Today is the day I find out how the hearing phase of the RTDRS works. I have a hearing this afternoon where my Affidavit of Service is sworn in (this is confirming I served the tenant with the information I originally filed last week along with the hearing date) and hopefully receive an RTDRS order for the tenant to leave.
Some interesting points, the hearing takes place even if the tenant does not show up, I will still have to file at the Court of Queen’s Bench and for service against the tenant when I win (note I said when!). So there is still a bit of work ahead of me, but this is quite streamlined versus the old process, so I am pretty happy so far. The only issue that may arise is the provincial tenancy dispute officer may decide to give the tenant a week or two to find a new place. Hopefully no longer, and hopefully even less.
The tenant did call me last Thursday to inform me he was still trying to get the money, but I told him he had to have it to me Friday. Of course, his items were still there Saturday, no call or updates from him since the Thursday call and now we are moving on.
More updates to follow this evening or first thing Tuesday morning, follow along if you like!
UPDATE!
The tenant had a conflicting appointment and the hearing has been rescheduled until tomorrow. His conflicting appointment is with the Homeless and Eviction Prevention Fund folks. This is the fund the government set up to help people who are having difficulties affording their rent. He has been meeting with them for the last two weeks, so hopefully today’s meeting provided some funds to him to cover my costs.
Ironically this is funded by my tax dollars, so does that mean my tax dollars are funding me? This isn’t the first time we have had a tenant staying in one of our shared accommodation properties use this service. Unfortunately from past experience not one of the previous tenants who used the service ever used it to help them get on their feet. They have all used it to buy themselves a bit of time before they could skip out. I’ll keep you posted!
Update 2
I attended the hearing today and my tenant was supposed to come in to the RTDSR office this morning at 10:00 to update them on his meeting with the Homeless and Eviction agency. They were also to update him on the new hearing time of 3:00 today. He didn’t show, so we had the hearing without him.
On the good news front, I won! In an effort for fairness which I applaud, the hearing dispute officer has written an order for service which allows the tenant to stay in residence at the property. He just has to make weekly large payments to me until his debt is completely paid and then make timely rent payments until the end of December.
If he suddenly discovers this money that people haven’t been paying him, it’s win-win. I get money, he has a warm comfortable place to stay. If he doesn’t pay the specified weekly amount in the order by 4:30 each Saturday for the next two months. I get to move to the next stage. So just to step back a bit.
After receiving the order, I had to zip down to the court house and get the order filed with the courts. There is no charge for this, so at least no extra expenses built up. In Calgary it is conveniently located two stops down on the Light Rail Transit system downtown. I am going out to try and serve him tonight, this ought to be fun as he is never around when I try to track him down. If I cannot serve him tonight I will try a couple times tomorrow. Once I have served him I have to take an “Affidavit of Service” back to the court house and it will get filed with the original order.
So if he doesn’t pay this Saturday the next step is for me to obtain a “Writ of Possession”. This involves me taking three copies of the following down to the courthouse, a new form called the “Affidavit of Default” along with a “Writ of Possession”.Then within 48 hours I should receive the properly filed ” Writ of Possession” back and I can either go down there myself, with a large friend or two, or a bailiff (I believe I have to pay the bailiff, but I will confirm this for everyone, my large friends like beer) and we should be able to help him move out of the property.
The helpful lady at the courthouse suggested a bailiff if there is going to be any issues with removing him as it protects the landlord better than just having the tenants word against the landlord. I am away tomorrow during the day, but hopefully I can update the post later in the evening. If you have any comments post away!
Update 3 and 4
Looks like we had some hosting issues over the weekend and the hosting company had to restore backups from last week, so my previous updates are in limbo now! So to recap.
My tenant called me Thursday to confirm the Eviction and Homeless Fund would pay the whole amount outstanding for him, it was just a matter of getting a few last things approved. He called me again on Friday to update me that they would now pay him the amount he was ordered to pay on Saturday which was about a quarter of the total outstanding. Now, this raises some more flags as his story keeps changing, but on the positive side, I am further ahead cash wise if he pays.
Later in the day he calls back to tell me that they only gave him $500 which he was going to cash and have for my fellow who collects rent on Saturdays. Just a side note here, I have had other tenants have to use the Eviction and Homeless Fund and I seem to recall the checks always being made out to the landlord so the tenant doesn’t abscond with the funds. He was then going to pay me $40 extra the next Saturday. So my options were to be a jerk and evict him anyway, or take what money I could this week and next week would still be a great time to evict!
So Saturday rolls around and my rent collection fellow updates me that buddy only paid $400 now. Some how $100 disappeared over night, did I mention the absconding? I’m still ahead, but I’m also annoyed. So presently I have every right to go file, get the eviction completed and move forward, on the other hand, maybe he pays me next week? Am I being to soft, to greedy, to patient, or just plain gullible? Leave me a comment about what you would do!
Watch for further updates later in the week! Also, I met another landlord also having problems when I first filed, it looks like she is just at the final stage now, so good luck to you Colleen!!!
Update 5
So to catch up, the tenant was to pay money on Saturday the 15th or the party was over, as per the Court Order. The deadbeat failed to pay, no surprise. So Monday afternoon I zipped down to the courthouse again to file the paper work to have the tenant evicted for defaulting on the order. If you haven’t been to the new courthouse (which is probably a good thing), they require you to walk through metal detector. So you have to take your coat, wallets, coins, phones and even your belt off to go inside. Well there was a pretty high profile case being tried Monday, so there were two lineups about 15 people long just to get in. Didn’t look like a great start.
Once I was finally in I headed back up to the 6th floor where you do your court filing, lined up the mandatory 20 minutes and filed away. Today’s paperwork involved the “Affidavit of Default” and the “Writ of Possession”. You require three copies of each, one you leave behind and the other two you hang on to for a few days. Once it’s filed it needs to be signed and approved by someone hiding in the back and this takes 24 to 48 hours. They then call you and you have to bring your two copies of each item back to get it all stamped and approved. They have a special bin you have to look through with your paperwork, so you grab it, and line up again for another twenty minutes to finally file everything.At this point you can then hire a bailiff to remove the tenant.
In my case after I filed on Monday I received a call Tuesday morning that we needed to adjust the paperwork. So I had to redo the pages I had, make another copy and go refile. The confusion was the eviction date was for the 8th of November, but there were Stay Conditions if he paid on the schedule laid out by the Tenancy Dispute Officer. The clerk and I on Monday thought we needed to use the date of default which was the Saturday, which was incorrect. They also wanted me to expand on what section of the order he breached, what the heck I had to go down there anyway!
Unfortunately it was quite busy on the 6th floor that day, so after about 30 minutes I ended up talking to one of the clerks who was not having a good day. So after having her lecture me about not reading everything on the page and not filling out the new form correctly (I held back and didn’t mention I had filled it out correctly the day before, and they hadn’t been able to advise me about the correct date) I finally was able to file it again. so then late Wednesday afternoon the lovely red haired lady called me to tell me it had been signed off and I needed to come back down.
Unfortunately it was to late in the day, so I am off this morning to go hang out at the courthouse again. More to come!
Update 6 Nov 24th
It’s been quite an interesting few days with plenty to talk about so here we go. I wasn’t able to get to the courthouse to pick up the signed “Writ of Possession” and have my two copies also signed until Thursday afternoon and by the time I made it back to call the bailiffs I was only able to leave a message. I did get a hold of them Friday morning and started the proceedings with them. Just to add insult to injury I am already out all the rent the tenant never paid, the $75 filing fee and the bailiff costs a whopping $350 plus $65 an hour plus $.75 per kilometer to post the notice on the front door. They would also change my locks for me, but that’s extra, and I have locks on our master set that I use, so I took care of that.
The process at this time is for the bailiff to tape the “Writ of Possession” to the front and back door with information explaining to the tenant that coming on the premises is deemed trespassing and he can be charged. Since this was a shared accommodation property I was only able to change the tenants room lock at this time (and leave keys for the paying tenants) and then make sure the window was locked. So at this point I had to sit back and wait for him to call.
So come Saturday morning, my rent collector John stops to collect rent and I had asked to confirm the tenant hadn’t broke in during the night and taken off with his stuff. When he looks in the room, who did he find but the tenant sleeping in the bed. He quickly called me, and in turn I called the police while I gathered my paperwork and notes for the trip up there.
When I arrived the police were already there and one officer was waiting for me, while the other was supervising the tenant packing. We went through all of my forms and various writs and orders (make sure you keep copies for your records!) and after verifying everything was indeed in order he explained they were making sure the tenant left the premises. At this point I was able to go in and change all the front and back deadbolts as I had left new keys for all the paying tenants the day before.
As I was changing the locks I also quickly inspected the door frame of the delinquent tenants room to make sure he hadn’t broken it and it appears he came in through the window. At this point the tenant started asking me if I had received his message and a message from someone else. As always, none of these messages actually existed and were just another stalling tactic. He also complained about how there was no way he could make the weekly payments according to the order as he didn’t make that much a week. Even though he had told me no problem when I served him the court order. I explained to him that if he would have showed up for the hearing as he was supposed to, he could have explained it there, but now it was to late.
After I changed the locks and waited for him to pack what he could carry with him I chatted with one of the other tenants who had been watching TV just down the hall from the days events. Apparently the tenant had told the officer about three variations on the story about what was happening, including that he was in the house while the bailiff was there and no one gave him any information about it and he wasn’t sure why he was being evicted, plus he had no where to go. He just kept digging a bigger hole for himself.
So end result was the police made sure he left, but he could only take his backpack stuffed with what he could carry away and right now I have a room full of clothes (at least three maybe four large garbage bags worth) about a dozen boxes of who knows what and other miscellaneous items. I am stuck in a position where he has the right to have his stuff back within the next seven days, but I don’t have to keep it there. So now i have to spend roughly three hours boxing and bagging his “items” and dragging them somewhere for storage. I can charge him a reasonable rate for this storage and I can dictate when we can meet to a reasonable extent, but he has no money to pay anyway.
The other option is I can leave the goods in the room until he collects them, but if the room is cleaned up I can start renting it immediately. So it only makes sense for me to clean up after the cretin so I can try to make some rent money back.
So just to recap costs (other than the rent money I will never see), filing the case with RTDRS $75, filing at the courthouse $0, parking for the six trips downtown $40, bailiff costs $442.05 for a total dollar cost of this eviction $557.05 plus the unpaid rent, plus approximately 14 hours of filing, meeting with the tenant, attending the hearing, trying to meet with the tenant, meeting with the bailiff and meeting with the police. I still have another three hours roughly of emptying the room and then cleaning it after the fact.
So their are a lot of negatives to this, but the positive spin is I am moving forward and this is almost behind me now. This is just one of those unfortunate costs of operating this type of business. Every now and then a bad apple comes in and causes grief, stress and financial costs to those around them. I am now very familiar with the eviction process and have learned most of the ins and outs, so if you need some help with problems you encounter feel free to contact me!
I should have one more update for this by next Monday and I will also create a separate post with a list of the steps, the forms and the costs all in one bite sized list to make it less of a journal and more of a quick fact list. Thanks for following along and all the email and web comments of encouragement!
If you are reading this you probably have some interest in the eviction process, I feel your pain! Over the last few weeks I have put together some tips for landlords. If you would like to learn from our experience, and yes our mistakes, to make you a better and more profitable landlord, come read through them. They are available at the following link Landlord Tips and Advice, hopefully you find them as helpful as many of our readers already have.
To bad you can”t bill for your time.
Wow, what a proccess. Hope the eviction goes smooth.
Hi Bill,,, get rid of him…. these people know how to scam the system so you will have trouble with him all the way long…… its not being mean.. sometimes these people need to have accountability…. get him out however you can… Good Luck,
Hey Bill
I agree with Colleen. If this is a legitimate hardship case they would be dealing in a entirely different way. It’s def intentionally an effort to go as long as they can without paying and they’re pushing you to the limits.
Good luck!
Den
Kerry;
If he cannot afford rent, he would never be able to pay for my time!
Tyrone;
On the homestretch, by the way, it’s easier to do here than in most other provinces!
Colleen and Den;
He is out, life is no better and I am more educated! I gave him more chances than I should have and he let me down every time. Of course after the fact more stories leak out from the other tenants and none of them liked him either.
Hi Bill,
Congrats to your success!
Do know anyone in Calgary who could streamline this process for us in the future? Any idea what would it cost including the running around at the court house if I were an out of town Landlord? Upwards of spending 20 hours to evict these scumbags sounds quite an investment of our time. Never mind the stress that goes along with it… Good job!
rock on Bill…. good you have him out – maybe he is related to my current tennant…… I am about to write a letter to the Judge who accepted late rent from his father…… what a scam… I will keep you posted… i want to say a huge thanks to you for informing us all and educating us on the process/es…. it sure is time consuming… never mind the stress involved and none of us deal with that well at all…. but at the end of the day….. its about the principle of it all and showing example….. look forward to more posts….. thanks again, much appreciated…
a quick note to Joe…. re out of town landlord…. I am about to leave south for the winter.. I named a close family friend – male = as Power of Attorney and in my absence can handle all and sundry re my property…… he works part time and has an ailing wife… but lives fairly close to the property and was happy to do that……. I hope this helps Joe… I dont know of any other way being a sometimes absent landlord myself.
Joe;
You can streamline it by having a bailiff go through the entire process for you. You would end up trading your time back for money as the bailiff service gets quite expensive as well. There is also the option of faxing in the forms and appearing at the hearing via a telephone conference.
If you use a property management firm you may want to find out if they have extra fees for running this process for you, or to see if they leave it up to you.
Colleen;
The power of attorney method is also a great way to have this taken care of if you don’t have a property manager.
Hi Bill,
I am in a similar situation where my tenant has not even paid first month’s bill and only paid half of damage deposit. He and his gf are never home when I go to collect and they never pick up my phone and neither do their return my calls. I gave them my lawnmower to cut the grass as he asked for it but he only did a half ass job and broke my lawnmower. To top things off he dumped the grass in the blue recycle bins and made a mess of garbage in the backyard which resulted in city of calgary by law issuing me a warning to clean it up or face the fine.
Not only am I out of my rent money but they wont even be paying for the utilities and he said it clear to my face that he wont be paying any money. They also changed the locks to the premises. Can you please tell me what I need to do to get rid of my deadbeat tenants ASAP. I would REALLY appreciate a step by step process as this is my first time and I an just really frustrated by the whole ordeal.
I would much appreciate it.
Thank you
Harj
Hi Harj,
Just following up with you to see how things are progressing, hopefully the email I sent you pointed you in the right direction. If you (or anyone else reading this) have questions feel free to email and or comment here!
Bill
Hi Bill:
Fascinating read especially since my folks just went through this. And she dragged it on for all it was worth.
Evidently she got confused as to the courthouse’s location: During five our of six court dates (in a period of two months) she found herself in the emergency room at the same time she was supposed to be in court…
Anyway: she was moved out by the bailiff and the police. The question is: how long do we have to keep her junk? And since she still owes way more money than selling her stuff could possibly fetch, does it get sold against a reduction in her debt or is she supposed to claim it? How does she claim it when it would take about 4 man-hours to move it all?
Currently it is still in the house but the options are to move it to the garage or to move it to a storage facility (more out of pocket expenses including the labour to move–4 hours just loads it on a truck)
Any info or hints via email would be appreciated!
Cheers,
Alec
Hi Alec,
I see your email address is from BC, I am assuming your folks are in Alberta as the rules differ from province to province.
With the tenants frequent visits to emergency, hopefully she finds a good doctor to help her out, hmmmm.
As per her items, according to the landlord and tentant service line if the goods are valued at less than $2,000 you are able to dispose of them. If they are over $2,000 you can sell them after a certain time period, and I believe it was 30 days.
The extra headache is you have to inventory everything and who is to say that crappy looking table that they have isn;t a collector’s item, so it can be a crap shoot.
Here is the link to the Residential Tenancy’s Act and it is specifically section 31 that applies, but you should call them just to confirm with them an their interpretation. The link, Residential Tenancy Act
The phone number for Alberta’s Landlord and Tenant questions is 1-877-427-4088 and they can be very helpful (although sometimes you get slightly different interpretations if you talk to a second person, so record names!).
Hopefully that helps, love to hear how you make out!
Regards,
Bill
Very informative as I am helping to evict a tenant for my father. He has given her notice to evict, as she is two months behind in the rent. She is a single mother with two kids and laughed in his face saying “you can’t kick me out as I have two children!” She lied to him saying her husband was moving in two weeks after her ( she is not married) and has no job! Anyways before we go to Sheriffs office is there a form that informs her that such a step is being taken and that might just make her get the seriousness of the situation. Or do we just start with the Sheriffs office and get to business. Thanks for any advice….
Al
You might have some problems on your hands Al. She sounds like she may know how the systems works. Don’t worry though if you follow all the steps you can have her removed.
You said you have given her the notice to evict, was this the 14 day notice? Did you also provide two days on either side (effectively making it a 16 day notice)?. If you have gone this route you have a couple choices before you go to the sheriff or bailiff.
One option is to go to court, which takes time. A court date has to be set, everyone has to show up, or if they don’t it may get deferred, or stalled. Then you have to get a court order for when they have to be out etc.
The other faster, cheaper and easier route is to go down to the Residential Tenancy Dispute Resolution Service and file for a hearing there. You will need to fill out some paperwork prior to filing, but you can usually get a hearing within a week to ten days. All the forms and walk throughs are available here, http://www.servicealberta.ca/rtdrs/
For anyone else reading this, if you are in a similar circumstance, you can skip the 14 day eviction and go directly to the Dispute board. It will save you at least a week of waiting to see if they move out or not. Yes it costs $75 to file, but it can cost a lot more if it drags out.
I’m working on a short walk through to help people through the process, it should be online in the next couple of weeks. Al, if you have any questions you still need answered you can also email me directly at bill@housez.ca
Great site. Very profesional and good advice. I’m guessing fom your level of professionalism that you must be a R.E.I.N. member? I’m about to start an eviction process on Tues. morning on a “semi-professional tenant” and liked your “walk-through” on the process. Unfortunately I have a full-time job and can’t possibly get the spare time to go back and forth to RTDRS to fix this matter, no matter how fast it might be. Have you used any Eviction Services Companies? I realize they might be costlier, but if it frees up my time AND if they follow through completely without dropping the ball they may be worth it. Anyway, have a good wekend and keep up the good work!
Hi John,
Coming up on my sixth year as a REIN Gold member. You can contact Foster and Company for eviction services. I used them before and they were quite effective. They are mentioned a couple time sin the REIN forums as Landlord 911. Their number is 403-259-0029, Melissa is the lady I have dealt with and referred people to in the past and she has been great and email is landlord911@fosterco911.com.
Let me know how it works out, it’s important I get feedback on anyone I refer, especially if it doesn’t work out as well as hoped!
Hi John, and Bill as well,
Thank you for the time and effort you’ve made to provide all of us in the same situation with information on how most effectively deal with the situation of a deadbeat tenant.
Let me provide my perspective on the Foster and Company reference – I have used the company in the past; you are obliged to pay them before they will do any kind of services for you and their bills keep coming – they will take your deadbeat tenant all the way to court for you and win usually, for reasons pertaining to the way deadbeats chose to not deal with the world of laws – yet when your deadbeat files bankruptcy or simply disappears, Foster and Company has made all the money and you the landlord are unfortunately out another two to two thousand five hundred dollars. I DO NOT RECOMMEND USING THEIR SERVICES!
Perhaps through this there is a way that a coalition of property owners effectively comes together and changes legislation so that as property owners as well as tax payers we are not paying to support this group of people.
I look forward to a reply. I find the recommendation of faxing the forms in and teleconferencing the trial an excellent recommendation.
Sharon Szmolyan
szmolyan@gmail.com
Hi Sharon,
Thanks for the comments! I’ve used Foster and Co a couple of times in the past and it’s worked out quite well for us. I have not used them for collections though. I can understand why they would want to get paid in advance as they are very aware of the tendency for tenants in this situation to disappear and avoid all debts meaning the landlord never gets paid and could leave them on the hook after they provide services.
Other than the bailiff abilities they can provide any landlord can do all of the other steps on their own. This can include everything along the entire eviction process up until a bailiff has to come in and the landlord can even attempt their own collections afterwards. The advantage of using any of the landlord eviction firms out there is they make all of the appearances in court, at your property to serve documents and all the other steps that could take up your time. Depending on what your time is worth to you this can be a tremendous savings. On the other hand, since it is your property, you will potentially be far more interested in the outcome versus any firm who is already getting paid in advance, no matter what the results.
I’m not sure I follow you with the property owners coming together, what do you mean by taxpayers paying to support this group of people, do you mean the tenants that skip out? It’s late, maybe I just don’t understand, but if you could clarify for me I will do my best to answer!
Thanks for the great post. We are in great tension since one months. We process all the things and court favour us and gave my tenants one month notice to leave as of 15 Jan, 2010.
Now they owe me approx. $2000/- I still have tenant Damage Deposit payed by Funding.
Now they called me they are leaving in a couple of days and they want their Damage Deposit back or if I am deducting the money they need written notes.
But after deducting they still own me more than $1200/-
Also they are saying court did not mentioned when we are going to pay. So whenever they will get money they can give me but not sure when.
For Damage Deposit they never return me inspection report. So what should I do?
1. Should I gave them receipt for deducting and amount owe?
2. Should I wait for them until they move out and then give them receipt?
3. Because they never return me Inspection report so I can’t claim DD but I can deduct owing money?
4. How can I get my amount owing back from them through RTDS?
Please give us a wise advice. We tried to help them and they are very bad with us. They also reported city of calgary and we have to remove our kitchen from the basement and electrical wiring stuff.
They are 3 months behind for the rent
Hi,
Sorry for the delay replying, but here you go. You can apply the damage deposit to the outstanding rent, just make sure you do an official accounting for the money owed. Here is the info regarding this from Service Alberta (Security Deposits). Not sure what you mean about the inspection report, did you give them your copy? It’s incredible to make sure you never give away originals and to make sure you always complete a walk through inspection with tenants prior to their moving in. If they owe you more rent than the damage deposit, they won’t get any of it back.
Even though the court found in favor of you and that they owe you money, it can be incredibly hard to collect. If you know where they work you can go back through small claims court and have their wages garnished, but if they are not working you are out of luck, or if they work casual labour jobs they tend to quit and disappear. For the $1,200 it is probably not worth your time and effort to collect.
Ironically it’s people like these that cause the majority of grief for landlords and is an important reminder why you need to screen your tenants thoroughly prior to putting them in place. Hopefully this helps you out!
Hi All,
I used Kureshi and Company Inc. to get rid of a violent and non-paying tenant. I don’t think they are lawyers, but insisted on going to court as opposed to the RTDS saying that most deliquient tenants don’t take the rtdrs very seriously and can dodge the process for several weeks. Last month, I showed up and watched in the court house as their guy kicked out about 10 tenants in less than 20 minutes (one of which, I am pleased to say was mine). They charged me about $500…but I would have paid more. They were not so good at returning calls, but were very effective and I would recomend them. Their website is http://www.kureshiandcompany.com
Just for clarity’s sake, Kureshi and Company is owned by Hope Street, who Steven works for. Hope Street is one of Calgary’s larger property managers.
Thanks for the link. I have talk one of the guy on March 2009 but forgot the link after one of my friend ask their website and believe me it was hard to find or search this website and I am failed to find it by searching with different words.
Thanks Steven and Bill again for selflessness efforts for all of us. Bill you said that its better not to go for $1500/- money to get it from the tenant but I think if I go for garnisheeing process it will still cost me less than 600 right?
Because they are still bad with me even I didn’t charged them for 40% utilities for 2.5 months but they are thinking like its a charity the privilege I am giving them and expecting more from me.
Now she has a good job but she is kind of greedy and before going they want to give more stress so that’s why I don’t want to leave any money on them.
Whats your idea on that?
Thanks Again
Hi,
I would find going after the $1,500 might prove more wasted effort, it would be a factor of what your time and energy is worth to you. While $1,500 can be deemed a fair amount of money the time spent there and not refilling your property with proper tenants could cost you more. Plus it attracts a lot of negative energy!
Here is a link to the entire process of getting and collecting debt in Alberta Gettingandcollectingalberta.pdf. I tried to confirm the costs, but ended up empty handed. From my recollection the cost to file at the courts should be $100. The information almost reads as though you have to file once for the writ of enforcement and once for the Certificate of Judgement. I couldn’t determine if this is all covered with one filing cost or not and it doesn;t explain if this can be added to the debt collection.
It appears some additional costs for you will be doing searches at Alberta Registries and for also a $25 fee to file the Garnishee Summons. If you are going after assets like vehicles you have to hire a bailiff and that can be another $400 plus time and energy. Hope that helps.
I’m always interested in reading good information on landlord-tenant issues. Good luck with your evictions. I’m from California and our laws are more toward the tenant’s favor, but have gotten a little better over the years.
Great information on this topic. Thanks.
Thanks for leaving your link on my deadbeat tenant article. You have some excellent info here.
.-= D. A. Sullivan´s last blog ..The Tenant From Hell =-.
After reading Mr. Sullivan it looks like bad people in the form of tenants are in plenty in Calgary. My tenant left on 15 January 2010 and before leaving they request two more days of free living which I denied…
They left the premises around 2:00 PM and did not informed that they have left. We were happy not knowing there is another nightmare waiting for us in the basement.
After getting no reply we enter the premises which looks like a homeless peoples Den with ton of cigarettes and garbage close to 8 large size garbage bags.
Carperts were used as an alternative to Ashtray and has a black marks all over the living room carpet. Bathroom door was broken and coffee and tea marks all over the walls and Scattered ketchups marks.
Stove looks like taking his last breaths as out of four three were completely burned might be using it as an alternate heater.
We gave them furnished apartment and all sofas and bed were stained. Peculier smell were all over the place which I still don’t understand is of what.
Emptied and half filled wine bottles with full of cigarettes butts were making you feels vomit. White washrooms looks more browner and comode was red and full of cigarettes butts.Rented VHS cassettes……
It take one week to get rid of all there ugly grandma stuffs and washed the carpet with professional with lemon to avoid odour left.
I wait one month and after getting all my bills summons a Garnishee notice to the employer and the lady from hell was sitting and dealing with fake smile but smouldering face and when she saw me left the place for smoke outside.In/Out desparately.
Still waiting for the court garnishee money. Will update you sooner.
Thanks
“Professional Tenants” are every where. Out tenant from hell just burnt the rental unit to the ground. Now they plan on suing us and having us charged with trespassing because we cleaned up the remains of the mobile home we owned and they burnt.
In reading through case law and tribunal hearings I’ve learned a lot. If you can’t find any case law for your jurisdiction that relates to your case you can use case law from other jurisdictions. The best place to get case law for Canada is http://www.canlii.org. You can start searching your province and then expand. For a landlord to file an application to evict in Ontario is $170.00!! Alberta is a lot cheaper. In Ontario a landlord has the right to have the tenant get a rent guarantee. Section 10 of Ontario’s Residential Tenancies Act is the only place this is mentioned.
“10. In selecting prospective tenants, landlords may use, in the manner prescribed in the regulations made under the Human Rights Code, income information, credit checks, credit references, rental history, guarantees, or other similar business practices as prescribed in those regulations. 2006, c. 17, s. 10.”
For more info on rent guarantees I have an article published at http://socyberty.com/law/rent-guarantees/
Unfortunately the laws always seem to be stacked against landlords.
.-= D. A. Sullivan´s last blog ..The Tenant From Hell =-.
It is definitely worse out East, both Alberta and BC have started to make the eviction process itself easier, but as far as actually collecting it is almost impossible to recoup any losses, especially if they are professionals at this. Sorry to hear about your place getting burnt up, hopefully insurance covered everything, but still the pain and hassle involved are enough to make many people quit, so at times like that try and remember the good tenants who make it worthwhile.
Unfortunately insurance won’t cover it because it was caused by careless/negligence of the tenants so now we have to file through Small Claims Court. At least the amount we can sue for went from $10,000.00 to $25,000.00. Winning is one thing, collecting is another though. They expected us to leave the wreckage there for a couple of month until she gets out of the hospital. We’re trying to rent the mobile home next door and leaving the burnt out remains would seriously prejudice our renting the other unit. Not to mention it was a safety hazzard that we could be sued over. Great site Bill.
Deb
.-= D. A. Sullivan´s last blog ..The Tenant From Hell =-.
An excellent blog! As well, the comments are informative. What else have you experienced? 🙂
Now I have problem. The summon I have submitted to the company where my ex-tenant work; I called them and Manager said she no more work with her company but today I called again and customer service girl told me she still work but in different department and under the same roof and address but may be with different company name which is not known to me. In that case what should i do if some one can guide me.
Thanks
Hi Scnada,
So just to recap, your former tenant has a summons against them from you for outstanding payment? And you are just trying to serve them, or is this a garnishee summons that you are trying to serve?
You will need to confirm if the former tenant is indeed still working for the same firm or if it is a totally different company. If you just need to serve a summons it won’t matter, if you are trying to have their wages garnished, you may have to re-apply with the updated firm’s name.
Hope that helps.
Bill
Yes and out of 1800/- I got 600/- Her Manager told me she no more works with her firm but I confirmed it with customer service she still works. Manager is also not letting me to Payroll staff.
Thats seems insane that Manager is telling lie and the court customer service said they can’t do any help.Whats the point of court order if noone is helping me to get my money in legal ways?
What the point of judgement if defaulter is working on the front desk and Manager is denying it.
I will try to talk with owner of the company see what he can do for me but I am assuming nothing.
Thanks
Thanks
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hello Bill
Please help me. I have tenants who have not paid me the rent for last 2 and half months. They have been living in my revenue property(only upstairs) for last alomst 4 months. I gave them the first month free because they got rid of an unwanted tree in my back yard and helped me to put some new fence in the property.
At the time of agreement she told me to put the agreement only on her name because she gets money from government. They seemed very nice people when they were coming to me for the house but after moving in the house they started drinking all the times.
within a month i found a couple who liked to stay in the basement in the same house. they lived only a few days and then started complaining about upstairs people that how they fight, drink and make noise all the times (even 2 in the morning). Obviously I trusted them and i returned their damage deposit and they found another place to live.
Same thing happened to my next new tenant who came to live the basement next month. He moved out from my place because he did not like upstairs people. My new tenant’s doughter also called me and told me that upstairs people are damaging the property too.
when i went to see the damaged in the house, my neighbour told me there was police in the house that afternoon. No body was in the house, all the doors were open, two of the doors were badly damaged.
Then i found her in the backyard with another lady. she was crying and told me the police took her boyfriend. I asked her to get out my house this month but her tears convinced me to give her another month.
But since then she has not paid me any rent, now she is claiming her boy friend never lived with her in this house. I saw him in the house again after that incident but i am believing he is arrested again.
The thing is i have already given the house to new people who were supposed to move in the house today oct 3rd, 2010 but she did not move out of the house.
I filled the case at RTDRS last week since she told me she needed more time to find a place. My new tenants said they could manage in the basement until she is gone.
The hearing date is Oct 15, 2010. Now i really don’t know how long RTDRS will take to kick these bad people from my house after the hearing. Is there anything else i can do to make my case strong? Please help me….she owes me close 3000$ so far. she’s been saying that she would fix the doors but i don’t believe her. She also told me there are cockroaches in the house too. They are very dirty.
It sounds like you have really been taken advantage of. In the future you really need to ensure everyone staying in your property is on the lease. Second, never return damage deposits until the tenants are out and you have a chance to inspect the properties. Which leads me to always make sure you do a walk through checklist with the tenants and sign off with them.
With RTDRS, just make sure you document everything and submit it as part of your evidence. You have to make sure the hearing officer is aware you have not been paid for ages and you have new tenants waiting. They can make a ruling they have to be out right away which is your goal. If they rule they have to be out, they still can stay another couple of days as you wait for all the additional paperwork to get processed through the courts.
Since she obviously doesn’t have a job, it will be very hard to collect. You may be able to get a judgment against her, but you will have no where to garnishee her wages as they won’t take it off her government check. While it may be very generous and nice to rent to people in difficult situations, it can be a double edged sword. Hopefully that helps you a bit.
Thank you very much for the respond.
Yes i was really busy in my own life. My wife was pregnant. I did not get chance to go after them. My son was born on sept 2nd. Thats why she used me so much.
My new tenants moved in the basement yesterday for now. When i went to give them the keys for the basement yesterday the house was so hot inside. I noticed the furnace was running crazy. so i went upstairs to tell them to change the temprature. I saw about 5-6 new faces upstairs but not my orignal tenant. they told me she went out. when i told them to change the temperture they din’t know how. So they let me in the house and asked me show them how. Temp controller was broken.
So what i am supposed to do when they are keep damaging the property even thou the case is filed against them? Can i go to police station and tell them what is happening ? would they come with me and give her a ticket for being bad tenant etc.? I am really confused …. i don’t want to do something that is not legal. 🙁
Well on the positive, congratulations about the new son! At this point you need to just carry on, there is nothing the police can do as it falls under the Residential Tenancy Act and they aren’t “breaking the law”, just the moral rules of being responsible.
If you can prove they are damaging the property and are continuing to damage the property though, you may be able to escalate the court date up. Under the Tenancy Act if the tenants threaten other tenants or yourself, or are damaging the property, you can evict them under the 24 hour eviction rule. You already have your hearing date, you may want to call down to the office, explain what is happening and focus on the damage part and see if they will escalate this to get the tenants out. Be sure to explain that you are concerned about how much damage is being done, that the actual tenant doesn’t even seem to be there and that the house is full of people you don’t even know who have no regard for your property. And please be sure to let me know how this works out!
I don’t think calling Police will be any help as I did it when I gave them hearing notice they will do whatever they want to hurt you and your property. Police said tenants are more rights.
You will be lucky if you have done inspection report than you can claim extra damage. And best things is to find their work place or bank account details in advanced. If there is a any written agreement than court will give same notice to them.
Be mentally prepare for a worse and big mess they will left when they will leave. You will be lucky if they leave all well. Do you have any written agreement even writing by yourself on the page .
Scnada
Finally she called me Today not for the rent, but just tell me that i did not give her a proper evection notice.
In the end of August she told me verbally that they would move out end of next month. I only gave her evection notice because she was trying to get me some money from Calgary housing or redcross.
But now she saying i did not give her a proper notice. 🙂
sorry i just opened my computer now so its too late to call RTDRS. May be Tomorrow
I work night shifts, come home 7 am. 🙁
Thanks guys for guding me in this hell. I am at the point where i might just sell my house
At this point if you already have the hearing just continue forward. You do not need to have a 14 day eviction notice in place to attend the RTDRS, in fact it slows the process. If you did it incorrectly it could actually speed up the process. At this point, you cannot trust or believe anything she says, so do not accept anything she is telling you about payments or her moving out as the truth. Just continue forward, during the hearing if you are willing to risk even more of your time and money you can get something written up by the hearing officer saying they have to make installment payments over time. If they miss one of the payments then you can process the eviction within usually 48 hours and have your property back shortly after.
However from everything you have told us about so far, don’t make a deal, just get her out. I have some more information on the process available here, The Alberta Eviction Process
Thanks agian Sir.
this is great help. ok so i will just wait for the hearing which is on Oct 15. But meanwhile if they do more damage to the property or don’t treat good with downstairs people can i still give her 24hr evection notice? What if they don’t vacate the house after 24 hrs?
So I went for the hearing Today, I have the judgement against the tenant for $ 2500 plus utilities for last 4 months. The agreement is terminated and she will have to give $500 on or before Oct 19.
If she is unabe to give me $500 then she has to move out of the house by Oct 23. But if she manage to give me $500 then she can live in the house untill Oct 31.
Hi Gurnam,
Hopefully you get your property back on the weekend. Good to hear they went in your favour!
Bill
hello Bill
sorry i could not get a chance to visit the website(i am going to tell you why). so this is what happened. On Oct 23 she was supposed to move out befor noon. I did not get any phone call so i went to check at 12:40 pm. She saw my car outside and came out with two other people. when i asked her she told me she needs more time, i told her no you already had enough time. when i went towards the house they did not let me in the house and told me i had to bring sheriff in order to get her out.
i went in my backyard becouse i knew they had a pick up camper…Just to know if they are tring to move out. But i saw big pile of ash. In that ash i saw a few door knobs. so i knew they were damaging more to my house.
I did not wait and went to the police station, told them all story. They gave a number to call. so i called the number and was told police will be at your house in a few mintues. I came back and was waiting ourside the house in my car. A guy and a lady came out to me i told them police is coming so talk to them.
as soon as i told them they went back in the house and started taking whatever they could and ran away from the side door. Police came like half an hour late. they checked the house and backyard could not find anybody. they told me i could change my door locks.
When i went in the house i saw everything was badly damaged like stove, fridge, washroom vanity, closet doors, room doors, walls,carpet everything. i found 3 full bags of remaining cigarattes. they also stole my tv, dinning chairs, a cieling fan and they left all their junk in my house an old sofa,chair and really dirty matresses and few other items.
one of the officer told me i could sue her but if she does not a job chances are i won’t get any money from her. plus i would be spending more money out of my pocket.
so shoud i do nothing and forget everything what she did to me?
Hi Gurnam,
My time to apologize, sorry things have been a bit hectic for me and I have been delayed responding. If she isn’t working right now it is most likely you will never see any money from her. You can most likely get a judgment against here which can be attached to her credit history and block her from pursing any additional credit, but someone like this is unlikely to have and/or use credit anyway since you probably are not the only one she has messed up. The positive side about getting a judgment is that if her next landlord pulls here credit as part of their tenant screening process it will show up and protect them.
I have an article on the process of getting a judgment and garnishing wages here, Collecting from evicted tenants! , which may help you if you wish to go that route. Hopefully this provides soem ideas for you. Worst case this was an expensive course in how important it is to adequately pre-screen all tenants!
Bill
Thanks Bill I really appricaite your time.