#Tenants Rights

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Two Ontario residents have created a website that allows tenants to anonymously rate their landlords.

The Rate The Landlord website has grown in popularity since its launch three weeks ago, and now has more than 1,500 reviews from tenants..

The two co-founders — who CBC News agreed not to name over concerns for their safety — said they decided to build the platform because while tenants have to provide a lot of personal information when leasing a property, there is a lack of transparency when it comes to landlords.

Full article

Taggingz: @politicsofcanada

[whereserpentswalk]

Remember that part of the purpose of propaganda is to convince you that you're helpless, and it's working, even on people who seem immune to other forms of propaganda. Like, I saw a post that was such a blatant violation of tenant's rights, that any mention of those rights existing or the ability to sue would probably cause the landlord to back down. But people were telling OP she shouldn't try anything because it's impossible for capitalists to lose in courts. Like, you realize you're running capitalism's propaganda wing for them?

If your position is that small scale resistance is useless because capitalists always win under our system, that incremental change is useless because democracy isn't real, and that revolution is useless because capitalists are too strong, then your "leftist theory" is capitalist propaganda.

[liberalsarecool]

We have the vocabulary and language to address housing and homelessness.

Politicians need to show they are serious.

The housing issue seems to be a clear partisan issue. I have never heard a Republican mention a pro-tenant policy. Voting matters. #VoteBlue

[newsfromstolenland]

Ricardo Tranjan wants Canadians to rethink what we call our national housing crisis. Tranjan, a researcher with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, says what we’re experiencing can’t even be called a crisis—our housing system hasn’t suddenly failed. Instead it’s working exactly as designed, enriching property owners at the expense of everyone else. The problem is that it’s gone into sudden overdrive.

That’s why he thinks the fixes espoused by government and industry—more supply, for the most part—aren’t going to get us where we need to be. Instead, he wants to inject politics back into the housing discussion, framing the problem as an issue of class, with tenants on one side and landowners on the other.

Full article

Tagging: @allthecanadianpolitics

[bitchesgetriches]

Hello, bitches! I don't think I saw this in the renter's master post, but how does one go about breaking a lease in the least financially ruinous way possible? My apartment flooded for the 3rd time in 12 months due to an improper drainage system, and I am FED UP. I have family telling me to sue over it, but I'd be content if they let me break the lease without fees or penalties.

If your apartment keeps flooding and your landlord has not fixed the problem... then your LANDLORD HAS ALREADY BROKEN YOUR LEASE.

A lease is a legal contract. Which means the landlord AND tenant both have responsibilities in order to keep the contract valid. There is usually language in there about the landlord keeping the unit in good maintenance. Constant flooding is NOT good maintenance. And if your property has been damaged by the flooding, the landlord could actually owe YOU, either for temporary housing or replacement of property.

So go read your lease, find the clause about maintenance, and take it to your landlord and say "According to this clause right here, you're in violation of our rental agreement. Therefore, I am moving out without penalty. If you'd like to discuss this, I'll have my lawyer get in touch." (Note: not everyone can afford a lawyer, but if you know anyone even tangentially related to a law firm, use the line about the lawyer. My husband's uncle and aunt are lawyers and the one time I used this line to resolve a labor dispute, it scared the bastard so much that they stopped their bullshit and paid me for my work with no further argument.)

Lastly: we are not infallible. Your state government website should have a section on tenant's rights. Look up this information to see if there are any other protections you can take advantage of before going nuclear on your shitty landlord.

The Rent Is Too Damn High: The Affordable Housing Crisis, Explained 

Ask the Bitches: Why Are Painted Mason Jars the Internet's Only Solution to My Tiny Apartment Woes?

If we just helped you out, tip us!

[defleftist]

The joyous convergence of my leftist politics and my job as a therapist is when I get to help a client research local tenants’ rights laws to help them get out from under a shoddy landlord.

[polclarissou]

illustrations for the local housing committee! if you're a verdun tenant you should hit them up / get involved with some of the working groups!

https://cacv-verdun.org

bonus material: rejected cat faces (1- literally demonic 2- gros matou type bitch too goofy for the job)

[fixomnia-scribble]

These proposed changes would have prevented my being evicted in callously bad faith a year ago. A twelve year tenancy terminated to move the landlord's kid in...and it turned out they didn't even need my flat after all.

Apparently I'm still carrying around some bitterness...

I am unbelievably lucky I ended up on my feet, but that was due to the support of friends and family. And I am now living much farther away from them and from work, and above my means, because there isn't anywhere within range, geographically or financially.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

A Vancouver woman who is eight months pregnant says her landlord is threatening to raise the rent once her child has been born.

Joy Maynard and Antoine Moore are expecting their first child any day and have been living in their Vancouver basement suite since April 2021.

They told their landlord earlier in the summer about the pregnancy and Maynard said he informed them that his son is the owner of the house so they need to be talking to his son about these matters.

That’s when they said they were informed that any additional occupant would cost them $600 a month.

“We also told them that my mom is coming to visit. The son said that my mom is going to be considered an occupant,” Maynard said.

Full article

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

[mentholdyke]

just so i write this and hopefully people see it, but the right is hyper focused on squatters rights right now. this is because there is a terrifying increase in the number of Americans becoming houseless. “squatters rights” are a derogatory term meant to protect tenants of absentee landlords. as half of Americans stop being able to afford their rent, landlords have been scrambling to find ways to legally protect their pyramid schemes, which the US state has enabled through deep integration of our legal system with private property rights — think police forces enforcing tresspassing and vagrency laws, but now turned up to 100 as we allow more and more people to die on the streets.

[newsfromstolenland]

Earlier this month, Toronto and East York Community Council unanimously approved a rental housing demolition application for 25 St. Mary St., which is just south of Bloor Street East between Bay and Yonge streets. The property’s owner, Tenblock, wants to construct two new towers that are 54 and 59 storeys in place of the current v-shaped structure on that site. City council is set to consider the matter at its May 10 meeting.

[...]

Under City of Toronto Act, renters who are displaced by a building’s demolition are entitled to return to their unit and pay similar rent once the building is redeveloped. They’re also entitled to be compensated for their moving expenses as well as the gap in rent for a comparable temporary unit, and notice before vacating.

Those rights could, however, be compromised by newly introduced provincial legislation, which if passed, would weaken municipal rental replacement bylaws and give the province greater authority.

Full article

Tagging: @allthecanadianpolitics

[defleftist]

The most helpless I feel as a mental health counselor is when my clients are at risk of losing their housing. It’s so fucked up. Housing is a human right.

[veryfalsedocuments]

Building assessment professional here. My experience is U.S.-based, so take this with a grain of salt if you're not from America.

I'm seeing a lot of "but if I report it I'll have to move or my shitty landlord will raise the rent" in the comments and tags, and I'm very sympathetic to that, but in the meantime, many of these building code violations could (quite literally) kill you. It can be exhausting and confusing to trudge through building codes for your city (and they exist, they are publicly available) to find the violations in question, because I've done that and it took me hours AND I'm someone trained to be able to read building code, but I really, REALLY encourage y'all to either familiarize yourselves with building codes in your areas, read up on your local tenants rights, or both.

Barring that, please go to your City Hall. Please go to your local fire marshals! They are there to help you, they can set up inspection appointments that do not require landlord consent, and cannot do anything if they don't know about it. Fire marshals only need to be given access to a building to survey it, they do not need to be given permission by the building owner/leasing company! You, a tenant, can just let them into the building and they make their assessments from there!

Additionally, sometimes just identifying the exact code violations (by sitting there and reading through code for hours) and citing them at your landlords with a threat suggestion that you approach city officials or fire marshals is enough to get these people moving. Retaliatory tactics like raising the rent can be combated with the help of city officials.

I lived in a city in the Midwest for years that faced a prominent lake, where high winds buffeted the exterior of the building so badly that all the mortar between the bricks had worn away (this is normal, unless it's Portland cement, mortar is a sacrificial layer and must be re-applied or repointed for buildings). The mortar was so deteriorated that when it rained sideways, as it often did on the lake, rain would literally come through my fucking walls and ceiling because the weather barrier behind the brick was old. It was dripping water onto power outlets. Every rainstorm was a hazard for me. I was on my landlord's case for five months with no results until I sat down, read my city building code for rental properties, and found the violations. The instant I cited these code violations to the building owners in a maintenance request, they IMMEDIATELY got someone out there and repointed the bricks within a week.

I've also seen some comments and tags about lack of sound-proofing between tenant units, and that could just be an issue of shoddy construction and shitty/lack of insulation, which is common in new construction. However, it can also be an issue related to a building settling and walls/fire barriers separating. This is an issue for a fire marshal to look at, because walls and ceilings need to have minimum 2-hour fire ratings on them, and if there are cracks or splits between walls and ceilings, the fire barrier is compromised and fires can spread that much more easily between tenant units.

I know it sucks, because building code is not an accessible or easily comprehensible thing for people to slog through, but please advocate for yourselves. You do not have to live with this bullshit.

[bhrarchinerd]