Renoviction or Own Use? Which one?

Landlords are moving back in or taking control of their properties;

The first are evictions for an "own-use" claim by a landlord, such as a landlord saying that they or an immediate family member are moving into the property. There were 323 of these applications at the LTB in 2015, and the number has steadily risen each year since, with 595 in the 2018-2019 fiscal year.The second type of no-fault eviction is for for renovations, repairs or conversions that require the tenant to move out. These are often called renovictions by housing advocates. There were 18 of these applications in Toronto in 2015. The number has increased each year since, with 71 in the 2018-2019 fiscal year.  https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-rental-evictions-report-1.5369521

I actually wonder how they are tracking these applications given that the filing system is by property address.

What causes Builders NOT to build Rental Housing

ONTARIO CANADA

Tenants may think the government is looking out for tenant interests, but if that was true there would be no pandemic housing shortage, multiple offers, outrageous selling prices, extremely low vacancy rates, high rental tenant property taxes and eight-year affordable housing wait lists.

Ontario’s recent “Rent Fairness Act” continues the brutal, gratuitous, dystopian, anti-landlord legislation meted out by short-sighted, vote-pandering politicians who have literally (not metaphorically) persecuted landlords for decades; all of it resulting in the national pandemic critical housing shortage. Examples:

• Of 46 offenses in the Residential Tenancies Act (RTA), 34 solely benefit tenants, 10 reciprocate with landlords, one benefits the landlord and one prevents landlords from kicking vote-canvassing politicians off their property.
• RTA and the Human Rights Code (HRC) have unintended discriminatory consequences, including:
  1. The broken Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) and RTA make all people with no credit, work or rental history (single moms, foreign students and refugees) extremely high-risk tenants for landlords.
  2. Hoarders’ rights override the rights of all other tenants. Vermin, fire hazards and more ruin the lifestyle of neighbours and significantly negatively impact property value. Firefighters can refuse to enter a burning unit if they cannot turn 360 degrees with full respirator gear on. Landlords must accommodate challenged tenants to the point of a landlord’s undue hardship, which is not defined in legislation.
  3. The tenant qualification process of public agencies is not aligned with the needs of the landlord.
• Landlords submit 91 per cent of LTB applications. Seventy-five per cent are for tenants not paying their rent. The average LTB eviction is five months (versus 25 days in some other provinces), costing an average $5,200 that is rarely collected. LTB offers free, taxpayer-funded duty counsel service to tenants but offers nothing to landlords.
• A tenant can pay the sheriff full rent arrears on the day of their eviction and start the whole process again.
• Ontario spent billions on solar power programs. Result: average $217.33/kWhr in Ontario versus $67.89/kWhr in Quebec. Government then punished landlords by preventing landlords from passing on utility costs to the actual consumers (tenants) of that energy.
• The LTB won’t evict tenants who sign and then breach a no-smoking clause in their rental agreement. The whole health industry pushed for this change and the provincial government still denied it. Eleven per cent of Canadians smoke daily and 64 per cent don’t smoke.
• The HRC denies requests to teach landlords about landlord responsibilities but hosts free full-day seminars for tenants.
• The RTA and municipal bylaws require landlords to remediate mould caused by a tenant’s actions, even though it’s not caused by the building’s envelope.
• The rent of a tenant switching from a single bulk meter to an individual meter must be reduced by the cost of energy consumed over the previous 12 months. Therefore, the most energy-abusive tenants receive the greatest rent decreases while energy-conscious tenants are penalized.
• The RTA sets the practical limit on building repairs and maintenance: three per cent of property income for three years. The 270,000 Ontario social housing units have a $1.2 billion capital shortfall. Toronto faces $2.6 billion in building repairs and will close 400 homes in 2017 and 1,000 by 2018.
• Some municipalities charge tenants up to 2.5 times the property tax rate of condo and single- family homeowners.
• Rent control doesn’t benefit low-income tenants. Tenants who can afford to pay market rents receive the benefit of lower rents and successfully beat low-income tenants competing for tenancies in the government-created housing shortage.  Shrinking housing inventory forces buyers to stay in rental housing longer. There are 171,360 Ontario families waiting for affordable housing (2015), some for as long as eight years.
• The federal budget gave a $209.4 million bailout for social housing repairs but nothing to the private sector faced with the same issues.
• A tenant’s unpaid utility bill is added to the property owner’s property tax bill, even if the landlord proves that their tenant signed an agreement to pay their own utilities. This is like holding police responsible for all the crimes committed by the criminals they didn’t catch.
• Municipal bedbug and garbage bylaws hold landlords responsible for cost of cleanup even if the tenant caused the infestation or doesn’t sort their garbage.
• Housing shortages lead some tenants to illegally rent out a rental unit or portion at a higher rent.
• The LTB won’t hear cases where tenants who damaged a property moved out. Small Claims Court won’t hear any case involving a landlord-tenant dispute.

Society can’t exist without housing. Private sector landlords built homes for more than nine million Canadians, and relatively affordable housing to a subset of more than three million. Canada’s total social housing sector accommodates about 1.5 million Canadians.

Private sector landlords willingly accept extraordinary financial and legal risks to provide safe and healthy housing. Landlords are not social workers, financiers or otherwise an extension of government social housing programs, policies and other political agendas.

About 39,000 rental units were built in 1972 alone versus a net of about 22,500 units in the 25 years following. Look at the success of the housing programs of the 1960s and early 1970s and replicate that success.

Footnote: An anagram of “LandlordTenantBoard” is ‘Abandon Rent, Add Troll’.

Chris Seepe   Chris Seepe is a published writer and author, ‘landlording’ course instructor, president of the Landlords Association of Durham, and a commercial real estate broker of record at Aztech Realty in Toronto, specializing in income-generating and multi-residential investment properties. Call (416) 525-1558, send him an email, or visit his website.

This was published in a REM article July 2017 
I was disappointed to see such a litany of Landlord Rights Abuses I just published this in its entirety.

Peel and Toronto are both considering $1,000 annual licensing fees for Landlords.

Why do we keep the Living the dream of being debt free in our retirement?
http://www.BuyingInToronto.ca
http://AgentLocatorToronto.com

Its time to talk

Professional Tenant Defrauding Landlords

Professional Tenant Defrauding Landlords

May 17, 2016 -- It has been brought to TREB's attention that the firms Handsmith Advocate and Paralegal and also Provincial Paralegal are currently in litigation with a sophisticated Professional Tenant involving multiple rental units.  There is reason to believe, based on a pattern of activity, that there may be more rental units involved and currently in this Tenant's possession. 

As this individual's MO is consistent based on four (4) known cases so far, it is the firms' belief that releasing the individual's profile may lead to the discovery of other units and will also perhaps interfere with future attempts by this individual to defraud Landlords.  The number of new cases is increasing daily, as it is clear this individual is attempting to grow by increasing the number of units in their possession.

The profile of the Professional Tenant is as follows:
They are primarily using RECO registrants to locate target properties in the downtown core of the City of Toronto.  The individual is targeting furnished units as well as unfurnished units in condos in the $2000–$3000 price range.  The individual presents as mild-mannered with a gentle demeanor.  The individual claims to be a senior director of an alleged charitable organization.  They use a letter of employment from the alleged charitable organization claiming a sufficient annual income to be able to afford the unit.  The Tenant uses a variety of phone numbers on the letter of reference, and if you try to contact the number to confirm the details, you are told the person is not available, but asked how the person who answered may help you. Then they proceed to confirm the details of the alleged employment and confirm that you are in fact speaking to the Tenant.  The alleged charitable organization has a polished looking website; however, what is notably missing is the Revenue Canada registration number for charitable organizations.  A search of the Revenue Canada database yields no record of any such organization.  The phone number to the alleged reference is in fact one of the numbers used by the Tenant. 

The tenant will pay one month's rent with the promise to pay the last month's rent deposit at a later date, which never comes.  They will generally stop paying rent as of the second month.  In some cases, both the first and last month rent cheque will bounce after they have gotten possession.  The Landlord will receive calls from the Condo's Property Management office with complaints that the Tenant appears to be engaged in running an Airbnb from the unit, with reports of numerous unidentified individuals accessing the unit on an ongoing basis, and this will begin immediately after the Tenant takes possession.  Often Condo Corporations have rules regarding short-term rentals and Condo owners find themselves in trouble for the conduct of the Tenant.

The Tenant has sufficient knowledge of the Landlord & Tenant Board process to know how to cause significant delays in their proceedings.  They have also become very covert in concealing their advertisements, as the first case was successful at obtaining the evidence of their activities.  Generally speaking, they will post their advertisements for short periods of time on one of (17) different sites used to promote Airbnb units, until they get a hit. Then, they will pull the advertisement down immediately so as to make it difficult to gather the necessary evidence of their conduct.  The Tenant will continue to not pay rent while rerenting the unit out on a per diem basis at a rate usually in the range of $125–$175 per night.  Currently, the rent arrears collectively between the (4) known cases are in the in excess of $25,000.00. 

This serves as a reminder to always be vigilant about these kinds of situations and to conduct detailed reference checks on all potential tenants to protect your clients.

I would take notice

PLEASE BE CAREFUL 

David Pylyp

http://SellinginToronto.ca