Wow, what an interesting couple of days I’ve had. Would you like to hear some of it?
It all started early Monday afternoon when I went to drop off a receipt to one of my shared accommodation tenants. Just to catch you up, I rent out shared accommodation properties to working men in Calgary. Fairly simple accommodations, four or five rooms in a house, each with their own lock, fully furnished including linens, cookware etc. Color TV’s with full cable in each room. Perfect for someone between places, just arriving in Calgary for work, or someone who doesn’t have a large amount of cash saved up for a security deposit and rent.
We have simple rules for the places, originally they were everyone had to have a job, there was no smoking in the properties, no drinking, no drugs and no overnight visitors. With the drinking, we don’t mind if the guys have a couple beer, but our goal was to clamp down on the places being party houses which typically happens with these types of properties. Also by having jobs, that meant no one is hanging around the house all day.
Well over the last 9 months with the slowdown, we have relaxed even more and have taken in people on social assistance, people in need of a hand up and some guys just down on their luck. On one hand, it was meant to help us out by filling up some of our vacancies, a means to stem cash flowing out when it should be coming in. On the other hand, it was also a method to help people and organizations needing help.
So, back to Monday, I arrive at the property, head on in and find two non-working tenants sitting there drinking and smoking with a third female I don’t know. Ashtray’s are out, everyone seems to be having fun, at least until I show up. I literally blew up, if you would have seen me you would have turned around and walked away, I was livid. I explained my position, what they could do with their cigarettes, ashtrays and booze and stormed out to my next appointment.
When I arrived back at the office I filled out the evictions for both tenants and then rushed back to sign in two other fellows into two other places and took a few minutes to drop off both evictions. The party was well broken up by now and just the one fellow remained who was quite shocked that I was giving him an eviction. We had a very short conversation and I left.
I had already given the one fellow a second chance and since I don’t play baseball I don’t use a three strike rule, I will give someone the opportunity to correct their behaviour once, then it’s over. So fellow one was done, fellow two who I had the short conversation with, had been a pretty good tenant up until that point. I was not in the mood to talk to either of them again that day, but by 7:00, the “model tenant” had called and left two messages. I had already discussed with Karen I would give him his second chance if he followed the rules over the next week.
So I returned his call, spent ten minutes listening to him whine about how unfair it was (this is the part I don’t understand, it’s fair for these jerks to smoke in my property stink the place up, cause me to pay for new carpets that are burnt, replace burnt sheets, repaint rooms at my time and expense, but it’s not fair for me to kick them out) and finally told him to shut up and listen as I was giving him one more chance. It took a moment for him to understand, and it finally registered as he became very thankful. When I finally got off the phone, I was worn down and put the phone down for the night to charge.
This morning, I grab my phone to check email and found the fellow had called twice more last night. So after the kids off to school I called to find out what was up, hoping for more apologies, recognition of what he had done being wrong, that type of call. Instead, he was telling me I shouldn’t kick out the other guy, and I should let his stay as well. I spent several minutes on the phone explaining the other guy was done, had his chance and was not staying.
It’s when he told me I should be a human being and to help this other guy out that the conversation rapidly fell apart. I have gone above and beyond what almost any other landlord would do to help people out. I looked back and of the last seven people I helped through these agencies, I have had one person who I have not had any issues with and he is currently there. The people I have helped have included six people who I have evicted, have created five different police incidents, two complaints by neighbours, several thousand dollars worth of lost rent, damage to property, a stolen car, homemade knives and weapons, complete disrespect of my properties and me and this meathead is telling me to be a human being. I told him the other guy was going, I wasn’t changing my mind the conversation was over and I was hanging up, which I did.
About an hour later, I get a call with the same prefix as the area this fellow was in, so I ignored it and let it go to voice mail. I fully expected it was him calling back to plead yet again. Two minutes later my wife Karen calls me to tell me the neighbour just called and the police have surrounded the area, have assault rifles out in the back alley and no one on the block is allowed to leave their home. I immediately grab my stuff and start heading out when the police call me.
I had to run back in check my files and provided names and info on the tenants that are there and when I tell them I am heading over, they warn me to stay two or three blocks away. Since I cannot do anything there, I realize I might as well get back to my desk and wait to hear from the police. Over the next couple of hours, I end up talking to the constable twice more and dispatch once more and finally find out that they have everything under control.
The end result is the individual who I had planned on letting stay called the distress center and told them he
was going to commit suicide. Potentially because I wasn’t going to let his “buddy” stay. It also turns out this guy had previous issues with the police, so they sent everyone available, including the police tactical. We talked to the neighbour later in the day and she informed us there were at least 30 police there, what a great way to make an impression on the neighbourhood. The individual was taken to the hospital by the police and was being held to sober up and to assess his mental state by various doctors.
This was a huge call for attention for this guy, a huge waste of everyone’s emotions and a big wake up call for me. I’m tired of helping. That’s it. My problem tenants are all the ones I am trying to help, yet they are dragging me down. I’m angry, I’m depressed and I feel beat down because I cannot help people who obviously don’t want help. Or at least don’t want help if they have to work at it.
The worst part is I am lumping in many good people who are really down on their luck and having to shut my door to all of them. What is wrong with people? Why don’t more of them take responsibility for their lives, for their actions and for how they represent themselves? Is it just that easy to let society take responsibility for them, to make everyone help them out as part of social rightfulness? Or is it just easier for them not to care, to coast through life and take what they need as they need it?
Could my constant exposure to this negative life be tearing at my values? Have I managed to become so callous as to build what could only be called disgust, or a disappointment on the soft side, for people not carrying their weight and abusing the system? Specifically my system lately?
Keep your values. Help people like you are but stick to your 2nd chance policy. No third chances. Don’t get emotionally involved in the business procedures. Don’t debate your policies. No drawn out discussions. That is fair.
Certain people burn all their bridges and keep moving on sucking everything from a situation and giving nothing. Thats why those people have no where to go.
Others actually need a hand and will respond positively to your help. Pat yourself on the back. You helped someone.
Don’t waste any energy on the other people. Don’t argue or debate. They have lived their whole lives learning how to make people fell sorry for them. They’ll weed themselves out.
No matter what you do some people will never agree to be responsible for their actions. This is their story. Stick to your values and approach. Sorry to hear about the stress they have caused you and Karen.
Iagree with the above comments, give them one chance,if they screw up F—’em. Bill you are one of the most kind,generous people I know. You live from the heart, to me that is evident. There is no need to second guess yourself.
You & Karen are great!
Maybe moments like these give opportunity to reflect whether you should keep going with these houses—-is the income worth the stress? Only you can decide and follow your heart and your head!
You are one of the GREAT LANDLORDS SO PLEASE DO NOT GIVE UP or change the way you do things. Please beleave that what goes around will come around. I am one of those good tenants and I am helping my current landlords to evict 3 tenants from hell. They might be your tenants sister and brothers. It’s a shame that you can not post information about good and bad tenants because these 3 would never rent again. Just remember you did all the right things and this site helps out all the good people. God Bless keep up the good work
Your story is similar to mine. I have just begun to realize that there are people out there that will not take responsibility for their actions. I agree with your 1 screw up policy and i will be using it in the future. unfortunately these people tend to know the landlord and tenant act like the back of their hand so be careful to follow the rules to get them out.
Knowing the rules is very important for anyone hoping to be a landlord. You have to understand them as well if not better than your tenants just to protect yourself at some times. On the other side of the coin, there are still many great tenants out there, so we have to make sure we don’t drop the first person we find into one of our vacancies and ensure we do the proper screening on any potential tenants. This can help significantly reduce any potential headaches!
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In rural Alberta, Can I evict a tenant that I think is dealing, Athogh, I don`t have any prouf
I just want them to move with out me having a reason. I have asked them to move in good will because we don`t get olng. but they always tel me that thay will fight it.
They are on a month to month lease.The other tenants don`t feel safe with them in there.
How mach time do I have to give them to move?
Hi Isolina,
You need valid grounds to evict someone and unfortunately you have gone with a month to month lease, so that also makes it tough. You do have one option though, increase the rent and effectively drive them out. If you haven’t raised the rent on them in the last year you can give them 90 days notice of a rent increase. Alberta doesn’t have a cap on how much you can raise it, so if you want them out double it.
If they decide to stay anyway, it maybe worth it. You have to provide three full month’s notice and it has to be written notice, so the increase wouldn’t take effect until August 1st if you gave it to them before the 30th of this month. This may not be the fastest solution, but it might be the best route for you. Hope that helps.
Bill
Bill you are a slumlord, whether you agree with it or not! I don’t feel sorry for you nor the situation YOU let happen. You rent out rooms not homes. Rooming houses should really be outlawed in this day and age. Most are unfit to be safe and you have so many insane rules, that are bound to be broken often even by most regular sane people. Judging by what you’ve written, I would say it’s making you an azzhole unless you were one already. You ONLY promote people with little resources(not always unemployed but spending money on their addictions) to stay in areas that they wouldn’t be able to otherwise, putting whole nieghborhoods at risk. You should be renting out homes to families or simular, unless these places are substandard, which is the cheif reason houses become rooming houses in Calgary. Because you obviously do NO real background checks and rent to sociopaths with criminal records. That puts the whole nieghborhood and EVERY tenant you rent to in the same place at extreme risk. Would you like me to rent rooms out in your nieghborhood to criminals and drug addicts as you do? For your family members to deal with on a daily basis and friends who want to avoid you, not to mention the huge property value plunge you cause. I they were smart, they would sue you and charge you with willful and reckless endangerment as EVERY landlord has to provide reasonable saftey and security under Canadian and Alberta law to it’s tenants. You have just publicly confesed to these crimes. You are the sick one here Billy Bob. Taken advantage of these poor and often mentally unstable people ONLY to feed your ten times worse sickness GREED!!! You should be in Harlem or East LA not here!! You deserve what trouble you get, you sicko!! I feel sorry for communities and other tenants lives you’ve made worse in your psycopathic quest for money at the expense of the lives in which you ruin or worsen with no remorse, but in fact publicly ask us to feel sorry for you(like as if your the real victim here). I only pray you never make enough to afford an apartment building and do this sick junk on a massive scale. You exasperate substandard quality of life and actually, truly believe that your helping them. When in reality, your promoting an industry of dubious nature, man has been trying to end nigh on 3000 years now. Thanks for the throw back Billy Bob.
Wow, you really haven’t read much of my information have you? I’m not asking anyone to feel sorry for me, I’m just explaining my experiences to people to make them aware of what’s going on out there. You are rather ill informed to suggest that rooming houses should be outlawed, they are a necessary part of housing for not just major cities but even small towns. I would like to think what you really want to have removed are the substandard properties that are below any type of reasonable living standard.
I’ve had numerous tenants move out of those styles of properties as they were “cost effective” and into mine as we have some fairly high standards for what we will rent out. I’ve had people tell me of renting places that were over crowded, had no electricity in rooms and instead used electrical cords snaked down hallways, properties that were simply drug houses, places that supplied little more than bare mattresses on the floor and I can emphatically tell you my places are substantially superior to them.
Yes I do get some people with little resources staying with me, but my average tenant most likely makes more per year than most people. Tons of my clients are referrals frorm various unions around the city who are coming to Calgary for short term work projects. Clients who are making in excess of $100,000 per year, but don’t want the burden of locking themselves in for a six month lease, having to buy furniture, set up utilities and create a separate home in Calgary when they have their own personal home in another province.
I’ve had pilots stay with me, financial advisers, husbands going through divorce, engineers, CEO’s and many more solid individuals. One of my requirements for tenants is that they are employed or actively going to school, it’s when I tried to help people that I get screwed, which is why I help less now. Where do you get off dictating who and how I should rent my properties? Again you are lumping me into a category that you have created, not one that I belong to.
When the economy was booming we actually had cleaning staff go through the property once a month, as the economy slowed down we had to cut back and now do the cleaning ourselves, we have lawn crews come by to maintain the yards, we have had owners in neighbourhoods actually ask us to buy properties in the area because we take better care of our properties than landlords who rent out to families and many homeowners.
i have numerous letters, testimonial, and even recommendations from people and services talking about what a great service we provide and how clean and nice our properties are. Hell I make neighborhoods better!
I deserve what trouble I get and I am a sicko? If you knew me, you wouldn’t even be saying this. I have done more to help people than you can possibly imagine, i have put myself at physical and financial risk numerous times simply in an effort to help or protect people.
If you are a real person and not some former tenant I kicked out for breaking my rules I challenge you to come meet me in Calgary and I will take you through one of my properties. My contact information is all over this web site and I am easy enough to find.
Bill Biko
Well Billy-Bob I read ONLY what you wrote! What’s with “When the economy was booming” crap? I run an aviation business and a corporate real estate law practice here in Calgary, and it’s booming now and has been since the late 1990’s with labour shortages province wide in fact, unless you live in some other Calgary thats crap. Just proof of what little facts you know of what your talking about. Pilots and other wealthy business men stay at these places, is just knee slapping funny. I have ALWAYS stayed at hotels, apartments or vacation rentals that the company pays for, not some rooming house with people I don’t know from Adam (could be psychopath’s there for all I know) with little to no security offered, other than they are employed, as you wrote above. Lets face it, no over night visitors, drinking or much of anything that isn’t monk like is prohibated is NOT going to invite MANY executive travelers whom are used to being in control and not restricted like some convict at a halfway house . You may have a few of these wealthier business types, but lets face it, it can’t be very much with the insane rules, like being employed for starters. Not even a hotel cares about that, as one ALWAYS pays rent up front!! This “exposure to this negitive life be tearing at my values?” is most certainly a cry for pitty!! As if this is making you a worse person, as you appear by what you’ve written, that your rather militant and cold by nature(I could be wrong but your writing says otherwise too everyone). Whether this happened recently or has always been this way, I don’t know as you’ve never said otherwise. No matter what you claim about being benificial to the community, it’s bull 110%. Once you run a house as a multi-dwelling unit (basically a substandard hotel) the value drops and everyones insurance rises around as the risk raises, regardless of what fiction you tell yourself or others. Hence why nieghborhoods like Forest Lawn, Ogden have such lower value property with mostly rentals and tons of multi-family units all close together. Lets face it, you have even said that you don’t know what kind of person your renting to exactly and the ones you say are down on luck are being a pain now times are bad in your minds eye. Yet you say nothing about how you put your other tenants at risk with these obviously risky people by your own standards. Just proves of how you ONLY care about money and nothing else or the lives you effect in the race to feed your addiction(sickness) too greed. Making people aware of whats going on out there? Come on, get off the high horse Billy-Bob! YOU provide the facility to facilitate these types of issues just for your greed of money!! If you didn’t provide facilitation, what you are so defensive about a “flop house” (slang for a rooming house), then NONE of these issues would have risen and caused you dismay and appear to be pittyful. Granted I’m not saying single family units are trouble free, but they are a huge amount less trouble, as a matter of record. That’s why very few people run flop houses globally. Remember YOU chose to do this and talk about this publicly with the tainted view of you being the victim in all of this. You should really bare in mind, not everyone will share your view or see it as you do. Your certainly saying it from inside the fishbowl looking out, and most others here can see that very clearly. I’m not dictating to you, I just critiqued your veiwpoint and you just got all over it like a teenager or church council board when questioned. Shows us all your mental level. The word sicko was used as to whom is actually worse? The unresourceful person renting these rooms or the guy renting the rooms to people you said you knew were without means? It’s a toss up for most, but in the end, you both feed on each other and must bare equal part in this illusion to both of your addiction sicknesses . Yes it is an illusion, as you went way out of your way to distance yourself from being the image of a rooming house(flop house) and tried so hard to appear too be an apartment like place for executives, when reality your a flop house renting to people down on their luck as you put it. Places that rent rooms out for short terms these days are called B&B or Inns and are quite successful and have vastly better image with less troubles as flop houses do, hence that you ranted above about your tenants not paying and partying or rather by your words, just drinking. Lets face it, you aren’t charitable or this would be a hostel(like the Mustard Seed) instead of a rooming house that conjures up images of the slums no matter what you think. Why would you even state your fears that I might be some former tenant is just childish, beyond belief and validates you true nature. Then to say “come to Calgary” tells me just how out of touch you are, as this is a Calgary article on a Calgary based website done in a rather poor manner. Adding an image of Polish police just makes this website appear to be very cheap or run with little care as this is a Canadian, Calgary website about Calgary landlords.
I’m not sure why the site is called investor’s housez, as it has nothing to do with investments really, just a landlord rant site from what I’ve read thus far.
Wow Ceri, you seem to have some bottled up rage.
Yes the market has significantly improved, but we are no where near the level we were at from mid 2005 to near the end of 2008.
Glad you received a knee slapper from me. I’m glad you were able to take advantage of company resources for your travels. Westjet actually has a pilot training center here in Calgary and when pilots come out for training they have to take care of their own accommodations. Many stay with friends or relatives, but I have had numerous stay and recommend me to other pilots.
My rules are in place to provide a safer accommodation, if you find them insane I’m just thankful you are not staying with me. These rules help set my properties apart from the flop houses you refer too. If people want a place to get drunk or stoned at, then I do not want them. On one hand you are deriding me for running rooming houses and then you chastise me for having rules.
Perhaps I do have a cry for pity showing up here, but at the same time I am making others aware of what is going on out in the world, actually right in our local Calgary world. Yes it does wear on me over time as I have to deal with many unique individuals on a day to day basis….
Why are you stuck on the angle of me being driven by greed? You are making some pretty loose assumptions considering you don’t know me. As I’ve mentioned here and in other posts, I have helped out a significant number of people in many different areas of my life, yes I have made mistakes by trying to help some individuals, but now I am an asshole for trying?
I guess it would be great if everyone shared my views, but it doesn’t work that way. I don’t have a problem with a critique, but from what I read with your initial comment and this follow up comment you are not critiquing, you are attacking. This type of behaviour is reminiscent of many tenants I have seen that are astonished that they are being asked to leave from my properties for breaking rules or being jerks. Perhaps this is why I thought you might be a former tenant.
Finally you are attacking my website and suggesting it’s done in a rather poor manner? Ow, you big meanie. You don’t have to stay, I’m not sure how you even found me, I’m sorry if you found it offensive to you. You don’t know me, you don’t know the people that read my posts and you have little regard for me so other than taking up some of my time this has been an interesting departure from my normal comments.
I think we are done now.
Bill
Billy-Bob, I’ve hired pilots from WestJet and at $15,000.00/month after taxes, they aren’t staying in a boarding house(it’s beneath them really at their wages and lifestyle levels). Westjet does pay for accomidations but not in Calgary as that’s their base. Most airlines expect you to come from the city you were hired in like the head office location at your expence. I worked for them from the time I left the Canadian Armed Forces Air Command until 10 years ago as an ATP so I know exactly how they work.
If your rules were too provide safer accommodations they would make some sense(abstinence from sex, drink and anything but eating in a shared area, showering, going to shared a washroom, sleeping and talking quietly isn’t anyones idea of freedom outside of an oppresor in the last 75 years), but if your places were secure to start with, not just some lock on an interior bedroom door (I doubt they are steel doors with steel frames or fire proof) to one room, there wouldn’t be a need for all these rules. It’s just like a hotel but yours has many times more rules. Why? Because they are unsecure and most likely had to put into place to try to hinder the trouble and bad rap your company was going to get over these lapses.
Don’t worry, I would NEVER rent from a slum lord(doesn’t matter how much you roll that cowpie in sugar, it isn’t going to become a doughnut) a rooming house isn’t a rental property one boasts about in general with the stigma it has earned in the last 300 years. I OWN my places and rent real places to stay at, like vacation rentals(house) or hotel suites. I make far more than enough income to be comfortable and be in control of my surroundings.
The reason I came here was because I was directed here by the Google search engine after looking up Calgary investments. Your title to the website is extremely misleading, as Investors Housez does come off as a stock investors website. When I got here. I just couldn’t believe that there are still guys like you with outdated 50 year old thought patterns of oppression. Those out of touch images you had drawn with words.
I don’t have any rage issues either, I just don’t like seeing oppresion that I saw when I was in combat in Bosnia(were I got my rages out so people like you, are secure in oppessing others like the ones I faught against for our nations ideals which you obviously don’t share). I just thought I would make you think some, but obviously your extremely narrow minded from what you’ve typed. I’m ussual upbeat happy go lucky that doesn’t often let things bother me, but human indignity. You practice just that, under the illusion that your doing good. Just like Lybia, Iraq, Yugoslavia, Afganistan and many other places did. Granted yours isn’t on such a grand scale but it’s there for the world to see if they look. There isn’t anything you can do to stop people from seeing this fact, just keep on denying it… Yah that’ll make it go away.
This Jerry Springer line of “you don’t know me” just validates your true mental level. You right though, I don’t know you but I do know what you wrote.
Yes I did attack your website, as it appears to mostly be rants about one thing or another. Not much on how to do anything, but mostly plagiarized news atricles with odd images(like polish police used in this story about Calgary).
I also find it odd that you have all this time to put up these webpages on a daily basis if you have such a booming business, in rooming houses that are run with such high maintaince to bring to neighborhood’s image up, as you so clearly stated earlier. That should take up so much time. I came here three times and accessed your website from two differnt location around the globe, given odd time inputs, yet you reply within hours, shows you are online most of the time.
Well your also right. it’s time I went on my way, as you obviously enjoy oppressing others instead of treating them as true equals and cannot see any other veiwpoint much like the Catholic church did in the dark ages.
I’m not angered with you but rather feel sorrow for you, as you cannot see what your doing, like a dog bring you a dead skunk for a gift into you home with the house becoming extremly smelly.
It’s those oppressive atitudes that force these people to try to cheat you or simply leave. Less are coming back obviously with ton more options to renters today. I rent out houses myself and one apartment building and I have a waiting list for people to come in. It’s been that way for nearly a decade now. If you rans your rentals properly you should be the same way to.
Fact is renters are seeing a boom due to the high home prices still. Yes the market is lowering the home value by $21,000.00 on an average home in Calgary but the fact is. when before the average home price in Calgary was $469,000.00 is now $448,000.00 is a tiny drop in th ocean as the houses are still in the 1/2 million dollar price range and out of reach for most or if they buy, they struggle to meet the morgage payments. Hence why luxury items like video stores went away, resturant chains dieing out, department stores of med luxury items going away. Rental prices of my places at $600.00/apt to $1,500.00 house per month versis the minimum morgage bill for the house of that price being $2366.41 every month.
@CeriThomas.
It truly is an interesting scenario you paint in your altered mind of Bill’s property isn’t it? I ask you only one question Ceri;
Have you ever taken the time out of your day, at all, to support your “comments” with a location visit? EVER!
You sit on your ivory perch, extolling the virtues of self-righteousness and verbal spam without so much as the courtesy to actually SEE what Bill has done with these properties and the under-served situations people sadly find themselves in.
1. I am a friend of Bills, and YES Ceri, I too thought at first the same as you…AT FIRST, then Bill asked me to come see the “Blight” as you so eloquently describe it to be. I was very pleasantly surprised and let Bill know that he should in fact be very “Proud” of what he has achieved. Is it “Perfect”, certainly not, but I assure you Ceri, his properties are far cleaner, safer and controlled than most households.
So, reserve your judgment and give Bill the courtesy of looking at these properties, as a matter of fact, Bill will gladly show anyone who wants to see them. IF, at that time you still “Feel” as you do, post away Ceri, post away. Do all the readers a courtesy, include photos and verbatim discussions with a tenant or two before you post from the cuff, without merit and falsely accusing Bill of the garbage you have posted! Shame on you Ceri, shame on you!
Ohh yah might want to correct you huge website error of not allowing paragraphs begining to be indented, instead of frocing EVERYTHING to the left. The paragraph should be left not every letter!! Just more of a display of sloppiness and you having to have things your way, whether they be right or not. Not being able to make paragraphs is just poor!! Makes all the posts appear childish. I noticed you started to make your paragraphs by entering return twice, but still no indent there. Ohh well have a nice life El Duce anyway.
Sorry for making your life so difficult Ceri, it’s obvious there is far more behind this than I’m aware and this has just provided you a forum to try and vent.
Bill
I am a local Property Manager here in Calgary and I too have tried to place tenant’s who are homeless or in transition phases of their lives; however, there are agencies such as CUPS – who assist landlords with tenant issues, back them in the instance of property damage and will assist you with removing them if need be. (although, a fixed term lease should be protect you to some extent)
I am favorable for these programs in certain properties I manage, along with tenant mix considerations… employment is a key factor I would not want to be helping someone how did not want to help themselves.
I did notice one of Ceri’s comments regarding placing tenants who have a criminal record… I was always understood that was in violation of human rights to decline them based on a criminal record, and the question was off limits.. is that not discrimination? As a landlord, I can pull a credit history, but I can’t pull a criminal record check.
I guess what the bottom line is Calgary does have a housing shortage for people in low incomes, and as landlords we are constantly faced with these people showing up for viewings and asking us for help… I have a kind heart and usually am willing to do what I can as long as my owner client approves, it’s not about being a slum lord ….we are not having problems renting units, it’s about doing what is right when we can. I believe in that old saying, if we try to help 100 people and only 5 work out, it meant allot to those 5 did it not?
Kellie
Hi Kellie,
I’ve also dealt with CUPS in the past and although they have good hearts and believe they are helping people in need, many of their clients are just using the system or their resources without contributing back to society.
After one experience where I actually evicted a fellow (he was the other tenant mentioned in this story caught red handed smoking int he property), I was painted as being the bad person which didn’t go over very well. This particular CUPS support worker made a serious effort to make me feel bad for evicting a guy breaking my house rules and disrespecting my property. Needless to say I have since disassociated myself with the organization. I do not need to be guilted for trying to help someone out and then being taken advantage of.
As for dealing with tenants with criminal records, I’ve had many stay with me over the years and they range in character, much like regular tenants. Is it discrimination to not rent to tenants with a criminal record? If that’s your policy then yes it is discrimination. If your policy is to rent to the best possible tenant and there are better choices without a record, it is not discrimination.
And yes you can do criminal record checks on tenants as part of your application process, the applicants just have to sign off on it.
As landlords we do have a responsibility to provide safe housing for our tenant and personally I believe there is a middle ground where landlords should provide some assistance to tenants when they are having issues. The problem far too often is the leniency is often one way and the tenants take advantage of this and walk all over rookie landlords. Boundaries need to be laid out so this doesn’t happen or the possibilities are reduced.
Ceri was just out trolling looking for someone to give grief too, I’d take their comments with a grain of salt as I looked around and found her/him trolling numerous other places on the net as well, just trying to cause problems.
Regards,
Bill