The Rental Property Owner's Club

Can a landlord in Ontario Canada Charge you for ending a lease?

admin — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 20:16:23 +0000

Before my husband and I even signed the original lease had they begun lying to us as tenants as the unit we looked at had a few "issues" we were told would be fixed prior to moving in such as needing wall repair in the bathroom and removal of garbage left behind by a prior tenant. Well moving day came along and low and behold when we got the keys not only was the unit which was supposed to be cleaned as promised had not had this done as there was dirty floors and dead bugs on the carpets as well as garbage in closets and a large work desk in the basement that my husband had to dismantle and remove in pieces. The house had an "off" smell and mould on the ceiling in the bathroom that despite scrubbing on a weekly basis never truly went away. The light switches were missing the plates in a couple of spots and there were missing floor vents (furnace)in two of the bedrooms. One of the lights in the basement did not work as well as the wall in the bathroom still had not been painted (eventually did this myself in the late fall of 2009 ) nor the broken door replaced (this was eventually done however, it was still unpainted when we left in 2010) and to top it all off in the time we lived there we had two major problems with the structure. The first one happened in February of 2009 when ice build up in the winter caused the roof to leak and caused water damage to the drywall in the master bedroom, something that despite writing up two work orders was still unfixed at the time we ended our tenancy in March of 2010, in fact we had to contact the property management company’s head office before we even got the snow removed from the roof to prevent a leak that needed to have two large bath towels used every 1/2 an hour to clean up from continuing to soak the wall, carpet etc. Eventually the roof was "patched" (new shingles over the part where the leak occurred in the roof) in the spring however, the original shingles which were the same age as the house which was built in the 1970’s were never replaced.

The second was the main transformer for the fuse box in the house going which was fixed immediately but, I fear that was only due to the fact this happened after Nov. 1st and there is a rule about heat and hydro in the Landlord and Tenants Act along with the fact I had a small infant were the factors here. Lastly they are not very timely with their paperwork when raising your rent as you MUST get 90 days notice before an increase when your lease it up for renewal in our experience the lease expired the end of October however, the paperwork we received was dated the end of June and it was not physically delivered to us at our unit until the end of August well under the guidelines despite having a rental office and staff on site. There was also an issue when they showed up two days late to fix/test the furnace for the season without 24hrs notice and I had little but, no choice other than to let them as it was mandatory and I didn’t want to run the risk of no heat.

So therefore when we got the house immediately the next day after the paperwork had been finalized with the lawyer and the move in/out date arranged we sent a letter to the property manager’s office explaining the situation EXACTLY as it had occurred at giving them over two months notice when requesting to be released from our lease, which we thought wrongly that in doing so they might allow since we had been good tenants who always paid our rent on time who kept our unit spotlessly clean, didn’t throw wild parties or disrupt the enjoyment of other tenants and didn’t have any "eyesores" garbage etc. out front or back, got along well with our neighbours and weren’t just abandoning the unit BOY WAS I WRONG! The reason being that despite our reputation as tenants we still got dumped on for by noon that same day January 22, 2010 and without even coming down to our unit to discuss the situation and try and work out a solution we received a rather offensively worded letter that stated the following points:

-You have signed another full year lease term. You signed August 30, 2009. The term of your lease expires on October 31, 2010, which you will be held responsible until that date or until we rent your unit.

You are welcome to physically vacate anytime you wish, but you wil be held responsible for the rent until October 31,2010.

Recently as my husband has learned upon contacting the office that the unit has been rented for September and that our rent which we paid for August will be returned to us however, there will be a $200 fee. I have looked thru my copy of the original lease and cannot find anything about a "fee" for breaking the lease early only that you would have to pay for the remainder which we have done. I also cannot find anything to state if this is indeed legal in Ontario
According to the landlord the $200.00 is for a "Lease Fee" not anything to do with advertising or maintenance. The Landlord and Tenant Board of Ontario once again has proven usless as they did with all intital issues when they occurred. If we could have left earlier we would have unfortunately there was no other housing in our budget available at the time and they would have charged us regardless of when we left. Just grateful it’s over.
Also important to note we probably would have stayed on and continued to be tenants until the end of the renewed lease if it weren’t for an unfortunate event in my family that resulted in the inheritance of our current house. All of this was explained at the beginning of January 2010 when we requested release from our lease. It is also important to note that if it were not for the fact I was at the time of renewal in the late stages of a rather complicated pregnancy requiring bed rest and thus unable to search for alternative housing we would not have choosen to renew the terms.

August rent will be returned? That’s generous, since it’s already the 22nd and the new rental agreement isn’t until September. Anyway, fees are legally allowed. You need to re-check your lease in all the areas. The "fee" doesn’t have to be expressly for breaking the lease. It’s also legally required for a landlord to make reasonable effort to minimize fees in general. In this case, that could be the cost of marketing to lessen YOUR financial burden. $200 is reasonable for advertising to save you the extra month’s rent. You should thank them.

I also can’t see what was agreed upon in the letter you received since this must be a heavily edited version. Otherwise it wasn’t "offensively" worded at all.

The rest of your ridiculous story went unread. Any time you’re having an issue, you need to deal with it at the time. If it was so awful, you should have left sooner. This question needed only be two paragraphs.

Baltimore Real Estate Investment – Rental Rehab – 1515 Lemmon St

admin — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 12:32:11 +0000

This is a deal breakdown of a property that Dominion purchased, renovated and rented in Baltimore City. It details our initial underwriting assumptions, the renovation with before and after pictures, and a summary analysis of the actual economics of the renovation cost and rent that we were able to get.

Duration : 0:9:52

Technorati Tags: baltimore investment property, baltimore real estate, baltimore rental rehab

Coldwell Banker Property Management – Dorothy Ennes

admin — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 12:32:09 +0000

Coldwell Banker property Management manages single family residences, individual condo units and small apartment complexes in the greater Puget Sound area.

We can assist you with property management:

If you are moving out of the area and want to rent your home while you are gone
If you are looking for a rental before you purchase, remodel or build, and/or
If you are interested in buying an investment property.
Our goal is to make sure you receive professional service, to protect and enhance your investment and to reduce the potential headaches of owning a rental property.

Duration : 0:0:55

Technorati Tags: Apartments, bain, banker, bellevue, coldwell, condos, dorothy, ennes, for, home, homes, in, management, microsoft, Properties, Property, puget, redmond, Rent, Rental, Rentals, seattle, sound, Washington, wisdom

Office Space Calculator | Commercial Property London | Commercial Estate Agents – Devono

admin — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 12:32:05 +0000

Devono (http://www.devono.com) – We offer free tools such as our office space calculator allowing your users to calculate how much space they need – quickly and easily.

We are the only commercial property estate agents in London to exclusively represent tenants looking for office space to rent.

Duration : 0:2:11

Technorati Tags: calculator, commercial, devono, estate, Lease, London, Office, offices, Properties, Property, real, Rent, serviced, Space

property sensex franchise exhibition pragati madan commercial lease call 011-46333333

admin — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 12:32:04 +0000

property sensex-real estate india commercila leasing expert across india

Duration : 0:1:6

Technorati Tags: across, commercila, estate, expert, India, Leasing, Property, sensex-real

Puerto Rico Beachfront Vacation Home Villa Rental | Yoga Retreats Surf Vacations

admin — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 12:32:03 +0000

http://www.VillaOrleansPR.com is a beachfront vacation home on the west coast of Puerto Rico. Your home away from home or a family beach vacation. Read our Trips Advisor http://bit.ly/Villa-Review
This 5 bedroom villa is large and has everything you need for a home away from home. Read our reviews and see why families return year after year.
There is also a large deck used for a yoga studio and retreats. http://villaorleanspr.blogspot.com

Duration : 0:4:55

Technorati Tags: beach resort, beachfront vacation rentals, caribbean villas, home, Homeaway, oceanfront, puerto rico hotel, retreats, rincon pr, rincon puerto rico villa, trip advisor reviews, yoga

The Spot Loft Rental 705-933 Seymour St Vancouver BC.

admin — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 12:32:03 +0000

The Spot loft rental 1 bedroom loft in Downtown Vancouver. Presented by Advent real estate Services rental property management specialists.

Duration : 0:2:39

Technorati Tags: loft, management, Property, Rental, spot, the, Vancouver

Real Estate Management Software/Property Management Software

admin — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 15:12:13 +0000

www.realtorbrick.com

RealtorBrick is a property Management, real estate Management Software, which allow you to manage your properties. Realtorbrick is developed for real estate agents, property Builder and property dealers.

Duration : 0:6:16

Technorati Tags: estate, is, management, Property, real, RealtorBrick, Software

Our Property Management Process: Leasing

admin — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 15:12:13 +0000

Leasing team Tanja Milosevic and Theresa Prak discuss the thorough process of the Downtown Suites leasing arrangements, with company president, Nicholas Meyer.

Duration : 0:8:27

Technorati Tags: bc, Boutique, Downtown, estate, management, Meyer, Milosevic, Nicholas, Property, real, Rental, Suites, Tanja, Vancouver

The People’s Court- “Bad Landlording” Part 1 ['It was infested with mold and ants!']

admin — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 15:12:12 +0000

ThePeopleCourthttp://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/users/thepeoplecourtEntertainmentthe, people, peoples, person, persons, court, room, courtroom, judge, law, lawyer, plaintiff, defendant, litigants, bad, crappy, shitty, shoddy, landlord, landlording, tenant, house, home, apartment, rent, lease, loan, lend, security, deposit, move, in, out, mold, leaky, pipes, bathe, bathroom, tub, ants, police, exterminator, bug, insect, slumlords, cops, fix, repairs, mildew, son, smell, air, conditioner, problem, sink, water, dampThe People’s Court- “Bad Landlording” Part 1 ['It was infested with mold and ants!']

Duration : 0:8:26

Technorati Tags: Air, ants, Apartment, Bad, bathe, bathroom, bug, conditioner, cops, Court, courtroom, crappy, damp, defendant, deposit, exterminator, fix, home, house, in, insect, judge, Landlord, landlording, law, lawyer, leaky, Lease, lend, litigants, Loan, mildew, mold, Move, out, People, peoples, Person, persons, pipes, plaintiff, Police, problem, Rent, repairs, room, Security, shitty, shoddy, sink, slumlords, smell, son, tenant, the, tub, water