becks_r

Our rent isn't cheap - although it is cheap compared with south east England where I am from. But comparing renting in UK and renting here, I had more inspections in UK and I had to keep up a certain standard or I would have been out. We have been in this house for 3 years, no regular inspection. Lots of visits though, because we report every problem to the property manager.

The thing I don't understand is these tenants seem to be so happy to live like that. It doesn't matter if it's a rental place or your own, surely you want to live in a comfortable environment and having piles of crap around and never cleaning the fridge seems wrong in all houses.

I am suddenly reminded of Pacific Heights - nail gun anyone

BristolUK

I suppose 'observation' from whoever makes those visits is good enough if there are no obvious signs of issues.

becks_r

The first house we rented we saw the landlord the day we moved in and the day we moved out. He originally said he wanted to be able to drop in anytime, but he never did and once I moved my dog over I suggested it wouldn't be a good idea as I couldn't guarantee what the dog would do. In reality I knew she would bark loads and then cower behind some furniture, but luckily she was a big dog so he never risked it!!

But I know it's difficult, especially if you don't live close to your rental property and life is time consuming, but I think observation does nip things in the bud. I am just glad the property manager doesn't judge on tidiness!!

becks_r

I suppose it is easier and cheaper, especially in US, to pick up random crap at the kerbside, than to hire a van to move it to the next place. I am sure most the time they aren't leaving antique heirlooms!! Although it's amazing the things I found in the attics in UK, people seem to only pack the things they see everyday!

magnumpi

We rented for the first few years in Canada and would have never dreamed of trashing the place for any reason. We were thankful for having a place to live, I just don't get the slum mentality of these single mums with kids !!!

scrubbedexpat091

We usually get 1 inspection per year, they do it normally when they do the annual fire alarm inspections everywhere I have lived. Only been here though 7 months so no idea about this place.

The landlord himself is absentee he has a resident collect rent and deal with small things but I have never seen nor met the landlord.

Even when there is a vacancy it will usually sit a month or 2 before anyone gets around to showing it. And the vacancy rate is like 0.5% so it should rent fast is it was shown.

But since the building is for sale and they are marketing it as buy for 7 million and then sell each unit, they might be leaving them empty to try and make it easier to sell. We have a lease until Jan 31 then it's month to month which means no housing security.

becks_r

It's always horrible to go month to month like that. One of the places I rented in UK was going to be knocked down once building permission was given for the block of flats they wanted to put up. Of course, we only got told after we have signed for a year contract, so we knew after that year it would be month to month and no idea how long.

The landlord tried to keep our deposit after we left because 'we had put too many nails in the walls and we hadn't kept a pristine garden'. Oh the arguments I went through to get it back. The house was being pulled down, the garden was becoming a car park - why care about nails and weeds!!!

BristolUK

Different kettle of fish in those circumstances, but in a normal situation no security for the landlord either.

I've never had anyone not only wanting month to month.

DandNHill

First things first. Our best tenant in our five years as landlords was a single Mom on benefits with two small kids. When she left to move in with boyfriend she paid us in lieu of notice. She was excellent!

We have had to deal with holes in walls and doors kicked in. The wires on the fridge being cut and in excess of 70 bags of garbage that we had to fill first. Most of them leave owing rent. Yes there is the small claims court but you have to be able to serve them court papers first and then hope their wages can be garnished. Somebody said about garnishing assistance..yes it can be done!

Our latest is tenants who had at least 12 cats!!! Now the house smells!

But there is sometimes a silver lining. We have new tenants moving in at the end of next week. They're paying a substantial deposit and signing a rent to own agreement. All being well within12 months it will be theirs. If not we get to keep their deposit.

BristolUK

This could, of course, be province related. I can see how someone on social assistance would struggle to pay rent and heating in NB, if not in social housing or low rent/low quality housing.

Struggling to pay is, of course, different to wilful damage which there's no excuse for.

Again depends on the province, maybe. All the small claims court here does is allow you to win your case. There's no comeback for the defaulter if they don't pay, because they haven't defaulted on anything. It's nothing more than a legal ruling that they owe you.

Enforcement only comes after another legal action.

That was me. It does indeed appear it can be done in this province.
I'm surprised. But it does appear to need the cooperation of the defaulter though.

And if they are defaulting - another way of saying they're not cooperating - I have to wonder how much they will cooperate.

That can be hard to get rid of.

cxx

We've rented a few times over the years. One place the property manager commented that it was left cleaner than when we moved in - the previous occupant was the owner.

becks_r

As someone who has never had a place to rent out, although I thought about doing it when I lived in UK, it does seem you either get a great tenant or the tenant from hell. It also seems difficult to judge which way it will go when you start the relationship.

We have always tried to keep the house we rent the same way as one we owned. So always a bit messy, always have to tidy before parties. But I wouldn't dream of deliberately damaging a house I rented (except I should have broken that fridge before I bothered to try cleaning it )

I think there has been a fundamental shift at some stage regarding renting a place. My grandparents would have ticked all the boxes that would ring alarm bells to landlords these days. They were working class, didn't have regular jobs, sometimes worked 2 or 3 jobs at a time, but equally often didn't work at all.

They loved parties, so any occasion was an excuse to get the family together, and their parties went on into the early hours.

They never had a car, they got a TV very late in life but as the TV lived in the best room, they rarely watched it and normally listened to the radio.

But they wouldn't dream of wreaking a place, their house was always spotless. My Nan would be out cleaning the front steps, the front path was clean, she would even sweep the pavement in front of the house. I remember her telling me that elbow grease didn't cost anything!!

The point is that just because they were poor didn't mean they had to be slovenly. They would have hated people pointing the finger at them because they had let the street down with mess, or if people came into the house and the house was dirty. Also, because they never expected to buy a house, the house they rented was their home, so it was treated like that.

I suppose my point is that if you had driven down their street in Peckham, London every house down that road was probably rented. Every house was probably filled with at least 3 kids at some stage. Some houses would have had more than one family living it, like my parents living with my Nan after they got married.

But all the houses would have looked well looked after and clean. No screaming children running around, no crap in the front gardens, no broken down cars in front of houses. But if you drive through a poor part of any town now, that's what you will see!! No pride in where they live, both inside and out.

becks_r

I second that comment, cat smell is difficult to get rid of. Our landlord has obviously had problems with cat owners before, as our lease agreement has a cat clause. If we wanted a cat we would have to pay another $150 a month for the privilege. Luckily I'm not a cat person

scrubbedexpat091

Month to month has its benefits for some, but at this stage in life, stability of a lease is important.

With low vacancy and high rents, having to find something in this market is insanity if your budget is in the 900 or less range, and if your price limit is in the 600-700 range or less, well up the creek mostly likely, our place is 900 and its a financial burden, but we live in what is considered the bad area of town, and we get to see some interesting criminal behaviors most days, so not really possible to downgrade since we are already paying what would be considered low rent.

Insanity right now to be on month to month, and I am not looking forward to January when the lease ends.

The new tenants who move in no longer sign fixed term, they are all month to month, older tenants who moved in before March have 1 year leases, and building is for sale, so they want everyone to be month to month to make the place easier to sell,and they are leaving some units vacant now to bring down the amount of people living here.

scrubbedexpat091

Seems garnishment of social assistance might vary by province?

In BC it doesn't appear to be permitted at the source, but can be at the bank level if the person has money in the bank.

"Employment insurance and social assistance payment cannot be garnished, but there are no exemptions for money that is sitting in a bank account."

Getting Results Small Claims Procedures Guide - Procedures Guides - Small Claims - Court Services - Ministry of Justice




I doubt any province housing assistance can cover the actual cost of rent unless in social housing but those are difficult to get into, and once outside of Vancouver pretty non-existent.

In BC a single person on social assistance or disability gets $375 for housing, and well you wont find housing that low, many end up having to use their entire assistance just for housing.

But seems once outside of BC & Ontario (and maybe Alberta) assistance levels go down, especially for disabled.