Together we are strong!
Posted by Ashely on 7/13/2009, 5:35 pm, in reply to "Re: What Landlords say"
My point and question still goes unanswered how does one separate the good from the bad? Why does a bad tenant who is not paying rent and disturbing the good tenants get your help to stay and make our lives miserable? How does your organization separate one tenant with 4 kids who has just been laid off getting kicked out of her $700 a month unit and in this case 35 yr old single male who has suddenly stopped paying his $1300 a month rent (once again) and is trying to inflame the other tenants as an act of revenge against a good landlord? This is not a case of a neglicful landlord quite the opposite. Security staff have knocked on the tenants door with every phone call made at all hours with no response. Their hands are tied they say.
The focus to ensure that good tenants are not taken advantage of is a good one. However it is very easy for a bad tenant to sneak into this group. I realize that you must stay focused on defending tenants but what happens when one tenant is effecting others? We should all respect our living environment be it rented or owned but it seems there is no answer from either side on the issue of a bad tenant that has used all the great resources afforded to him to make everyone else lives miserable. Why should he have free legal support in his quest? I think tenant protection groups must focus more of their resources on defending good tenants and give them more support and investigate who they are actually helping. Weed out those who have used free legal support over and over to get free rent. There must be some consequence to these shysters or they will keep doing it.
I believe both sides in this argument are using their tenant/landlord from hell stories to further their agenda. In any argument one side make the ugly from other side seem like the majority fairly or unfairly. But this case is not about a bad landlord this is a bad tenant! Its ironic that those within a 2 unit radius and I have fallen victim to tenant support programs AS TENANTS.
--Previous Message--
: You raise a good and difficult question.
:
: The landlords do use their "tenants
: from hell" stories to rabidly attack
: the rights of all tenants. That is their
: problem.
:
: This organization encourages all tenants to
: take their rights and their responsibilities
: seriously.
:
: But we are not the tenant police. All of
: the professionals, including us, look for
: ways to reform and save tenancies.
:
: Our focus is on working for good tenants to
: ensure that the thousands of dollars we all
: pay for rent each year is not wasted on
: landlords who do not repair, and that
: landlords do not take or get excessive rent
: increases.
:
: The Act is much better for landlords than
: they want you to believe. Some of them are
: just woefully uneducated. Even their
: friend, the well known para legal, recently
: said so.
:
: Those uneducated landlords can cause major
: problems for innocent tenants. I even saw
: one infer that tenants should not consider
: the place they live to be their homes! All
: tenants are homeless??!!
:
: So, I say yes we should all treat our
: apartments as our homes, and be totally
: respectful of our neighbours. And if we do,
: it strengthens our call for tougher
: enforcement of landlords who do not respect
: our rights.
:
: But a few bad apples should not be the cause
: of tyrannical type legislation. In 1997,
: the Ontario Government used this
: "reasoning" as leverage to bring
: in the woefully mis-named Tenant Protection
: Act.
:
: Together we are strong.
:
: --Previous Message--
: So what do we as a group do about bad
: tenants.
: We can not simply ignore the fact that they
: are making life difficult for us and
: landlords.
: It appears to be the bad tenants that are
: turning the landlords against all of us.
: Should we not be working to protect good
: tenants and exposing bad tenants.
:
:
: --Previous Message--
: My only sticking point is that i'm in a
: fairly
: nice apt building in downtown toronto
: sometimes i feel that some of the people
: flat out shouldn't be there. I have a friend
: in the apartment across the hall who says
: the noise from the unit above him is insane!
: The man moved in sometime in Feb and was
: good for the first 2 months but now
: deliberately leaves his stereo on at loud
: volumes before he leaves for work. He's made
: the building management aware of this and
: they have said this is a case of a so called
: "professional tenant" not in the
: sense that he governs himself in a
: respectful manner but in the sense that he
: was know to have bounced around owing money
: at previous rental and knows the landlord
: laws all too well and uses it to his
: advantage, and this among others is his
: tactic. They say that the tenant actually
: has tribunal case out against THEM, for
: upkeep and has not paid rent since April. In
: a gorgeous upper class building in the
: middle
: of the downtown core i can hardly believe
: that there is anything significant wrong
: with
: his unit. When tenants are effecting
: tenants who do we fight against? the
: landlords? it's not their fault. something
: has to change to evict the bad tenants
: faster i think tenant should be able to take
: their neighbours to the tribunal! why let a
: couple bad apples ruin a building.
:
: PS there's nothing you can do about noise
: complaints with police either. They knock on
: the door no answer, then say they can't go
: in the unit unless there's an emergency all
: they can do is issue a warning or a ticket
: (which like rent probably doesn't get paid)
:
: --Previous Message--
: Its a very tough penalty to be evicted and
: lose your home. More than 69000 tenants
: faced that penalty in 2008. Many of them in
: dire financial circumstances beyond their
: control.
:
: On the other hand, bad landlords can keep
: collecting rents, can keep letting their
: buildings go downhill, and can keep abusing
: human rights. And they can buy more
: buildings. That's why we need licencing and
: tougher enforcement of existing laws to
: protect good tenants.
:
:
:
:
:
: --Previous Message--
: should there be tougher rules for bad
: tenants
: as well?
: are there bad tenants?
:
: --Previous Message--
: As an organization, we stand with you for
: your
: rights, and try to help you resolve
: problems.
:
: Other forums and other organizations are
: places where landlords and their friends
: will attack us - often completely without
: fact and too frequently without class.
:
: This does not mean, nor have we ever said,
: that all landlords are bad people. But some
: of them are - and we really feel sorry for
: their tenants. When i see the childish stuff
: some of them post, it makes me very worried
: for their tenants, and for the state of
: Canadian civility.
:
: I even tried to dialogue reasonably on
: another Board and I failed miserably.
: Although there are some very good people on
: that Board with reasonable concerns - some
: of which we share - such as unfair tax
: practices - and some similar concerns with
: the LTB.
:
: The irony is that the uncivil ones
: strengthen my resolve for landlord
: licencing, and improved services for
: tenants. Exactly what they hate.
:
: We try to carry out our mandate, our
: mission, and our services with class (not
: that we are always perfect either).
:
: One of our posters thinks we should expose
: them on this site. I respectfully disagree.
:
: This is a site for tenants and we are here
: to help if we can. Silly debates with
: immature individuals is no help. Tougher
: rules to deal with bad landlords does help.
:
: Together we are strong.
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