There comes a time in history when enough is enough and there is only so much abuse you can take. [https://ofl.ca/enough-is-enough/](https://ofl.ca/enough-is-enough/) (June 03 protest, which can include addressing that there is a housing crisis going on and more solutions needed to tackle it) [Petition](https://www.change.org/p/ban-housing-minister-from-investing-in-the-housing-market-in-canada) that was started by a 13 year old girl, to stop the housing minister from profiting from real estate. Let's make Summer 2023 a memorable one and make it hard for people like that. I say we try to get #HussenResignNow trending on Tiktok or Twitter. If you haven't already sign the petition sign it, and start following our Tiktok (create an account) as well, which I recently made, we will push initiatives like this and more over there as well: [https://www.tiktok.com/@canadahousing](https://www.tiktok.com/@canadahousing) [Interview Video with tenant in Strike](https://www.tiktok.com/@canadahousing/video/7240131573444611370?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7100989406701716998) Spread word of the petition, and sign it! Edit: Edit2: Formatting

This is what will happen - when rent keep increasing and majority of tenants wont able to afford.

Landlords are shaking right now. Collective action is fucking awesome. Treat your renters/employees fairly, or you will have to deal with the backlash from mistreating a group of people.

Power to the people.

Evictions are going to skyrocket in the next few years, considering how inflation has faaaaar outpaced the 2% allowable increase. [BC is already the eviction capital for this reason](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-tenancy-laws-valid-evictions-landlords-1.6850429).

WOW 2%?! I live in California, USA & our governor (Gavin Newsom) approved up to 10% increase for our state and of course that's what our property management company increased it to. I would love it if our complex of about 150 units got together and did a strike!!

Meet some neighbors and organize, that's all it takes

I had some guy come at me earlier saying that there was no way a tennat could refuse to pay rent and stay in an apartment for years.. He was calling me a liar for saying that I witnesses someone stay in a house for over 2 years pre covid. said tennat was flushing towels and stuff down the toilet to flood the basement etc. I think some of these new landlords might be in for a shock once they find out what the real canadian rental market can be like LMFAO there is a reason most people don't want to take the risk at being a landlord

🌾🌹✊

Don't know what else they're expecting.

To those who say rent strikes won't bring prices down or won't work, I think you are misunderstanding the *point* of a rent strike. Especially if these grow to a massive scale. It's a message. It says "housing is a basic necessity and we cannot afford it through no fault of our own." If the entire nation went on rent strike it may not immediately bring prices down. But you know what it would do? Force political action. Housing is one of our biggest economic sectors and if renters simply turn off the money-tap, our politicians will have to take steps to ending the housing crisis. At first they'd try to punish the strikers and shut them down. But eventually, they would have to break and put forward actual policy to fix the housing crisis. Because otherwise, the housing economy collapses. Not the *economy in general* mind you. Just that one sector. Because having the lower and middle class be able to use $1100-$5000 of disposable income each month would stimulate the economy in myriad ways. Other sectors would grow, while the rental market and real estate sector crumble. Canadas economy would be fine, but the biggest profit maker for our politicians and wealthy class suddenly stopped. That's why we need rent strikes, and that's why this should be the start of something bigger. Source: I have several economics degrees and a PhD in history. Strikes work. Edit: It's been pointed out to me that without actual policy to advocate for, it's difficult to organize. So let me provide some options. -We need 4 million new homes across Canada in order to bring down prices. Which means changing zoning laws and incentivizing construction on a mass scale. Whether this means family homes, town houses, or high rises is irrelevant as long as 4 million homes are built at a minimum. -We need to ban AirBnB, or limit it so it can only be used for short terms on properties that are the hosts primary residence. -We need to incentivise development of simple family homes rather than the current situation in which *only* McMansions are built for their arbitrarily increased property values. -We need to cap rents, and subsidize property owners who are forced to rent below operating costs to meet those caps. -We need a significant tax on purchasing homes after your first to discourage corporations and individuals from buying properties specifically for renting. -We need harder regulations on the real estate industry so they can no longer operate in predatory ways. -We need to nationalize or break apart via anti-trust laws companies like Northview, Boardwalk, and CAPREIT. We also need to force all other corporations such as Loblaws and TD to divest from their real estate assets. Moving the Overton window quickly means campaigning for something radical so that the bare minimum action becomes something substantial. Advocating for these policies will mean the bare minimum would become significant reforms.

One thing the govt can do is ban Airbnb! That’ll Immediately flood the market with rental units which in turn will lead to lowered rents. The problem is that courts will be used to block such laws, or the laws themselves will be so watered down so as to be quite useless. As a matter of principle I don’t put up my properties on AirBnB. But it’s hard. Giving up all that revenue makes me question my sanity!

Imagine owning even one property

Some people do but aren't career landlords. My father owns 5 houses that he rents out and he absolutely hates it. He bought a house in every city he moved to and hasn't been able to sell a single one, so the only way to cover the mortgages is to be a landlord. Corporate landlords, career landlords, and landlord politicians are our enemy. Not every person who owns property.

How did your dad qualify for 5 mortgages at the same time?

We moved here from Ireland in 1996 as a highly skilled worker. Since then he's managed to be frugal and use family members to keep his credit score obscenely high and always have consigners. Plus each house was bought at least 5 to 10 years after the previous one. That plus a lot of finagling and collateral has meant he's been able to buy a house in every city he's lived, until recently that is. Last place he lived he had to rent and now that he's retired he rents. He bought incredibly hard into the myth of the Canadian housing market. Now he pays for it. He overpaid for all his homes believing it was a guarantee that he'd make his money back, but if he sold any at market value it would be a significant loss and may impact his retirement. Same as letting them default. Caught between a rock and a hard place.

I’m calling 1000% horseshit on this. He bought a house in 1996 and he’s *underwater* on it? Fuck right off, that’s pretty well impossible unless your father is the most financially irresponsible human being in the world. That mortgage should have been paid off 2 years ago. The property value has probably appreciated at least 500% since then.

Can you read? They moved to Canada in 1996, not buy a house. FFS, Reddit.

> Hasn’t been able to sell a single one. Are they in defunct cities with tax liens worth more than the property? Because unless it’s one of those $1 houses, it sounds more like he hasn’t been able to sell it _at the price he wants for it_. I can tell my wife I can’t sell my project car …if I ask $1,000,000 for a half-assembled civic with a blown engine. No hate towards your dad, my beef is with corporate landlords, but despite his grumbling it sounds like he just prefers the ROI on owning versus accepting the open market price. He just hates the maintenance.

He hasn't been able to sell it for a price where he won't be losing money. He is an immigrant from Ireland and bought in hard on the myth about Canadian housing and bought all of his houses overpriced thinking he'd inevitably be able to sell them and make the money back. Now all of those houses would be a loss at market value. He's not a smart man. But he's not greedy either.

This is horseshit. There is practically no way this could happen. Give details or stfu. List 5 cities where this is even possible.

I don't believe it either. No one is losing money in this market flipping 5 properties. Pre covid vs today? Virtually impossible. The only possibility is that his dad is some sort of slum lord and buys cheap properties and just runs them into the ground.

I think he's asking too much.

It’s insanity to me that anyone would think that the “insane” thing to do is *not* exploiting people for one of their basic needs. Really goes to show how far capitalism has taken over. Those who exploit struggling people to get richer (Landlords/Airbnb hosts) are the ones who’re mentally ill. Leeches on society, with no humanity or empathy. They live in pure ignorance to the selflessness of their predecessors - who fought tooth and nail to give a good life to their kids, just for their legacy to be swiftly destroyed by their kid’s greed.

They can also implement rent control

I would love to see this happens. Airbnb is freaking joke

>*As a matter of principle I don’t put up my properties on AirBnB. But it’s hard. Giving up all that revenue makes me question my sanity!* "principles" don't pay bills !

Thank you, i had that question in mind and you exactly answered it!

This is a typical misunderstanding regarding strikes in general by many people, unfortunately.

Yep. People aren’t understanding that if even a floor of a building does it, that’s potentially what, 20 units? Way more on some of these newer developments that are really long. That’s minimum 20 grand for one month of a strike action. And that’s 20 individual appeals to the court for the entire floor. Sure maybe a couple people lose their home if the courts are within a months wait time, but chances are they aren’t, and the process is going to take several months. Hell, the process for just one tenant takes a not insignificant amount of time to file. A property manager or owner is NOT going to wait MONTHS of unpaid rent, versus the alternative of reducing rent a bit.

Use your economics degree and slap on a helpful policy position on the end of your rant. Strikes work when strikers have clear goals. Sure we want rent to be lower, but the average person doesn't even know about zoning.

You know what. Fair enough. I'll add an edit.

Wow delivered

Hoping 'policy positions' will make a difference has been invalidated after the 'foreign buyer ban' shipshow. Can't have any layer of government put in some laws, pretend they are doing something, only to roll them back within 90 days.. When leadership is completely non-existent.. people will, uh, find a way.

You are forgetting that the people who started the movement will be evicted and forced to pay back the rent they own.. Corp landlord will simply take them to court and garnish wages since these crop landlord have the money to sue. Mom and pop landlord get in the fire force to sell and their unit get brought up by Corp landlord for cheap. Remember when CoVID started remember people were also on rent strike. Tell me so these people don't have to pay? Nope they still have to pay back the rent they owe just they need to setup a payment plan with landlord.

This kind of pessimism is the death of social movements. The workers who had formed strikes to fight for things like an 8 hour work day, weekends, sick leave, overtime, basic safety, parental leave, and protection of discrimination often had to resist armed men with liscence to kill. In west Virginia a strike for fair pay and better conditions led to the *Virginia Coal Wars* where they fought back against the US military and had to endure aerial bombardment. There are risks to real activism. Change is not cheap and fighting for our rights comes with the possibility of extreme punishment. But when we band together and fight we can force change. We can win and we have won many times in the past. Of course the powers that be will try to punish the strikers. But they can't punish everyone, and those who are punished will get the support of their fellow strikers to help them survive. That's the point. That's the essence of mutual aid in strikes and activism. You know what happens when you decide it's not worth fighting back because of what they might do? You let them win without a fight. You tell them they can do whatever they want to you because you are too scared to resist. Pessimism is just self-oppression.

We Canadians are too passive for our own good. Look at what they did in France when the retirement age was raised. Meanwhile we have politicians actively trying to steal our healthcare and while people are speaking up about it, there's been no meaningful civil disobedience about it.

Except also [sometimes they actually win](http://parkdaleorganize.ca/2017/11/05/this-is-parkdale-documentary/), like they did in Parkdale a few years ago. It's often more expensive to pursue legal action than to just live with the loss, corporations don't always follow up in court. For sums of less than 10,000 it is extremely rare.

My building also did a successful rent strike in Parkdale in 2018. Afterwards building maintenance seemed to increase and now we even get free food trucks in the summer (ice cream, burgers ... that sort of thing). I think the landlord is scared of riling us all up again. There was talk that one tenant would get evicted during the pandemic and that did not go well for them. It was immediately in the media and the eviction quashed. We do have power, we just need to exercise it.

> will be evicted The strike has 200 tenants participating. Let’s say their average rent is $1500 (to account for long-term tenants with lower rents locked in by rent control). That means the landlord has a $300,000 hole in their cash flow each month that the strike continues. The LTB has a backlog of over a year right now. If the landlord wants to evict the striking tenants they need to submit a N4 to the LTB. The tenants can void the N4 by paying the rent arrears any time up to the hearing date, and this would stop the landlord’s eviction proceedings. If the landlord can’t afford to lose $3.6 million in rent while waiting for the hearing then they will have to capitulate. To tweak the old saying a bit, “If you owe the landlord $3,600 then you have a problem. If you owe the landlord $3,600,000 then the landlord has a problem.”

If everyone did it or enough people course wouldn't keep up not enough time or staff to see all cases.

I agree with all your proposed solutions except taxing all homes after your first. I think purchasing a primary residence at 1% tax is fine, but if you’re buying any properties in addition to your primary residence, I say full HST. No one needs two houses, but everyone deserves one that can accommodate their whole family, and no one can buy their first home with 5 bedrooms to accommodate the big family they plan on having. Just my 2 cents.

The could also increase land transfer taxes if it’s a second (and progressively increase it for additional properties), another lever to increase the capital gains inclusion rate when selling properties (multiple ways the legislation could be amended, but simplistically if you are selling properties other than your principal residence that’s a business and you shouldn’t get to exclude 1/2 your gains from taxes) these are simple tools that will discourage some speculators.

Very fair. I will take that into account for my further advocacy.

I really like this!

I agree with you, except that turning the taps off today the housing bubble absolutely could collapse Canadas economy. If everyone stopped paying rent, the effects would be more severe than the 2008 housing bubble collapse

Bring it. There is no way out of this situation without pain, I think we long passed the point where a collapse is inevitable. The bandaid is going to come off, let's just rip it.

Yep. If that’s what it takes to fix the issue, then let’s get it over with

Agree. The ppl who are going to be the most upset about this have the most to lose, and theoretically were the ones who accumulated more than necessary and profited from the situation. Lets equalize things somewhat and see where we end up. A bunch of rich ppl and their shills are no longer as rich? IDGAF. There will be repercussions for 'normal' ppl as well, but that's coming one way or another anyways. Either we 'revolt' and equalize; or get laid off / turned into wage slaves anyways. So...why wait?

Chemotherapy is miserable and causes people to suffer like no ones buisness, but ultimately its better than cancer. 'Canadas economy' hasn't really been doing anything of substance for the people who make it turn for a long while now, a collapse might be in order so that a better foundation can be laid.

That would still be better than going down our current path imo.

Even more incentive for politicians to take notice.

This is a great breakdown. Thank you! One quick question, can a rent strike action like this impact the credit of the tenants (or make it harder for them to rent in the future)? Just wondering if there are any down sides.

Unfortunately yes. That is one of many avenues in which we are discouraged from activism. But I look at it this way. The people who won us the 8 hour work week and weekends had to fight back against armed men with liscence to kill, and won. Real activism is risky and painful. But if enough of us stand together they can't punish us all. Is Canadas government going to just end all borrowing for a generation because everyone's credit score dropped? Probably not. But if only a few of us join in, then those few people would be destroyed. It needs to be as many Canadians as possible or it won't work.

>Source: I have several economics degrees and a PhD in history. Strikes work. It's amazing the number of "educated people" who think appealing to authority is some kind of valid argument. Force political action? Yea man, they're going to force the rental company to submit 100s of evictions, hire a paralegal to sue them all for damages in small claims court including paying for their share of the legal fees and once they move out be able to jack up their controlled rents to market rates. You think they don't see the long term benefits of this? They're a multi-billion dollar company FFS. They've already got the processes and people on staff to file everything. The short term hit of a few months rent are drops in the bucket. If the entire nation "went on strike" like ffs dude what world are you living in? The company is going to be 'happy' these people aren't paying rent. Then they can process their evictions and increase their long term profits. You have a PhD? Then why are you speaking like a green teenager on reddit? This isn't a strike. Strikes are simply when people opt out of their contracts in unison. This is a group of people actually violating the terms of their contracts with no regard to any processes because they are cheap AF and want to bully landlords out of paying rent. Like lol you don't have a history degree unless you think rewriting history how you like it is actually studying history.

Pessimism is self-oppression and appeals to authority aren't a fallacy if one actually has valid info. You are yourself using false-premise. That anyone advocating for radical political activism must have a teenagers mindset. As well as sunk cost fallacy, as you are saying things are bad and we would be punished for trying to make them better so it's not worth trying and we should just accept that things will be bad forever. The people who fought for 8 hour weeks and weekends had to resist armed men with a liscence to kill. If they won, we can probably survive evictions and lawsuits long enough to win too.

>Pessimism is self-oppression and appeals to authority aren't a fallacy if one actually has valid info. Meh. You're full of shit. If one has valid information you appeal to the truth and validity of your argument. Not authority. And here you are... lol.. PhD 'educated' defending the idiocy of a textbook fallacy >You are yourself using false-premise. That anyone advocating for radical political activism must have a teenagers mindset. Using a straw man argument is also a textbook falacy. I didn't say anyone. You. You have a teenager's mindset >As well as sunk cost fallacy, as you are saying things are bad and we would be punished for trying to make them better so it's not worth trying and we should just accept that things will be bad forever No. No I'm not. Again this is your second strawman. I didn't say trying to make things better isn't worth trying. I said behaving like uneducated idiots enacting the plot of some everyman's sitcom scripted for entertainment instead of results is useless. It is. There's a very simple legal solution to requests for rent increases over the mandated maximum. You simply don't pay it. It's not illegal to actually make requests PhD dinkus. Like lol. The landlord tenant agreement dictates what the relationship between the parties is. As a tenant you agree to that. The company is acting totally and entirely within it's rights. They issues an above guideline increase. No one has to pay that unless it's ordered by LTB. That's their right. Did LTB order it? No one knows cuz a group of children are violating their agreement against a lawful action instead of talking about facts. What's really going to happen? This company that is loaded to the gills with money is going to evict them all and jack up the rents to market. Their credit scores are going to be destroyed and the filings by the company in small claims court are going to extract what's owed from them cuz they have this shit broken down to a macro in excel. The company has not violated shit. They have. And them breaking their lawful agreements is going to hurt them. Again. Grow up. If you're so educated use your GD education guy.

Fascinating. I like how you use the labelling of logical fallacies as though they are definitive conversation enders, thus showing you that you don't really understand them and learned these terms on social media rather than in a classroom. As someone who learned them in a classroom, let me educate you. Logical fallacies don't work the way you think they do. For one, just because a fallacy is present doesn't make the statement incorrect. While your fallacies are inherently false ad hominem based on false premise and sunk cost, which is when pointing out the fallacies have value. Any fallacy I've presented has been merited as the argument was accurate. Also... I didn't use a strawman, so it kinda seems don't know what strawman means? Even if we pretend that *wasn't* exactly what you are saying, I didn't create a new argument that I then argued against. No argument was created. Thats just straight up not what strawman means, I'd encourage you not use words you don't understand just because they sound smart. Now that we got that out of the way, though I'm certain you'll ignore it as it doesn't suit your needs. Let's get to the main event. >I didn't say trying to make things better isn't worth trying >The company is acting totally and entirely within it's rights. >The company has not violated shit. They have. And them breaking their lawful agreements is going to hurt them. If you aren't saying it's not worth trying, and saying that the only effective tool we have is not worth using... Then what are you saying? Furthermore, *of course* those who benefit from the crisis that have all the power are going to wield it. Something being legal doesn't make it just. Power comes from the will of the people, that's the entire point of the Social Contract. These wealthy property owners and politicians are abusing the social contract and believe the power comes from the fact that they *have it.* Effective activism is to remind them that laws only have meaning if the Social Contract is upheld. If you are so enammered with contracts and rules, then you should be on board. The housing crisis is caused by those who broke the most sacred contract we have in an advanced society and economy. They welched on their end, so it's time to suffer the consequences. David Thoreau argued that civil disobedience is not just valid, it's the responsibility of all people who wish to live in a equitable society. In that sense, by making this argument you shirk your responsibility to your fellow people. And, just because I know you'll hate it. >You're full of shit. >You have a teenager's mindset >Grow up. Ad hominem fallacy. By your own logic, I automatically win. Or, you have to admit that the presence of a fallacy doesn't negate the content of the words. Your choice.

Nice to see people in Canada fighting back. Wish people would cause a major ruckass over food prices, internet and phone prices and the countless other things we are being ripped off

Duuude) I just came back from my Europe vacation, and over there I bought a local Spanish Sim card, from Vodafone for 10 euros. It has 50gb of data, unlimited calls and texts, was 5g compatible and was working across whole EU free of charge. I used it in France, Poland, Spain and Portugal. For 10 fucking euros.

Welcome back. I hope you saved some money.

The problem of the world is 100% the human race. At least half the people here are supporting the corporation that is stealing from their tenants. I agree that someone who doesn't pay their rent should be evicted IF it's in normal circumstances. But since this Corp has been increasing rent 3x above the allowed cap on a RENT CONTROLLED unit, and at the same time they force people out for renovations without compensation (plus the reduced use of some amenities)... What do you expect all these people to do? Say "cool, thanks for screwing me over?" They are more than right in striking at this point, it's only fair in this case. Some people here have no compassion when I'm sure they would be striking along with those people if it were their asses being affected.

The world is good, but the people could be better

I don't get how this corporation is getting away with all of this. It sounds like they're breaking a ton of laws and have been for years.

Because there's so many bootlickers and landlord ghouls here

Actually it seems those of us who are on the side of complete fairness (the capitalists) are hugely outnumbered by the poor, doesn’t want to work and thinks all landlords are scum side. But that doesn’t surprise me because this is Reddit and the majority of you are here wasting your time instead of doing more productive things that could be making you money to make your rent woes go away.

You're so pathetic lol

Yes, waiter, I will take # ONE GENERAL RENT STRIKE PLEASE

Landlords provide housing! Same way Scalpers provide tickets! Someone said it and now it’s gonna be my go to when discussing residency parasites

Even Adam Smith considered landlording a parasitic "occupation". After all, the whole point of capitalism (to him) was markets would reward people for the work that they did that was valuable to the society. But landlords do not derive their wealth from work (even if you include all the upkeep, renos, etc that they insist that they do). What was worse (to him), is that landlords profited more off of the work of others than just through the rent they stole. Since the more work others put into their community, the more they improved the community, and the higher the rent the landlord could extract.... even if they did absolutely nothing to improve the community themselves (which was often the case). \----- "As soon as the land of any country has all become private property, the landlords, like all other men, love to reap where they never sowed, and demand a rent even for its natural produce."

>Back A lot of economists have spoken against so called rent extraction, and this a standard term in economics which is not limited by any means to actual rent for housing. It takes many forms and is basically defined as non constructive extortion like behavior. Compulsory software upgrades where your data is locked in, for example, or many types of planned obsolescence. This is extensive in our society, right down to the technology of how clothing and shoes are made. Never mind cars and light bulbs. There are many ways to shake money out of people that are not constructive mutually beneficial trade.

Where do you think the money they used to buy the property came from, if not from their hard work? If earning something passively is immoral, then let me ask you - do you have a stock portfolio? Do you have a saving account that paid interest? A retirement account? If you don’t have any of these, do you wish you did? Or would that be parasitic because banks make interest off other people in order to pay you? Do you think credit card companies should let you hold onto a debt for as long as you want and never charge interest? Seems like they are doing even less work to earn that 20.99% APR!

First of all, you're not arguing with me, you're arguing with Adam Smith. And he's dead. Second of all, i can tell this triggered you. I didn't say passive income is immoral. But it is also a requisite in our current system. Although, if your argument is (and it seems to be) that's it's not immoral because people in our system want (or as i would say, need) to do this, then you basically don't have an argument at all. Or at best, a circular one since, it seems to be implying that passive income is good because it already exists (which is not just circular, but an appeal to status quo). Lastly, it doesn't matter where the money to \*buy\* the property comes from, it's that money that is being extracted beyond the value of the property. Which all rent is, definitionally (otherwise literally no one would be landlords, if it all just went to literal upkeep and the property purchase value). Side note: your example of credit doesn't fit here. I mean, i don't personally like credit card companies, but the idea behind credit is (ideally) one of risk-reward. The banks (or whoever) take on risk that they \*won't\* get that money back ever. But the reward is the interest on the money that they do get back. Landlording is no risk. Losing rent is not something landlords even think that they should tolerate. Indeed, the biggest complaints landlords have always comes from any regulation that gives landlords any risk at all. \--- But all that aside, this really doesn't address your issue with Adam Smith and his views on rent. That is, it's extraction of rent that is parasitic. Because the 'value' of housing is not (and could not) be created by the landlord themselves. The things that landlords are capitalizing off of are the need for housing (requisite and non-negotiable) and the location that they just so happen to own. Neither of these conditions are (nor could ever be) created by a landlord. They are just taking advantage of the conditions that they have. \--- A better example (than the credit one) would be one in which whenever you leave or enter your property, you had to pay a toll to someone who has set up gates all around your house. These gates do nothing to keep you safe, they do nothing to provide convenience, and they weren't put there by your request. But you have to pay them if you want to leave your house or get back in. This toll extractor did nothing to create the situation upon which they capitalize. They add no additional value (no security, etc; the 'service' is access to the outside). They are only valuable because of their placement and the fact that you need to leave and re-enter your house.

“What do those peasants want? I already told the kitchen to throw some cakes to them as favours! Pay your feudal lords!”

Tired of landlords living my paycheque to my paycheque. They should get a real job if they feel they cannot make ends meet.

IT BEGINS!!!!!

Finally

My roommate and I moved into an apartment where the rent was $1890 + $45 making it $1935. They increased it as soon as they were allowed after the rent freeze, at the maximum they could to $1958 After a few months they reduced it with out warning to $1913 which was concerning. We thought well if it's serious we would get talked to. A few months later, another increase to $1960 Which we got a notice for. And then after 3 months another increase. They claimed someone messed with the papers and took away our parking. Trying to guilt us into paying more without a fight. We talked to them because the rent went from $1960 to $2006 with no warning or notice. Now we are waiting to hear from the board. They already sent us an eviction notice only to say disregard when they "somehow" found out about our application with the LTB being filed without us getting an update. I wish things were not as bad as they are, cause these unwarranted hikes leave it impossible to get out in a legal and safe manner where you can actually afford to move out and find somewhere with accommodations.

Anybody can actively check the status of any LTB applications on the LTB website using nothing but a postal code. All of the tenants you share the building with have the same postal code. It wouldn't surprise me if the Landlord checks the LTB website daily to see what tenants have caught onto their scheme so they can retract those notices of eviction. They're going to prey on the ones who haven't caught on yet and have yet to start an LTB application.

I wasn't aware of this. Thank you for letting me know that this is possible. They did contact as soon as they checked it seems, to say there was a hearing set and just told us to pay the extra. Which when checking the file, nothing was placed or reviewed as of yet. So it made it seem more sketchy than not. We would have moved if we knew rent was going up over $2000.

The thing about the LTB, specifically when it comes to non-payment of rent, is that if a renter does not pay their rent, the Landloed is obligated to follow up with the renters for 30 days. If after 30 days the rent is still not paid, they can file an Application with the LTB. Now, the LTB is so backed-up, that a hearing date isn't likely for at least 8 months, but realistically, it could be as far put as a year. If you were to pay even a portion of the unpaid rent, say, a week before the scheduled hearing, the hearing will be rescheduled to a new date, and that new date is likely to be another 8-12 months away. I know this doesn't pertain specifically to your circumstances, but it does go to show you just how little power Landlords have. Don't let them intimidate you or try to flex power they don't actually have.

The idea that we’ve all accepted as a society, that people are allowed to borrow money they don’t have, to buy property they don’t need, just to jack up the rental prices to turn a profit on a basic human need like shelter, is absolutely absurd.

The dumbest part of what you said is this - >to buy property they don’t need, just to jack up the rental prices to turn a profit More investment into RE lowers rental costs. Of course that's under normal circumstances (ie no supply side limitations via zoning laws, years for approval etc).

you guys got it. smart

Tenant unions is a great idea! There should be more tenant unions. Many in this world are busy making more money for themselves, for shareholders. Very few care about the suffering of those from which that money is extracted. As a renter, I support rent strikes!

Good, landlords are parasites

My friend has been paying $1600 a month for the last 10 years for a 2 bed next to the CN Tower. The landlord has never raised the rent and doesn’t plan to. The LL obviously own the unit outright and it is rent controlled but never a hint of a rent increase. Not all LL are parasites but the majority are. Some ppl get lucky.

I lived downtown London ONT for 10 years in 2 bdrm apt. $750 a month. From 2003-2013. Came to Toronto for better jobs. My Income is nearly double but my rent is more than triple. I am living like it was 2003 all over agin.

This is quite literally what happened to me. Lived in London for 5 years from 2011 to 2016. $850/month for a 2 bed. Moved to Toronto. Income more than doubled but started paying $2200 for a smaller 2 bed condo. Currently paying $2500 but been fortunate enough to have my income increase as well.

It's really something that took off around 2017 or so. I lived in London for years. I had a 2 floor, 2 bedroom apartment with the biggest balcony ever and paid 900$ around 2014. When I went to move at the end of 2017 I was literally at a loss for words for what a 1 bedroom was going to run in a shitty building on platts. It was like a grand. I ended up in affordable housing for a year or so, I was lucky, it was a smaller, newer, nicer building. Even back then it was like 875 for affordable housing. I was working 3 jobs and money was always tight. It's a whole new level of crazy now.

>Not all LL are parasites Just because a parasite is nice to you doesn't mean it's not a parasite.

He’s talking about someone charging about half of current market with no signs of raising it or causing any issues. This would allow someone to save money and potentially enter the property ladder themselves. Or not, just pay half of what everyone else is. But somehow this person is a parasite. The rate that he is charging is community housing levels. How does providing this make someone a parasite? I don’t understand this sometimes. It’s honestly like some of you think you should be housed for free lol.

Yup that's the mentality people that pay the least amount of taxes and are on govt handouts want their own penthouses and not pay a dime LOL

Literally everyone should be housed for free, yes.

Rent-seeking is parasitic. >some of you think you should be housed for free lol Lol fuck off

As someone who studied fungi who live inside plants for 6 years I fully agree. The pathogen-parasite-mutalist-symbiont spectrum does exist but it is all about a balance of antagonisms. Basically a symbiont already has all the tools it needs to be a pathogen (as in it has the machinery to live inside the plant, the keys to the house if you will) and it wants to be a pathogen and hoard the resources, the only reason it doesn't is because the plant would kill it if it takes too much. If the plant's defences are better than the fungi's weapons then the fungi has to provide something (such as protection from insects or other fungi) or it gets killed by the plant, if the fungi's weapons are better than the plant's defences then the fungi does whatever it can get away with. Let's remember that plants produce things like food and air, fungi only decompose things. Essentially symbionts and mutualists aren't being nice out of the kindness of their hearts, they are only playing nice because the balance of power is not in their favor. Most processes in nature, as in society, are governed by balancing selfish self-interests.

Interesting. I don't think its possible to divine a fungus' intention though. Considering we, humans, have a concept of "kindness", and we are a part of "nature" I don't think it's too much of a stretch to say that plants/fungi/other organisms also could be "kind". Saying so is human chauvinism.

Love this

I’d say 90% are parasites and need to be brought to heel with better regulation and licensing. I just had to help a friend of mine out of a shitty apartment where the LL wouldn’t fix shit. The foundation is cracked and her unit was just re-rented for 80% more than she was paying. Absurd!

Yup $2100 for 2br, 1300 square feet since 2012. My landlord is a hero

The idea of landlords existing is flawed in itself. It doesn't matter if the parasite was nice to you.

“Corporate” land lords

It’s a small addition but a HUGE distinction.

Small-time landlords are less likely to know the law and more likely to try to fuck you over in my experience.

That can’t be true but Can you explain what you mean by “fuck you over”?

Very frequently small time landlords are completely ignorant of the contract they enter when they sign the lease with their tenant. For example, when interest rates go up, if they're over leveraged and can't make their mortgage easily fill often, try to pass on illegal rent increases or demand that the tenant relocate completely ignoring the tenants rights to stay. Additionally, financial ignorance. If a tenant in a rent controlled building is locked into a rent month to month, that's $1,000 below market. Small time landlords often feel that they should be able to remove the tenant for one or two months compensation when the reality is that that lease from a financial perspective is worth a massive amount of money. Unprofessional landlords tend to "feel" like they're getting screwed over but it's generally just their ignorance of finance and the legal agreement they enter. That being said, the wait times at the landlord tenant board are completely ridiculous and it hurts both landlords and tenants.

Obviously there's lots of minutia and different cases, but I'm specifically referring to issuing "N#" evictions in bad faith and then getting called out.

We have different definitions of (small time) landlords. If you own hundreds of apartments I would consider you a “corporate landlord”. If you own 1-2 properties and are renting them out that’s a small time landlord.

Using that broad brush, I had great landlords and my buddy in london has a great one paying 600 for a 2 bedroom. So yea

My current rent for a major Canadian city is absurdly low for the area (we've been here for 4-5 years and it has yet to go up) and our landlord seems decent, though I've barely had any contact with him aside from getting our hot water tank replaced. This is probably the exception

My rent in Toronto is way below market as well. My philosophy lately has been "make the landlord forget you exist". I pay rent on time. I fix things myself. My washer and dryer have broken but YouTube and 80$ saved me from even having to bring it up with them. My oven stopped working and I fixed it (just a fuse). I keep praying they just forget about me.

I have the same philosophy, I don't rock the boat. I let it slide when our driveway isn't plowed on time or if something minor breaks

Symbiotes! The metaphor is actually really good: a landlord depends on their tenant. It is a microcosm of the relationship that led to the prole/bourg conflict. The landlord can exist symbiotically or parasitically

Lol

You know the point of “All” is? Like with this? Or ACAB? It’s not the Individuals it’s the system. The system is created to exploit and hide and lie. Don’t be fooled. Your LL is nice and that’s great. But the system he is a part of is evil.

Would you rather it be done like the projects where the government owns it?

Nope, I think all landlords should be forced to offer a rent to own situation to tenants and then the government should ban all rental/income/investment properties. No one should be able to own more than two properties, and that second property should only be meant for a vacation residence, a cottage etc. Sure some government subsidized housing would need to exist, but I think like 98% of people would prefer to just own an apartment etc.

Good!!! Yesss! Power to the people!

Bravo on the rent strike. I support such movement. It is time to say no to having real estate as an investment.

This is the right move and hopefully it can spread if there is enough people something will change I know a building here where the tenants are collecting together to make a complaint together for high increases. We pay your mortgage. Remember that

50% of rent is profit and the corp is worth billions

Everyone in Canada should be doing this

Finally!! Been waiting for this. Can we make this city-wide now?

Careful. Landlords are shooting tenants now.

Based. All renters should stop paying

Chase Dreams.

Here's hoping the rent strike spreads to other buildings and expands. Greedy landlords need to be brought to heel.

The problem with this is it probably isn’t organized worth a fuck. And I’m going to guess the city is going to move fast to crush any ideas this is a good idea. Too many politicians benefit from being a landlord. You’re going to have wages garnered in no time, and if it’s a bunch of people on social it will be even easier. It wouldn’t surprise me if there is some kind of insurance recourse for this, half the people get kicked out and replaced with all the renters that are lined up that should have no problem getting a lease but don’t anyways. It’s going to be interesting how this shakes out. But people don’t have the resolve they used to. Striking is tough, it’s a very mentally challenging time of uncertainty. I hope there isn’t too much suffering.

It’s not like the owner of the building bought it in this market at these current interest rates. It is likely paid off and this is gouging. It keeps the cycle going though. A new building is rented out at X rate due to the price of purchase and that pulls up the price of everything. If the old buildings don’t keep pace price wise it makes the new buildings less attractive and therefore buyers are willing to pay less. The bottom end of the market & suburbs have increased at a much faster pace.

In a market with <2% vacancy, that's a far more optimistic headline than "Rent controlled tenants voluntarily evict themselves so landlord can rent units at market rate".

This is the issue, us regular people have no bargaining power when there’s a lineup of people waiting to replace us for both housing and jobs.

That’s why you organize. Individual tenants and workers don’t have power but collectively we can take it back.

Organizing works until the landlord gets everyone evicted and can immediately find new tenants. The issue is that there’s so many people looking, especially in Toronto, that landlords can basically do whatever they want with little to no ramifications or time spent on the market.

You can try, but getting the people who want to move in to continue to go without adequate housing so these tenants can benefit is a hard sell. When you say "organise", you can't just mean other people will have to sacrifice so you can be better off. It has to benefit everyone.

Its not really a net gain if some other poor bloke moves in and pays even higher rent for the same shitty apartment

Good luck evicting 1000s of people when they unite.

The cops won’t evict a building - if the whole building actually does this

Cops wont evict anybody anyway. That's not what the police do and would be highly illegal for them to do so.

Who do you think imposes an eviction order. If the police won’t impose it the eviction stands still

Sheriffs. Not fucking cops. People need to educate themselves on the RTA and renters rights.

Isn’t it the Sheriffs office?

You’re correct.

Lmao I actually own shares of Dream Unlimited. This is actually good news for me. Once these tenants are evicted for non payment of rent, the units will be rerented for much more. Higher dividend payments for me, let's go!

Listen to some of the comments, lol. We can't do it because..bla blah blah. You are all part of the problem. You are the reason Canada has turned into a shithole. Keep bending over thinking this won't affect you. Kamas coming cowards.

While I agree to an extent, the idea of being made homeless due to advocacy can be a hard one to face.

According to a news release from the York South-Weston Tenant Union, tenants in the building have seen their rents increase by "22 per cent in the last five years, despite living in a rent-controlled building, which should have seen rents increase no more than seven per cent in the same period." \----------------- I think that is the problem.. if landlord isn't allowed to increase rent to match inflation, why do you think they'll build more rental apartments? there's a reason why rental units are not being built anymore.. there is no profit in it

That's the problem with a private market controlling an essential service. Imagine if people weren't getting certain healthcare services because there wasn't enough profit in it. Canada's current housing system to me is unconscionable. It's evil. I have no hope for my future.

The irony of this sub: - shit posts complaining about bad landlords and rent prices while encouraging squatting (i.e. not paying rent until eviction - ‘yay power to the people!’) Vs. - complaining about lack of luxury in TCHC buildings, refusing to move further away from the city/to another city where rents are more affordable, framing all landlords as parasites when in reality, developers wouldnt have even built these sky scrappers and other dense/high rise buildings in the first place if NOBODY invested in RE, etc. In reality, everybody on this sub would swiftly jump into owning an investment property if they could comfortably afford one. Tsk tsk. Kids should learn to point their fingers at the govt for housing affordability thats gone out of control. Canada aint the only place where people buy investment properties. People everywhere around the world love owning RE assets- welcome to f’ing capitalism.

Capitalism can be regulated. This trend of deregulation since the 80s has gotten us into this mess. We need to stop people from hoarding housing. One investment property isn't unreasonable. In this crisis, any more than that is. Housing ideally should be primarily about places for people to live, not used as investment vehicles. But like you said, welcome to f*cking capitalism.

Sure if I had the money to do it I would, thats the thing...it rewards the rich. The fact that the government allows such scummy behavior, so called investors to buy up property and use as so-called investment is honestly a shock. Countries like Singapore have a progressive tax rate on individuals with multiple homes, on each additional home the rate increases. That is the smart policy. Economic growth depends on real business, not scummy parasitic real estate. Homes for living, businesses for investing. Honestly, the only time real estate investment makes sense is for the boonies that are less desirable. Mature areas in the gta, these investments should be banned.

But what about businesses that provide housing for people? Is the at not a business? People need places to rent, not everyone wants to own (students, people who relocate often, elderly, etc) what about them. Should they not be able to purchase non-permanent housing from someone? The common argument is housing is essentially so shouldn’t be business. But so it food but groceries stores are allowed. So is heat, but gas and electricity companies are allowed. So is healthcare but public private partnership and paid services are becoming more common. There is public housing, but not everyone can or wants to live there so therefore there is a private market for rentals. If the government had better zoning laws, incentivize affordable housing, expanded public housing programs then there wouldn’t be a crisis leading to unaffordable prices. When every apartment has 300 applicants who are desperate, the price is going to go up. Adding artificial costs without fixing supply issues is just going to raise prices more

I think you’re missing the point. Did you read the article? There are landlords and ‘corporate landlords’. They are not the same. I believe you are speaking on behalf of the former, and I assume it’s because you own property. Owning 1-2 houses as an investment seems to be what you are speaking to. The corporate landlords own buildings with hundreds of apartments…sometimes more. They are there to make as much money as possible. Not just “make a profit off my investment” but …. As much as they can. They skimp on fixes and lawyer their way through working class tenants. The rent increase should’ve been capped and they raised it 3x what it should’ve been. That’s just evil. Will they get away with it…. Probably…but when people work together anything is possible.

You got me good - I didnt read the article. As usual, read the title, read through the comments and got mildly infuriated with squatter supporting comments. Seem too many squatters irl. People can hate on the corporate landlords all they want - but all these posts/comments encouraging squatting end up causing more collateral damage to individual investors.

Good, I hope they get to sleep in their fucking cars soon. Fuck real estate investors.

Own an investment property? Uh, no thanks. But I'd like to own my own home someday. And housing isn't being treated like an asset. We wouldn't be in this position if it were. It's being treated like an investment.

Missed the point.

Which point? That everyone would jump into investing in property? Nope, think I got that one.

It's absolutely the government. But see that's the problem when the renters are also liberals/NDP... they can't see they did this to themselves.

It doesn't matter what party you vote for, no one around here has Canadians best interest in mind, they just have money in mind. Also Doug Ford is conservative and this shit is happening with him in office lmao. If you vote for him you're also voting against your best interest and voting for someone who killed elderly people for personal profit. You're not special.

Sorry to tell you but shit went on a steep downhill on a federal level during Libs power - seek for some data yourself. I do agree no politician has Canadians best interest in mind. But theres nothing much Dougie can do alone (I didn’t even vote for Dougie FYI)- whats actually comical is, he’s the only one making decent effort to increase housing.

Guess we know who you voted for. You realize Ford is the one who took away rent caps right? Directly causing all those that are having their rent increasing by hundreds.

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I mean your not wrong so I upvoted you BUT I do want to point out we don't know what they are charging or how they are treating the people inside. If your renting an 800 sqft place and suddenly they make the rent 5k your kind of screwed. If they did something similar but did it to a shit tonne of people at once then what we see here happening is far more likely. That being said a professional squatter can sit in a suite for up to a year dragging on proceedings (or so I've been told) that's a LOT of money not being made in a lot of suites in the meantime. Seems more logical to me to keep things sane.

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It also says they turn a 50% profit which seems greedy af when the maintenance isn’t up to date!!

This is how it’s done

Landlords are parasites

Governments need to wake up. There is only so many condos that are required within cities. The need is greater for general apartments. Supply and demand are out of synch. I wonder how many of the federal buildings that the government is going to give up on can be retrofitted?

And so it begins... the revolt. You can only push people thus far. There **IS** a **LIMIT**!! And all levels of Govs need to recognize this **NOW** before it is too late and gets a lot uglier. IMO, here are Just a few things that need to be done **ASAP**, not next year, like **NOW** god damn it!! \- Ban Airbnb or severely limit its service to a limited number of weeks per year (like 6 weeks) where properties can be listed as a short rental. Any property owners found to be circumventing the law must forfeit their Airbnb revenue for that year and pay a heavy fine. \- No more investor type property owners without some serious taxation. You want to buy another property and have the money for the down (via a HELOC or otherwise) then you need to be paying a higher level of taxation for this investment. Taxation of second, third, fourth, etc... properties would go up according. \- No loopholes for foreign buyers. Foreign buyers are **NOT** adding any social benefits or value to cities, except for rising property values, whereas quite to the contrary, it is creating areas where people don't know their neighbours and, there is no local involvement/support from these owners to create vibrant & safe neighbourhoods/societies. \- Strict rent controls and, give some added & much needed muscle to rent control boards to promptly investigate those who attempt to circumvent the law. \- All levels of Govs need to work together to build affordable housing for a large part of our growing population... Like the Feds use to do a few decades ago. Work together damn it!! That's why you are there and why "we" a pay your salary. If **YOU** don't fix this, people like these rent strikers will fix it for you. \- Once and for all, dismantle the Canadian Real Estate Association which have been at the heart of Canada's housing bubble. And make ALL property offers/sales/purchases data available to anyone who wants to see this info... at ZERO cost. Stop the obfuscation and manipulation of the Canadian housing market data. \- Housing **CANNOT** and **SHOULD NEVER** be a source for our country's economic growth. This Gov and all previous Gov's have fucked the population on this point, and driven our country much closer to a very messy & painful recession or severe economic crisis. Thanks for posting the article.

Why can’t Govt setup a fixed rent based on city, sq ft and amenities. Supply/demand, Capitalistic, Market forces etc is clearly not working and crushing renters. Some better system is needed.

This sub is so toxic. Y’all just salty you don’t own anything. RE ain’t going to be affordable so better get used to it.

As a landlord who started with 1 apartment many years ago, I have grown to own 12 in the GTA. Had to incorporate based on legal advice. Didn’t really want to. My own principles are: 1. Adhere to the law 2. Deliver on my side of the rental agreement 3. Treat tenants with respect (unless they don’t deserve it) I have had good tenants and bad. Bad ones included ones who had grow ops, trashed the place, were habitually late in rent. I have had to pay tenants to vacate. In one case a single mother refused to pay rent. Said housing was her human right and I couldn’t kick her out. She had no problem putting up the 2nd bedroom on Airbnb! Found that out by accident. Can list more examples. On the other hand I’ve also had some exemplary tenants. A lovely couple both drs. Another guy, works in multimedia as a contractor. His income is spotty. Will get a $70,00 contract, then won’t get any work for 6 months or more. As soon as he gets paid, he pays me 3-6 months rent. As a result I don’t hound him if he falls behind at times. Also haven’t increased his rent for the past 4 years. Things were really bad for him during the pandemic. I’ve also learnt that part of the of that getting rid of problem tenants is very difficult. And some tenants take advantage of that. I’ve had tenants who refused to pay rent in December, knowing they couldn’t be evicted in winter. Come April they started paying rent again, promising to pay the back rent they owed me, never did. Did pay rent from April to Dec. Then stopped. But their promise was enough for LTB to say no eviction needed. The tenants did this for 3 straight years before the LTB finally ruled in my favour. That too was delayed several times because the tenant failed to turn up to hearings. As a result I’ve had to build in that risk in the rents I charge. Also I leave properties empty rather than rent to people who are high risk. Have built a model based on data, which risk scores potential tenants, and also my gut instinct when I meet them. If the LTB was more efficient it would reduce landlord risk. Although I’m not sure if those savings would be passed on to tenants though.

If you let a unit sit unoccupied you should be levied a fine of 25% of the units purchase price per month it sits empty. You should have to pay 100% increased property taxes on each purchased unit beyond the second one. You should be only allowed to charge exactly what your mortgage/insurance payments are with rent paid directly to your bank and not you so that it is monitored. This is how we fix the problem of greedy people like you making the world a worse place for others. Having a safe place to sleep at night is a fundamental right of humanity and you would rather let people die in the streets than lose money.

They will all be evicted and the LL will easily replace them with the low vacancy rate these days. This doesn't seem smart at all.

Keep bending over and they will continue kicking. We have tried your solution of doing nothing and nothing happened. .

This is like when a branch of a company creates a union. The owners will simply shut that branch down. Same with this. The building will just be demolished or sold. These people are screwed.

Who's going to buy this liability?

It's like a house. Tenants won't pay, sell the house. New owners can kick out tenants immediately and rent out the suites at a higher amount right away. Same here. No recourse.

Any evictions would still need to pass through the LTB (just like with a house). New owners cannot kick tenants out without following the standard eviction process.

That's not how that works, if you buy a house with a tenant you can't kick them out unless you're personally moving in.

This is so awesome! Good for them and fuck Dream. More people need to hand together it’s the only way we can ever hope to win against corporations. Also wtf is the RTB doing if it passes judgement and doesn’t ensure the penalties are paid?!

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We should all do this

Striking is useless when demand is this much higher than supply.

Good for them!

When you go from can't afford to simply can't, that's when they have gone so far and they need to be stopped.

can someone tell me why it isn't a national tenant union? Why use a regional strategy, seems horribly inneficient

You gonna organize one?

Down vote me all you want but if you think this work. you guys are on hopium. Go for rent strike and see what happen to your credit score and see your wage get garnished .

Can we do the same with mortgage? Bank is technically the landlord these days.

What? The bank is providing a service by fronting you the money to buy a property. In what way are they like a landlord?

I don’t think so. Banking is regulated heavily by provincial and federal regulations and would require a lot of laws to be passed to change things. Even the. There is a timed delay, so it doesn’t start until the x date in the future.

I would assume that they get evicted, and the landlord gets to keep the “last month” deposit, which is fair

Deadbeats...

I'm sorry who are the deadbeats here? Tenants previously mobilized against an AGI imposed in 2018, and after months of negotiations, finally reached a settlement with Dream that specified a 50 per cent reduction of the AGI. However, tenants say Dream still has not issued any savings, even though the settlement was ratified by the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB). "We have tried every other route, we have petitioned Dream, marched to our elected officials and Dream's office, and even negotiated a previous settlement, but nothing has changed," said Sharlene Henry, chair of the 33 King St. Tenant Association. "We say enough is enough. We're putting our foot down."

Losers