Ontario: Landlord increasing parking fees.

[BetCheckBet]

Update:

So last Thursday I spoke to the board again and was once again informed that the increase was illegal. I requested options on how to proceed and was told I could either go to court to have judge tell them to stop (a big waste of my time) or simply not pay the increase and have them try to take me to court. As you can imagine both of these suggestions were not to my liking in terms of time involved and risk I put myself at.

Now before I tell you what I did let me also explain. My plan to move this Summer isn't 100% and probably about 20% chance I am still here in 2 years. So 35 extra a month can turn into a thousand bucks quite quickly.

So I was in a frustrating position. I did some more research and came across the Investigation and Enforcement Unit, which is just a scary as it sounds. They are in charge of prosecuting in such circumstances. I chose to go with them because this case is a clear violation and a waste to go in front of courts. Also it is a proactive solution that puts me in the driver's seat. A bonus was that I filled to an agent over the phone in under 30 mins. Then faxed over documents the next morning. All done very quickly. Last Friday I filed a complaint with them and will be following up tomorrow. Fines can be as high as 25k for violations. Most likely though they will just tell him to stop and he will. Then its up to him if he wants to try and charge the others... or so I thought....

New development today. Apparently another tenant who decided to look into this (seriously not me) has now placed notices in all tenants mailboxes about how the increase is illegal and cites conversations with the landlord and tenant board as well. So at this point I imagine the property management company is pretty fucked as the landlord and tenant board is going to be getting phone calls from about 30 people today (who will likely go after management as I did the other week).

So with pressure now coming from the whole building and an official complaint filed against them I would say this is done in about a week...

[GrenadaRoger]

gotta give you and that other tenant a big attaboys for the actions v the landlord...

situations like this really annoy me though

probably just about every other tenant in your building is upset by the increase and will complain privately. But few will research the law; and fewer still will confront the landlord, fearing retribution...yet the lazy and gutless are perfectly happy to let you do the work and take risks that will result in their benefiting too if you win...i almost wish you would have told the landlord "just don't increase me and i won't take this to the rent board nor say anything to the other tenants...you the landlord lose $35 per month from me, but collect that much more from each of the slacker and spineless tenants"

[BetCheckBet]

gotta give you and that other tenant a big attaboys for the actions v the landlord...

situations like this really annoy me though

probably just about every other tenant in your building is upset by the increase and will complain privately. But few will research the law; and fewer still will confront the landlord, fearing retribution...yet the lazy and gutless are perfectly happy to let you do the work and take risks that will result in their benefiting too if you win...i almost wish you would have told the landlord "just don't increase me and i won't take this to the rent board nor say anything to the other tenants...you the landlord lose $35 per month from me, but collect that much more from each of the slacker and spineless tenants"

Thanks for credit (and those on board who provided me help).

I'm not annoyed at all about that though. If I was it would make me a hypocrite. Fact of the matter is the majority of benefits that individuals enjoy are the result of someone else's work. The generous benefits, salary, vacation, and sick days I receive is not because of gracious management but because past workers have fought for such things. The fact that a provincial rent increase limit exists is the result of somebody else who spent a hell of a lot of time fighting for it (likely hundreds of hours). I can only imagine how many benefits throughout my life I've been able to access as a result of someone else's work that I'm not aware of.

Yes some people in my building may be a lazy or gutless like Jsearles. There will always be some freeloaders. But there are also many who are disadvantaged or just don't know any better. It took me awhile to figure things out and even when I confronted the landlord he still denied he was doing anything wrong. If anything that's what really annoys me. I like to think that he is just ignorant and stubborn but part of me gets pretty angry when I consider the alternative...