Ontario Landlords and Tenants

I'm going to post below an excerpt from a well connected and established mortgage broker here in Barrie who has owned multiplexes. His post is an excellent reason to showcase why it is so important to use those that specialize with Rentals. Not just someone that wears many hats and does not work specifically with Tenants on a daily basis. Why? Read below. There are some great tenants, don't get us wrong but get the wrong one? It will turn you off real estate investing and the reason why you will hear of "tenant horror stories". Who would you rather entrust your property with? (This is why it is our mandate at Shannon Murree and Team of RE/MAX Chay Realty Inc Brokerage in Barrie to work with Landlords to rent the properties and longstanding history of over 14 years. Why? We are real estate investors ourselves.) Ontario Landlord's perspective:

‎*Just curious, in today's climate for you Ontario LLs, how many months a typical loss ends up being? (not counting legal and sheriff fees, etc.)* Here is a typical example: This tenant only gave one month's rent ($1000) on move in: Rent is due on the first late on the second. On the second, you serve an N4 notice to the tenant to pay the rent owing, or move within 14 days. *If tenant moves out, you are out one months rent.* *If tenant does not pay or move in 14 days, you file an app with the LTB, if you are lucky, you get a hearing by the end of that rental month. If tenant shows up, several things can happen at the hearing: Tenant has real good excuse why he is late with rent (example job loss), so the adjudicator will force you to keep tenant on a payment plan. The arrears he owes you will be added in increments of $200 a month along with upcoming month's rent for the next 5 months. NOWHERE IS IT ALLOWED TO BE STIPULATED IF THEY DEFAULT, EVICTION IS IMMEDIATE! *If he doesn''t pay next month's rent along with the extra $200, you must file again with the board (it's free this time) and usually the tenant doesn't get a notice of hearing nor do you have to provide them with one. *The hearing date you get may be in 2 weeks if you are lucky (we are now into second month of no rent being paid) *At the hearing you explain your case to the adjudicator that tenant defaulted on a hearing order payment plan. So the adjudicator prepares a hearing order for eviction which is good in ten days (or it could be immediate-not sure) The hearing order gives the tenant 10 days to move out or landlord will hire sheriff. *Tenant gets this in the mail, they don't move out in ten days so you must hire the sheriff to evict on day eleven. *After hiring sheriff, within a few days sheriff goes and posts move out letter to tenant giving them another couple of days to move out. Tenant still does not move out. Sheriff comes back in a week to physically evict. Then you must keep tenant belongings for 3 days before disposing. I think this added up to three months. Add another month if they don't show for first hearing and filed for a review hearing (which will be granted) Add another month if your hearing dates are later (like 4 weeks after filed app instead of 2) or you call sheriff at Xmas (they won't evict for 2 weeks around xmas and this creates a backlog) Minus one month if you had received first and last month's rent from this tenant. Cost for hearings is $150, cost for sheriff $350. Cost for a paralegal to represent you is $400. Haven't even included damages or your time and aggravation as a landlord. But you go in to inspect for damages and the place is trashed. Thousands of dollars in cleanup and repair. YOU CANNOT FILE AN APPLICATION FOR DAMAGES BECAUSE HE IS NO LONGER YOUR TENANT! So you now have three months rent owing ($3000) plus $500 in fees to evict, $400 legal fees plus damages. Your ex tenant has flown the coup, so could be very hard to collect from them. But when you do have a hearing order with an amount for arrears of rent (and filing costs), it can be transferred to a small claims judgement (approximately $75) and you can fill out garnishment forms if they are worth garnishing and you know where they bank and/or work (for $100). These fees are added to the total judgement amount. Sometimes tenants that disappear, reappear on the radar. A small claims judgement is good for seven years and then you can renew it. It will also appear on their credit report. So as a landlord in order to recoup this cost you raise your rent for the next tenant and raise it every year and keep it high forever just in case this happens again.