More handy landlord tips from The Star

Learn the rules of the renting game, Toronto Star, 26 Feb 2006

Applying for a rent increase above the guideline costs $500. That's just for the first unit, with a $5 charge for each other unit to a maximum of $1,000.

"It's not feasible for landlords with just one unit to apply for a rent increase," says Susan Wankiewicz, executive director of the Landlord's Self-Help Centre.

If landlording is basically a game, then what's the object of the game? Profitable investment, according to the body of the article, particularly by evicting tennants in arrears as soon as legally possible.

And hey, once your unit's vacant, you can hike the rent as high as you'd like without having to apply for the "unfeasible" regulated increase. Is this one of the vacancy decontrol game's unwritten rules?

Just last week the same columnist featured more kindly advice, urging landlords to go easy on first-time cheque-bouncers to avoid turning "good" tenants "bad."

I guess at the end of the day, the difference between good and bad tenants has more to do with the property owner's satisfaction with the size of the rent cheque than the tenant's ability to pay it like clockwork.