Posts Tagged ‘tenant advocacy’

Front Page Toronto Star – Ontario Landlords Campaign Against Discrimination

Friday, October 21st, 2022

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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Ontario Landlords Association Partnership With The Toronto Rent Bank To Help Good Tenants And Great Landlords In 2020

Wednesday, August 19th, 2020

Ontario Landlords Association Is All About Helping Good Landlords, Good Tenants & Improving The Ontario Rental Industry

– Spread The News About This Helpful Program For Tenants and Landlords

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Always Rent “Inclusive” Of Utilities (Means Your Landlord Pays For The Utilities You Use, Not You)

Tuesday, March 3rd, 2020

With Rising Costs It’s Essential For Tenants To Make Sure Your Landlord Is Paying Your Bills, Not You!

Many tenants are dealing with harsh weather this winter.  Whether it’s rain, hale, or snow storms and freezing temperatures.

With the increased costs of heating your home it can take a huge bite out of your monthly budget.

While your landlord is soaking up the sun and enjoying the beach in Hawaii, Florida, Cuba or some other tropical paradise using your rent money, tenants are struggling to cover our rising costs!

Problems continue into the summer, where electrical costs for fans and air conditioners are rising fast.

Landlords can afford to get away from heatwaves by traveling to northern locations, while tenants have to sweat it out in our rental homes. And costs are going to rise dramatically according to CBC News!

Always Get Your Landlord To Pay Your Bills.

Many tenants are not aware that some landlords will rent out the property as “inclusive” of utilities. This means that you only pay the rent each month and the landlord pays for your heat, gas, electricity, etc.

Why Should You Make Your Landlord Pay Your Utility Bills?

There are two main reasons.

(1) It Gives You Stability With Your Expenses

Why should you demand this? Because energy costs are just going up, up, up. If you get an “inclusive” deal your expenses are stable because landlords can only increase the rent according to the government guideline.

(2) Once This Is The Lease The Landlord Can’t Change It

Landlords can’t demand you change the leases terms, so if you get an “inclusive” lease the landlord is powerless to change it.  So while his costs will go up, yours won’t (except for the small rent increase, which in 2020 is only 2.2% while energy costs might go up 10-20-30%!)

Offer Your Potential Landlord Higher Rent, But Make Sure It’s “Inclusive”

When you see this as we explained, it’s very important to make sure you find a rental where you are only responsible for paying the rent.

Many landlords are money-hungry monsters who view you not as a human being, but as a cash cow entering their slaughterhouse.

So use their greed against them!

Offer a bit more rent in exchange for an “inclusive” deal. You will end up the winner at the end, especially if you are going to stay in your rental home for a long time.

Getting An Inclusive Deal Can Lead You To Save Thousands of Dollars!

The media says many home-owners are struggling to pay their heating bills this winter. So think about how serious this if you are renting and on a budget. You need to make sure you get this deal to protect yourself and protect your financial future.

Let your wealthy landlord deal with rising energy costs (they are rich) instead of you (who is struggling to survive). Climate change is scary and your landlord needs to pay to prevent it.

Tips and Tricks To Get The Lease Deal You Need To Survive And Thrive!

Here are some tips if you are dealing with a landlord who wants YOU to pay (and face financial insecurity, and put all the risk on you!)

Some key phrases that greedy landlords who are used to bullying and exploiting tenants “like to hear.”

“I’m barely ever home so my utility costs will always be low.”

“It’s just me moving in, so one person can’t use much power.” (bring in other people after you get the key)

“I understand your concerns so will pay you more rent to make you safe. That’s fair for both sides”

“I am so busy at work, I don’t even cook at home. I order food.”

“I’m so busy with business travel I will barely even be here.”

“Because I want the place let’s raise your rent price by an extra $50/month so I can move in fast.” (Or offer $100 or more, it will still end up saving you money!)

Get The Lease Signed And Protect Yourself! You Win!!!

The landlord might be unhappy once you move in and the costs are higher than they expected.  But this is a business and landlords are getting rich off of your hard work and struggles.

If your landlord is unhappy then they should become better business people and not expect tenants to lay down and let them screw us without us fighting back!

Ontario Tenants Protect Yourselves By Making The Landlord Pay Your Bills!

By only paying “rent” you are protected by the Residential Tenancies Act and the Landlord and Tenant Board.

If you agree to pay for the power you use you are vulnerable and NOT PROTECTED!

Tenant: I Called The By-Law Department Directly And They Ordered My Landlord To Fix Things…Or Get A Huge Fine!

Thursday, August 1st, 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

 

You Can Make Sure You Get Fast Repairs By Just Calling Your Local By-Laws Department Directly And Reporting Your Landlord

Sorry I’m not a professional writer or anything but people here encouraged me to share my story to help other tenants. There have been lots of great tenant posts that have helped others like How Ontario Tenants Can Easily Break a Lease, so I’ll try.

Second, this has nothing to do with all the good landlords out there who care about their tenants and make sure their rentals are safe.  This is just about the bad landlords.

I’m a single mum renting a place. As a single mum having a clean and safe property is a priority for me. So when I saw black mold in the bathroom I needed to act to protect my kids!

I called the landlord on Saturday night and texted 5 times and got no reply!

Even by Tuesday no reply, that’s 4 days of potentially poisoning my child!

I went to the Ontario tenants forum and asked others what to do and they said call the by-laws department directly and there is no need to even talk to your landlord because every city and town has laws for maintaining safe houses and tenants can call by-laws directly.

Landlords must follow the law!

By-Law Officer Was Professional And On My Side!

The by-laws officer came the next day and I asked her to do a huge, complete inspection of the rental house to protect me and my kids and she agreed.  She saw the black mold.

But it didn’t end there, as the Officer inspected the entire rental property! 

I was so happy to have help and protection for me and my family! She also found a lot of other issues (wiring, insulation) and even found the shingles were not up to code!

The by-laws officer said she would send a letter to the landlord demanding things get fixed or the landlord would be fined thousands of dollars. The landlord was also given a firm date to do the repairs, so they couldn’t “play games.”

A week later the landlord contacted me and gave me a schedule for lots of contractors to come to fix the mold and all the other issues.

I said “NO! You need to follow MY SCHEDULE or I will call the By-Law Officer again!” 

My landlord agreed fast, because he was worried that I was a smart tenant who knows my rights and he can’t treat me like crap or I will call the by-laws department again!

Tenants if you have any problems don’t even waste your time to call your landlord.  They are cheap and stingy and don’t care about you and your children at all!

Don’t waste time…call the by-laws department directly and they will come, you let them in, and you show them all the potential problems.

Then, the fight is between by-laws and your landlord, not you and your landlord.

And landlords get scared when the government is involved and will respect you and fear you for know how to protect your rights! They also know if they get fined the government will collect it.

Tenants Can Call By-Laws Directly And They Will Force Your Landlord To Make Repairs Or Get Charged Thousands of Dollars

Good landlords who take care of their rental properties don’t need to worry. But if you have a bad landlord you can call by-laws directly and make your landlord scared and obey your every command!

How Can You Contact Your Local By-Laws Department? 

Just call your city or town. And ask the receptionist to put you through to “the by-law department”.  It’s easy and they are excellent!

Ontario Tenants – Bad Landlords Are Out There But You Can Protect Yourself!

“Ontario Tenants Will Be Able To Smoke Marijuana And There’s Nothing Landlords Can Do About It”

Thursday, March 1st, 2018

Ontario tenants speak out

Tenants Speak Out and Share Their Concerns and Opinions on the Rental Industry

marijuana tenants ontario 1

“Ontario Tenants Will Soon Be Able To Smoke Marijuana In Their Homes And There’s Nothing Landlords Can Do About It”

The uproar from landlords and their friends in the media regarding marijuana is both frustrating and frightening. While landlords are allowed to frame the debate regarding the non-existent “tenants smoking marijuana issue” there has been a great racist and class discriminating wall preventing tenants from sharing our opinions and experiences.

Hey Media! I am aware landlords spend millions of dollars in advertising dollars to the media, but couldn’t you even give tenants a few iotas of your precious ad space, I mean news stories.

It’s clear the landlords in Ontario, both big and small, have spent a lot of time and money working together to create a plan to try to prevent tenants in Ontario from using marijuana in our homes.

I can just imagine all the secretive meetings between all the landlord lobby groups at the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto to prepare a “united front” against tenants. While sipping $100 bottle Bordeaux at the Cafe Boulud they talk about how tough life is being a landlord. 

And “oh how dare the working class enjoy smoking cannabis now that it will soon be legal” they sigh while downing dishes the average worker could never afford!

It seems they only want wealthy homeowners to be allowed to enjoy a toke of a nice strain due to their wealth and privileged position in society.

Tenants Have the Human Rights To Do The Same Things in Their Homes That Homeowners Do In Theirs

Homeowners need to realize that when you rent to a tenant in Ontario it is no longer “your property”. It is now the tenant’s home. And just like you tenants can do what they want in their home. 

So just like you in your home, tenants in our home can do things like:

-play scrabble

-watch Netflix

-cook really tasty popcorn to eat while we watch our favorite shows

-play with our pets

-have passionate sex with whomever we choose to do so

-pray to our gods and goddesses without discrimination or fear

-smoke marijuana and grow our own plants with sweet as hell strains that the LCBO chains will never match

It almost seems landlords think a tenant should pay the rent and yet never even live in the property.

ontario tenants flight attendant hot

Ideal Tenant – Never Home!

I often think the ideal tenant for Ontario landlords is a flight attendant.

He rents from you and is never home as he flies across the country earning a wage to pay rent.  Oh and if he ever brings his boyfriend back the landlord will be livid and preparing evictions notices.

Or suddenly things don’t get fixed.  Or there are constant needless repairs. Constant harassment to move. (Probably because both Mr. and Mrs. Landlord are jealous of what they are missing). Unless the hook up is short and the tenant leaves again and seems to just disappear while the rent money keeps flowing in like a river.

Too many landlords view their rental apartments as only a money making machine and not a place where real people live.  I will soon submit my next article on rentals with no parking, ha ha!

The Whole “Oh Marijuana Smells So Bad” is a Straw man Argument and Not Logical   

Does curry smell bad? No, I get hungry when I smell it because it was part of my family’s regular food supply. Does marijuana smell bad? For me, no not at all. I can barely even smell it and if I do notice it I’m reminded of my family garden as a child.

Smell is subjective and based on the life experiences of the person smelling. Some people don’t like the small of curry and “Indian food” or garlic and “Chinese food”.

It’s like asking 10 people “What do you think of this perfume?” Some will love it, some will like it, some will dislike it and some will hate it.  Everyone has a different opinion and it’s the same with the smell of marijuana (if there really is a smell, because I usually don’t even notice it).

What would I like to ban? 

Fat slobs who over cook animal flesh.  I don’t like the smell of burnt meat. It reminds me of how much the cow must have screamed while being slaughtered. 

Ontario tenants marijuana tv dinner

Burn animal flesh reminds me of the pain the animal felt. Let’s make tortured meat smell a way to evict people

But since meat is typical “landlord” food there’s nothing I can do about it. Stop eating meat! And notice they advertise this as “hungry-MAN.”  That says a lot. Another reason to never rent from male landlords.

Tenants Can Smoke Marijuana And There Is Nothing Landlords Can Do About It

I have felt so threatened and angry over the past few weeks. Maybe I need to give up social media. 

The good news is tenants can smoke marijuana and grow plants in our homes and there is nothing landlords can do about it. It is reassuring to know that tenants have the same rights as homeowners and that means tenants are protected from landlords who only want to enjoy the benefits of marijuana to themselves and their land owning class.

And don’t think any “no smoking clause” will work for you because the tenant can just say she wasn’t smoking and it was the smell on her clothes or something. You won’t get your eviction!

I want to create some balance here so landlords repeat after me:

What the Tenants Are Doing In Their Homes Is Our Business And If We Are Smoking Marijuana and Growing Some Plants There Is Nothing You Can Do About It. 

Marijuana is not only for the wealthiest in our society and not only for the homeowner class.

 

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 Submissions should be between 500 to 2000 words and up to 5 pictures.)