Renting rooms to temporary foreign workers

[alexh]

I bought a property in edmonton, and have a contact to rent to foreign workers coming to work in edmonton on a 2 year temporary work visa.

The reason it is called "temporary" is because their visa expires after 2 years, and must be renewed.

My obligation is to supply the minimal basic furniture, beds, dressers, linens for 6 tenants.

Does anyone have any experience? Do the rules change?

credit check?
Alberta tenant act?
With temporary foreign workers

If its a good idea, does anyone know a place in edmonton to purchase some decent quality furniture, at bulk prices, or outlet prices? most importantly matresses?

 

[TerryKruse]

The bargain finder is a great place to start for furniture and Habitat`s REstore.
Terry

 

[alexchee]

QUOTE (TerryKruse @ Oct 13 2008, 05:48 PM) This is a copy of a previous post I made.

We have a furnished Duplex (2 sides) rented to foreign workers in Calgary.

We are working with an agency and paid by the companies that hire the workers. Their rent is deducted from their paychecks.

The workers sign a six month lease (they don`t always honor this). They don`t pay utilities or a damage deposit (big problem).

The homes are fully furnished including computers, internet, cable etc. Anything needed in a home. We also have someone cutting the lawn.

It really sounded great when we first heard about it. We put the money we had earmarked to suite one of the duplexes to furnishings and made sure the furniture was strong enough to last. We knew there might be problems but decided to go ahead as the cash flow is so much better.

The safeguards we learn in REIN are not always applicable in this situation.

The lack of a damage deposit is a problem. The tenants have no reason to take care of the home. We had a problem with one side of the duplex being abandoned without our knowledge. The place was a mess and there were lots of missing items. Not easy to find the workers and even harder to do anything about this.

The agency we used has only filled the houses for a very short time. Although we get substantially more money for the furnished homes, this is only when full. The money we have been making is equivalent to renting the two sides and a basement suite – but without the security of a damage deposit or the tenants incentive to cut down on utilities.

We don`t get to interview or pick our tenants. So it is important to be able to check inside the homes at least once per month and a cleaner is necessary. My tenants are supposed to clean but they are not very good at it.

As we put a lot of money into furnishing and we are out of money to suite the home, we are going to keep at this for a while longer. We are getting new tenants and they seem much better.

The abandoned house is now full again and these tenants seem great so maybe our luck will change.

Given a chance to do this again, I would do the suite and rent the home as 3 suites. The extra problems are not worth the money and we haven`t always gotten the extra money for our troubles.

All in all it has been a great learning experience. It doesn`t have to be all bad you just have to be strict about the house rules and spend more time managing than with a normal rental.

Good luck,
Terry

Hi, i am sorry to hear that you have such a unpleasant experience. In my case, i run an agency myself, i buy a place to house the workers, where there is no decent place available or i am out of funds, i will rent a house and sublet the individual rooms to the foreign workers = positive cashflow. As i am in control of the supplying the foreign worker up to housing them - i collect 1st month advance + 1 month S/D. I will go to Surplus freight furniture(61st Ave)- cant remember the filipino guy name or The furniture Centre (111 Ave)-look for Geogre. I double bunk bed with Mattress around $650 - as for the furniture, i will go to Goodwill. Regards

alex

 

[alexh]

Thanks so much to all for your replys, this really confirms what i previously thought. I think ill give it a try, knowing what to expect as the worse case scenario.

I really do appreciate it.

Although in this case when the worker arrives in edmonton he has 1 month rent in pocket + damage deposit
(half month) I will not furnish as an executive suite, but with materials that will be cost effective even if they are broken, and will keep a close inspection on the house. I hope to find tenants who will stay for longer periods, if the turnover is too great, ill have to go with regular tenants.

I assume that the tenant, is not liable for damages, beside his security deposits, as i will probably have no legal means against him.

 

[Bill]

Do you have the options of dealing directly with the company the workers will be working with? I rent several properties "by the room" and completely furnished and the easiest properties to manage we deal directly with the company.

If you have to deal individually there is significantly more work involved and you can run into issues if you have more than four individuals in the residence (depending on the zoning).

Will you also be supplying cookware, utensils, plates etc? If so make sure you prepare a complete inventory prior to starting so you can track what you have to replace. Have you established any house rules? These would be no smoking, possibly no drinking, no drugs, establishing quiet hours. Strict rules can help reduce issues. If you enfocre them that is.

Make sure the neighbours have your contact info in case there are any problems. Have them call you directly if there are any problems. While this is important in regular rentals, in a shared accomodations setting like this it is even more important. Since it sounds like the workers won`t know each other there may be some babysitting involved. The biggest issues we see revolve around dishes and cleaning. If you have the cash flow I would recommend bringing in a cleaner on a monthly basis for the common areas. With winter coming up, how will you manage sidewalk shoveling? You might also need to contract this out, or add it to your schedule.

If you operate it properly with clear expectations for the tenants and for you it can work out quite well, just remember you will be trading hours for cash flow.

Regards,


QUOTE (alexh @ Oct 14 2008, 01:07 AM) Thanks so much to all for your replys, this really confirms what i previously thought. I think ill give it a try, knowing what to expect as the worse case scenario.

I really do appreciate it.

Although in this case when the worker arrives in edmonton he has 1 month rent in pocket + damage deposit
(half month) I will not furnish as an executive suite, but with materials that will be cost effective even if they are broken, and will keep a close inspection on the house. I hope to find tenants who will stay for longer periods, if the turnover is too great, ill have to go with regular tenants.

I assume that the tenant, is not liable for damages, beside his security deposits, as i will probably have no legal means against him.

 

[alexh]

QUOTE (Bill @ Oct 14 2008, 08:31 AM) Do you have the options of dealing directly with the company the workers will be working with? I rent several properties "by the room" and completely furnished and the easiest properties to manage we deal directly with the company.

If you have to deal individually there is significantly more work involved and you can run into issues if you have more than four individuals in the residence (depending on the zoning).

Will you also be supplying cookware, utensils, plates etc? If so make sure you prepare a complete inventory prior to starting so you can track what you have to replace. Have you established any house rules? These would be no smoking, possibly no drinking, no drugs, establishing quiet hours. Strict rules can help reduce issues. If you enfocre them that is.

Make sure the neighbours have your contact info in case there are any problems. Have them call you directly if there are any problems. While this is important in regular rentals, in a shared accomodations setting like this it is even more important. Since it sounds like the workers won`t know each other there may be some babysitting involved. The biggest issues we see revolve around dishes and cleaning. If you have the cash flow I would recommend bringing in a cleaner on a monthly basis for the common areas. With winter coming up, how will you manage sidewalk shoveling? You might also need to contract this out, or add it to your schedule.

If you operate it properly with clear expectations for the tenants and for you it can work out quite well, just remember you will be trading hours for cash flow.

Regards,

Hello Bill.

Looks like im moving forward with these foreign workers, I would like to have a chance to deal directly with theyre employers. Can I request the immigration company to give me the name of theyre employers, and ask them politely to be liable for their employees rental agreement.

If the tenancy agreement goes sour, do i have any legal means against them?
late payments? early termination of lease agreement?

In your experience, labour workers are not part of the skilled class, and can only apply for a temporary work visa (2 years.) Do the foreign workers usally stay the full 2 years? Or did you meet any tenants staying for shorter periods.

Those are questions of concern to me. Learning the hard way isnt my first intention, any of your feedback and experience is greatly appreciated.

thanks.

 

[Bill]

QUOTE (alexh @ Oct 23 2008, 12:52 AM) Hello Bill.

Looks like im moving forward with these foreign workers, I would like to have a chance to deal directly with theyre employers. Can I request the immigration company to give me the name of theyre employers, and ask them politely to be liable for their employees rental agreement.

If the tenancy agreement goes sour, do i have any legal means against them?
late payments? early termination of lease agreement?

In your experience, labour workers are not part of the skilled class, and can only apply for a temporary work visa (2 years.) Do the foreign workers usally stay the full 2 years? Or did you meet any tenants staying for shorter periods.

Those are questions of concern to me. Learning the hard way isnt my first intention, any of your feedback and experience is greatly appreciated.

thanks.
Sorry for the slow reply. They probably cannot pass on the employers name due to privacy laws, but it never hurts to ask. I doubt the employers would take responsibility if they could avoid it, but if they are highly specialized or severely short of staff, supplying housing may be their best option. They may deduct it directly from their pay.

It depends on where the workers are from and how homesick they become. Some countries cultures love to go work overseas to make money and travel, while other people in other countries are only coming here to make short term money.

 

[TerryKruse]

We have a 6 month lease with foreign workers (they are here for 2 years) and they seem move out after this time.

I did have some wanting to reduce the rent considerably and then they would stay for the full 2 years. A second group were wanting to stay at market rent and were trying to negotiate an unfurnished rate.

The agency I work with usually replaces them when they go though.

If you think about it, the tenants are forced to room with people that they might not know and even like. Some are messy, noisy or just different. One tenant I have can`t stand a messy house and spends all of his time cleaning the house - kind of a den mother (he is my favourite).

I think it may depend on their culture whether they like the arrangements or not.

Terry

 

[alexh]

QUOTE (TerryKruse @ Oct 28 2008, 09:10 PM) We have a 6 month lease with foreign workers (they are here for 2 years) and they seem move out after this time.

I did have some wanting to reduce the rent considerably and then they would stay for the full 2 years. A second group were wanting to stay at market rent and were trying to negotiate an unfurnished rate.

The agency I work with usually replaces them when they go though.

If you think about it, the tenants are forced to room with people that they might not know and even like. Some are messy, noisy or just different. One tenant I have can`t stand a messy house and spends all of his time cleaning the house - kind of a den mother (he is my favourite).

I think it may depend on their culture whether they like the arrangements or not.

Terry


Hello Terry,

I think i will give temporary foreign workers a go. If its not too much to ask, i wonder what kind of lease agreement you use, any special disclosures? Special Forms? Any in house regulations you get the tenants to agree and sign on? I appreciate your feedback as you are already in this type of market.

Is your lease agreement per room. What is the adress on each tenants agreement? Who is responsible for damages that may incur in the common areas? (in case there is conflict about who caused the damage?)

thank you kindly.

 

[TerryKruse]

QUOTE (alexh @ Oct 29 2008, 12:48 AM) Hello Terry,

I think i will give temporary foreign workers a go. If its not too much to ask, i wonder what kind of lease agreement you use, any special disclosures? Special Forms? Any in house regulations you get the tenants to agree and sign on? I appreciate your feedback as you are already in this type of market.

Is your lease agreement per room. What is the adress on each tenants agreement? Who is responsible for damages that may incur in the common areas? (in case there is conflict about who caused the damage?)

thank you kindly.

Your situation may be different than mine. My tenants sign a lease in front of a lawyer prior to coming to Calgary and I don`t have much input into this, aside from asking the Agency I work with to put clauses in. The tenants get a set of the house rules at this time. I also have this on the wall in the house. There are rules like: no smoking in the house, clean up after yourself, etc. There are some cultural differences that are also addressed on the house rules.

Each tenant signs a per bed agreement. I don`t get a damage deposit (I make more money but lose some of safeguards). If you can find who caused the damage then you could try to get money from them... not so easy. Just the cost of business.

I have found that if you visit the property more, there seems to be less problems. As Bill said, you are trading cash for time.

Terry