At the mercy of the ‘lord
As a homeowner, I consider myself fortunate. At best, the bank is very much a hand’s off partner in my daily life, and I was able to choose the features I wanted in my home. With more than a year in “confined to quarters” life, the house works for me, rather than against.
With all of our children still feeding the ‘lord, I hope that there are no real issues, because the tenant rarely wins. Today’s news, out of Toronto involves some people that were given less than a day to vacate their apartments, when a CO detector revealed that the air quality left much to be desired. You see, the floor below contained a garage. A commercial garage. And the fire department didn’t mince words: get out, while you still can!
The whole thing was a trap. Built without the required permits, the city offered no backstop. When the tenants approached the rental agent, they were given their last month deposit. Nothing else. And now in an extremely tight market, the search is on.
We tend to believe that the system is there to protect us, all of us. What can be learned from this one incident is that the system is amateur, at best. If your landlord doesn’t play by the rules, you can find yourself on the street.
I’m sure that there are parallels in every city. TO doesn’t have a lock on wrong. And for every tenant that finds peace and a great place to live for decades, there are more that are being “robbed”. Not just buyer beware.
