The Montagues and the Capulets did not like each other.
In fact, if we’re being completely honest, we could use the word “hate.”
While Romeo and Juliet eventually did get together and provide us with both a romance and a tragedy, each atop their respective lists of all-time romances and tragedies, this was a work of fiction, after all.
Perhaps William Shakespeare’s greatest accomplishment, Romeo & Juliet featured two powerful houses, both with financial and political might, both with grandiose aspirations, and both who would stop at nothing to achieve it.
It is said that Shakespeare got the idea for Romeo & Juliet from the story of two feuding Italian families in the 1500’s; the Montecchi family and the Capuleti family.
Nonetheless, Romeo & Juliet is still fiction.
The Hatfields & McCoys, however, is a lesser-known but more authentic story about two families that feuded – and died in the process.
I’m sure you’ve all head of Romeo & Juliet. But how many of you have heard of the Hatfields & McCoys?
“The Hatfields & McCoys” has become an idiom (or a “metonym”) associated with infighting and bitter feuding, but have you ever read into what, exactly, happened?
The two families lived along the Kentucky – West Virginia border in the late 1800’s, and both families served in the Civil War. The feud actually began after a dispute about a hog. Yes, a hog. Specifically, who owned the hog.
Can you imagine?
The McCoy’s who lost the trial over the hog, ended up killing the star witness who testified on behalf of the Hatfields.
You can’t make this up. Seriously.
These were merely the first steps in a dispute between the families that lasted a decade, saw a dozen family members killed, sixteen family members sent to prison, and one executed.
Tell me you haven’t heard of the “Hatfields & McCoys,” go on. I’ll be honest: I don’t know where or when I first heard of them, but once I did, I never forgot…
People use the term, “like oil and water” to describe things that don’t mix, or don’t get along, and we could use “like night and day,” or “fire and ice.”
I don’t know why “be like chalk and cheese,” apparently, means the same thing. At least, not without Googling.
But whether you want to use “Capulets and Montagues” or “Hatfields and McCoys,” I think that when it comes to landlords and tenants here in the Province of Ontario, specifically in the GTA, we’re just about there.
Landlords and tenants don’t get along. You don’t have to Google this topic to see for yourself, but rather just keep your eyes and ears open and I’m sure you’ll see and hear many examples.
But who is worse? Who is the antagonist here?
Tenants will say that it’s landlords! They’re greedy, evil, unscrupulous, and untrustworthy.
Landlords will say that it’s tenants! They’re entitled, dishonest, and now extremely informed and conniving.
I’ve seen both sides of this debate up close for many years, and while I would likely conclude that it’s far, far, far worse for landlords, that doesn’t mean there aren’t some tenants who are taken advantage of out there.
Today, I’m going to share with you two examples, one from each “side,” that came across my desk at the start of this month.
First, let’s look at a landlord trying to take advantage of a tenant.
A colleague of mine placed two young women in a midtown Toronto condo one year ago.
With their 12-month lease now in its last month, the landlord and her agent reached out to the tenants.
Here’s an email from the landlord’s real estate agent to the tenants:
Hi (Tenants Names),
I send below information on behalf of the owner (Landlord Name), who is in this email communication.
Due to government increase interest rate 9 time last year, the rental could not cover mortgage, so we need increase the rental from Oct 1, 2023.
Please attached – market rental for (Property Address) two bedroom + 2 washroom is $3300, but we give you discount rate $3200.
PLease let us know if it’s okay for you.
Thanks
(Agent Name)
There are so many things wrong with this, I don’t know where to start.
But first, let’s also look at the email from the owner to the tenants, written in much better English, with more respect and empathy, but which contains the very same problems:
Hi (Tenants Names),
I am the owner of (Property Address).
I hope this message finds you well. I wanted to inform you that your current lease is set to end on September 30th, 2023. We appreciate you as a tenant and would like to offer you the option to continue leasing the property beyond this date.
If you choose to extend your lease, the new monthly rent will be $3,200, starting from October 1, 2023. This adjustment is necessary due to the high mortgage rates, which have made it challenging for us to cover all expenses with the current rental rate.
The market rate for a two-bedroom, two-bathroom unit at (Property Address) is currently $3,300. However, we are pleased to offer you a discounted rate of $3,200 to show our appreciation for your continued tenancy.
Please let us know if this new rental rate is acceptable to you.
If you decide not to continue renting the property, we will begin the process of finding a new tenant, with their move-in date scheduled for October 1, 2023.
Your prompt response is appreciated, and if you have any questions or need further information, please do not hesitate to reach out to my agent (Agent Name) who will represent me.
Thank you for your understanding, and we will look forward to your decision regarding the lease renewal.
Sincerely,
(Landlord Name)
These emails were sent on September 5th, 2023.
Can you imagine?
I certainly can’t.
I can’t imagine what is worse, either:
1) The landlord and agent know and understand the laws and rights with respect to the Landlord & Tenant Act, and are choosing to ignore them.
2) The landlord and agent don’t know anything and are completely clueless and useless.
Imagine. Just imagine: the landlord sending notice on September 5th, demanding an illegal rent increase, and saying that if the tenants don’t agree, then you’ll look for a new tenant, who will take the unit over in twenty-six days.
I can’t get over it.
Thankfully, my colleague wrote a very direct, succinct, and accurate email back, which also means that I don’t have to, myself…
Hi (Agent & Owner Names),
I have spoken to (Tenant Names) about this situation and will be addressing your email on their behalf.
As per the Residential Tenancies Act, any lease is to continue on a month to month basis at the end of the lease term. The tenant is not required to give you notice that they plan on extending their lease term, nor are they required to sign a new lease agreement.
Secondly, you cannot bargain with the tenants to increase their rent because your mortgage payments have risen. This is a risk that you as a borrower took on when selecting a variable rate mortgage. As such, you cannot force the tenants to accept a higher rental rate without proper notice and threaten to evict them if they do not comply.
The Residential Tenancies Act requires 90 days notice for a rental increase which counts from the first date of the rental period, as September 1 has already passed, the 90 days notice would bring them to a January 1 rental increase date. The tenants have no legal obligation to pay a higher rent any date before January 1.
Lastly, you cannot list this unit for lease and search for a new tenant for October 1 if (Tenant Names) do not agree to your terms. To further clarify, you are not legally permitted to rent out this unit to a new tenant unless Milissa and Grace provide you with notice that they plan to move out. Under no other circumstances may you attempt to rent out the unit.
Milissa and Grace do not wish to cause any trouble, they simply expect you to follow the law.
We appreciate your understanding.
(Agent Name)
She was accurate here on multiple points.
The tenants don’t need to give any notice to stay past the one-year lease term. The least arrangement automatically goes month to month, and the tenants don’t need to sign a new lease.
The landlord cannot evict with 26-days’ notice. This is insane.
There’s no correlation between interest rates and lease rates.
And yes, the Act calls for a 90-day notice for an increase in rent, again, from the first day of the month.
We’ll see where this one goes, but for now, let’s just say that this landlord might be trying to take advantage of tenants that don’t know their rights.
On the other side of the equation, let me present you with a story that I think is much worse.
A colleague of mine has a long-time client who has bought and sold houses with her, but for whom she has also helped to purchase an investment property.
He purchased a downtown condo with a long-term investment horizon, but also knew that his children could live there if they attended university in Toronto or decided to work downtown at any point.
His daughter had lived there, then they put a tenant in the unit.
Now, he needs the unit for his other child, a son, who is attending school next year.
Here is his email to the tenant:
Hi (Tenant Name),
I hope you’ve had a wonderful summer and maybe have big plans for the fall!
I wanted to let you know that as we discussed in the spring, my son (Name of Son) will be moving into the apartment in January. He’s going to start at University of Toronto and will be living in the apartment while he finishes his studies.
You have been such a wonderful tenant for us and we can’t thank you enough for maybe being the best tenant we’ve ever had. I hope that providing you with a four-month heads up is helpful for your next steps.
Attached is signed N12 and a signed document that (Name of Son) is moving into the apartment, and we’ll provided you with the one month’s rent as compensation at the end of the lease.
(Name) wanted to come see the apartment next weekend to plan a few things so please let us know what your schedule is like.
Sincerely,
(Landlord Name)
That’s a reasonable email, right?
And he’s giving four months’ notice, which is nice.
But the tenant never responded!
I mean, she never responded directly, but somebody responded on her behalf…
Here’s an email that the landlord received four days later:
Dear (Landlord Name)
My name is (Name) and I am a licensed paralegal under the OPA, Ontario Paralegal Association.
I am writing you today on behalf of Ms. (Tenant Name) for whom I will be corresponding from now on.
Ms. (Tenant Name) is in receipt of your email dated, September 3rd, 2023, and the accompanying N12 and statutory declaration signed on behalf of (Name of Son).
At present, Ms (Tenant Name) is suffering financial hardship and unfortunately will not be able to abide by the request herein for vacant possession as of January 1st, 2024.
Ms. (Tenant Name) is going to exercise the rights afforded to her under the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006, and request a hearing in front of the Landlord and Tenant Board. Please provide us with the date and location of the hearing, as soon as it is made available to you.
Thank you for this cooperation in this matter.
Lastly, Ms. (Tenant Name) would be open to a “cash for keys” arrangement if one was made available to her, with satisfactory terms therein.
Sincerely,
(Name Of Paralegal)
Wow.
That’s all I can say.
Wow.
Wowowowowow.
This is the city we live in, folks. This is the future of Toronto!
There’s a lot to unpack here, so let me start from the beginning…
The landlord, who we’ll call “Raul,” purchased this condo eight years ago so that his children would have a place to live when they go to school and come of age in Toronto.
There’s nothing wrong with that, right? People are still allowed to own real property in this country, right? And they are permitted to allow their children to live in the property?
Alright…
The unit was leased to a tenant for the first two years, until his daughter, who we’ll call “Ana,” started attending the University of Toronto for her undergraduate degree.
Ana lived there for four years, then finished her degree and moved on.
For the last two years, the unit has been leased to the current tenant.
Raul now requires the unit for his son, who we’ll call “Diego,” as Diego finished his undergraduate degree in April, is taking eight months off, and will be starting a graduate program at the University of Toronto in January.
The current tenant was placed in 2021 and had a fantastic credit score (812) as well as a very impressive income ($146,000/year) and was a great candidate to lease this unit, which was listed for $2,400 per month.
The tenant has been great, but so has the landlord.
Raul did not raise the tenant’s rent after the first year, and Raul has been responsive throughout the last two years for anything that the tenant needed.
Now, with four months’ notice, even though only two months is legally required, Raul is issuing an N12 notice to the tenant so that his son, Diego, can live in the unit.
But instead of the tenant responding to the email from Raul, her very first move is to hire a paralegal!
Welcome to Toronto, folks!
The tenant is citing “financial hardship” even though she makes $146,000 per year, which is complete nonsense.
The tenant is also asking for a hearing in front of the Landlord and Tenant Board, which she and the paralegal know will take six months.
The important part of that email was the “cash for keys” comment.
We’re told by the paralegal that the tenant “would be open to a “cash for keys” arrangement.”
No kidding?
So this tenant is given a legal eviction notice but refuses to comply.
Then, has the audacity to say, she would be open to effectively being bribed.
Welcome to Toronto, folks!
This is happening all over the city of Toronto, and there are Facebook groups (which you can try to join but the moderators are good at weeding out any landlords, agents, reporters, et al) that glorify the idea of extorting landlords, and wherein people freely discuss, plan, and conspire.
Raul tried to contact the tenant but she forwarded the email to her paralegal, who then emailed Raul and insisted that he not reach out to the tenant directly again.
Imagine that?
Imagine Raul trying to speak with his own tenant?
Raul asked what “arrangement” the tenant would be open to and do you know what the paralegal said?
$25,000.
Welcome to Toronto, folks!
This is the reality of the system that we have created. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the tenant asking for a bribe, or to be bought out, or “cash for keys,” because there’s nothing wrong with the tenant asking for a hearing in front of the LTB and refusing to move out.
Landlords can attempt to evict tenants illegally.
They can sign an N12 saying that they’re moving into the condo when, in fact, they own a house and will not move in.
They can evict for the purpose of renovation and then simply paint the walls and hope they can get away with it.
But in the event that a landlord evicts honestly and legally, there’s nothing that landlord can do if the tenant says “no, I’m not leaving.”
Nothing.
Don’t argue, don’t waste time looking into this, there’s nothing they can do.
Then it’s a matter of applying to the LTB for a hearing and waiting six or eight months, all the while, continuing to make other arrangements for whomever was planning to move into the unit.
And what happens when you do get in front of the LTB?
Well, if there’s a spelling mistake in your application, they might send you to the back of the line. The line of 35,000 applicants.
True story. You might have seen this in a recent CBC Marketplace.
Increasingly, paralegals working on behalf of landlords are telling them to simply pay off tenants, because you never know what will happen when you get in front of the LTB.
Here’s the crazy thing about Raul’s situation: his paralegal told him that when they get in front of the LTB in six or eight months, the judge might ask, “Where is your son living now?” When Raul says that his son is living at home, with him, the judge could say, “The tenant needs the unit more than you,” and dismiss the eviction application.
Welcome to Toronto, folks!
So, how did we get here?
I could blame a socialist government that’s attempting to shift the burden for affordable housing from the public sector to the private sector, but that would be too easy.
I blame both landlords and tenants for treating each other like the Capulets and Montagues. Like the Hatfields and McCoys.
As much as I really do believe that the system is stacked against the landlords, we got here because the landlords spent so long screwing over the tenants.
The first set of emails above just goes to show you how many Toronto landlords treat their tenants. I believe that these landlords were partly clueless, but partly acting in very bad faith. And the more that landlords treat tenants poorly, the more that the system in place will favour tenants’ rights.
The pendulum swings from left to right, and when it swings too far in one direction, it will swing ferociously and wildly back in the other direction.
Only now, the pendulum has stopped.
It’s stuck on one side where landlords are being deprived of their legal rights with respect to their own units.
The system is broken. We are now at an untenable impasse.
But you know what?
If the Hafields and McCoys didn’t want a war, they never should have rushed to arms in the first place…
Francesca
at 7:40 am
It’s stories like this, which are becoming too common that make my husband and I not want to buy an investment condo for our daughter. My husband rented our his condo for one year when were dating and he had moved in with me and the experience with the tenants was so terrible that it totally turned us off and this was 2004! Looks like things have gotten a lot worse. I think for renters maybe renting in an all purpose rental building may cause less headaches than renting a condo apartment or a freestanding house. For potential landlords maybe only renting out to friends or family or investing the money elsewhere may be less stressful than renting to strangers who may refuse to move out when asked or could stop paying rent all together.
hoob
at 8:38 am
It’s reasons like that that there’s a whole bunch of residential capacity that is just simply kept off the market. My mom has a fully separated legal 2br basement apartment, and for lack of desire to deal with the risk of hassle with a tenant, has it vacant for the last few years. Uses it as a guest suite if people visit. Won’t ever deal with tenants ever again.
David Fleming
at 9:00 am
@ hoob
Alright, so what happens when the government institutes a next-level vacant home tax, ie. “under-used?” What happens when your mother is fined $25,000 per year for keeping that unit empty?
The way we’re heading, that’s the next step.
The government is intent on forcing private individuals into fixing the housing crisis.
Marina
at 9:20 am
How would they know though? I mean how do you know that there are extra bedrooms? Maybe people knocked down walls. Of you do it by square footage, wouldn’t that impact wealthy donors who live in mansions? Just curious how you make it work without gutting your voting base.
We are in a small semi so not too worried yet but still curious how you implement.
Especially because the vacancy tax is such a failure.
Steve
at 10:52 am
Also even if they did know it would be pretty trivial to make a currently legal basement apartment illegal and take it out of the picture. Oh what do you know we did have the required parking for that unit but turns out it’s a great spot for the hot tub.
PAPA360
at 8:49 am
Government is silent partner now with every privately owned individual Condo. The Government has no money down and zero risk but controls 100% of the investment.
Welcome to Ontario landlord reality
Appraiser
at 8:59 am
As a landlord for over 20 years I can attest to the fact that the pendulum has definitely swung in favor of tenants over the past 2 decades.
Unfortunately the war on real estate investors has only just begun, I fear.
Derek L
at 11:11 am
Real estate shouldn’t be treated as a commodity. It’s a place for people to live. And the more investors are able to leverage their existing real estate to buy additional housing, the worse the supply issue will get. Because this is what is driving up prices. Demand will always be high when existing property owners are also part of the buying market.
Marina
at 9:14 am
My husband and I were looking at getting an investment property, but there is no way in hell we are doing that now. We are looking at AirBnB instead. Which apparently also makes us evil, but I’m done caring.
For the record, I’m a fan of draconian measures on both sides.
For landlords, you should be able to evict (for valid reasons). fast. Two months max for nonpayment, 3-4 months for anything else. Bailiffs for enforcement. Rent increases should match inflation.
BUT for tenants I think penalties for Landlords should be MUCH more severe. Mandatory licensing for landlords. Obligations listed on licence. 50k fine for renting without license. Bad faith eviction? 1 year rent fine plus 1 year rent to the tenant. No maintenance of key amenities (appliances, utilities)? 1 year rent to the tenant. Harassment? 1 year rent to tenant. Fines should be based on market rent. LTB can fine up to like 100k. Do it! Landlord can’t pay? Foreclose and sell.
This stalemate is untenable.
Izzy Bedibida
at 10:07 am
I would add that Tenant’s be on the hook for trashing the unit/damaging appliances etc.
If tenant does not pay/can not pay wages are automatically garnished. Tenant is automatically charged with vandalizing private property.
Way too many tenants are getting away with this.
Brendon
at 2:08 am
I’m not sure how many times I can read “Welcome to Toronto” in an article before I have to give up. Good grief a second set of eyes would have done wonders before you hit publish.
Jimbo
at 10:41 am
For added, added effect.
Welcome to Toronto
Your Favourite Tenant
at 1:54 pm
Tenants are already on the hook for wilful or negligent damage. Garnishment could be improved by giving the LTB the ability to issue garnishment orders instead of having to go to small claims with the LTB order – but that still won’t solve the problem of having to find out where they work, can’t garnish certain types of income, and can’t generally get blood from a stone.
Izzy Bedibida
at 10:58 am
The LTB should automatically garnish wages. If the tenant is on government assistance a portion of the assistance will be held back to cover damages.
There should also be a way to LTB to automatically charge tenant with vandalism of private property, or at least have a notation in LTB file
Amrik
at 2:11 pm
Alberta is calling 🙂
Your Favourite Tenant
at 1:55 pm
It doesn’t make you evil – I rent AirBnbs when I travel too – but it make make you a scofflaw depending on where your Airbnb’s are located.
Jane
at 3:36 pm
What about higher taxes on rental income – mandatory registration with CRA as many LLs don’t declare income? and higher requirements to purchase rental property such as even more downpayments, and higher interest rates?
Amrik
at 2:06 pm
A question for all: if a tenant refuses to pay or leave, which results in decision that monies are owed to a landlord, is there a way to have this reflected on a credit report to show lack of payments? They’d only be able to screw people over for so long before nobody rents to them.
Cyber
at 7:51 am
Landlord Tenant Board provides ongoing rent payment reporting (to Equifax only) for a monthly fee – my understanding is that this needs to be agreed upon by the tenant in advance. (Borrowell also allows tenants to self report the rent and build credit with Equifax this way, too.)
Also, nobody asked, but Tenantcube and a few others offer a “rent guarantee” insurance – 12 months of payments up to $60K if tenant is not paying (plus some other support/protections), in exchange for 5% of rent.
IMO any landlord executing an Ontario Standard Lease and not just going straight to AurBnB without at least one of these – and probably both – is just “asking for it” at this point in time, LTB backlog, and combination of cost of living and economy.
Amrik
at 10:26 am
I had no idea these options were available to landlords. Much appreciated!
JL
at 2:13 pm
For those interested, Kevin Costner did some good work portraying Devil Anse Hatfield in a History mini series a few years back (when they still had some “history” in their shows)…
Ace Goodheart
at 11:49 am
A guy I knew purchased a three unit rental building with “vacant possession”. He closed, and showed up with his guys (he was a contractor) to start gutting it out. He found all three sets of tenants still there. They refused to leave. Seller’s lawyer was not responding to communications and seemed like they were not interested in helping.
So what does he do? He cleaned out all three units. Put all the tenants’ stuff on the lawn. Removed the doors. Then removed the kitchens, sinks, walls, everything down to the studs. Tenants did not know what to do. I mean, what do you do? None of them had leases (it was a handshake agreement with the previous owner). Do you call the police (one tried, police would not do anything as there was no lease). Do you apply to the tribunal (good luck, there’s a six month wait). Do you just pack up your stuff from off the lawn and go find somewhere else to live (two sets of tenants actually did this, one set did not).
Do you camp out on the lawn in the backyard (one set of tenants did this, it lasted for almost two weeks then they left too).
My friend was like, it’s my house, I have vacant possession, these idiots don’t have leases and I am not having them live here. And so he and a bunch of his guys just emptied them out.
I don’t know if that was right or not. Apparently the seller paid the tenants to leave and they decided to stay put. Who knows. Maybe they thought they would get more money from the buyer so they wanted to try for two payments of key money.
At any rate, that is Toronto.
Your Favourite Tenant
at 2:30 pm
Your friend, their lawyer and real estate agent messed up big time. Didn’t he do a walk through in advance to ensure it was empty and broom swept? Why did he go through with the closing if it wasn’t empty? Maybe instead of breaking the law, they could have gone after the seller for failing to deliver? The over holding tenants didn’t have a contract with your friend, its the seller who failed to deliver what was promised.
Ace Goodheart
at 1:25 pm
I had rules for tenants, back when I used to be a landlord. Those rules were:
1. No leases. Handshake agreement only.
2. No communication in writing. Only in person or by phone. And make sure they are not recording you or video taping you (or having a friend in the bushes doing that).
3. Keep a key to the unit (don’t give them the only key, or all the keys).
If you do those two things, then when things go sideways, who is to say they are residential tenants? Because their mail went there? Maybe they were renting rooms (and not protected by the Tenant Protection Act, which does not protect people who are renting individual rooms).
Who is to say they were even living there at all?
At least they have to prove all that stuff, which you just hand to them when you sign a lease with them. Make them concentrate their efforts on proving they actually lived there. They’ll never get to the part about their human rights and all that stuff.
Your Favourite Tenant
at 2:25 pm
You sound like the kind of landlord I avoid – the kind who is clearly sketchy at the viewing, leasing etc.
My ID and cashed cheques are more then enough proof. Also, your tenant can withhold a month’s rent until you give them an Ontario standard lease.
Did you ever consider that being sketchy attracts sketchy tenants? Those of us with choices and options – i.e. people with good jobs and credit – will avoid renting from you. Then you get terrible tenants, which reinforces your opinion of tenants.
Ace Goodheart
at 6:25 pm
Good luck with that. Any tenant that withholds a months rent would be gone before that month was over.
My handshake was as good as my word and I never had a complaint. I took care of my people. The apartments were maintained, bug free, rodent free and heat and AC whenever they needed it. My people loved me.
But I had no tolerance for funny stuff. If someone didn’t have the cash I worked with them. I know people go through rough times. I had a lady with kids and her ex withheld her child support. I worked with her. We figured it out. Not going to put them on the street. They were honest with me and I gave them the Sam honesty back.
But any funny stuff and that was over. Out. Bye bye. I did not tolerate games from people.
The stuff that tenants do now is criminal. They steal from landlords. Living rent free because they know the tribunal takes a year to evict
It’s nonsense. Why I got out of rentals. Too many professional criminals pretending to be tenants.
Josh Hryniak
at 6:37 pm
Lmao sure grandpa, whatever you say
Back in the 50s when you were in the rental game you acted like a sketch bag so you got sketch bag tenants.
Nobody with money or options is renting from some weirdo loon who wants a handshake deal hahahaha
Now take your meds, drink your prune juice and go back to bed old timer.
Your Favourite Tenant
at 2:31 pm
I think you know there is no legal way to have a tenant “gone before the month is over.” So I assume you are saying you would use illegal means – if you are suggesting using force that would be a criminal act. A tenant withholding one month of rent as allowed by law until you provide a lease that is, again, required by law, is not a criminal act. (And of course, they should pay the withheld rent upon receipt of the lease.)
I am certainly not suggesting that tenants should go months without paying, but neither should asserting legal rights in the face of a landlord who clearly prefers skirting the law be equated with a criminal act.
J G
at 1:44 pm
25k cash for key is not ridiculous, go check Reddit forums.
Some tenants are asking 50-60k cash for key because their rent is so far below market (since they moved in long ago, or during lows of Covid). They are basiscally asking for 36 months worth of rent difference.
As landlord, if you can’t handle 1-2 years of non-payment, you shouldn’t be buying
Steve
at 10:50 am
Yep, in particular the flip side of this is if you go the LTB route you have to consider what happens if you finally get to a hearing and you lose. Then you still need to do cash for keys but the tenant has even more leverage to set the number.
J G
at 1:50 pm
For many years tenants have been screwed by government’s policy of mass immigration and low interest rates.
Now they’re taking advantage of government’s 8-10 month backlog at LTB, I don’t see anything wrong with that!
LL want market rent right now? Pay up! or Drag it out thru the entire LTB process which can take up to 1 year until actual eviction.
Your Favourite Tenant
at 2:16 pm
I work in the tribunal world, though never at the LTB. From the outside it sure looks like a staffing problem more than a legislative problem.
I briefly worked at a legal aid clinic many years ago – back then it was about 2-3 weeks for a non-payment of rent case (after the 20 days, so most people owed less than 2 months rent when they got to a hearing). In a year at the clinic I never saw a single N12 or N13 case!
Let me tell you a story about another tribunal where I did work. There had been a change of government. The extreme fringe of the party newly in power wanted big changes and had big ideological opinions on the work of the tribunal, but most Canadians, in the sensible centre, care a little bit but not much about the topic. Lets say, just enough that it could lose the party votes if they appeared to be being led around by the fringes, but not so much that it ever topped an issues polls at election time. Plus most governments realise that many of the things their fringes want are impractical/unconstitutional.
The adjudicators, like the LTB adjudicators, were political appointees. I would say those positions are far less patronage appointments than they used to be (at least federally), but its pretty normal for there to be a lull in appointments for the first few months as a new government gets around to figuring out who to reappoint, what new appointments they want to make, setting up a system to vet appointees, etc. And adjudicators have specific terms of appointment that don’t run in tandem with elections, so even if they are awesome, experienced, fair, and efficient – if they time out without a reappointment, they are gone.
In this case, the new government went two years without any new appointments. Meanwhile, experienced people left as their appointments ran out, or as they saw the writing on the wall and looked for new jobs when it was clear no re-appointments were going through. This meant not enough people to do the work, and the backlog grew, and grew, and grew. The media told sad stories of people waiting to long for their case to be heard. Canadians in the centre, started to care a bit more and agree that changes were needed.
Then the government appointed a full slate of adjudicators. Hired a bunch of support staff too. But… the backlog didn’t magically disappear! It turns out new adjudicators take time to train and reach their full efficiency! Which then allowed the government to say, look, we appointed all these new people, threw all this money at the backlog, and it isn’t magically disappearing overnight! It must be a problem with the law – clearly we need legislative reform!
I can’t help but see some parallels here.
Derek
at 3:01 pm
You need to comment more often
Your Favourite Tenant
at 2:26 pm
thanks 🙂
Thomas Hawk
at 2:43 pm
So, let me get this straight… Someone who is wealthy enough to own multiple properties losing money but still not needing to worry about being homeless is worse than a tenant being removed when they can’t afford anywhere else to live and could be homeless as a result?
Are you a psychopath or something? You have just put the value of dollars over the values of lives! I think that you’d be happier in the USA so please go there because we don’t need people like you in Canada.