Article by PMK
My husband experienced a few bad tenants over 35 years as a landlord and I wholeheartedly understand, empathize, and support every SOLO landlord who has expressed their rental experience here. The RTA is ridiculously biased in favour of tenants and where that Act finishes, privacy and human rights legislation kick in and further tie your hands from openly vetting a prospective tenant’s ability to pay. Each year the wait for a hearing at the LTB has become longer and IF you receive an Order of Eviction and order to pay, the tenant leaves just before the sheriff arrives and of course, s/he does not leave a forwarding address. Unless you can find the tenant to serve them with a notice to appear in Small Claims Court to follow up on collection, you cannot proceed. If they do not appear, they are supposed to face contempt of court and arrest. Sounds good, but you must warn them that this is possible, and you cannot find them. More legal fees, collection agency, private investigator – where do you turn now without gambling more money to recoup some of your loss?
Although I can predict the very words SOLO landlords are going to say next when describing their story, I would like to give owners one upbeat tip – students make excellent tenants. I am not speaking of students living in frat houses or university residences, but those who rent from private landlords, such as yourselves. In smaller communities some landlords do complain of a college or younger university undergraduate having a rowdy party or two on weekends because they finally feel independent, but generally after Orientation Week, life gets serious.
If first-year students do not continue living at home, they normally live on-campus. Therefore, as a landlord you tend to rent to students who are at least in second year and in the case of larger universities, you may rent to graduate, post doctoral students, staff, or faculty. Students are serious-minded, focused on getting good grades, graduating, and landing a good job somewhere. Their goal is not free rent as with a professional tenant. They almost always have willing parents as guarantors and/or OSAP (gov’t student loan), possibly a part-time job, scholarship funds or research grant and there is often an emergency university grant or on-campus room available to a student in dire straits. International students are also wonderful. They invest much to come here; they pay much higher tuition than domestic students and they are not about to waste that money and their opportunity in Canada to be on the run from a landlord due to rent arrears or damages.
Some of these tenants will only rent from September through April. Still, many students arrive in May from other parts of Ontario to do internships or co-ops for 4 months. Many medical appointments to teaching hospitals and faculty positions begin on July 1st each year. How many of you dream of turnover right now?!
They may not have a rental history or a credit score, but they can document whether they have the money to pay the rent and show student identification. It may take more than one student to rent your accommodation depending on its size and rent. The closer your housing is to a fair-size university, the better your chances are of renting to a member of that educational institution.
To return to the bad actors my husband had over the years, not one of them was a post-secondary student! Do not give up if you can afford it, look in a new direction, and support SOLO’s goals.
