My tenant owes more than 11,000 dollars in rent arrears and damages at this property. We rented it to the tenant on November 25th 2020 for a rent amount of CAD 2500.00/month for the entire townhouse.
Within the first week of tenancy I received complaints from the neighbors about Tenant being too loud and playing music too loud till late in the night. After this, the rent payment cheques started bouncing from the next month December 2020 due to insufficient funds in her account. I advised the tenant and she paid the rent late for that month. But again the cheques due for the month of Feb, March and April 2021 bounced and she hasn’t paid the rent at all.
The tenant turned ghost and was not answering at all to our emails, phone calls and messages. She suddenly went silent and blocked our numbers. We visited the property regularly but no one answered the door even if they were inside the house. We had no idea what was happening inside our unit as the locks were changed so we were not able to visit for inspection. We also saw posts on rental sites where tenants had put advertisements to sublease our unit without our awareness. This led us to think something sketchy might be happening at our property.
We bought the house after a lot of sacrifices and hard work. Also, my wife’s job had gone to part time in 2020 and there were chances to lose the job. We have landed in big financial trouble due to this tenant issue. On one side I have to pay my mortgage each month and on the other side I am not receiving any rent. Our entire family savings is getting depleted. Above these costs, we also have to send money to the family back home and so many other expenses. All our finances & plans went into vain because of this tenant.
On the other hand, the tenant’s financial position seemed to be very strong as per the documents she had provided. Her annual income was about 94,000 dollars and she had also told us repeatedly that money is not an issue for her. Affordability was not an issue for her but her greed took over due to the current market scenario and delayed Landlords and Tenants Board (LTB) hearings.
Somehow in early-April, we had to change the locks and then were able to establish contact with her. At first she started yelling and called the cops but later she had to agree to sign the N11 form (Mutual agreement to end the tenancy) as police officers were at the scene and she knew she was on the wrong side.
At the date, she fled from the property without informing us early May leaving heaps of trash and multiple damages. The floors were full of trash, eaten leftover food on the carpet, spilled coffee all over the floors, bottles of alcohol and cigarette ashes all over, holes in the wall. Place smelled like a dump yard. It was sickening to see our first dream property with our hard earned money in this situation. She is nowhere to be found now. She owes us more than 11,000 dollars in rent, utilities arrears and damages at this property. Sadly, I don’t think I will ever be able to recover this money from her. People like her feel they can misuse the system as nothing is going to happen to them because of the partial judicial system towards tenants. This period was so horrific & stressful for us!
Now we don’t know what we want to do, whether to sell as we are very scared to rent again. Sharing some pictures for reference.
Thanks for this support group!
Sagar – a pseudonym – is a “desperate” SOLO Landlord in Brampton, Ontario.
