Hoa Boy

Our first tenants moved out at the end of November, and a new tenant moved in on December 1st. He seemed fairly normal and his previous landlord gave a good reference. I trusted him. On the 1st he said he wasn’t able to get to the bank that day, but would pay his rent the following day. We signed the tenancy agreement. It’s now Dec. 10 and he hasn’t paid his rent yet. We gave him a 10-day notice to pay rent but he hasn’t been home for three days, so it’s not until today does he have five days to pay rent — and Friday is likely his payday. While we need the money, I really just want him to move out. I don’t trust him, obviously, because he’s lied about a few things. Like smoking. We specifically asked in our ad for non-smokers, because even when someone smokes on the patio, we can smell it inside our house and outside as well. It severely inhibits our enjoyment of our yard. As well, there are all these red flags coming up, like the fact that he doesn’t use cheques and doesn’t have a bank card. Something about “fraud” with his bank account.

I am not happy. In fact, I’m quite stressed about the situation. We are good people and great landlords, and we certainly don’t deserve this. And there doesn’t seem to be an easy way out, apart from him not paying rent in the next five days. And even then, we will have to take action in order to recoup our monetary losses. Can you believe there is no legal way to evict a tenant for knowingly providing false information at time of rental? That’s absurd. Even if he pays his rent in five days, there isn’t a way for us to evict him legally. Argh! I’m furious!

In other news, our new roof isn’t leaking, yah! However, the roofers took down a broken gutter and we haven’t been able to find anyone to install a new one. So, there is too much water rolling down the lower roof when it rains, and we have to place tarps and plastic around our front stairs. Otherwise the water seeps into the suite bathroom and wall in the bedroom closet. Sigh. We’ve called every single company in the Yellow Pages, and not one will do our gutters, for a variety of reasons.

Owning an old home is stressful.

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