spouse of scouse

The issues you've raised:

No air conditioning - read your lease agreement/contract/property inventory. Does it state anywhere that you're renting an air conditioned property? If it does, seek the advice of the Landlord and Tenancy Board regarding the next step to take. If air conditioning isn't mentioned, but the agent told you that the property is/would be air conditioned, then you need to take it up with the agent. Did you inspect the property prior to signing the lease? Was air conditioning present and working?

Your actions in purchasing air mattresses and sending the owner/landlord the bill was never going to end well - unless your contract states that you can do that! Abusing the landlord via text also was never going to end well....

Garage key - that would be a PITA for you. I'm hoping you have a property inventory/property condition report - is a garage key mentioned? The agent should be sorting this out for you. It may be that the landlord doesn't have a garage key, and although a common sense and courteous thing for him/her to do would be to provide you with one, he/she may not actually be obligated to do so. If you're in contact with the LTB anyway, you could mention this - perhaps frame it as a safety issue if there's a door into the property in the garage.

$100 call out to fix washing machine - that just sounds bloody ridiculous. It's the landlord's property and the landlord's responsibility. Ask LTB for advice on recovering this money from the landlord. That the fault with the washer is a common one is neither here nor there in the context of tenant/landlord responsibilities.

$46 per month for water heater - if that figure is what's in the contract/agreement you signed, that's the figure you're stuck with. Again, if you contact the LTB you can ask their opinion.

Blinds - were blinds present in the house when you inspected it? If not, does your lease/agreement state that blinds will be installed? If not then you're onto plums I'm afraid.

Monthly electronic payments - your contract/agreement should state which day of the month your rent needs to reach the landlord. If it was arriving in the landlord's account a day late, then he/she was correct (although to my mind, overly pedantic and unhelpful) to require you to change the payment date. If the payment was reaching his/her account on or before the due date, you had no obligation to comply with his/her request.

His (lack of) manners and English language skills are irrelevant.

Conduct all future correspondence through the agent - that's what your landlord pays them for.

As others have said, you need to determine whether or not the landlord is in breach of the conditions of your lease/agreement. If so, then the LTB should be able to assist you to end the tenancy. If not, then you have two choices, you can approach the landlord (through the agent, not directly!) to release you from your obligations under your lease, or you can resign yourself to sucking it up until your lease expiry date, and look for another rental property.

Best of luck with it all.

dbd33

"As yet we still have not received a garage door key so have to enter the house before being able to drive our car in."

I read this earlier today, gasped, and have been whimpering in sympathy through the course of the day. Imagine having to leave one's car outside for a few minutes in this, the most temperate of seasons, imagine a garage door not being powered and controlled by one's mobile phone; however do you open and close it while you're not there?

bats

bats

dbd33

We have four vehicles parked indoors, five if you count the ride-on mower. Four vehicular entrances. Operation of the vehicle doors is by walking in the person door and pulling a string. It's a bitter grind, this life of manual door opening and closing. I didn't know until I read this thread what accounted for my pervasive sense of failure, that relentless nag that something is missing from my life. Now I do and I have a goal for the future; door automation, impossible dream though it may be.

Atlantic Xpat

But what happens when the power goes out, WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE POWER GOES OUT?!!! Four vehicles, stuck indoors. Oh the humanity....

dbd33

There's a generator but still there could be a calamity. What if it's a very snowy day? We return from work, park on the street as usual, wade up the driveway to fetch the tractor to clear the driveway and suffer a delay of five minutes or so while the generator is rolled out of the person door and fired up so as to energize the big doors. Once they've booted they'll need to establish an internet connection to which I won't be able to navigate because the phone doesn't work well in bad weather. Then I'll wish I ignored technology and just employed some undocumented labourer to pull my string on demand. Perhaps the OP's landlord could provide the same.

Farmboy1892

Good old Dot!!!
There is always one who pops up with a completely useless opinion. You definitely get the award here. Perhaps you too also belong to Useless Landlords INC ??
I can assure you if you had the responsibility of three small children in temperatures like we have experienced so far this summer you would also have taken the steps I did to ensure their comfort and move to the basement on temporary beds!! How dare you judge my level of manners when we thankfully dont know each other from Adam. I suggest if you have nothing valuable to contribute you dont bother. There is enough hot air ruining the ozone layer without your jumped up opinions.

You have a great day

Engineer_abroad

I don't think anyone is criticizing your decision to do this just that unless you have agreement from the landlord that they would pay for this (due to the air conditioning but being available as promised) it is very unlikely you will be able to reclaim these costs either at the tenancy board or small claims court.

Aviator

It all revolves around the contract, does it state the AC was included and when it would be installed? Is someone in breach or not? What did the lawyer or tenancy branch say?

Farmboy1892

The A/C was agreed via the Realtor and the Landlord verbally. I asked the Realtor about this last week as when they forwarded me the contract it was not mentioned but they told me that they could provide text messages etc to say that it had been agreed. Apparently it is supposed to be installed on the 12th of July. Time will tell.
The whole experience has been an eye opener and I think the best way forward is to sit out the rest of the tenancy and move on. Dealing through an agent can also cause communication issues as often there can be mixed messages. What I have been told is that the landlord is unwilling to do anything as we rented the property in a time when the price had been reduced but recent leases in the area have gone up and he could be making more money than he currently is. Nobody can accurately predict the market at best its an educated guess however I guess if some of these properties have been purchased at the wrong time then the pay back is longer than expected on an investment opportunity than originally thought.

rivingtonpike

I don't get this. If the Landlord is saying he could get more money from a new lease, why won't he release you from the current one - if that's what you both want? He's citing rental rates being higher than you're paying and you've said you want to be released from said lease? I don't understand.

Dorothy

But then he'd have nothing to moan about.

Farmboy1892

Its quite simple = Realtor fees. When the property becomes available again there is new fees associated with it and also if it was not leased for lets say 1-2 months then thats more money down the drain. When you add it all up it would be so much easier and economical for the owner to fit A/C at the right time and come to an agreement on fixtures and fittings that the renter wont be taking away but actually only adding value to the property. Sometimes people cant see the wood for the trees. But then who am I to MOAN eh Dotty

bats