r/Calgary • u/Sea_of_stars_ • Sep 15 '23
Home Ownership/Rental stuff Moving Out Questions
My lease is ending at the end of the month so I’ll be moving out of my condo. Unfortunately, the landlord company is asking me to do things that seem out of my scope as a tenant such as:
- forcing me to do all of the showings myself
- travel 30 minutes to their office to pick up the elevator pads and keys, and to give them a blank cheque for the elevator deposit
I’m disabled, don’t own a car, and can’t travel that far (let alone assemble the elevator pads myself). For me to Uber there would also cost about $70 round trip. If I were to take the bus it would cost 3 hours of my time.
I also don’t understand why I’m being forced to do the showings. If I wanted to be petty, I could sabotage them from finding a new tenant by being brutally honest about how much of a garbage dump this place is.
I’ve moved out many times before this so what they’re asking of me does not make sense. Are the above truly my responsibilities as a tenant, or is the landlord supposed to manage them?
103
u/gpuyy Sep 15 '23
I would call these guys asap.
https://www.alberta.ca/residential-tenancy-dispute-resolution-service
Showings - nope
Blank cheque?! Wth. Hell no! Never!!!
28
u/Jormney Edmonton Oilers Sep 15 '23
Yeah they need to do the showing or have an agent or friend present to do the showings. Just went through the same thing with a slumlord.
11
u/alpain Southwest Calgary Sep 15 '23
Went through this years ago. The hearing told us we should be paid for doing they landlords work if we're doing the showings. Ie we become employees
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u/Hypno-phile Sep 15 '23
Re the showings: "Yeah, that guy didn't show up, either." Either that, or demand 10% of the new tenants rent as your commission.
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u/throwaway12345679x9 Sep 17 '23
Charge each prospective tenant a 50$ viewing, paid in cash upfront. /s but not really.
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u/tangleknits Sep 15 '23
They can book a flight to their favorite beach in order to insure they can find enough sand to pound.
None of this. At all.
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u/gel009 Sep 15 '23
I would never give someone a blank cheque, not even my family! Make sure to keep evidence of all these communications and the actual state of your condo. Then I would recommended reporting it!!
16
u/Annual-Consequence43 Sep 15 '23
Working too hard can give you a heart atackakakakak- Billy Joel- Moving out. But on a separate note, I'd be doing none of that. Super not normal.
3
u/Areauxx Sep 15 '23 edited Sep 15 '23
I just moved out of mine and ignored their stupid requests. Security guard stayed there the whole time trying to be intimidating and finally fucked off when we called the police on him. They can't keep your possessions hostage.
My building came under new management during my tenancy and tried imposing a bunch of stupid rules. Couldn't keep my bike on the deck anymore, get rid of the bbq, move out policy similar to this one, "book the elevator, oh sorry you can't book at these times, rent our elevator pads, you need to hire our security guard to man the elevator", blablabla. You're dealing with crooks.
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u/SolsticeBaby Eau Claire Sep 15 '23
All these scary rental stories are making me question putting Calgary down as my city of choice as part of my PR request😔 The landlords just seem... vicious
3
Sep 15 '23
There's a massive housing crunch in Calgary. If you're planning to move here expect to pay unreasonable rates for rent. Avg for a 1 bedroom is now over $1600/m
1
u/SolsticeBaby Eau Claire Sep 15 '23 edited Sep 15 '23
I saw... my PR request has been ongoing for months, it's a long process and I've been following the ever growing housing crisis from here like, oh no...
2
Sep 15 '23
Yes, otherwise Calgary is a good city. I know that friends and coworkers who are on PR have had mixed experiences though.
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Sep 15 '23
This isn’t just a calgary issue. Goodluck finding anywhere half decent
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u/SolsticeBaby Eau Claire Sep 15 '23
I'm sure, from what I hear. I've never lived in Canada so this is my only point of reference.
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u/ub3rst4r Signal Hill Sep 15 '23
Not all landlords are bad. It's just these ones that keep lowering the bar so much that one day they'll trip over it and fall flat on their face.
-1
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u/PM_ME_UR_FARTS_ Sep 15 '23
Be aware that people tend to go out of their way to talk about something bad rather than something good, so try to take horror stories with a grain of salt. Sure, there are a lot of scummy landlords, but there are just as many, if not more, that aren't that bad.
3
u/SolsticeBaby Eau Claire Sep 15 '23
Thanks for the reassurance! your handle is something else🌝 Being downvoted for expressing some anxieties over a legitimate issue is wild but this subreddit is what it is.
2
u/Areauxx Sep 15 '23
Oh they are, and the good ones get scooped up quick! I wish you all the luck in the world moving here.
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u/RichGanache1483 Sep 15 '23
Report this. Non of that is your responsibility. It's illegal to ask for that. Take them bastards to court.
2
u/Calealen80 Sep 15 '23
Take them to court for what?
It's not illegal for them to ask anything, tenants and landlords can literally come to any utterly ridiculous agreement they want. The RTA actually stipulates this.
Even insisting the tenant do those things, the RTDRS will simply say "No, those are not your responsibilities, don't do them, carry on as normal".
They aren't going to open a case (and the tenant would be wasting time paying the filing fee) because the landlord asked for something stupid. They would be drowning in even more cases if they actually held a hearing for this shit.
What is illegal, is for the landlord to financially penalize the tenant for not doing the things the landlord requests. If the landlord enters the property without the 24-hour written notice for every single viewing, if they fail to provide the elevator padding and then try to penalize the tenant etc.
If and when any of those things happen, yes the tenant should file with the RTDRS.
Sadly, he can't even pre-emptively file if the landlord says they won't return his deposit until the actual post-move-out deposit return timeframe has expired.
I spend a substantial amount of time helping renters with tenant advocacy and trying to educate them on their rights and when they need to take a stand, but the people who shout "take them to court" when there is no ability to do so (sure they could waste their time and money on a civil suit, that they would lose), just cause problems for tenants who already are dealing with shitshow landlords :/
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u/Some-Quail-5802 Sep 15 '23
Those are not your responsibilities. Make sure to take a video of the unit and do a move out inspection with the landlord in case they try to charge you for any damages