Tenants Rights When Renting In Ontario

Tenancy laws are in place to protect renters rights when leasing an apartment or home. Without knowledge of your rights landlords may be violating yours. Below are some common questions and misconceptions about leasing. 

What are the rules about rental deposits?
There is much confusion about what a landlord can hold a deposit for. Some landlords or property managers will ask for a deposit for keys or pet damages. In Ontario Canada a key deposit is only applicable if additional keys are required.

A tenant may voluntarily offer a deposit against pet damages but tenancy shouldn’t be based on having one. 

The maximum amount a tenant should be asked to pay for a deposit is the equivalent of one month's rent. Which is typically applied against their last month of tenancy.

Getting Great Tenants To Sign A Lease Agreement

The Art Of Signing The Lease

One of the most important steps in running a successful income property is signing the tenant. Having the right tenants can mean the difference between success or complete frustration. If you’ve chosen well, your property will practically run itself.

Landlords/property owners must follow a well planned process. Taking the first couple(and I’ve heard this has been done) to have first and last months rent can cost you money and sleep in the long run. Screening your prospects and proper background checks are paramount.

First, have your unit “show ready”. If it’s already vacant great, you can begin the clean up. Showing your unit before it’s ready can turn off your best prospects.

The next step is to get your advertising out there. Lawn signs aren’t enough. Many people look online for apartments as well as print advertising, learn to use it. If possible have everything set to go at once. This is your Ad’ campaign .

Staging Your Rental Unit

Most homeowners know when it’s time to sell, their home needs to look it’s best. The process of putting your home on display for potential suitors is called home staging. But what if your goal is to get renters into your unit? Many successful landlords will put the time and extra effort to “stage” the unit in the same way you might for listing it on the market. In essence you want to “sell” the unit to potential renters.

It’s helpful for renters to picture themselves living in your space just the same as buying the home from you. So the next step is to figure out what we need to do to put our rental on display.

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Investing In Ontario Real Estate Not RRSP's For Retirement.

At a recent member event for Rock Star Real Estate out of Oakville, Tom Karadza talked about the true cost of management fees charged by managed funds.

Tom quoted a recent book he was reading by Tony Robbins “Money Master The Game” where we heard about the hidden fees charged by managers.

“Most people don’t do the math, and the fees are hidden. Try this, if you made a one-time investment of $10,000 at age twenty, and, assuming 7% annual growth over time, you would have $574,464 by the time you’re nearly my age[eighty]. But, if you paid 2.5% in total management fees and other expenses, your ending account balance would only be $140,274 over the same period.”

Someone’s making out well in this scenario but it’s probably not you or I.

So if mutual funds by the way of Registered Retirement Savings plan(RRSP) aren’t a rewarding way for Canadians to save, what is?

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Ontario Landlords Ask When Is It Time To Raise The Rent?

Landlords, want a fast easy way to increase your cash flow? How about an increase in your rent collected? An increase seems like a quick, easy way to balance the books. So when is it a good time to bump up the rent? The answer I respond with is actually in two parts.

First, landlords can only raise rent on their tenants after a year of tenancy. Typical leases run for an entire year and then, if not renewed are considered on a month to month basis. This is the point you may follow the landlord tenant guidelines to raise it which is subject to regulated caps - or simply put - no more than the prescribed amount for that year. In 2015 the amount is 2.6%.  There are instances where you can apply to the Landlord and Tenant Board for a rental increase sooner (interest rates have changed significantly, the necessity to refinance to cover costly repairs).

Tenant blues

Again I'm reminded of the challenges that face many this time of year. Holiday bills are rolling in, manufacturing slows down and some of us are fighting the effects of Canadian winters. Us, as landlords inherit our tenants problems.

I must admit to something here dear readers, I don’t always feel like greeting each challenge with a smile on my face. I'm a person after all and sometimes my initial reaction is to shout, give notices and yes sometimes I even curse! Thankfully, this is done internally and when reason returns (often times with the direction of my better half)I find a more constructive way to deal with my tenants.