Landlords

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Originally Posted by Starfish

I bristle at huge generalities and stereotypes of "typical" anything being tossed around on TE.

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I don't think anyone on TE is ever the typical anything. :D

I had the greatest landlord ever when I lived in England. I miss him.

Now I rent from a large company that is terrible. Last year our rent went up by 48% yet when I put in a repair order to get the leaky taps fixed the repair guy argued with me and said they're supposed to leak. When I put in a repair order because our toilet wouldn't flush I got a letter in the mailbox a month later informing me that it was fixed. No one had come to fix it. I guess they hoped I would just believe the letter. At least we had heat this winter. The first winter we lived here I submitted a repair order in October about the heating and it didn't get fixed until the following April. We spent most of that winter huddled under blankets with one electric heater cranked up. Most of our neighbours have moved to Saskatchewan. I don't know how much longer we can stay here either.

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Originally Posted by kat_h

I don't think anyone on TE is ever the typical anything. :D

I had the greatest landlord ever when I lived in England. I miss him.

Now I rent from a large company that is terrible. Last year our rent went up by 48% yet when I put in a repair order to get the leaky taps fixed the repair guy argued with me and said they're supposed to leak. When I put in a repair order because our toilet wouldn't flush I got a letter in the mailbox a month later informing me that it was fixed. No one had come to fix it. I guess they hoped I would just believe the letter. At least we had heat this winter. The first winter we lived here I submitted a repair order in October about the heating and it didn't get fixed until the following April. We spent most of that winter huddled under blankets with one electric heater cranked up. Most of our neighbours have moved to Saskatchewan. I don't know how much longer we can stay here either.

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Sounds like it's time to move. Aren't there other places to live in Calgary without having to move to Saskatchewan?

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Originally Posted by divingbiker

I like to think that I'm not an evil or stupid landlord. I've got a property management company that handles the rental for me

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I bet "property management company" is a key phrase here. All of our landlords have tried to that themselves, and were utterly incompetent.

Sorry for the vitriolic attitude. Between this, and some unrelated stuff going on, I've had a rotton week. I probably should have put it on the Dear So and So thread instead of making its own thread.

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Originally Posted by surlypacer

We have lived in this apartment for 5 years (month to month). I'm starting to hear things about the landlord selling the place and the new owner want to make these into condos. We have a small real estate boom going on here (due to oil and gas drilling) amid all the housing crisis in the rest of the country.

There was a surveying crew here this week. I asked them what they were doing and they were surveying and measuring it for condos, they said.

I'm not sure what people look for in condos. These apts are in ok to mediocre condition. Most are <1000sq ft. They all need new windows and doors. The windows are single pane and let the cold in. Heat had been included in the rent, so they all heat off one or two boilers. They also share water heaters. Can condos do that? None of them have washers and dryers in them, they have to use a common room of them.

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(Caveat, all my information is based on California law, but the UBC applies to everyone so I am fairly confident in making generalizations.) Condos can't share water heaters, boilers, etc. so condo conversion will often involve a substantial amount of construction - new plumbing and gas lines, for example. Depending on how old the apartments are, the construction can be substantial - taking the units down to the studs to upgrade for revisions to the building codes including firewalls (new drywall), new windows, doors, roofs and exterior siding. From what you've described, these units simply couldn't be sold as condos in the condition they're in. They don't meet code.

I would not expect that anyone could live in the units while conversion is going on. If your lease is month to month, I would not be surprised if the new owner terminates the lease. Sorry. :(

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Originally Posted by tulip

Sounds like it's time to move. Aren't there other places to live in Calgary without having to move to Saskatchewan?

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Housing prices tripled and quadrupled in the last couple of years. It's at the point where over 50% of the homeless people in the city have full time jobs. We need to get significantly better paying jobs, pray for a bust, or leave. I've applied to go back to university so right now we're waiting to hear about that before doing anything.

I'm wearing two pair of oven mitts right now ;)

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Originally Posted by maillotpois

(Caveat, all my information is based on California law, but the UBC applies to everyone so I am fairly confident in making generalizations.) Condos can't share water heaters, boilers, etc. so condo conversion will often involve a substantial amount of construction - new plumbing and gas lines, for example. ...

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Not the case in Virginia. But it's more cost effective to renovate when all the units are empty. There are laws (in US) about relocating tenants, but with month-to-month, I don't think it applies.

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Originally Posted by zencentury

I'm wearing two pair of oven mitts right now ;)

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Like these :D?

It's not only cost effective to renovate when the unit is vacant it's more humane. I'm living in a remodel right now. I would not ask anyone to do this. Not even for free/waved rent.

With the market what it is now many are giving up on selling and renting out instead.