Posts Tagged ‘landlord rights’

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Front Page Toronto Star – Ontario Landlords Campaign Against Discrimination

Friday, October 21st, 2022

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Let’s Make Sure Every Landlord In Ontario Follows The Human Rights Code And Doesn’t Discriminate in 2022

Many newcomers from around the world are arriving in Canada and deciding to rent a home before buying. Reasons can be to build a credit score to get a mortgage to wisely spending time to learn where they want to live before buying their own place.

Many Ontario landlords were surprised to read a story in the Toronto Star about a tenant applicant who was being discriminated against. Our members are still discussing this now!

This was an applicant most experienced and successful landlords would consider to potentially be an ideal tenant…someone we all want to rent from us!

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Posted in discrimination, f.o.i. requests, How to find tenants, Human Rights Code, landlord advocacy, naborly, ontario human rights commission, Ontario Landlords Campaign Against Discrimination 2022, tenant screening | 5 Comments »

Landlord Tenant Board In-Person Hearings Suspended

Saturday, March 14th, 2020

Important News For Landlords: In-Person Hearings Are Cancelled. What About Landlords Who Are Owed Rent Or Need To Evict A Bad Tenant?

According to provincial government, as the COVID-19 situation continues to evolve, Tribunals Ontario is taking action to safeguard the health and well-being of front-line workers and Ontarians, while continuing to ensure access to justice.

Effective today (March 13, 2020), Tribunals Ontario is implementing a new policy to postpone in-person hearings and reschedule to a later date. Where feasible, alternative hearing options such as written and telephone hearings will be considered to minimize disruption to hearings across the organization. In addition, all front-line counter services will be closed as of Monday March 16 until further notice.

Tribunals Ontario will continue to provide accommodation for people who have needs related to any of the grounds listed in the Human Rights Code.

Impacted individuals with upcoming hearing dates will be notified by staff via email to make the necessary arrangements. Parties should contact their tribunal or board for more information on the new policy.

In addition, we are requesting Ontarians to not attend to any tribunal or board location in-person if they have been advised by Public Health, their doctor or the Ministry of Health website to self-isolate due to possible exposure to the coronavirus (COVID-19).

Tribunals Ontario is monitoring COVID-19 developments and will update our policy based on advice from the Ministry of Health, Chief Medical Officer of Health and public health officials to protect Ontarians.

For more information contact the Ontario Landlord and Tenant Board.

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Can My Landlord Charge Me For Air Conditioning?

Thursday, May 30th, 2019

As part of our “Let’s Improve the Ontario Rental Industry” we have invited landlords and tenants to share their opinions on how we can make these improvements. These opinions are from individual contributors and are not the opinions of the Ontario Landlords Association. We believe by fostering communication between landlords and tenants we can improve the Ontario rental industry.

Tenants Know Your Rights When It Comes To Air Conditioners

Our weather is changing. In particular, Canada is facing more severe climate change than any other nation.

Not long ago we could expect snowy winters and comfortable summers. Due to a lack of carbon taxes in previous years, our weather is now erratic and hard to predict. The build up of carbon due our misuse and waste of fossil fuels is destroying our environment.

One thing is for sure: our summers are getting hotter.

And while wealthy landlords can enjoy their air conditioned houses, dips in their backyard pool, breezing winds while boating, and expensive vacations to avoid the heat, Tenants are left to suffer.

It really reminds me of the excellent Matt Damon movie called Elysium.

In this movie the Earth’s environment has been destroyed and hard working common people are suffering. Meanwhile the landlord and other elite live on the moon in perfect luxury, continuing to abuse Earth to pay for their air conditioned lunar homes.

Tenants are the ones paying expensive rents, while landlords collect it and can use it to make sure they personally don’t feel the serious impacts of climate change

Tenants Protect Your Rights And Fight Back On A/C Charges!

Many tenants are reporting Landlords are demanding tenants pay $200-$300 dollars in order to operate an air conditioner.

The main question we’re getting – is this legal? Let’s break it down

1) Landlords can charge a monthly fee to tenants with air conditioners if they have done so every year you’ve been a tenant, or if this is your first year of tenancy. This fee must be monthly, and must be only for cost recovery for the landlord

2) Landlords are not allowed to charge their tenants a one time fee for an air conditioner. Landlords cannot introduce a charge for something that has been previously included in the rent. A landlord cannot remove something that was previously provided to you

3) Finally, if your landlord is asking for this fee, they will need to go to the Landlord and Tenant Board to enforce it – so do your research before you pay!

It’s Time To Make A Maximum Allowed Temperature As Part Of the Residential Tenancy Act

We’ve been saying this for years. It’s time for a maximum temperature in rentals law.

In the winter, landlords are forced by law to maintain the heat. It’s time the government amended the RTA to make sure landlords are forced to also maintain a MAXIMUM temperature during the summer.

With Severe Climate Change and Dangerously Hot Summers, Tenants Can Die In Our Homes!

Tenants Be Careful And Fight Like Hell For Your Rights – It’s A Matter Of Life And Death! Make Sure You Survive And You And Your Children Don’t Die!

As our summers get hotter and hotter all tenants must fight back. What is even scarier is the neo-Cons want to ignore climate change and this means things are going to become Hellish soon. Many experts say we have 12 years before it’s all over.

Remember your rights and if the landlord is breaking your rights contact your MPP and the Landlord and Tenant Board.

Fight Back To Survive As Climate Change Makes Our Summer Hotter Than Hell!

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Critique My Plan To Not Pay Rent for 8 Months (Part 1)

Monday, July 2nd, 2018

ola stop paying rent

As part of our “Let’s Improve the Ontario Rental Industry” we have invited landlords and tenants to share their opinions on how we can make these improvements. These opinions are from individual contributors and are not the opinions of the Ontario Landlords Association. We believe by fostering communication between landlords and tenants we can improve the Ontario rental industry.  Landlords and tenants can share your thoughts and opinions by emailing us at landlordtenantsolutions@groupmail.com

Critique My Plan Not To Pay Rent For 8 Months

I asked that my situation be posted to help other victimized tenants who find ourselves paying so much money to landlords.

We cannot afford to get out the viscous circle of working hard just to have a place to live and the landlord is taking so much money from us. It is like a drug dealer making money of people who need drugs because they are addicted.

Tenants in Ontario have almost no one to help us and the vacancy rates are so low and rents are so high we need to work together and help each other.

While landlords can use our rent money to hire lawyers and have all the politicians in their pockets tenants need to stop fighting and finally create a unified voice to stop being exploited.

I’m Not Moving

Where I live is like a home to me and really comfy and convenient. My boss lives near here and can pick me up to go to work and take me home which is a huge bonus. So no way do I want to move, but am just short of money due to unforeseen consequences which are not my fault.

I will move in January 2019 because after some time trying to make money it’s back to school for me and here are no half-decent unis here. Education is expensive and paying for a place to live means money. Add in books, clothes, money for nightlife and any money to be saved will mean a jump start for my future and my life enjoyment.

After lots of study here is what is on the table:

JUNE 1

1. On June 1st I just don’t do the normal e-transfer to my landlord.

2. If the landlord calls me I need to answer as part of my way to delay everything. So I’m going to make an excuse.

This is what my script is so far (suggestions welcomed!):

“Oh geez I’m so sorry about this. You know me and how we get along and I want to stay here a long time. It’s just that my work screwed up the system and I didn’t get my salary this week like I always do! It’s crazy now with so many computer screw ups and I’m mad as hell about it. The good thing is my boss said the money will be arriving in my bank account soon.

The only reason I didn’t call you yesterday is because the money should be in my account now! I’m sorry about it and the money will be coming soon. How’s your summer going? I’m going to clean up the lawn and plant some flowers if you don’t mind (bullshit, bullshit, bullshit to throw her off the scent!)”

3. I try to delay this as long as possible and think I can string her along until the 3rd week because I know she doesn’t want me to move and have to spend the time and energy of finding someone else to take his place. She knows she would lose at least a month or two trying to fill it.

And she won’t want to pay to clean it up because the place is a bit weedy if you know what I mean because some of my friends and I light it up on the week-ends and smoke a few joints.

4. I call and say “good news I’m getting double pay on July 1 so you will get two months of rent. I’m sorry about this (blah, blah, blah). So June uses my last months rent I paid and now the rest is gravy.

JULY

5. I don’t send the e-transfer again with the landlord expecting 2 months of rent. Best move (I think) is to continue to delay.

But I’m sure she will eventually give me the N-4 form to pay or leave. So let’s say I get that on July 2nd. The N-4 gives me 14 days to pay and there is nothing the landlord can do about it.

Now we are at July 17.

The landlord will have to file an L1 to take me to the Landlord and Tenant Board. I called the LTB and found that these eviction trial dates take at least 6 weeks to be held. So that would lead me to around September 3rd to 10th.

STATUS REPORT:

-Last month rent I paid when I moved in used for June

-No rent payment needed for July

-No rent payment needed for August

-No rent payment needed for September

This means the landlord doesn’t have any of my hard earned money and there was no need to pay for July/August/September rent.

LTB EVICTION TRIAL STRATEGY

I read here and now realize tenants HAVE TO ATTEND to defend ourselves. If not we could get an unfair decision.

I also read we can get a free lawyer at the LTB at the day of the eviction trial. We just need to go a bit early and wait for the free tenant lawyers or paralegals to call out they are seeing people and will represent us against the landlords. 

The best way to avoid getting kicked out is to create some maintenance claims because under the law landlords are responsible for all maintenance and repairs and my enjoyment of the property:

“The reason I didn’t pay rent is because the landlord refused to fix things and it has made my life a nightmare, especially as a young person who is struggling with perilous employment and health issues.”

The strategy is to get my girlfriend who is living here with me to act as a witness and we are going to have documentation:

-the toilet doesn’t flush so we can’t even use the bathroom

-it’s so hot and the bedroom windows don’t open all the way and i makes it even difficult to sleep

-there are ants on the patio and they keep coming in and the landlord won’t do anything about it

-etc.

Remember that one tenant on the forum told me “no house is perfect” so this will void the Eviction trial and the landlord will have to fix things and I will give them one month to do it, so that will cover October rent and I will agree to pay once the repairs are done. 

OCTOBER

I won’t pay rent and will file with the LTB and tell them the landlord didn’t make the repairs up to my satisfaction and will have my girlfriend as a witness.

I will give the landlord 30 more days and demand she brings EVERY person she hired to testify in person at the LTB (good luck with that) and also demand that if any of them are not licensed and insured I don’t feel same in my home.

NOVEMBER

I’m sure the landlord will file for eviction and I will counter with a tenant rights complaint about more needed repairs in the apartment. This should give me at least another six weeks.

JANUARY 2019

At this point they will probably try to get the sheriff or whatever it is to evict me but I read here that is also very slow and can takes week. Anyways I don’t really give a sh*t because I’ll be leaving at the end of the month to go to school.

STATUS REPORT:

-Last month rent was used for June

-No rent payment needed for July

-No rent payment needed for August

-No rent payment needed for September

-No rent payment needed for October

-No rent payment need for November

-No rent payment needed for December

-No rent payment needed for January

CONCLUSION

Pretty sure this will work and only me a couple days at the LTB. Hoping others experienced with this will chime in to help me perfect my strategy.

I will eventually pay my landlord once I get a secure white collar position but right now it’s all about my survival and MY FUTURE! I will follow up on how things are going and will continue to take a stand for tenant rights in Ontario!

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Ontario’s New Standard Lease (And How Smart Landlords Can Succeed Using It)

Thursday, February 8th, 2018

Ontario Landlords Association Advocacy Credibility

Ontario Has A New Standard Lease Which Will Be Used Beginning April 30th. Experienced and Successful Landlords Say That You Can Still Put In Important (and legal) Clauses To Protect You and Your Rental Property 

What happens when a tenant wants to rent from an Ontario residential landlord? Both the landlord and the tenant agree to create a business relationship by signing a residential tenancy agreement.  This is also called a lease and is signed by both sides.

According a report on CBC news the Ministry of Housing has now created a new mandatory document for landlords and tenants to sign to begin this business relationship. You can download the new Ontario Landlord Standard Lease here.

Standard Lease For Ontario Landlords

The new standard lease will be required to be used by landlords and tenants beginning April 30, 2018.  According to some tenant activists Ontario tenants have been demanding this since 2012. Furthermore these activists state this will be an excellent improvement on the current situation to protect tenants from bad landlords.

Are Landlords Bad and Always Trying To Rip Off Tenants As Some Tenant Activists Believe?

According to some tenant activists, landlords write lots of “illegal clauses” into leases to trick poor unsuspecting tenants into traps. They says it’s like a bad cheesy John Wayne western movie, or the “Wild West”, out there with few controls on what landlords can do. The radical activists also state “almost every lease in Ontario you could find something illegal” and they receive daily calls from frightened and scared tenants about these clauses.

OLA Members Disagree. The Reality is Most Landlords Just Want To Find Good Tenants For A Win-Win Situation

First of all many landlords use OLA documents which do not have any illegal clauses. What we have are carefully thought out (legal) clauses which protect both the landlord and the tenants.

For years our members have complained about the poorly written OREA lease document that many new landlords and Realtors use. It’s a document that is inadequate and doesn’t protect landlords properly (especially if you go to Small Claims Court which many of our members have done).

Successful Ontario Landlords Know Good Lease Clauses Are Helpful for Both Landlords and Tenants

While the tenant activists want to label anyone renting out their property as inherently evil it’s not true.  Experienced and successful Ontario landlords know that creating smart, legal lease clauses is a key part of their success.

By creating a comprehensive lease, both the landlord and tenant can avoid potential confusion and conflict by making rules clear prior to the tenancy beginning.

For example one long term landlord wrote on the Ontario Landlords Association forum:

“I own a lot of duplexes. Two of the biggest problems I used to face was use of the shared laundry room and use of the yard.

When I first started I didn’t make the usage clear using the real estate agent lease. i used the OREA lease. It was constant tenant vs. tenant conflict. Both sides kept complaining to me. They both wanted me to be “on their side” and evict the other tenants.

When I joined the Ontario Landlords Association I was taught that it was important to go beyond just “how much is the rent” and “who is the landlord/who is the tenant”. I added in information to my tenants about what their laundry privileges were (times and dates for each parties usage) and what part of the yard each side got.

Since I did this the amount of tenant vs. tenant conflict has vanished. 

In 2010 I was even thinking of selling!  Now my rental business is smooth and it’s scary even thinking I almost bailed as now my cash flow is good and my properties have appreciated greatly! Fellow landlords at the OLA saved my rental business.”

The Standard Lease Distracts From The Real Issues To Help Landlords and Tenants: Changes Are Needed in the Residential Tenancies Act and the Landlord and Tenant Board

Creating a standardized lease sounds good. It sounds fair. And in fact most OLA members don’t mind it (and we contributed ideas to the Ministry as you will read about soon).

However the real key to improve the Ontario rental industry is not a new lease template. The real key is to fix the Residential Tenancies Act and the Landlord and Tenant Board.”

Let’s look at a couple things that need to change.

Ontario Landlords Need To Be Able To Charge A Damage Deposit

Ottawa landlords bad tenants 2018 4

When tenants pay a damage deposit they have ‘skin in the game’. This means they will be careful in the property and report any problems quickly to the landlord. With no damage deposit landlords regularly face garbage left behind, dirty properties and worse. This also cause problems with new tenants moving in. They move in and see garbage left around, fridges full of food and worse.

The Landlord and Tenant Board Must Speed Up the Process for Evictions

ola delay

Even evictions for what should be simple things can take months and months at the Landlord and Tenant Board.

And many OLA members complain about some adjudicators and Tenant Duty Counsel acting disrespectfully and even rude towards small landlords (especially those who can’t afford legal representation and have to represent themselves).

Important News: Ontario Landlords Can Still Add In Clauses in the Standard Lease!

Thousands of Ontario landlords wrote in to us when we asked for ideas when the Ministry was create the standard lease.

One of the most important points we pressed for was allowing landlords and tenants to add “clauses” to the new standard lease…and we got it!

This is really key for landlords, new and experienced alike, from Toronto to Ottawa to Thunder bay to Windsor and every where in between.

ola success

The “Additional Terms” Part of the Standard Lease (Go to Part 15, Page 6)

In this section you and your tenant are allowed to agree on things in an “attached form”. 

Of course smart landlords will avoid illegal terms such as requiring the tenant to pay for all repairs for the rental. It’s silly to even thing about adding them as good tenants will not want to rent from you.  However you can add some important clauses to protect you and your rental business (and protect your tenants too!)

Ontario Standard Lease And Additional Terms

We need to improve the Ontario rental industry to help both good landlords and good tenants. The standard lease doesn’t do this. We need real reforms to the Residential Tenancies Act and the Landlord and Tenant Board.

Smart landlords will make sure they use Part 15, Page 6 “Additional Terms” in the Ontario standard lease to protect your rental properties and your tenants.

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