Hayes took up residence in an Ontario apartment building, the province’s 2007 Residential Tenancies Act would make it very difficult for his landlord to kick him out. Who knows: He might even be able to claim his cockroaches as protected “pets.”

The law appears to have been drafted on the assumption that all landlords are rich and greedy. Under the Act, a tenant can allow anyone to move into his or her unit indefinitely. So after you sign a lease for, say, a one-bedroom apartment, you can invite your unemployed buddies to come stay with you — forever. The Act does not require you to give names, addresses or references to the landlord. Even if you decide to move out, the scrubs can stay behind until they are formally evicted, which requires a court order … which, in some cases, the landlord cannot obtain because he doesn’t even know what name to put on the eviction notice.

Oh, and if your tenants feel like trashing the apartment à la Charlie Sheen while they live there — or just before they leave — they can. Tenants in Ontario are not required to pay a damage deposit, so if a tenant damages the property and the landlord discovers this when (or just after) the lease is up, the landlord has to spend his own time and money taking them to Small Claims Court. However, since tenants don’t have to give a forwarding address, the landlord can’t serve them court papers. As a result, either new tenants pay for the damage through increased rents, or (as is more likely) the landlord pays out of his own pocket.

Unlike normal contracts, Ontario residential leases are fairly meaningless unless they mirror the specifications set out in the Residential Tenancies Act exactly. For example, many landlords understandably do not want tenants with pets. Even if this restriction is expressly written into the lease, the Act allows tenants to bring in as many pets as municipal regulations allow. Which is lot: The City of Toronto Municipal Code states that a person can keep up to six of any combination of dogs, cats, ferrets and rabbits at any given time in their home.

The only thing worse than the Act is the Landlord and Tenant Board, which appears to be a body set up specifically to help tenants exploit their landlords. For example, even if a tenant just flatly refuses to pay rent, he/she is guaranteed a hearing under the Act. Further, if a tenant contacts the board and says he/she can’t make it to the hearing on the scheduled date, the hearing is postponed. This can happen repeatedly, and in the meantime the tenant continues to live rent-free in the property.

If the hearing ever happens, the tenant can completely blindside the landlord by bringing up random maintenance-deficiency claims. The claim does not have to be true or even make sense, and the tenant does not have to inform the landlord of the “deficiency” prior to the hearing. Nevertheless, on this basis, the board can award money to the tenant at the hearing — which often happens when landlords are trying to evict deadbeats.

Throughout all of this Kafkaesque ordeal, the landlord must play nice and be extra careful not to cause any offence. Repeatedly asking for the rent may be construed as “harassment” or “interference with reasonable enjoyment” of the property.

Roger Ebert called Pacific Heights “a horror film for yuppies.” But most Ontario landlords aren’t rich folks. They’re just small business people trying to get by. But thanks to the Residential Tenancies Act, they spend a lot of their time feeling as though they’re this close to …

Well, I’ll let you watch the movie.
Read more: http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/12/07/iman-sheikh-stacking-the-deck-against-ontario-landlords/#ixzz1813fKmLz


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