The Ontario Landlords Association (OLA) and its sister organization The Canada Landlords Association (CLA) are leading provincial and national organizations for private small residential landlords. We provide a unified voice for private landlords and promote and protect our members' interests to national and local government.
To the Ontario Landlord Association Re. Changing the Annual Rent Increase Guideline
Today the Ontario Liberal government introduced proposed legislation to amend how the annual Rent Increase Guideline is calculated under the the Residential Tenancies Act.
January 25th, 2012
You are a small scale landlord. You offer a great property at a great price and hope to find a nice and decent tenant.
Have you been “targeted?”
Here is a recent post on Kijiji:
Tenantrights2012
Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2012 5:38 pm Post subject: Social Justice? LLs Won’t Rent to: OW/ODSP/Bad Credit!
More and more Tenants across Ontario are finding landlords are colluding and scheming to create a joint force of DISCRIMINATION against people on government assistance or have damaged credit!!
If you are on OW or ODSP, or have damaged credit get ready for rental doors to be SHUT on you!
Thousands of good Tenants face discrimination in the rental market daily and need to fight back!!
If you are on OW or ODSP or have damaged credit, here are some tips for you to get into a rental to make your home.
1. Do not waste your time with corporate landlords. They have policies of discrimination. If they know you are on social assistance they will shred your application and not reply. It is corporate policy! I acted as a landlord and called a building and spoke with a property manager who said their policy is not written down, yet every manager knows the corporate Minto policy is: NO OW, NO ODSP, NO GOVERNMENT ASSISTANCE.
2. To avoid wasting time and money, it is best to find a “mom and pop” landlord. You won’t find them on most of the paid rental websites because they want to save costs. You can look here at Kijiji where ads are free. Or if you have a friend with a car, drive around and you will see some “For Rent” signs on lawns. Third idea is to go to local places like Price Chopper, Freshco, Metro, No Frill and look at their free bulletin boards. “Mom and Pop” landlords will put free ads there.
3. Mom and Pop landlords don’t check credit because they don’t like to pay $50 to check. Unlike the corporate landlords who all sign up to credit check services and have a policy of checking everyone. So if you have damaged credit this is your best bet.
4. Never say you are on “welfare” when you meet the landlords. This is an instant redflag for them. Say “Ontario Works” or “ODSP.” Many mom and pop landlords don’t know the terminology.
5. If the mom and pop landlords question you about Ontario Works or ODSP make sure you tell them it is “government assistance” and that means the rent money will come directly from the government to the landlord. The landlord likes the sound of this security.
6. To seal the deal, most Mom and Pop landlords rely on a former landlord reference. This is impossible if you are coming from a shelter or had problems with your last Misunderstood landlord. It’s a good idea to get friend with a cell phone to act as your last landlord. It may be a bit dishonest, but finding a home is about survival and having a safe home is more important than a little fib. Make sure you write down some details for your friend. For example, an address, an amount of rent, and the date you moved in. Also make sure your friend says some things the Mom and Pop landlords love to hear like
“She was very clean and quiet.”
“The rent came directly from the government.”
“I’m sad to see him go.”
7. Remember, even you pay a deposit it doesn’t mean you can get the place. You need the key and need to put some of your stuff in the property. That means legally it is your place and you finally get a few Tenant rights.
8. When you move some stuff in, take some pictures for proof you have possession.
9. If you have pet, do not tell the landlord. As soon as you move in, you can bring in your pet and you cannot be evicted for this.
10. When you are a tenant make sure you read the Landlord and Tenant Board website because you finally have some rights. The important thing is to get in the rental and get a Home.
Is the Ontario system fair? Look into it. Contact your local MPP. Just realize: you have been targeted!
January 10th, 2012
You decide to invest in residential rental properties in Ontario
With so much money at stake, you don’t take your investment lightly. You’ve looked into a variety of potential investments and decided to invest in residential rental properties in Ontario.
Now it’s time to cover all the bases to make sure you start out right and have a plan for success. You go through the categories, from finance to marketing.
Location, location, location
Being a careful and cautious investor, you spend months researching which area you want to buy in. After all, you know the old real estate adage ‘location, location, location.’
Financing
You work with your mortgage broker or bank to find out out how much you can spend and to make sure you can pull the trigger once you find the ideal property. You carefully work out all the numbers. You are pre-approved and know what your budget is.
Buying the right property
You work with a reputable Realtor to find the ‘right’ property in your targeted area. Now it’s on to carefully hiring contractors to make your rental property safe and attractive.
You feel you’ve done your due diligence and are on the right track
Carefull planning. Research. Hiring the right people and creating your team. Patience. A good business plan. You are on your way. Or so you think.
What do many Ontario landlords miss?
Many smart and professional Ontario landlords neglect one aspect of their business. The law. Before entering any industry it’s important for you to learn the laws governing it. Many landlords are not fully aware of the Ontario Residential Tenancies Act.
How difficult is it to simply rent out an apartment or my basement?
This isn’t Alberta. This isn’t British Columbia. This isn’t P.E.I. or Newfoundland. The laws in Ontario are complicated. Very complicated. Everything starts with the Ontario Residential Tenancies Act (RTA). Tenants are very well-protected under the RTA. This is especially so after the Ontario Liberal government’s amendment of the Act in in 2006. When the amendments were proposed, there was a consultation process with various stake-holders. Small scale landlords were not represented.
Don’t landlords have rights too?
Under the RTA, landlords have rights as well. However, you have to see the thinking of the people who made the laws. Tenants are essentially viewed as ‘victims.’ After all, they cannot afford to buy their own homes, right? Wait, you’re not buying it? Here’s more. Landlords are viewed as wealthy and powerful. Landlords can afford to hire over-priced paralegals and lawyers. Landlords can afford to wait 3-6 months to evict a non-paying tenant. You get the picture. Remember, small scale landlords were not represented during consultations to change the RTA.
Wow! Please tell me more about the Ontario Residential Tenancies Act.
The Residential Tenancies Act, 2006 covers most residential rental units in Ontario including mobile homes, care homes and rooming and boarding houses.
However, there are some situations where a rental unit may not be covered by the Act or certain parts of the Act.
For example, the Act does not apply if:
Many of the rules about rent do not apply to:
Note these units are still covered by most of the other rules in the Act, such as maintenance and the reasons for eviction.
Note the Act does not cover commercial tenancies.
Where can I learn more about the RTA?
You can read the RTA here. Read it carefully. Twice. Daily.
January 1st, 2012
After years of hard work you have some money saved up.
How can I make this money ‘work’ for me? you think.
Stocks, bonds and mutual funds
You consider investing in mutual funds, or even taking the risk of investing in stocks and bonds. The closer you look, the riskier it looks. It’s far too unstable for what your goals are.
Bank Accounts
How about a bank account? It’s very low risk and you won’t have to think your investment every day. You do some research, make some calls, and realize putting your money into a bank account will yield you such little profit it’s not worth getting your bank account bankbook out! The big banks might make money, but you won’t.
What about Real Estate?
As you continue to look for investment opportunities you remember one of your relatives mentioning he did well buying and flipping real estate. You also have a friend who bought a residential property and rented it out to tenants. The more you think about it, the more this makes sense!
So you want to be a landlord?
It seems pretty simple to be a landlord. You buy a residential property and rent it out. The tenants pay you monthly, which covers your mortgage payments. If you buy the right property and manage to rent it at a high rate you will also be making ‘cash flow’ every month!
Mortgage free and cash flow galore
You get out your calculator and see that if you put the cash flow back into the property you can pay off the mortgage in a few years. This means the rent will come directly to you and your wallet. This is serious money!
If you hold on to the house, it might appreciate
You look back at house prices from a few years ago and see houses in your area have gone up in value. If you look back ten years ago, you see they’ve almost doubled. You make a ten year plan and imagine how much your rental property will be worth a decade from now…and you can sell it mortgage free!
You have a fool proof plan and think “why isn’t everyone doing this?”
A closer look at being a landlord
Everyone isn’t doing it, because there are far more challenges than at first glance.
Over the next few months, we are going to tackle important issues and answer questions about becoming a landlord. Lots of topics will be covered, from choosing an area to invest to describing how to fill out an N4 (that’s what you serve when your tenant decides they don’t have to pay rent!)
Happy New Year!
It’s December. There’s already been a little snow and you are feeling the Holiday Spirit. Deck the Halls is playing from your CD player and you are planning to buy your tree this week.
Who’s naughty? Who’s nice?
Part of your holiday tradition is to buy Christmas gifts for your family and friends. Since you became a landlord, you now have some tenants. Hmmm, you think how the past year has gone and you realize you have some great tenants. Not only do they pay on time, they have been very understanding of your need to get an appraisal done, were patient when it took the plumber an extra day to fix that leaky toilet, and even called you about some potential maintanence issues allowing you to go in and repair before a larger (and more expensive) problem hit you and your wallet. They saved you a small fortune!
My tenants are nice. Should I buy them gifts?
You truly appreciate your tenants. You want to thank them and Christmas seems like a great time to do it. What about buying them a small gift? It could be a small gift for the entire family, right? You know they have two kids, so what about toys? Or a how about something for the parents?
You head for the mall to take a look and hope you come up with an answer. Hmm, Harry Potter novels seem like a good idea. At least you know your children love them. What about this nice calendar for 2012 for the family with pictures from scenes from the best Caribbean beaches? Hold on, look at these gift cards for Future shop, Best Buy…hey maybe this one for a family dinner at Boston Pizza? What about simply a nice bottle for red wine? Christmas cards? Movie passes?
Wait a minute, what if my tenants misunderstand my motive for the gifts?
Hold on. You served the tenants a notice of rent increase for January 1st. What if they taken the gifts the wrong way?
You’ve never done this before.
There’s the possibility they might think they are paying you a lot of rent money…perhaps too much rent money. You are getting rich “off their backs” and throwing them a token in return for your spoils? Will they think that? It’s not true, but what if they they do?
That calendar of Caribbean beaches? Could they think that’s your holiday thanks to December rent? Those gift cards? You have 50 inch tv and eat at restaurants all the time because you are a rich landlord (you don’t and don’t, but they might think that)? You only want to give gifts as part of the holiday spirit and to show your appreciation, but what if they are not Christian and think you are trying to push some sort of religious agenda on them?
Not only could you ruin your relationship, they might want to move out when the lease ends. Could this backfire on you?
There’s no set and easy answer
What do experienced landlords do in this situation? How can I learn from others with experience to make sure I don’t make newbie mistakes? Landlords have different ways of dealing with all sorts of situations. This is one of them.
Some landlords find sending gifts a great relationship builder. Others avoid it. Others take a middle position and send cards.
Read what landlords think at the Ontario Landlords Advice forum HERE
Alberta Landlords
Residential Tenancies Act
British Columbia Landlords
Residential Tenancy Branch
Manitoba Landlords
Residential Tenancies Act
New Brunswick Landlords
Office of the Rentalsman
Newfoundland and Labrador Landlords
Residential Tenancies Division
Northwest Territories Landlords
Rental Office
Nova Scotia Landlords
Residential Tenancies
Nunavut Landlords
Provincial Rental Authority
Ontario Landlords
Landlord and Tenant Board
Prince Edward Island Landlords
Office of the Director of Residential Rental Property
Quebec Landlords
Regie du logement
Saskatchewan Landlords
Office of Residential Tenancies
Yukon Landlords
Landlord and Tenant Act
