Mar 27 2007
Régie
It’s pretty awful when, as a landlord, you have to go to the Régie du Logement (the rental board of Québec).
Our costs went up considerately compared to those of the old owner because the value of the building is much higher now so both our property taxes and the insurance premium went up considerably. We’re paying more than twice the premium as the previous owner, partly because she was underinsured.
Since we want to be good landlords we used a online form provided by the Régie to calculate exactly how much we legally could raise the rent. And even tough I showed them the calculations and I was willing to show them all our bills, all of our tennants refused the proposed rent increase. That is their right but still.
Our tenants pay a really low rent. We know, because we also enjoyed such a low rent when we were tenants. When I tell people the rent our tenants pay for their apartments they always shake there heads in disbelief. It could be easily twice as much.
The problem is that the rents were so low that the owner couldn’t afford the maintenance anymore. So we really have to increase the rent in order to be able to do some major repairs to the house. We don’t have much savings left and some things just need to be done in the next couple of years.
So to the Régie I went, expecting to encounter long lines of other disgruntled landlords. It was raining heavily and their offices are in an office building in the Olympic Village. So I wasn’t in a good mood when I finally got there. But no, there was nobody before me and a friendly man helped me with my application. He was handicapped and filling out my forms went rather slow so I asked him if I could help. “Yeah, sure!,” he replied, so I ended up copying the alterations he made to one of the forms to the other 11 forms.
Then they all got a big stamp on them, and I had to pay almost 200 dollars in fees.
Now we’ll have to wait for the day of the hearing, when the Régie will decide what the new rents of our tenants will be. I hope they will be high.
It’s difficult to be an evil landlord, but I’m getting better at it every day.
Tuesday, 3 April, 2007 @ 13:29
You’re not evil. The reason why we all refused here is because the landlord does nothing – not a thing! – and we improve our apartments ourselves. (We each ended up giving him the slight increase the Régie allows, because we’re nice people, very nice people: we have to endure house visits almost every week these days!) He’s also committed fraud and when he last took tenants to the Régie he had not one paper to justify his requested increase! (“You don’t pay enough” is not a very good point when you don’t even have bills to prove you spent anything!) The wiring and plumbing are incredibly old, most of our windows were last updated in the 50s. No – you’re not evil. If I got service, I’d be willing to pay for it. (But seeing as my rent is already high because said landlord preyed on our need to be near the Kid’s school…!)
Wednesday, 4 April, 2007 @ 14:35
In fact, let me know if ever you have a 3 or 4 bedrooms available!
Wednesday, 4 April, 2007 @ 15:32
You think we want you living above us? Someone working at home making noise all day, with a Kid and a husband on crutches? No way… :-)
Besides, our appartments are cheap but don’t have 3 or 4 bedrooms They’re only smallish 4?’s with two bedrooms, a livingroom with connected kitchen, and a bathroom.
Thursday, 5 April, 2007 @ 05:59
Our apartments are cheap now, but they’ll be squarely mid-market for the next tenants – if any of the current tenants ever move out.
And we are definitely, absolutely evil: we think that “you don’t pay enough” is a completely valid reason to raise the rent. Without income, how are we supposed to do all the work on the property that so desperately needs doing?
Wednesday, 11 April, 2007 @ 09:51
Hehehehe. You’d be surprised how little noise we actually make. I have a strict no jumping, no running, no talking to someone in the next room rule. And we’re barefoot people. No really, the cats running around make the most noise here. And the crutches? Well… we call him the Succion Cup Menace – you can hear him coming! We’re gone most summer weekends, and this weekend was the first time we ever had more than three people over and the first time any noise was heard after midnight. We improve our apartments and maintain the rest. In truth people are scared when I say five cats, one kid, but we are the best tenants anybody could wish for (and it’s such a waste to give that to our current landlord!). ;-)
I think when families got smaller in Québec landlords started splitting large apartments into smaller ones – it’s absolute hell looking for a 3 or 4 bedroom place in Montréal. What would I do with a 4 and a half? That’s what I got when I lived by myself! One kid, one couple, one office – gees, we are asking for luxury… I’m just glad we don’t need to move this year.
Alison… perhaps you should stay home the day of the Régie hearing… cause… I don’t think the judge will like that attitude! ;-) (Mid-market is good, by the way. What I don’t understand is the fives and a half for $1200 on the Plateau, with ads that read “great for a young family”! Hmm yeah. A young family moving in from Toronto perhaps, or a gay couple with high incomes, but… y’know, when rent is higher than a mortgage, there kinda is a problem. Mind you the problem is also with the idiots willing to pay this, who ruin it for the rest of us.)