Landlord and Tenant | Renting Well

The Do’s and Dont’s of Eviction For Repairs in British Columbia

God Bless Lisa N. Mackie. She’s a lawyer at Alexandar Holburn Beaudin and Lang LLP in good ole’ Vancouver. She wrote an article at Mondaq about what you can and can’t do when evicting a tenant for repairs in B.C. Is this worth a read? Uh…YES. Check it out here.

Her advice is well thought out and includes some other tips besides the obvious stuff. She suggests reading the law and broaching the subject with your tenant carefully. As you may or may not know, B.C. law requires that before issuing a “2 Month Notice to End Tenancy“, the landlord needs to have all of the necessary permits required by law to conduct the repairs or renovations, and the landlord must intend in good faith to renovate or repair in a manner that requires the suite to be vacant. The landlord also has to compensate the tenant the equivalent of one month’s rent on or before the move-out date.

Read the article here.

Do You Have What It Takes To Be A Landlord?

The Globe and Mail published this great piece a few days ago entitled, “Do You Have What It Takes To Be A Landlord?”. It offers a sober look at the pros of being a landlord and the benefits of income property ownership. It’s a great counter piece to all of the discouraging things you might hear from people who’ve tried it and had it not work out. If you’re reading this, you know property ownership and property management are hard. This piece is refreshing because it paints an accurate picture of the situation with rental property ownership. In short – it’s a marathon, not a race.

Read the piece here: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/personal-finance/mortgages/home-buying/do-you-have-what-it-takes-to-be-a-landlord/article11636234/

Introducing Rent Receipts

Dear landlords,

We rolled out a cool new feature for our active trials and current customers. It’s a rent receipts feature in Renting Well, that makes supplying receipts for rent received from tenants a *snap*.

As you may know, come income tax time, you may get a lot of requests from tenant for receipts. You’re obligated to provide a receipt if a tenant asks for one. All that to say, adding this feature was something we were keen on getting to post launch, and is part of a series of additions we’re going to be moving forward with over the next few months.

Firing off a rent receipt is dead simple. Next to each revenue item marked “rent”, you’ll notice a small button labelled “receipt”. Click that – and it’ll give you two options to either email the receipt directly to the tenant associated with the rent payment, or to print the rent receipt if you wish.

Questions? Comments? Share with us. We’d love to hear your feedback.

Scamming Puts Landlords In A Bad Light

I was disappointed to come across this article today.

http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/2013/04/03/online-rental-scams-pose-as-landlords

We’ve covered this topic before. The guy in the piece was caught by the cops in a casino – of all places. Way to get snagged with your hand in the cookie jar, scumbag.

In a nutshell – Michael Burley, the suspect, seemed to have some right of access to the units he was showing to prospective tenants – through advertising on Craig’s List. Through the course of his blatant misrepresentation as the landlord, he’d accept their damage deposits, with the intent it seems, of hitting the slots.

The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre said online apartment scams are common, particularly ones in which supposed owners on an extended vacation look for renters. We covered this in a previous post. The phony owners claim they care about a good renter more than money and advertise places well below their value. They convince people to send a damage deposit to a foreign country, promising the keys will be couriered upon payment.

Here’s the kicker. The people who do this, usually duplicate legitimate ads by legitimate landlords looking for tenants. Victims can usually be the elderly and students. Police said to avoid such scams people need to get identification from the person renting the property, avoid using wire transfer services to pay supposed landlords, and to never rent an apartment without seeing it.

Landlord Is Sued By Tenant For Being Too Considerate

Being a landlord can be tough work, but a recent Toronto civil suit brought forth by Gerry Danforth underscores this fact with a degree of emphasis not seen before. Mr. Danforth recently sued Amanda Boileau, his landlord for the last 23 months, and cited the reason for the case as her “complete and total reliability and overwhelming personal consideration” in a suit asking for the maximum $5000 judgement allowed in Canadian small claims court.

Mr. Danforth went on to provide a few key examples of what Ms. Boileau has a tendency to do, which included but were not limited to 24/7 contact for any emergency, proactive measures to ensure that fire alarms were working and functional, as well as immediate concern to even the smallest of minor issues like a leaky faucet or broken window.

“There was an instance last year when Amanda came by my apartment and followed up on whether a creaky door was working quietly after the application of some WD-40 to the hinges. I’m not sure who she’s trying to impress, but to add insult to injury, that same day just happened to be my birthday, and she had the audacity to wish me a happy one”, said Danforth as he checked an important text message outside of the Toronto courthouse.

According to Danforth, Ms. Boileau’s other transgressions include things like 48 hour notices on dropping by or entering the apartment to repair items, a full extra day than is required by law, and being responsive to suggestions about purchasing him a new refrigerator for his unit.

“She literally listened to me, agreed with my assessment that the fridge I had was noisier than I would have liked, and proceeded to purchase me a stainless steel model with a built in purified water spout”, said Danforth. “I find Amanda’s personality and accountable nature compromises my ability to assume all landlords are jerks and to perpetuate the stereotype that they are the housing equivalent of dictators.”

The case is hearing closing arguments this week.

Saskatchewan Kyboshes Rent Controls

The provincial government in Saskatchewan says it will not implement a system of rent control for residential tenants in the province. This was in response to the plight of a group of tenants who live in a building on Regina’s Robinson Street who received notices of a 77% increase in their rent. Wow.

The province’s Justice minister, David Wyant, explained that he thinks a rent control system would discourage property owners from improving their units.

We believe that it’s a disincentive to improving properties,” says Wyant. “it’s a disincentive to the establishment and for the building of new rental accommodations and we’ve seen that across the province and we’ve seen that across the country.”

Wyant added that he believes most rent increases have been around three to four per cent. He also offered to meet with the affected tenants personally and has also set up a meeting for them with the rentalsman’s office.

Landlords who belong to the Saskatchewan Rental Housing Industry Association have to give six months notice of rent increases. Other landlords have to give 12 months notice. In this case, the property management company who looks after the units did in fact give the required notice regarding the rent increase.

To-do Lists Have Been Pushed Live! Welcome to v1.2

Dear landlords,

We’ve pushed out a new update (v1.2 for those keeping score) of Renting Well this morning. First thing you’ll notice is that your dashboards look a little different: we’ve added a new to-do list to the app! This is going to make it a lot easier to stay on top of what you need to get done and ensuring you’re reminded when tasks are due.

It can be anything: tenant asks you to fix a screen? Add it as a to-do! Tenant mentions that one of the outlets in their unit isn’t working? Add it as a to do! Want to remind yourself 60 days in advance that a tenant’s lease is going to expire? Add it as a to-do! The to-do list is a handy feature that includes convenient email notifications that get sent to you on the specified due date. The main purpose is to keep you on top of the many landlord duties that need your attention — whatever they are.

You’ll also notice that the app looks a little different, too. We’ve passed over things with a bit of a fine-toothed comb: redesigned contact lists, improved layouts of financials, better icons, and a whole whack of aesthetic tweaks all designed to make the app easier and more enjoyable to use.

Kick the tires and let us know what you think!

Why Tenant Screening Is Wickedly Important

Mistake #1 for landlords: renting on a hunch. It’s insane.

When we built Renting Well, we made it a quick priority to include access to background checking within the app. To make this happen we were fortunate to partner with BackCheck, Canada’s leading background checking service. One of the reasons we did this was because basic credit checks are just one piece of the pie. It’s good to have access to other background checking elements like employment verifications and a criminal background check. I had the opportunity recently to sit down with Iain Murray at BackCheck to discuss some interesting stats when it comes to landlords “checking” who they’re renting to:

10% of Canadians have a criminal record. That’s over 3 million people.
28.5% of tenant applicants will have poor credit.
12.1% of tenant applicants will lie about their employment.
Almost 25% of landlords would not recommend a former tenant to another landlord.
About 45% of BackCheck’s small landlord customers will request a criminal background check.

Conducting criminal background checks is more important than landlords might realize — an individual with a criminal history, who continues living a life of lawful offense, can have a great impact on a building and even an entire community. While a check is not exclusionary, it has the potential of reducing the number of thieves and violent ex-criminals who wish to neighbour among other tenants.

With that said, a criminal check can uncover any one of a number of offenses — not just violent crimes. People get charged with minor offenses like fraud and theft — things which most landlords would want to know before making a decision to rent to a tenant or not. There is no such thing as too much information for a landlord. Any kind of criminal background is something you should be aware of. Landlords have the right to refuse to a tenant because of their criminal history and ultimately the responsibility lies with you when it comes to introducing new tenants into your property. Check out this great info sheet published by Crime Prevention Ottawa in September 2009 that discusses how landlords can avoid and overcome the challenges of crime and disorder (such as drug dealing) on their property.

It’s Tricky Being A Condo Landlord

Canada’s condo market has exploded in the last 10 years. I live in Ottawa, and as I write this post, I’m peering out my window and looking at a condo that is about 90% complete and ready for move in. If you’re contemplating a move to one of these urban spaces, it’s crucial to start your long distance move preparations early and make a detailed plan to ensure a seamless transition to your new home. You can hire professional movers like Three Movers to help you with the moving process.

With new apartment construction slow in urban centers, and with an increase in desire for individuals to live in central downtown areas, condos have represented a great first time investment for many real estate buyers. Give this Vancouver-based commercial construction company a call for their construction services. Many live in them for a period, and then rent them out when they’ve outgrown them (if they get married, decide to have children, etc). Since many of these newly constructed condos can include luxury amenities – landlords have attractive new dwellings to market for a demographic that considers the lifestyle that a condo affords attractive. In lots of ways, they’re a home run when it comes to tenancies and demand – but in other ways, they can be more management intensive with respect to operation and significantly trickier to cover the costs on. I’ll tell you how. First – here’s some tasty stats about condos in Ontario:

Over one million people live in condominiums in Ontario.
There are about 525,000 condominium units in Ontario.
Toronto had the fastest growing high-rise condo market in North America in 2011.
About 50% of new home sales in Ontario are condominiums; 60% of homes sold in the GTA.

Condos are different than a traditional single or multi family dwelling. If you’re renting them out, they’re bound by two different pieces of legislation in Canada. The Condominium act, and the Landlord and Tenant Act (applicable in any province). In english, this means that you and your tenant are bound by two laws when it comes to residing and renting the unit out. There’s an obligation to the condo board, and there’s an obligation to the landlord and tenant law. Ultimately – this is more of the landlord’s problem than the tenants.

Here’s an example of what I’m talking about. Let’s say you’re renting your condo out to a tenant. Everything’s going smashingly. Then one day, the condo board (there is one for any condo) decides to conduct a fire safety test on all of the units and advises the property management company to retain the services of a fire safety organization. When dealing with insurance adjusters, do this. The fire safety company goes around to the units and knocks on doors. The condo has permitted them to enter any units as required. They do their job. The condo owner didn’t mention this was going down, and the tenant is furious because they should have been given 24 hours written notice, as per the LTA that someone was entering their home for a maintenance related item. Who’s at fault here?

Condo boards can have a tremendous amount of influence on how a building is lived in. While most are required to allow an owner to rent out their unit, boards can and often do ask to vet a prospective tenant before the landlord agrees to allow them to move in. Condo boards can sometimes have specific policies when it comes to pets. Rent to someone with 3 great danes, and the board could and would make your life a hassle if it didn’t sit well with them. Many condo developments require tenants to sign a statement agreeing to abide by bylaws and additional “house rules”. Many also require landlords to post a one-month’s-rent damage deposit to cover any damage to the common property by their tenants. Managing the relationship with a condo board as well as with your tenant is a trickier situation as you can see. Managing pressure from both the condo board and your tenant can be stressful.

Are you a condo landlord? Share your stories with us!

Canadian Real Estate Needs An Innovative Kick In The Ass

Small landlords are a component of arguably one of the least innovative markets on the web in Canada: real estate. When it comes to using services in the cloud, it’s a bit behind the pack. Strange, because in many ways, it’s a perfect example of a market that can most benefit from using the convenience and utility of web based tools and services.

In an age where we see startups taking hard transformative glances at some of the most everyday things people do (couponing, group discounts, betting, customer relationship management, even organizing recipes), it’s difficult to understand why the Canadian real estate market in general has seemed to suffer from being left out in the cold – a frozen winter that is dated designs, unfriendly user interfaces, and a general sense of being stuck in the era of the internet pre-iPhone – when Internet Explorer 6 and Hotmail were standards.

A perfect example of this is Canada’s leading residential real estate listing service – Realtor.ca (formerly MLS.ca). Sure – it’s useful. It does the job – but it could really be a lot better. Canada’s number 1 visited real estate website hasn’t changed that much in over 10 years – and 2009’s mobile version of the application was met with as much enthusiasm as Microsoft’s Zune. Great idea – bad execution. It’s particularly embarrassing when you see what’s going on south of the border with great sites like Trulia and Zillow.com

So why is this? Is it possible that this market is controlled by a select group of barons – an old boys club so to speak – that just refuses to embrace the revolution that is Web 2.0? The internet’s already in the throes of discussing what Web 3.0 is going to look like. We’re not sure. Is it too boring? It’s not a black and white situation. CREA has been fighting with the Competition Bureau about opening up the MLS database so that other sites and services can use it too. It’s been a real bone of contention. I’m not interested in making a comment on the spat between them. I’m simply pointing out that innovation on the web in Canadian real estate is perhaps being compromised because of it, and it doesn’t have to be. I’d love CREA to revamp the hell out of Realtor.ca and give some of these U.S. sites a run for their money. It feels like a bit of the Blackberry vs. iPhone/Android scenario. Come on! Canada’s real estate market is among some of the best in the world.

Back in 2008 – a little Canadian startup called Zoocasa entered the scene, hell bent on changing what a real estate listing looked like and how you found and searched for a home. It was “Home Search With Smarts”. It was developed as a slicker, more efficient alternative to the Multi Listing Service, and aimed at using the web to browse the housing market intelligently. These guys are a Rogers Ventures business – an impressive fact on it’s own. While the execution was great, realtors are required to post their listings proactively to the service, and there’s been issues with Realtor.ca in the past with “scouring” listings. Zoocasa was also successfully sued recently by Century 21 in Canada, and lost cases with individual realtors who took issue with the company “scraping” listings to populate it’s service.

The landlord market is no different. Most of the products for professional property managers and self managing owners seem like they’re geared more for corporations than landlords who have a secondary suite. Television shows like Income Property promote the benefits of having a subsidized mortgage, which has spurned increasing numbers of people to invest in duplexes and triplexes in the climbing Canadian real estate market of the last 10 years. It’s been a good ride and a lot of people have made a lot of money – but when it comes to “managing” a rental, it seems like you’re better off to keep that old manual ledger you picked up at Staples 10 years ago. Dust it off buddy – you’re a landlord now.

That’s changed in the last few years, and there’s been a series of new startups focusing on the small time landlord that have received a significant amount of attention, and in some cases, a significant amount of capital investment. Cozy – a San Francisco based startup – is an example of that. Raising 1.5 million dollars of funding from the likes of Google Ventures and business guru and internet sensation Gary Vaynerchuk. Their aim of focusing on the two biggest pains in the butt for landlords – rental applications and tracking payments – takes a radically simplified look at the job of owning and managing rental property.

There are even cooler examples within the greater real estate realm. Lovely – another San Francisco based startup – has elegantly innovated the common apartment search for renters. One of the more interesting examples I recently came across which is real estate related, is The Dirt, a cool startup out of Toronto – that aims to populate it’s own property database “socially”. Cool idea. Their idea is about the sharing of information vs. Zoocasa’s aim to enhance what existed with MLS.

So what’s going on real estate? Share your thoughts with us.