Thread: Additional Charges Landlord is Trying to Make Us Pay

Before my husband and I even signed the original lease they began lying as the unit we looked at had a few "issues" we were told would be fixed prior to moving in such as needing wall repair in the bathroom and removal of garbage left behind by a prior tenant. Well moving day came along and low and behold when we got the keys not only was the unit which was supposed to be cleaned as promised not done as there was dirty floors and dead bugs on the carpets as well as garbage in closets and a large work desk in the basement that my husband had to dismantle and remove in pieces just to name a few of the "treasures" I found not to mention the house had an "off" smell and mould on the ceiling in the bathroom that despite scrubbing on a weekly basis never truly went away and resulted in a smell much like "rotting onions" in the bathroom. The light switches were missing the plates in a couple of spots and there were missing floor vents (furnace)in two of the bedrooms which were replaced out of my pocket. One of the lights in the basement did not work as well as the wall in the bathroom still had not been painted (eventually did this myself) nor the broken door replaced (this was eventually done however, it was still unpainted when we left in 2010) and to top it all off in the time we lived there we had two major problems with the structure. The first one happened in February of 2009 when ice build up in the winter caused the roof to leak and caused water damage to the drywall in the master bedroom, something that despite writting up two work orders and submitting them to the office was still unfixed at the time we ended our tenancy, in fact we had to contact the property management company's head office before we even got the snow removed from the roof to prevent a leak that needed to have two large bathtowels used every 1/2 hour to clean up from continuing as the on-site manager told us that their roofing contractors "don't work in the winter". Eventually the roof was "patched" (new shingles over the part where the leak occured) in the spring however, the original shingles which were the same age as the house which was built in the 1970's were never replaced. I still have a copy of that e-mail regarding the roof and a inspection form that they made my husband sign prior to giving him the keys stating the unit was "fine" (clean/maintained).

The second was the main transformer for the fuse box in the house going which was fixed immediately but, I fear that was only due to the fact this happened after Nov. 1st and there is a rule about heat and hydro in the Landlord and Tenants Act along with the fact I had a small infant were the factors here. Lastly they are not very timely with their paperwork when raising your rent as you MUST get 90 days notice before an increase when your lease it up for renewal in our experience the lease expired the end of October however, the paperwork we recieved was dated the end of June and it was not physically delivered to us at our unit until the end of August well under the guidelines and was only a N1 Notice of Rent increase form. There were many times you would recieve a "Memo" about work needing to be done in the complex or to the units on a certain date and time only to not have that work ever be done or not on the scheduled day. (They showed up at my door when I was over seven months pregnant to fix/test the furnace for the season two days after the scheduled inspection day without 24 hours notice!)

Also important to note is that this is a rental complex is managed by Realstar Property The original lease was signed in September of 2008 and expired on October 31st, 2009 and was signed based on the "verbal agreement" that the issues would be fixed as stated and which was not done and due to the fact that the Landlord where we had been living prior to moving into Tamarack Woods Townhouses had placed the home up for sale and thus, being of limited funds and availablity of units at the time we entered the original contract. When we annouced that we would be leaving at the end of March 2010 which unfortunately still fell under a lease for twelve months ( by agreeing to the rent increase we also based on the vague wording of the form had agreed to a lease renewa)l which we had signed prior to the unforseen circumstances that resulted in a death in my family and the inheriting of our current house). Immediately the next day after we sent a letter to the property manager's office explaining the situation EXACTLY as it had occured at giving them over two months notice when requesting to be released from our lease, which we thought wrongly that in doing so they might allow since we had been good tenants who always paid our rent on time (often the check would be submitted by the 25th of the month when it wasn't even due until the first!) who kept our unit spotlessly clean, didn't throw wild parties or disrupt the enjoyment of other tenants and didn't have any "eyesores" garbage etc. out front or back, got along well with our neighbours and weren't just abandoning the unit BOY WAS I WRONG! The reason being that dispite our reputation as tenants we still got dumped on for by noon that same day and without even coming down to our unit to discuss the situation and try and work out a solution we recieved a reather offensive letter that stated the following:

Jan 22, 2010

Dear (Names ommitted for privacy reasons)

While we acknowledge your letter indicating that you will be moving out of (unit number ommitted for privacy reasons), we wish to remind you that you have signed another full year lease term. You signed August 30, 2009. The term of your lease expires on October 31, 2010, which you will be held responsible until that date or until we rent your unit.

You are welcome to physically vacate anytime you wish, but you wil be held responsible for the rent until October 31,2010.

If you have any questions, please contact the rental office during office hours.

Yours Truly,
(Name omitted)

Management

Just to note to date it has cost us an amount well over $5000 dollars as rent was $1130.00 a month and we could not use our last month's rent towards this although they promised that amount would be returned to us if the unit is rented in a month for which we have paid and if we must pay in full until the end of the lease it would cost us $7910.00 (as we would be able to use the last month's rent to pay for October 2010 just not anything before that if the unit isn't re-rented). The Landlord and Tenant Board when contacted could do NOTHING to help us siding with the Landlord and suggested we contact a lawyer however, there are NONE in the City of Barrie that deal with this kind of thing the closest being Newmarket (over 45 minutes away) and then of course there would be the legal costs/lost work and wage time all the while you are paying for a unit you don't live in so it would cost more.

We never did recieve a copy of any paperwork for the new lease only the original one expiring in 2009. They also have done pretty much nothing to rent out our old unit as the check for this until this month and they would also keep making excuses when my husband calls to see how the "progress" is going like "We couldn't arrange the contractors" or it is a "slow time of year" yet, when I look on Kijiji and other sites there are a ton of ppl. looking for housing in Barrie which has a low vacancy rate so what was the deal there I had also listed the unit available myself on Kijiji with all the Rental office's info shortly after we learned that they were gonna hold us to the lease in January of 2010 and at the time we learned the unit would be rented for September had 3000 hits. However, much to our surprise they are now saying that if the rent is returned there will be a $200.00 Admin. fee (mentioned in the original lease but, not sure if that was ever legal) and that they will be charging myself and my husband as well as fully expecting us to pay for all gas consumption from March 16, 2010-September 1, 2010 on a rental until where we no longer reside and have not resided since March 15, 2010. At the time of March 16, 2010 the account for that unit for the Embridge Gas in our name was paid in full and closed with the information transferred to our new address for a new account (as Embridge informed me that the account number is for the address NOT the occupant). The landlord had been informed on January 22, 2010 that due to a death in our family and the subsequent inheritance of our current address we would be moving out of the afore mentioned unit prior to the end of the current lease for the period of November 1, 2009-October 31, 2010 however, it was agreed that we would pay the rent for the unit until which time a new tenant was found but, no mention of utilities was ever made nor have we signed any amended agreement stating we would pay for this after we had returned the keys and vacated the rental unit.

The reason the Landlord has given for wanting to make us pay is that they claim their lawyer has advised them we are responsible for the utilities as the lease until the date of was still in the names of myself and my husband until September 2010 at which time the unit has been re-rented as per verbal confirmation August 30, 2010. We have not recieved any notification in writing however, from the utilities company nor the property management company stating that we are owing nor as stated was that agreed upon at the time proceedings to assign the lease commenced. It is to my understanding that if there is no amount in arrears of rent owing then a landlord cannot charge you for utilities that are no longer list you as the registred account holder for that address and as stated the account with Embridge was paid and closed as of April 1 2010.

Just to note my husband was not shown any documentation for the amount the On-Site Property Manager claims we have to pay, any documentation from their lawyer or the Property Manager company's Head Office. The Unit in question and Realstar Property Management office we are dealing with is located in Ontario Canada if that helps at all. I have also recieved a reply from the Landlord and Tenant Board from Ontario again doing nothing to help and only suggesting I contact a lawyer...not very helpful or efficient for a government agency when they give you no information eh? Today my husband went back to the office to request documentation from a lawyer/Head office stating we would have to pay which was not provided just the same explaination that we would have to pay because our name was still on the lease and the bill from Embridge which was for over three hundred dollars and addresses to owner/occupant which we have been neither since March 15, 2010 and as previously stated all monies owing to the gas company by us were paid in full on March 30, 2010 the last bill on the closed account was recieved.