annyInRain
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http://www.city-data.com/forum/renting/1837674-landlording-ontario-not-pretty-picture.html
After about five years of having 10-12 tenants in NY state, we thought it would be easy to rent out our Ontario beach resort year-round home to someone for a few years. Not so. The experience has left us wondering what on earth has gone wrong with our home province.
An Ontario landlord is not allowed to ask for a security/damage deposit. Just last month's rent, and if there are damages discovered after the tenant leaves, the only recourse is small claims court, and often the tenant won't give the landlord any forwarding address.
We are also not allowed to ask for late fees. We can issue a "Pay or Quit" type form which gives the tenant 14 days to pay and then after 14 days, we can pay $170 to file an application to terminate the tenancy, with the Landlord Tenant Board.
Having a "no pets" clause in the lease is futile. The law overrides the signed lease, deeming that termination due pets will only be allowed if you can prove the pet is causing damage, or someone elese in the house is allergic! Oh and of course, we're not allowed to charge a pet fee or ask for a damage deposit for pets.
There is a case mentioned actually, right on the LTB site, of a landlord who specified in his lease, that no satellite dish was to be installed anywhere on the house or property. When the tenant installed a satellite dish on the porch, the landlord took him to court to try and terminate the tenancy. The tenant told the judge this was the only way they could get all these nice channels to watch. The judge decided that the dish wasn't doing any harm to anyone or anything, and so both the tenants AND the dish were allowed to stay, despite the signed contract.
In my case, each month gathering rent was torture. My phone calls were never returned, and each polite email reminder about the rent was met with rage and indignance and lectures from the tenant about how honest she was.
I finally gave her two months notice to vacate, and after calling the police on the person who served her (she saw it as harrassment because my agent was parked a few houses away waiting for her to get home from work), she gave me notice that she would move within 30 days so no more rent would be forthcoming, and I was to use the last month's rent. I asked her what time I should be there to do the final walk-through and get the keys. What followed was a foot-long email about my demanding personality and how well she had looked after our home. She told me I had no right to a walk-through with her.
The LTB assured me she was correct. I was also not ALLOWED to stand outside my home and wait for her to leave, and they told me, hey, if anything is missing, just file small claims. They said the only other thing I could have done was to give her 24 hours notice to do an "inspection" - and added that if she refused us entry, we could call one of their agents who would attempt to talk to her and tell her she had to let us in, but they also admitted that it could take a long time to get such a person on the phone.
The good part is, she is gone. But she also took some of my furniture. Oh well. Lesson learned and I consider myself very fortunate that she left when we asked her to.
Thanks for letting me have this little rant.
After about five years of having 10-12 tenants in NY state, we thought it would be easy to rent out our Ontario beach resort year-round home to someone for a few years. Not so. The experience has left us wondering what on earth has gone wrong with our home province.
An Ontario landlord is not allowed to ask for a security/damage deposit. Just last month's rent, and if there are damages discovered after the tenant leaves, the only recourse is small claims court, and often the tenant won't give the landlord any forwarding address.
We are also not allowed to ask for late fees. We can issue a "Pay or Quit" type form which gives the tenant 14 days to pay and then after 14 days, we can pay $170 to file an application to terminate the tenancy, with the Landlord Tenant Board.
Having a "no pets" clause in the lease is futile. The law overrides the signed lease, deeming that termination due pets will only be allowed if you can prove the pet is causing damage, or someone elese in the house is allergic! Oh and of course, we're not allowed to charge a pet fee or ask for a damage deposit for pets.
There is a case mentioned actually, right on the LTB site, of a landlord who specified in his lease, that no satellite dish was to be installed anywhere on the house or property. When the tenant installed a satellite dish on the porch, the landlord took him to court to try and terminate the tenancy. The tenant told the judge this was the only way they could get all these nice channels to watch. The judge decided that the dish wasn't doing any harm to anyone or anything, and so both the tenants AND the dish were allowed to stay, despite the signed contract.
In my case, each month gathering rent was torture. My phone calls were never returned, and each polite email reminder about the rent was met with rage and indignance and lectures from the tenant about how honest she was.
I finally gave her two months notice to vacate, and after calling the police on the person who served her (she saw it as harrassment because my agent was parked a few houses away waiting for her to get home from work), she gave me notice that she would move within 30 days so no more rent would be forthcoming, and I was to use the last month's rent. I asked her what time I should be there to do the final walk-through and get the keys. What followed was a foot-long email about my demanding personality and how well she had looked after our home. She told me I had no right to a walk-through with her.
The LTB assured me she was correct. I was also not ALLOWED to stand outside my home and wait for her to leave, and they told me, hey, if anything is missing, just file small claims. They said the only other thing I could have done was to give her 24 hours notice to do an "inspection" - and added that if she refused us entry, we could call one of their agents who would attempt to talk to her and tell her she had to let us in, but they also admitted that it could take a long time to get such a person on the phone.
The good part is, she is gone. But she also took some of my furniture. Oh well. Lesson learned and I consider myself very fortunate that she left when we asked her to.
Thanks for letting me have this little rant.
