If I make a bad choice in who to rent to....

Thought I would unpack that statement - "if I make a bad choice in who to rent to..." which I used in yesterday's blog post - a little bit more...

There's a lot that can be said about it, actually.

First of all, given the Ontario Liberal's messed up notion of "fair & balanced" which results in lengthy and expensive delays in evicting tenants who fail to pay rent, and the fact that OW and ODSP are totally non-coverable, clearly, renting to anyone in receipt of assistance is a huge risk that most small landlords cannot possibly justify.

Which sucks - my preference, actually, tends to be people that really need a break - and especially, single moms. I was there...raised my kids on my own from before the youngest was born until they were more or less growed up.

We have a 3 bedroom and a 4 bedroom - and both of them were rented to single moms on OW and I - stupidly - was fine with that; in fact, I gave them preference because they needed it more than other applicants. If you've read my blog, you'll know how well that turned out..... NOT.  Won't be doing that again!

So ... bad choice #1 is clearly anyone on any sort of government assistance that can't be garnisheed.

But there is more to the issue.

We landlords talk a lot about credit checks also - no credit check, no rental agreement. But what concerns me about that is the fact that in the case of deadbeats like my oh so charming dirt squirrel, even if someone actually does a credit check on her, her debt to me will not show up. At all.

I have yet to find a way to ensure that the orders against her get to her credit report. I've been told, actually, that the credit reporting agencies won't even take LTB orders! Don't know if that's so ... a collections agency that called here wanting to chase after any deadbeat customers we might have told me that they could get it onto her credit report ... and harass her some... but honestly ... if I'm already out >$9000 ... now you want me to pay MORE money I'll never get back for the privilege of harassing them?  If I won the lottery, I probably would make that one of my first purchases, just cuz ... but since I haven't won the lottery, I think not. Better things to do with my money that throw it down that particular toilet.

And did y'know that there is no way to search for people's eviction/LTB history? Landlords names are posted all over the damn place cuz we are money sucking evil and have no right to privacy - tenants' names are, however, totally confidential.

So unless a case becomes SO notorious that it garners the interest from someone at the Toronto Star....I'm thinking Nina Willis, of course....  it's all a great big secret.

Now, I'm not suggesting that every individual that gets evicted or has orders against them at the LTB should have their name published all over the damn place ....  I actually think that even deadbeats and squatters should have some rights to privacy (or at least their poor kids should - they have enough to deal with already).

But seriously.... how is it fair that landlords are given no reasonable, legal way to check whether an individual is a serial offender/professional deadbeat/dirt squirrel?

I pay taxes which support the Government of Ontario's services - including the LTB, Sheriff's Office, and OW/ODSP. I pay more taxes to support my municipalities' enforcement people (which the ds used to harass us).

When things go bad, none of these agencies to whom I am required to support BOTH through my taxes and user fees help within any sort of reasonable time frame. My 5 month experience is, from all of my research, average at best... if anything, it's probably toward the lower end! OW/ODSP don't help at ALL - in fact, they create part of the problem by continuing to provide the tenant with a winfall for every month they are not paying shelter....  extra money to spend on whatever we want ...WOO HOO!!!

So if you're going to take my money and then not help me ... how 'bout you at LEAST give me a way to know what kind of nightmare I'm about to get myself into?

By refusing landlords any access to such information, you are enabling the deadbeats to STEAL from us.....  and the people you are hurting the most are not the landlords, actually ... but marginalized people who do pay their rent and do need a break... .but who increasingly can't get it because the system is so freaking ~fair & balanced~

And I'm sorry, but telling me that there are laws against discrimination so I can't discriminate against people on OW/ODSP? That is SO not a solution.... but it's way past my bedtime, so that's a post that will have to wait for another day.

Back to my original point... it is pretty damn easy to make a bad choice re: who to rent to...we're not allowed to have the information we need in order to making informed choices. We're also pretty limited in that we can't tell our tenants who they're allowed to hook up with ...so even if we take a chance on a single mom, for example... if she eventually gets into a relationship with someone who has no qualms about bragging that it took his last landlord a year to get him out... nothing I can do about that.

It does not seem fair to me to punish landlords for making bad choices about who to rent to when the agencies we pay (both through taxes and user fees) withhold information, restrict our ability to deal with issues, and hold our properties hostage for months/years while they generate that oh so special useless order that is supposed to solve everything.

Gotta love landlording in Ontario, eh?