Rental Property Tenant Question

[squiggs96]

Originally Posted by the-rasta-masta

Didn't want to start a new thread, but I have a question.

I work downtown in Finance at an Oil and Gas company, and my landlord constantly hounds me on the first of each month to come and meet him halfway across downtown to give him the rent cheque. I am busy at work with lunch meetings/deadlines, and I find it unreasonable of him to expect me to take a half hour out of my day to walk over and hand him the cheque. I always tell him I can make myself available on weekends/after work to wait at the property for him to come pick it up, and he replies that he needs to be at the bank prior to that.

Yesterday I told him off by saying I find it ridiculous that he expects me to take time out of my working day to deliver a cheque for him, and that he can come to my office and I will run down and give it to him if it is so urgent. I also offered to pay via email transfer each month, but he does not accept that method of payment.

I know that post dated cheques would solve this problem, but I have been living here for 5 months now, and with a few repairs that I have been waiting on that are still not resolved, and meeting this landlord to give him rent is the only time I can get any response out of him for the entire month. (His excuses are that the repair is delayed because parts are on backorder... I need a fawcet fixed, and it seems like a fairly run of the mill fawcet...not buying this excuse.)

Anyways, again he is hounding me today to come meet him and I wanted to get some idea as to how this issue actually boils down.... is it my perogative to "deliver" the rent to him each month, or should he be coming by the property after work hours (which I will always make myself available for)...

Just wanted to know the specifics before I open this can of worms with him...

Holy crap. This is one of the reasons I collect postdated cheques before a tenant moves in and why I put fixed term leases. You are being completely ridiculous. It's your obligation to pay rent, not his obligation to collect it. Does VISA go to each of their customer's to collect credit card payments? No, there is delivery service commonly referred to as the post office.

Instead of opening a can of worms, you should look in the mirror and reflect on what type of contract you agreed to. Since you are in finance, would you send all of your AR people to each customer to collect?

[the-rasta-masta]

Originally Posted by squiggs96

Holy crap. This is one of the reasons I collect postdated cheques before a tenant moves in and why I put fixed term leases. You are being completely ridiculous. It's your obligation to pay rent, not his obligation to collect it. Does VISA go to each of their customer's to collect credit card payments? No, there is delivery service commonly referred to as the post office.

Instead of opening a can of worms, you should look in the mirror and reflect on what type of contract you agreed to. Since you are in finance, would you send all of your AR people to each customer to collect?

No, but I don't expect these people to drive to my office and drop it off personally, they have options of paying online/via mail, etc... The only option I have been given is to hand it over face to face.

I am living in an apartment owned by a man who now lives in Toronto. I have no information about this man other than his name and his numbered holding company which I make my cheque out to. The address I have for the owner is listed as the address which I am renting, as this was his residence. The person that picks up the rent says he works for a property management company on the side, and is a full time accountant for his day job. However the way this gentleman has acted so far makes me think he is actually just working as an agent for the owner, and is not affiliated with any property management company. Again, the only information on this agent I have is his cell phone number, email and name. I have no address to mail any cheque to.

I have offered to drop off cheques after work as well, I am not being unreasonable as I understand it is my duty to pay rent, but if the only option offered for me to pay is to drop of a cheque during my work hours, I don't feel think that is fair.

[THE SCUD]

I don't understand - why the heck don't you give him the cheque the weekend prior, post-dated for the 1st of the month?

That way you don't lose the cash any faster but he has it on the 1st? Just do it month by month, the weekend before...Weird that you don't do this...

[MaDMaN_26]

Originally Posted by the-rasta-masta

I don't feel think that is fair.

I agree with you 100% - its not.

[fundmark19]

Why not get the bank account number and deposit it directly for him or email money transfer or man up and walk the cheque over

[photon]

Originally Posted by the-rasta-masta

However the way this gentleman has acted so far makes me think he is actually just working as an agent for the owner, and is not affiliated with any property management company. Again, the only information on this agent I have is his cell phone number, email and name. I have no address to mail any cheque to.

Ah, I didn't understand that the guy collecting wasn't actually the landlord.

That's not really right of the landlord to do, I mean a business operating in Alberta has to have an Alberta address doesn't it? Even if it's just a PO Box?

You should be able to get the address of this guy too, or the property management company he works for and send it to those addresses. Or even the address of his day job.

If the absolute only option is hand deliver, you can still do post dated cheques.

The other thing about this is I think Alberta has specific rules about who can and cannot operate as a property management company (i.e. handle money), I think they have to be certified or something. So he may be offside in this respect, depending on the relationship between this guy and the owner.

Originally Posted by the-rasta-masta

I have offered to drop off cheques after work as well, I am not being unreasonable as I understand it is my duty to pay rent, but if the only option offered for me to pay is to drop of a cheque during my work hours, I don't feel think that is fair.

If that's the absolute only option then I don't think it's fair either, but I don't think it's illegal either. There's no law against running a poor business.

To be sure though you can call Service Alberta I think to discuss the issue and see what the landlord's obligations are.

[Tron_fdc]

So here's a question.

I just had a tenant pull a runner on me. He called me last week telling me that he would be a day late with rent, and it still wasn't there on Monday. I've been calling him for 2 days, and he won't return messages.

Went over there today and the house is empty, except for some bags of garbage on the back deck, a set of car rims, and a sweet bmx bike.

What are my options here? I'm putting up eviction notices, etc but I doubt he's coming back. The house was in excellent condition when he got it, and I'm afraid it's in poor condition now.

I'm obviously keeping his damage deposit, but is there something else I can do? Find the guy and send him to collections? Is it even worth the time to do that?

[Burninator]

Presumably he still has a key, so I would change the lock to be on the safe side (if you can legally do that at this point).

[Regular_John]

Not sure if you've seen this yet, but here's what I found for abandonment rules:
http://landlord.landlordandtenant.org/llendtenancyfacts/llabandonment.aspx

[photon]

Originally Posted by Tron_fdc

What are my options here? I'm putting up eviction notices, etc but I doubt he's coming back. The house was in excellent condition when he got it, and I'm afraid it's in poor condition now.

I'm obviously keeping his damage deposit, but is there something else I can do? Find the guy and send him to collections? Is it even worth the time to do that?

If it's enough damages then you could potentially sue and get a judgment and try and collect, but unless it's a lot then it's probably more hassle than it is worth.

Make sure and read the portions of the act about tenant abandonment, there's specific rules about property that's been left behind, and make sure you still follow the rules with respect to a move out (schedule a walkthrough, invite them, do it in their absence, document everything, make the proper security deposit statement letters, etc). I say this because I know someone who had a tenant do a bunch of damage (not a huge amount, about the security deposit's worth), move out at the end of the agreement, have their security deposit withheld, SUED the landlord for it and WON even though the landlord had pictures of the hole in the wall and broken door and stuff. The only reason I can think of is he didn't follow the right procedures.

[Tron_fdc]

Originally Posted by jaydorn

Not sure if you've seen this yet, but here's what I found for abandonment rules:
http://landlord.landlordandtenant.org/llendtenancyfacts/llabandonment.aspx

Is there a time limit here? Not that anything left behind has a whole lot of value, but that Napoleon Dynamite bmx bike looked pretty sweet.

There is no furniture in the house, and the doors were unlocked. I'm assuming he just left behind what he didn't want.

[photon]

http://www.slsedmonton.com/civil/lan...bandoned-goods

[Regular_John]

Originally Posted by Tron_fdc

Is there a time limit here? Not that anything left behind has a whole lot of value, but that Napoleon Dynamite bmx bike looked pretty sweet.

There is no furniture in the house, and the doors were unlocked. I'm assuming he just left behind what he didn't want.

Honestly I'm not a landlord myself so I'm not sure. I did find this:
http://landlord.landlordandtenant.or...qs.aspx?id=410

I'm guessing they ditched on the first of February here, so the notice of eviction you posted may be already be enough. As photon said though, be sure to document everything and still follow proper procedure. Specifically documenting your clean up/repair cost and delivering your list of deductions from the damage deposit.

Unfortunately it's not as clear cut as "well the place is damaged, I'm keeping the deposit and this sweet BMX"

Although that BMX sounds sweet, you should totally do a sweet jump off your house in it.

Most of the info you need is probably available on http://landlord.landlordandtenant.org/

[Tron_fdc]

annnnd straight to the buy and sell forum:


- sweet bmx for road juming
- 2 chrome rims from a late model chevy impala

[photon]

It's probably all less than $2000, so disposing of it (i.e. throwing it away) is probably ok, though I'd want to make sure that the place is actually abandoned first (i.e. post eviction notice and wait 14 days to make sure they haven't come back or something, not sure exactly what would be correct here, might want to confirm with a lawyer).

Selling the stuff gets complicated.. and I don't know how throwing the bike away in such a way that it happens to land in your garage counts.

Tenants suck eh?

[Tron_fdc]

Originally Posted by photon

Tenants suck eh?

It's a good time to list a house though......

[squiggs96]

Originally Posted by Tron_fdc

Is there a time limit here? Not that anything left behind has a whole lot of value, but that Napoleon Dynamite bmx bike looked pretty sweet.

Are you going to take it over some sweet jumps?



On a serious note, that sucks. So many of these could be dealt with better for both parties if the guy had just called you.

[Traditional_Ale]

This thread sure made me appreciate my landlords a lot! They call on the 1st to arrange a time to come by and pick up rent. Then they ask if any work needs doing and get it done the next day. Thisas well as them letting me paint the place all kimds of psychadelic colors. I took my vinyl of 'Have You Been Experienced' to Home Depot and scanned all the colors from the cover!

[fundmark19]

who calls. I just send a text saying do you want to meet up and exchange rent or would you prefer to email it. 9 times out of 10 they say email and boom done with!

[photon]

I still only have 1 tenant that sends it by email. I don't go pick it up though, they have to either give me cheques or bring it to me.