Roommate harassment issues

[Dan Golby]

Hopefully I can make sense of this....here it goes:



We have a suited house that we recently had some issues with the upstairs tenants. We originally leased it to 2 girls back in December and after a couple of months they weren't getting along and they wanted to break the lease and go their separate ways.



At the time we had no issue with this because one of the girls seemed great while the other one was not so great. We decided to lease it out again to the "better" girl and she picked out 2 roommates to fill the two empty rooms.





The roommates she picked were 2 guys that seemed good enough to us, but within 1 week she was requesting out of the lease saying they weren't the people she had met and they were loud, abusive etc.



My wife went and had a "family meeting" with the 3 tenants and they all seemed to agree how they would change and make it work.



2 weeks later the girl moved out. She has sent us an email requesting that we remove her from the lease, she claims she was verbally and physically abused. The lease is only 3 months and she paid her share of the rent for month 2 already. What I want to know is.....what would you do?

 

[Dan Golby]

I should clarify that this is not a house where each room is rented separately, there are 3 people on the lease for the entire upper suite.



I think the lease is going to run out and we will be turning it into a room rental just because of the applicants we have been getting.

 

[Thomas Beyer]

[quote user=DanGolby]what would you do?


Have a lease with each person, with detailed rules what is acceptable behavior and what is not, i.e. noise, smoking, wrecking things etc. ..



Having said that you need to expect this type of inter-personal bickering and sub-par behavior of younger adults, and as such you need to decide if you wish to get involved in every little or major tiff, or what degree of tenant involvement you wish to have. Perhaps get a hold of student rental leases and implement them.

 

[Dan Golby]

Ok I'm glad someone agrees with us. Basically our approach is it isn't our problem, if she wants to move out and have the room empty too bad. I think we will do the separate leasing for each individual in the future.



We have considered selling this house and getting more into single family units, at least you don't get bothered when someone doesn't get along with a family member! For the equity we have we could easily sell and buy 2 single family units and get a much better, longer term tenant......decision isn't final yet but if we go that route we won't miss the babysitting involved in this unit!

 

[alaas1977]

Hi Dan



As you stated above regarding "It isn't your problem" I fully agree regarding room mates squabbles, I usually tell them to deal with it themselves, otherwise you're a mitigator and your life gets hectic as well. I never get involved in the tenants issues with each other unless it becomes dangerous and even then only if its a danger or annoyance to a tenant in another suite.



Where is this property located? I noticed your in Cold Lake. If your property is in Cold Lake, a better approach may be to rent to military. That way they are less likely to move as they would still be responsible on the lease should they move and you would have a better chance getting paid should they break the lease and you lose income until you can re-rent it.



In the end it may be better to have single family houses perhaps even with suites for cash-flow. In suited houses I usually try to match up the suites, i.e. if I put a family upstairs, I then place a family downstairs, this way any noise complaints are lessened as they are less likely to complain as they would have the same issues.



The less you deal with your tenants the better.



Lisa

 

[housingrental]

Hi Dan

To add to the above I would not do the individual leasing in the future.

Stick with renting by the unit for an easier life.

 

[Dan Golby]

Thanks for the replies Lisa and Adam.



I agree Adam that it will be much simpler to keep it as individual suites. We could get more money as separate rooms but then we need to furnish it etc. and it isn't a road we want to go down. We live 15 km from town and have 2 kids ages 1 and 3 so running to the rental property in the evening when the kids are about to go to bed isn't convenient. That's when the tenants are home so that is what is usually required. (I also work away from home so that doesn't help)



Lisa, you're correct the house is in Cold Lake AB. We bought it just over 2 years ago and the timing couldn't have been better. Prices and rents have gone crazy here.



The issue is that when it comes to finding families it is pretty difficult now, especially military families. Cold Lake is currently flooded with workers that mostly work on a plant construction site building another SAGD plant for Esso. When we advertise it seems that the only applicants we get are groups of single workers that get together for a spot to live, which seems to always involve drama and BS. There are 1 bedrooms suites in town that bring in as much as $1900/month (furnished/utilities included), basic houses are at least $2800/month + utilities. For me to make my upper suite appealing to military families I would have to lower the rent by about $600/month.....and that doesn't guarantee I get a great family either.



We have considered using local property management, that has been a great strategy with our Edmonton rental, but I am hesitant to go that route in Cold Lake. The reason for this is because 2 years ago when we started there was only one property management firm in town, and it was just a local realtor that was no longer taking on new clients. Since the market took off there are several property managers available, but I don't know that I want to be babysitting tenants or inexperienced property managers when the Esso job ends and 1200 people leave town.



I still think that Cold Lake will continue to grow substantially, but the rental market for the types of units I have there will start to tighten substantially over the next 6-12 months in my opinion. Currently there are several condo/townhome projects that will be completed soon, mostly 2 bedroom units that will be our direct competition.



We could still cash flow with lower rents, but we are considering a "sell high" strategy with this particular unit and changing the type of asset we hold, and which market we hold them in. The investor that owns the houses on both sides of ours is going to view our house on Thursday.....see what happens I guess

 

[REQRentals]

I do not know about AB but in Ontario disputes between tenants not your problem. Leases are joint and several liability in most cases and you are entitled to pursue any one of the tenants for all or part of the unpaid rent.



If the tenant that moved does not pay you can collect from her or the other 2 on the lease. The 2 remaining is easier as they likely have to make good the rent to avoid eviction (or at least they would here)