21:20 on 2012/06/11 Reply  

• Ephraim 06:34 on 2012/06/12 Permalink

  In the end, something needs to be done to increase the number of apartments on the market. So many people are reluctant to rent because of past abuse.

• Bill Binns 06:53 on 2012/06/12 Permalink

  We often hear stories about bad landlords and they are surely out there but they are outnumbered 10,000 to 1 by bad tenants. I spent a few years doing some property management in Florida and it is not something I would ever consider doing again. There are people who travel from apartment to apartment, pay whatever is required to get in the door and never pay another dime. They know the system and simply squat until the day you have finally jumped through all the government hoops to get the cops there to evict them. This is not just a problem of poor people and crappy apartments either. It happens at all levels right up to apartments that cost $5000 or more a month.

  In the early days of email, I came very close to getting in some legal trouble for ciculating a list of the deadbeats to some of the other property managers in town. I had crossed some old law about blacklisting.

  In Florida, if you knew what you were doing and had some luck, you could get these people out in 4 months. I have heard it can take years here.

• Ian 08:51 on 2012/06/12 Permalink

  So your unsubstantiated 10k to 1 number is based on your experience as a property manager in another country, where you admit to having broken the law in your capacity as a property manager? Nice. As a tenant in this city over the last 20 years I’m always impressed if an owner even keeps up basic structural repairs. In my current apartment, for instance, I pay almost 1500 a month and my front steps that eh landlord swore up and down would be replaced last summer are literally rotting off the building. I’ve had a city inspector come by on my own dime, and the landlord is still dragging his heels. …and of course they raised the rent this year, claiming rising insurance and property taxes.

• Ephraim 09:32 on 2012/06/12 Permalink

  Ian, it cuts both ways. I’ve been a tenant and a landlord and I’ll tell you, I don’t want to be a landlord under Quebec’s Rental Board ever again. It can take a long time to get someone out who isn’t paying their rent and the recourse is trying to run after them for 30 years.

  I worked at an office where a landlord finally caught up to the tenant and presented us with garnishment paperwork. We had no choice but to garnish his wages… and so he quit, so we lost a good employee and two weeks later the landlord lost his money again.

  My parents used to rent out a bachelor apartment for $50 to $100 a month! I think they got stiffed on it at least a dozen times. At one point, they just gave up renting it out. (They figured if the rent was low enough they would get paid and it would cover partial costs, empty or full it basically was part of the house, didn’t seem to work out that way).

  (Have you asked to deposit your rent at the rental board? That way it is recorded that you paid your rent, but the landlord can’t collect it until he shows the repairs were done.)

• qatzelok 10:49 on 2012/06/12 Permalink

  Landlords can be really awful, and it’s sort of degrading to have your space “owned” by another person who often callously looks at you (and your space) as “revenue.” Likewise, it’s infantile to give your rent to “an adult” who then is expected to “take care” of your place for you.

  I’m glad to live in a housing coop. If only we could all live without tenants or landlords. But to do this, we need to relearn “sharing” which has almost been eradicated by capital. It’s the landlords who are responsible for the current unequal and infantilizing system of property ownership.

• Ian 11:28 on 2012/06/12 Permalink

  I’d love to get into a co-op, truth be told. Those waiting lists are a bitch.

• Jack 16:00 on 2012/06/12 Permalink

  I’m with you Ian and I own a triplex.

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