Overholding Tenants
So you’ve given your tenant a 14 day eviction notice to vacate or the tenants fixed term lease is coming to an end and you suddenly discover your tenant has no intention of moving out, now what?
When your tenant won’t leave your property and you’re being held hostage you have run into what is called an overholding tenant.
The Residential Tenancy Act refers to tenants who won’t leave at the end of a lease as overholding and there is a process to get them out. It’s actually the same process you use with tenants who have stayed past the eviction date of an eviction notice.
This process involves applying to the RTDRS and this can add additional time before they are out, but if you understand the process and get in front of the situation it can be quite quick..
Now, before we go into what to do, here are some tips on how to avoid it happening in the future and what you can do to help tenants move along.
I’ve put a guide together that explains the steps to deal with a tenant who won’t leave. It’s only $7 and explains the basics of the eviction process along with info to follow to ensure you get your tenants out if they are not leaving. Click this link for more info,
Evicting Tenants Who Won’t Leave
Tenant References
I’m not advocating lying about tenants, their habits or their quality, but as their current landlord, you hold some significant leverage over them when it comes to their chances of acquiring their next rental property and you need to use that leverage.
This is especially handy when it comes to tenants coming to an end of a fixed term lease that does not have an option to default into a month to month lease.
You need to make them aware that they will require your reference as their current landlord, especially when the rental market is tighter and if your tenant won’t leave, they can kiss the reference goodbye.
Without a good landlord reference, their odds of finding a place to rent goes down drastically. Or they have to hope they find a landlord who doesn’t bother to check references, which shouldn’t be none of the readers of this article.
Again, this requires a certain amount of discretion. If the tenants are the worst possible tenants anyone could ever have, you cannot tell another landlord they would make ideal tenants. If they are tenants who just need a nudge every now and then about certain things, like paying rent on time or cleaning the yard, that is a different matter.
This is also why I recommend when you screen tenants you don’t put as much faith in their current landlord (who may have an alternate agenda as in “I have to do whatever I can to get rid of these people!”) as you do in prior landlords. (If you’re unsure about what you need to do to properly screen tenants, be sure to check out my Screening Tenants Course)
Being Pro-Active With Tenants – Fixed Term Leases
When you have a tenant who is coming to the end of a fixed term lease and you do not intend on renewing, you need to make it clear that you are in control. First and foremost make sure you provide the tenant at the very least a month’s notice in writing that you will not be renewing.
In a tight rental market with low vacancies, I’d recommend giving them even longer notice and the option to terminate the lease early if they find something suitable prior to lease end. How flexible and how much time you wish to provide are directly tied to how badly you want them out.
By having it in writing and giving them plenty of notice it will provide them with very little in the way of excuses. Under the Residential Tenancy Act it does not state a notice period or that the landlord even has to provide written notice that they will not be renewing, but not doing so has backfired on other landlords.
When it comes to protecting the tenant versus the landlord and there is no definitive evidence, the judges and the hearing officers often default to protecting the tenants. Verbally telling the tenant you are not renewing could result in a he said/she said routine, by having written notice in advance there is no grey area.
Being Pro-Active With Tenants – Eviction Notices
If you’ve given your tenant a 14 day or 24 hour eviction notice, you need to make sure they understand the process. If you have properly prepared and understand the process your odds of successfully evicting a tenant are very good. If not, you have less than a 50% chance of getting a timely eviction.
Now for serious offences I advocate skipping an eviction notice and filing directly with the RTDRS or the courts immediately, you do not need to give tenant an eviction notice first. (For more on that, check out this post, Use The RTDRS to Evict Problem Tenants).
If you are going the eviction notice route, make sure you understand it and have the proper eviction notices. Using an improper eviction notice can void the eviction, delay the tenant being evicted or worse yet get your case thrown out. (For proper eviction notices purchase my Eviction Forms Package or my Eviction Guide for Landlords which includes them as well.
Inform the tenant about their options. If the eviction is strictly for non-payment or late payment, as long as they pay the outstanding amount in full prior to the eviction date on the notice they can stay. This should actually be stated on your eviction notice or it may be invalid.
If the eviction is for other breaches of the lease or continuous late payments where paying you in full will not fix the breaches, you need to make sure the tenant is aware of this.
Let them know that if they are not gone by the eviction date you will be using the legal process to not only have them removed, but if they owe money to you for damages or outstanding rent that you will pursue a judgment against them that will impair their credit as well. You need to make sure you are in control, without being threatening.
By following these basics you can impress upon your tenant that you are serious and that you will do what it takes to achieve the outcome you are looking for whether it be collecting outstanding rent or having the tenant leave. By skipping steps or not getting everything in writing, you can set yourself up for a much more difficult experience.
When A Tenant Won’t Leave
So, fast forwarding, the tenant won’t leave, the eviction date or the end of term has passed, what is your next step. The next option is going directly to the RTDRS and filing an application to evict the tenants.
Hopefully in the days leading up to the eviction date you have been documenting everything that took place and have adequately prepared for the worst. If you are positive that the tenant won’t be leaving by the eviction date or the end of the term it is possible to file for a hearing in advance, but the hearing won’t be until after the date they were to be out has passed and they may want to push this back to give the tenants as much time as possible.
If you are filing via the RTDRS it will be a $75 charge, which you can apply towards any outstanding monies the tenants owe or as costs associated to the eviction.
Once you have the hearing the hearing officer will come up with a judgment and provide a court ordered date that the tenant has to be out. This date is determined by multiple factors, some of which are out of your control and others directly in your control.
If there are children involved, it could add as much as a month to provide adequate time for the family to find new accommodations. If you didn’t follow proper procedures or didn’t follow the correct processes, it could nullify the entire eviction and leave your fixed term lease as a month to month lease or your eviction for a breach of the lease in limbo and have you starting over.
If you diligently documented everything, notified the tenant and updated them with the options, repercussions and can show you tried to work with them, your eviction can be much quicker. While the system does try to prevent tenants from being thrown out on the street unjustly, it also is aware of tenants who simply don’t get it and will assist landlords in this manner.
Having a tenant who won’t leave or a tenant stay past the end of their lease or eviction is not the end of the world. It can be a pain, it can delay you moving forward, but if you follow some of the landlord advice on this page it can go a long way to helping you get the results you needed and regaining control of your property.
Bonus Note Regarding Tenants Not Leaving At Term End
This shouldn’t have to be said, but unfortunately I see landlords make this horrible mistake all the time, don’t try and book new tenants in if you are at all unsure if the current tenants will leave…
It’s not even worth trying to do showings with potential tenants if there is a concern. You’re likely better off simply staying empty for the month or even a couple weeks to ensure proper turnaround and not being the landlord who left his new tenants in the lurch!
Hello Bill,
I have a couple quick questions, and would greatly appreciate your aide.
I am a tenant, and signed a year long lease in September 1, 2023 for the main and upper floor of a property. The basement was to be rented by a family friend of the landlords and she moved in on September 15th. On September 29th, i received a text from landlord stating that he was in town, he resides in LA, and asking if i was available to talk. I had told him that i was currently out of town working and would be returning in 10 days. He then sent me an email stating that he was at my mercy as he had lost his job in LA and needed to move back into the property. I responded with empathy and compassion and told him that i would work with him to ensure that both parties were happy. He then showed up at the property, demanding that he have access, and that he needed to see the property because he would be moving back in in less than 30 days. I had called him and explained that he needed to post a Notice of Entry to gain access and to look at the RTA for reference. Later that day, he sent me a Notice of Entry, illegal might i add as it did not follow RTA’s guidelines. I had responded and told him that I was out of town again, but i could have a close family friend meet him at the property. i informed him that He hadnt even stated a reason for the notice of entry, and that the notice was considered invaild but that out of good faith i would allow him into the property with my friend present. He then responded with a 30 day eviction notice. The eviction notice also did not follow the RTA’s standards for Eviction notice as it did not even state a reason. He then proceeded to show up at the property on the date/time he had listed on the illegal entry notice, and do a inspection with 3 other people and my family friend. At the end, he had told the person i had present that he was so incredibly grateful that we had been taking care of his property and that hes happy its in good hands. He leaves and less than 3 hours later, sends me a lengthy email stating all these issues, might i add that 99% of them were false accusations, and were stemming from the basement tenant. She seems to have it out for me, and my family, no idea why, as on several occasions i had sent her messages asking if the noise levels were appropriate, and asking if there were any issues etc, all of which she always responded that everything is fine. In this email that the landlord had sent, it had listed 13 different issues and that those were the reasons for eviction. I then responded with objection and thoroughly explained how each issue he had wasn’t actually happening and how the basement tenant had been lying. 2 days later, i received an eviction notice in my email from a Lawyer, giving14 days notice for breaching my Lease Agreement. The breaches were as follows:
1) a portion of the rent being unpaid, $1000 of the $3300 had still be owing at the time.
2) a vehicle had leaked oil onto the driveway and he was claiming that it was a safety risk as well as it apparently ruined the cleanliness of the property
3) claiming that i had other tenants residing in the property, and that i, myself, wasn’t even living there. Although untrue, he was claiming that the person he had met for the inspection was living in the property, even though it was very clear that only myself and child were living there when he had done his illegal inspection.
4) having pets on the property. also not true, the person whom he had met previously, had come to visit with her small 1.5 lb dog, and was the animal was only present at the front door for no more than 10 mins.
5) disrupting the other tenants, no explanation given,.
6) smoking in the property, myself nor any of our guests even smoke.
improper disposal of garbage, the basement tenants son, had placed a bag of garbage on the ground beside the can, and animals had gotten into it, creating quite the mess, but i had taken upon myself to clean up the mess, and the basement tenant claimed that it was our garbage. A fixed rack being removed in the garage without notifying the landlord, which was untrue as well.
I then responded with an Objection to Eviction, stating all of the reasons i disagreed with the eviction notice as well I had paid the remaining $1000 owing for rent.
The eviction date came and passed. I then received Court documents stating that there would be an eviction hearing and that the basement tenant would be a witness. I did not submit any evidence as i did not have anything to prove or disprove that the allegations were false. In the hearing the basement tenant was called as a witness, and she blatantly lied to the courts, stating that she hears the animals upstairs on a regular basis, and that she found 1000’s of cig butts in the garbages, and that she has had to move the garbage bins to the end of the driveway for collection day a few times, and that she smells cig smoke in the basement. She also complained that theres 6 or more people residing here, and that shes never even seen myself at the property, all of which is lies. At the time of the hearing, it was Dec. 2, 2023, Decembers rent was yet to be paid, but i had stated that i had the rent money and just hadnt sent it over pending what happened at the hearing. It was strictly her word vs. mine, as there was zero evidence proving/disproving the claims made by the landlord and basement tenant. The order was granted in favor of the landlord for eviction. The reasons being unpaid rent, even though it was only 1 day late, and for disturbing the other tenants, for having other individuals residing in the premises and for smoking in the property, all of which were indeed not true, minus the late rent.
When asked when the landlord would like possession, he had requested same day. His request was denied and i was given 2 weeks. 2 days later the landlord had posted yet another illegal Notice of Entry, to which i objected. The next day, he returned with another court hearing, stating that because i denied access, he wanted possession of the property same day, and that the basement tenant would once again be a witness and claim that she heard doors slamming and fighting, giving the landlord the impression that substantial damage’s had been done to the property. The judge didnt bother to call the witness and stated that because the notice was illegal and because the landlord was already granted an order in his favor for an eviction in less than 8 days away, he would not be granting another order and the existing order still remained.
my apologies for the lengthy preface, but i wanted to make sure i included all of the details.
Today, is December 11, 2023, and the eviction date is set for December 13, 2023. Being as there is a very obvious housing crisis in Calgary, and there are very few and far between vacant properties, it has been quite difficult to secure a new residence. Am i able to go back to the courts to request an extension in regards to the eviction date? Or, if agreed in writing by the landlord and myself, if i requested an extension from the landlord and he agreed, does that null the court ordered eviction date, or does he have the ability to randomly change his mind, and on the ordered date of the 13th, show up with balor and get the locks changed? If the landlord agreed to a later date, and decided to not honor that date, is he able to get locks changed on a date later than the 13th?
I look forward to your advice.
Many thanks!
Hi Bridget,
Sorry to hear about your situation but this is exactly why people should be getting help. These hearings come down to evidence and how it’s presented and even if your landlord and the other tenant were lying, it became two against one. If you would have prepared evidence, supplied text conversations or had your own witnesses this may have played out entirely differently.
As I am only seeing this today there’s very little that can be done, a couple weeks ago you could have potentially appealed, if you had additional evidence that came ot surface or that could disprove their evidence, but now you are out of luck.
Bill
Hi, I’m not a landlord but would like advice what to do in my situation. I live in an apartment building. A neighbour on a different floor has been causing daily noise disturbances so loud people on numerous different floors complained. If started Nov 2022. After many of the tenants complained to landlord, and many ppl had calls to the cops, she was evicted after many many warnings. The landlord gave her 14 days which was Dec31 2022. But she didn’t leave. My landlord went to court (I’m not sure what type of court order she got) but she told many of us the judge ruled she had to be moved out of the premises by June 22, 2023, and if she didn’t she could get removed by a bailiff. However she didn’t leave, landlord then said she was waiting for a judge to sign a warrant to have her removed, which I thought she already had. It’s now nearly 4 months past when she told us a judge ordered her to be gone within 15 days, now my landlord is saying the other tenant is fighting it. I don’t think she would win, with the complaints, she’s threatened ppl who live here, but how long can this tenant delay or fight this in court to delay being evicted? Im unaware of all the official legal steps but assumed after date to leave from judge it would be faster. She was evicted almost an entire year ago now and me and many other tenants are close to giving notice as it’s unbearable to live with.
Hi Zack,
It really sounds like someone isn’t telling the truth or doesn’t understand the process. I’ve never heard of an eviction in Alberta taking six months. With proper evidence possibly the tenant would have gotten a month to move and with a three to four week delay on hearings the latest an actual court ordered eviction would have been is end of February if it started beginning of January. I have to assume that June is simply when the lease is coming due and the landlord wasn’t going to renew. The judge doesn’t have to sign anything after the court ordered eviction, it’s just a matter of filing the proper paperwork with the courts so again, something doesn’t add up.
Short version of the process is application for eviction, hearing, court ordered eviction date and then bring in the bailiff on the eviction date if they haven’t vacated by that day. Total timeline from start to finish anywhere from 2 weeks to 6 weeks depending on how quickly the hearing is scheduled for and the severity specifics of the case. So bottom line, something doesn’t add up here. Evictions do not take six months or longer in Alberta.
B
Hello,
I am a Alberta landlord and already have the Unconditional Order from the Courts. Judgement ruled in my favor with the RTDRS proceedings. They are to be out in 7 days. However, I have a feeling that this will be proceeding to having to hire Bailors to forcefully remove the tenants.
I have 2 questions about this:
The first is that the RTDRS stated that the current lease agreement is to be cancelled as of the day of the judgement. In the rental agreement, access to laundry facilities and internet are included in the rent. Due to the lease being cancelled, am I allowed to change the locks and withhold access to the laundry facilities? Am I allowed to cancel their access to the internet and change the wifi password?
The other question is the fact that the tenants are a family, with 2 young kids under the age of 5. With a forceful eviction, does this change the process of things as we are essentially “kicking a family and kids to the streets”.
Thanks.
Hi Jeffrey,
You can’t remove any services or change any locks until the court ordered eviction date. In this case not until the seven days are up, that is when the tenancy officially ends.
Not sure of what you’re looking for with the second question. Nothing really changes once it’s reached this point. It may have affected timelines during the hearing as families are typically given additional time to vacate, but that can be offset by the situation. Since you’ve already received the Unconditional Order I can only assume the proper process was followed and the tenants either can’t or won’t make payments and the Hearing Officer made their founding’s accordingly.
It’s always unfortunate when a family gets evicted, but there are a multitude of supports around to help families in need. Again, without specifics it’s hard to take a stance on this specific case but ultimately landlords are not social services or charities. As harsh as that may sound many landlords are a single rent payment away from going under. While it’s important to work with your tenants, it’s also important for the landlords to protect themselves from drowning at the same time.
The only other potential process change you might see will fall on the bailiff as they do have some discretion as to how much time the tenants have to vacate on the day they arrive. I’ve had bailiffs give tenants thirty minutes in some circumstances and multiple hours in others. If the tenants have made zero effort to pack and/or move it’s typically shorter if they have been diligently working on it and there are delays of moving people or assistance it might be slightly longer.
Bill
Thank you for the reply Bill. It is greatly appreciated.
Hi. I have a tenant family in a property of mine, whose fixed term lease expired yesterday, June 30, 2023. They were provided a reminder at the beginning of June that their lease was coming to an end and that we were not going to renew the lease. They said they kind of figured. When we went yesterday at noon to perform the checkout, we discovered that they were still there. They have partially moved out, but their excuse is they don’t have a vehicle to move their belongings so they are waiting to get help from friends or whomever to help move their stuff out. They don’t seem to be in any hurry to leave. My wife had cancer last year and is due for a number of surgeries this year and the stress of this is affecting her and me. Our intention is to sell the property to take some of the stress off of my wife and so we can move forward, we are at a loss as to what to do next. A realtor has already walked through the place so the tenants are well aware of the situation and our intentions to sell the place. Now we seem to be stuck because the property needs to be vacated and repaired. How do we proceed to expedite their move out. Can we offer to help move the rest of their belongings as an inducement. We didn’t think they would be over holding but rather would do a midnight run and leave us with a mess to clean up. At this point I wish they had. I’m not keen on using RTDRS as I know people who have used them in the past and they favored the tenants even though the landlord had evidence and documentation to support their side of the issue. I barely make enough money on the rent to pay the mortgage and now they are no longer paying the rent, so I will need to go to the bank to secure financing to pay for the first loan. Thanks for any advice you can give. Sincerely, Frustrated
Hi Peter,
Sorry to hear about your current situation. First off, don’t accept any payments from the tenants for July unless you can have them sign a one month fixed lease. If there is nothing in place or you accept payment it defaults to month to month. You could incentivize them to leave by paying them, but it’s self defeating at this point as they are supposed to vacate, so your best route is the RTDRS. I can guarantee you in your situation with the tenant overholding it’s a very easy win. I know of zero situations where the landlord has all the evidence of a tenant overholding and they have followed the correct process where the tenants have won. The only times I have seen tenants win clear cut situations is when the landlord didn’t have sufficient evidence to prove their position.
I offer a guide walking you through what you need to know to win on the site, and I also offer one on one consultations where I walk you through your specific situation and what you need to do. If you’re not confident in the RTDRS process I can help you get rid of that concern and if you aren’t happy with my service I an more than willing to refund my fee.
I’ve helped hundreds of landlords in similar situations and I’ve learned it’s important to take action right away versus waiting until it’s too late.
Bill
Hello Bill
I am a landlord in Calgary AB, I have a fixed one year term with my tenant, this term end in 12 clock, 1 May 2023, this tenant are willing to move out, but she lost her job, no landlord try to accept her, so she has been staying in my premises, she has no rent payment for 2 months now, her reason is she cannot find new place, what can I do in this situation ?
Hi Gary, this is one of those unfortunate situations for someone and you’re going to have to make a tough choice. Realistically since the lease ended May 1st she should have vacated at that point, since she didn’t you have proceeded with an eviction to have her removed. You’re taking on the role of being the charitable organization supporting her and while I commend this, the majority of landlords are not in position to do this and shouldn’t be as it’s not something they signed up for.
At this point you need to move forward with an eviction and hope the societal supports like social services etc can step in to help here out. If you’re too close to the situation at this point I’d recommend hiring a third party eviction service company to deal with it, but continuing to carry her rarely has a positive outcome for a landlord.
Bill
Hello, I am a Landlord in Ontario, so I don’t know where this site is based, or if the laws are the same.
The problem I’m having is that I issued an N12 notice at the end of August, for the end of October. That has now come to pass.
The tenant has in no way tried to dispute the notice, and has even told me that she has a new place. However, she has changed her move in date 3 times already, and it always seems to be a last minute change.
She told me she would be moving today (Nov 6th) She was supposed to be gone at the end of October, but told me her new place wasn’t ready yet, because her new landlord had to do repairs, and she couldn’t move in until the 6th. So I let her stay until the 6th, even though her tenancy was officially over.
Today, she sent me a text with yet another excuse as to why she can’t move today, but hasn’t given me any new date, so right now she is saying she doesn’t know when she’ll be able to move.
I need her gone by Tomorrow, or Tuesday, and I don’t know how to proceed.
I’m going to call the cops tonight, to have her removed at the latest by tomorrow morning, but I don’t know if they will do anything, and if I go through the eviction process, it could still take weeks, or even months to get her out.
She has in no way disputed the N12 notice, and her tenancy was officially over at the end of October.
Please help me out.
Hey Ryan,
This site covers Alberta information (AlbertaEviction.com…). Ontario has an entirely different set of rules which I’m not familiar with, although I am aware they are extremely tenant leaning making ti difficult for landlords not familiar with the process. I also believe their is the landlord tenant tribunal you can contact, but I believe you’ll have to go through with a hearing with them now which will likely delay your possession even longer.
Bill
Hello there,
I just have a stubborn tenant who wants to stay extra day after a the end of a fixed term (Nov.1 vs.Oct.31) , and now I got a request from another tenant through an online vacation website who wants to start tenancy on October 31. I’ve requested from my tenant again to leave by October 31 and he refused and now I’m going to loose the other new tenant and his rent because of an intentional over holding by the existing tenant … In this can I claim the lost new rent from the security deposit?
Thanks,
Ayma
Hi Ayma,
That does become a challenge, hopefully you were able to negotiate with him to have him move on?
Alternatively you have to figure out what this may cost you. If you’re going to be out $1,000 it may be worth paying for a hotel for the fellow for one night or paying him $200 just to leave early.
You can withhold part of his security deposit if you lost income, but you have to show it’s a valid amount if you just lost the one day you would only be able to withhold one day’s rent. If you lost the whole month you could withhold his entire deposit, but you would have to prove you are trying to rent it.
Just make sure you document everything!
Bill
Hi Bill, We are landlords that don’t have a lot of money to pay for tenants who don’t pay their rent. Also to have someone removed from YOUR property cost money. Money for the court, money for the bailiff money to the bank for the mortgage payments. Why does the tenant have more rights to YOUR house than the owners do? We have a lady in our house now who hasn’t paid rent for two months ( September,October) and refuses to pay, we did all the checks and they were to our satisfaction.
I know we have to go through the courts once again to have a bad tenant removed, I just wish the owners had more rights to their house than a tenant does.
Hi Colin,
I definitely hear your frustrations, but when you look at the rules in place in Alberta they are pretty fair, especially when you compare them to jurisdictions like Ontario or Quebec where it’s not uncommon for tenants who understand all the rules to delay and appeal for months and months at a time, all at the homeowners expense.
The important part of any issue of non-payment is taking immediate action and since your tenant failed to pay for September, you should have filed for a hearing within the first couple of days after the non-payment. I understand the challenge of hoping it’s just a short term hiccup, and will catch up fairly quickly, but having a hearing filed would have meant you already would have had a hearing by now and likely before the end of September.
Suddenly there would have been a court order in place where she would have had to pay by October 1st to remain, or possibly by the 15th of October. This would have left you out of pocket September’s rent, court costs and potentially bailiff costs, but you could apply the security deposit to a portion of it making it a loss, but manageable.
Instead, by being nice and not doing it you now are looking at another three weeks before your hearing, the tenant will still likely be evicted but it could be mid November or later and you will be out September, October and November’s rent plus any court and bailiff costs. That makes three total months rent gone plus the additional costs and you will only be able to use the security deposit to cover a fraction of it.
It’s a tough road to follow, but as landlords we need to file at the first sign of non-payment or issues. We can always cancel the hearings if things change and we’re out only $75 to $100 for filing depending if it’s the courts or the RTDRS versus a month or two of lost rent.
Bill
I have given my tenant two 14 day notices. The second one because I didn’t properly serve the first. It is my intention to move in myself on the eviction day and I told them that. I can’t pack their things and move them out, but I can and will move myself in… thoughts? My thinking is that it is not actually legal for them to stay and not pay, so while perhaps I cannot legally move in while they are still in possession, what’s the difference? I am actually the one paying the mortgage – if I gave them proper notice, what is to stop me from taking a couple of chairs and sitting there?
Hi Frustrated,
Without a court order and the tenants out of the property, you can’t move in. Your thought process is correct in that it’s not legal for them to stay, the shortfall with the issue is you need that court order to get them out.
You could try sitting in a chair you brought in, but as they are still officially tenants of the property, you could be arrested for trespassing and potentially fined for disturbing their peace. I know, sounds crazy right, but it’s not. The big issue is there is a specific process to evict someone and unfortunately you weren’t aware of it and are now paying the price.
Having this process can be a bit of a pain for a landlord, but at the same time it also protects landlords from repercussions later and in the grand scheme of things Alberta has one of the most balanced set of rule sin place, if you know them.
Your option at this point is to quickly learn them, start preparing for an actual eviction hearing, or let them continue to live there. I have two ways to help you off the site.
I sell a landlords eviction guide that walks you through the process of using the RTDRS to evict a tenant and I also offer a consulting service where I can walk you through the options you currently have, where I can answer any questions you may have and where I can point you in the right direction.
As one of my consulting clients recently commented on, she wishes she talked to me before she even started renting out her property as it would have saved a ton of headaches, loss of income and more!
Bill
My tenant is messing with me when I try to show the place. She has a fixed term lease which runs out at the end of the month. She found another place and won’t renew but she tried to negotiate a much lower rent. She keeps sending me emails about how much cheaper rent is elsewhere. Yet I’ve had a ton of inquiries when I posted an ad with a slightly higher rent than my last offer to her.
I booked people to view on Saturday afternoon and gave her 27 hours notice. She emailed me that she needed me to re-book to Saturday evening or Sunday afternoon as she would be out but her dogs would be home. Not wanting to fight the dogs we came on Saturday evening at which time she told me I had to reschedule the Sunday bookings because of the day of rest clause in the Landlord and Tenant Act.
I have now got 8 -10 parties coming Monday evening but she may come up with a new excuse. I think she wants to prove that she was right about the rent being too high.
Can I call the police or animal control if I can’t get in?
Welcome to problem tenants Sharon.
It sounds like she is using the rules against you in this case and even if she does let you show it I’m betting any transition on the first of the month won’t go flawlessly if she even vacates. That means you could be stuck in a trickle down effect where she doesn’t vacate yet you’ve got new tenants who’ve given up their place for the 1st and either get stuck in limbo or push someone else back.
I’d suggest be very clear with her that you would appreciate her cooperation or any landlord references won’t be too flattering as you will simply tell the full truth to any landlord that checks. It might be enough to snap her to attention unless she already has a place, or she could simply be trying t buy time as she hasn’t enough money to put down a deposit and rent elsewhere.
Hand in hand with this let her know that if she wants to drag all the rules into play like the day of rest clause that you will retain her security deposit the full ten days after she moves out to ensure there aren’t any additional issues. Depending on her situation this might also light a fire as so many tenants drastically need the single deposit that exists out there for their new place. Leverage that if she cooperates and works with you you can easily arrange for a refund on moveout day, but if she wants to make this difficult you can as well.
Bill
Hello Bill, I am currently having struggles with my tenant. They are a big family including 5 children. They haven’t been paying their rent since January 2016. We already have given them the 14 day eviction notice and they agreed with it. The date that they are supposed to move out is May. 31st which is 4 days later. However, they don’t seem like they are going to move out as i don’t see them packing at all. I already have new people coming to take the rent on June. 6th and I am so worried if the current tenant won’t move out by then (which is likely to happen). What if they refuses to move out even after the eviction date passes? Thank you.
Hi Annie,
You could very well be out of luck if they don’t vacate in time. If they aren’t gone, or possibly even the 30th/31st, you may want to immediately file at the RTDRS for eviction and possession of your property.
The RTDRS is fairly backed up as there are lots of issues int he market right now and it could take up to four weeks to get the hearing ta which time they may be granted another couple of weeks or even a month by the hearing officer due to all the kids.
The mistake here was believing them which is unfortunate that it’s come down to that these days. In hind site, once they failed to pay you should have immediately filed at the RTDRS, received a court ordered eviction date and you would know for sure when they would be out.
Bill
Hi Bill,
I have a fixed year term tenant that will be ending in 3 month and I don’t want to renew his lease anymore. As a courtesy I would like to give him a notice that I as landlord would not be renewing the lease and that he has to vacate the property at the end of the lease day. Can I also add to the notice that if he did not vacate the premises after his last day, that we will start charging him, say $50 per day or even higher? I understand that if he refuses to leave then I have to go to RTDRS but do I have to wait after the lease term date to go to court if I am already sensing the he doesn’t want to leave?
Thanks,
Tony
Hi Tony,
Technically if he overstays he can be charged a pro-rated amount fo the lease, so whatever the daily rate works out to be, but since you’ll likely be forced to also take him to the RTDRS or courts to evict him, he will be liable for those costs and associated costs as well plus face having a judgment on his record which won’t bode well for him going forward.
Use this as leverage to make sure he knows you mean business if you anticipate problems.
Bill
Hi Bill,
I’ve asked for your advice a couple of times and it been very helpful hence I would greatly appreciate it if you help me once again!
My parents own a rental property and been renting it to some toxic tenants for many years. After three months late rental payments my parents finally agreed to take them to RTDRS to get them evicted. We won the case but now I’m stuck with a sticky situation I don’t know how to handle it.
So during the hearing the tenants told the judge they actually had money to pay the full rent that day and accused me of preventing them to pay my parents some rental payments as I specifically told them not to contact my parents anymore… Although they forgot to mention that I also told (and gave a written notice) them that I would be managing the property from now on and they should contact me instead regarding to anything to the rental property. Luckily the judge still ruled in my favor and order them to leave the property in 14 days.
After we won the case, I’ve made multiple attempts to contact the tenants to follow up with the ‘full rental payment’ that they so-called advertised to the judge. And unsurprisingly they avoided me, slam the door in my face, etc. and kept telling me that I have to contact them on a later date only to tell me to contact them again on another date (similar to what they did to my parents). At this point I’m beyond frustrated with them and can’t wait for the day they are finally evicted from the property.
However, due to what I’ve seen in the house – the house is extremely dirty. Dirty to the point that it affected some of the major appliances making me believe that I need to hire an inspector to get a better understanding of what needs to be done on the house. I am expecting that we need make major renovations to the house because of them. So knowing it’ll probably cost me 5-digits to fix up the place it drives to keep calling them for the $2000+ rental payment although I know for certain they probably wouldn’t have it. I would like to claim for damages too but with the lack of a proper initial inspection report I’m not hoping for too much.
So my question is:
1) Are there any other actions I can take to force them to pay the remaining amount before they leave or should I just let it go? I know I can take them to RTDRS again after they leave the property but most likely they wouldn’t give us their new contact information. I only have their driver’s license, current number and possibly their relatives phone numbers. But unless if it is enforced onto them to pay the remaining amount they’ll most likely continue to scramble away without paying.
2) If they leave things behind when they move out am I obligated to store their stuff? If so – for how long before I can throw it away?
Thanks again for your time
Karen
Hi Karen,
This is a classic example of waiting to long and hoping tenants make good. By the time you get to the point they are forced out via an eviction the additional losses (repairs, extended vacancy during repairs and lost time) and usually unrecoverable.
I’mm assuming you have a judgment for the outstanding rent, you may want to remind them the judgment will follow them for ten years and that you will renew it at that ten year point for another ten years. This can affect their ability to lease and/or finance a vehicle, purchase a house and even potentially their ability to buy a cell phone on contract. They often simply don’t get that part!
It’s no guarantee they will pay as some people are simply not aware of the ramifications and don’t find out until they go to finance that new vehicle they desperately need. I actually had a tenant who paid me almost four years after the fact as he was turned down for a vehicle loan due to the judgment and outstanding money owed. He had to pay me back to move forward.
If you have their work address (always handy to have this on applications and to keep it current) you can serve them there and possibly even garnish their wages there if you have a judgment already.
As for the stuff, if it’s less than $2,000 in value you can dispose of it, but I’d hold onto it for a couple weeks if possible unless it’s absolute garbage. If it’s over $2,000 you’re supposed to hold onto it for 30 days and can then auction it off to cover your costs and outstanding amounts with any excess going back to the tenants. Reality is they usually just leave garbage and items of minimal value because they are too big or heavy for them to take.
Hope that helps,
Bill
Hi,
Our situation is a little left of centre.
I have been renting our investment property for some 3 years now. The tenant is now on a month to month lease. The property is managed by an agent.
I have decided to build my new home on the site and have given the tenant the appropriate 60 days notice (we are in Victoria). In an effort to have the place vacant, I offered the tenant 2 weeks free rent if he could be out by 30 days. He didn’t take up this offer. He has found new accommodation but the lease commences some 2 weeks after the notice period expires.
I really need him out by the notice period as I have demolishers ready. By him not moving, I will have to put back the whole building process by some 2 months (building industry seems to close for some of December and Jan). This will not only be inconvenient to me but will also cost me as I am renting now (having sold my house).
Is there any way we can ensure he has vacated by the notice period – I am being advised by my agent that he can’t do anything until the tenant is “in Breach” and the process will take longer than the extra time the tenant plans to stay.
Thanks
Drew
Hi Drew,
Obviously the rules in BC will be different (although they are fairly landlord friendly), but I have been walked through them. The nice part is you can start the eviction process through the BC version of the landlord tenant dispute setup within a couple days of the eviction date/move out date.
This might not be quite quick enough, but I would recommend you go through with it anyway. Also let the tenant know if there are additional costs he will likely get those charged against him, meaning deductions and/or potential forfeiture of his any deposits, and it may involve a judgment appearing on his credit rating which could affect future credit related purchases.
You’ll want to stay on top of this, most agents aren’t quite as helpful (or as educated as they should be) when it comes to evictions. I’d recommend you look into the process now and get a head start on it!
Bill
Hi,
I have a quick question. I am a tenant and my landlord and I have been great to each other since she started renting to me. But, she went out of town and her husband is in charge at the moment! Well, we decided to part ways last month. Nothing in writing, just verbal. I am all packed up and just awaiting the move. Well, I was supposed to be out by the 31st of August but the place I invested my time and energy on feel through last minute! It’s September 2nd now and I’m just waiting on a few places to call me to put the deposit in and get my keys to either or, but my landlords husband that is I’m charge now, expressed his frustration about me just having my stuff in the house still. Can he throw me out all of a sudden or can he call the cops on me and the cops make me leave? I mean, just in case he decides that he is that upset at the situation? I am not trying to stay without him in total know of the situation at hand, but I don’t want him to go and say, oh yea Well hurry up and I’ll be back to check tomorrow, and all a sudden I go to answer my door and get greeted by the cops instead, you know what I mean? I am trying to get a place as fast and as hard as I can and the last thing I want is for him to think I am taking advantage of him in anyway. Please help! Oh and by the way I am in the state of New Mexico.
Thank You,
Steven
Hi Steven,
Sorry to hear about your situation. The best option would be to negotiate with him to ensure you get a peaceful move out. The side note from all of this is going forward you should try and get everything in writing as it can provide some protection if a situation like this goes sideways in the future.
The last part of the legality of this I can’t help with. The majority of this information is based in Alberta Canada and the rules form state to state, province to province and area to area differ drastically and I simply don’t know the rules for New Mexico as I am based out of Alberta.
Bill
Hi Bill, If I understand the RTA correctly, once a tenant has been given their 14-day eviction notice for non-payment of rent and that date passes, the “overholding tenant” no longer has a valid lease agreement as their tenancy has ended and is no longer considered to be residing in the rented premises legally. I know that locks can’t be changed and they can’t be physically removed without a court order and a bailiff, but can their water be shut off at this point?
Hi Christel,
You’re misunderstanding this. The 14 day notice is nothing other than a polite notice in my mind. It’s not binding, it’s just extra evidence if it does proceed to a hearing of some type.
They are still fully tenants and not overholding and they are still covered by all the RTA rules and regulations. To be overholding they would be required to stay past either the end of a fixed term tenancy or a court ordered eviction.
That means any attempts to disconnect water, remove doors, change locks etc would all be a breach by you and could involve fines and/or having your eviction thrown out.
Your next step at this point is to file at the RTDRS or courts depending on where you reside and get a court ordered eviction. I provide the proper steps and procedures to do this fast and effectively in the guide available on this site.
Regards,
Bill
I’ve found myself in a bit of a situation and was hoping I could get some informed advice. (I live in southern AB) My landlord and I entered into a verbal rental agreement in Oct/2014 stating that I would pay $700/month inclusive. In Feb/2015 I came home from work one day to find my landlords camper parked in my driveway. It took me a few days to make contact with him, but when I did, he disclosed that his relationship had ended and that he was now living in his camper. In my driveway. He assured me that he would be gone after a few weeks once he figured everything out. Fast forward five months…he was still there. I would come home to find him entertaining his friends in my back yard, he would gain entry to the garage to use my tools for his personal projects, he had even accessed the residence on occasion and inform me of it afterwards. All of this done without notice or permission. When confronted about these behaviors, he would get angry and state that I had no right to tell him what he can and can’t do.
Here’s my conundrum – after doing some amateur digging online re my rights as a tenant, I drafted up and served him with a letter insisting that he remove himself from the premises. (Which he did in fact do that very day) The next day I came home to a crudely written eviction notice. It wasn’t dated, signed, and no valid reason for eviction was given. Just a date given in which he stated I am to vacate. It is my understanding that this would deem it an invalid eviction notice? We are nearing the date stated, and I’m concerned that I will return home to find the locks changed, or even worse, find him inside the home refusing to leave. What recourse do I have here? There is no written lease, and he is obviously the legal owner of the property. I understand that he most likely wishes to have the house back for his personal use and do not wish to unnecessarily difficult, but there must be proper procedure that he must follow in order to accomplish this?
Any advice or information gleamed would be greatly appreciated .
~Michelle
Hi Michelle,
This would fall into a few areas of the Residential Tenancies Act where he has gone over the rules. You’re allowed a reasonable amount of privacy and setting up camping in the yard and entertaining friends in your space that comes with the property would be way past the boundaries.
For the eviction notice it’s definitely invalid. For him to move back in he has to give a minimum of three months written notice and this must include three full months. So if he gives it to you today (August 2nd), August isn’t a full month since we are two days in, so it would be September, October, November and you would have to be out on the 1st of December.
For him to “enforce” the eviction notice he provided, he would also have to go to court to make it legal, so even on the eviction date in the notice, you don’t have to go. If he changes the locks and or find him inside the home, you can call the police who will assist you in regaining access to your property and residence. They can’t enforce the RTA laws, but they will calm the peace and ensure he follows the rules.
In the meantime, this isn’t likely the best place for you to stay long term anyway, so you may want to be actively looking for a new place in the background. Just be sure to document everything you included here in case he tries ot retain your security deposit, does lock you out and at some point you need to file at the courts.
Bill
Thank you so very much for your input Bill. It has definitely helped relieve some of the panic associated with all of this!
-Michelle
I just wanted to say, “YOU ROCK”, Bill. You saved me a lot of headaches, as a tenant, with this site. Thank You so much! I would even like to hire you to represent me, if possible, should I need someone in my hearing. Thanks so much again!
Hey Dan,
Glad it helped out. I don’t actually represent tenants or landlords in hearings as they wouldn’t want to pay my excessive rates!!!
I do provide 30 minute consultations if you need additional advice or advice specific to your situation that may benefit you though. You can find links to that on the front page of the site about half way down!
Good luck with your hearing,
Bill
Hi…just wondering if somebody could answer some of the legal . I was suppose to be moving out of a house in Sylvan Lake, Alberta at the end of april. 2015. I spoke to the landlord and he decided that he would rent me the house out for May for $500. There was some work to be done at the house( removing carpet, sanding hardwood & staining) the 3 mainfloor bedrooms and he was going to pay me to complete this job hourly. The bill for the work came out to $800 and the was other work on sheds to be completed but my landlord said he wasn’t going to pay… I told him then to serve me with an eviction notice then or pay me and I will leave. The next day, June 1st. The new tenants showed up, started to verbally assault me, threats.. Let my two dogs go running the streets, proceeded to pretend to punch at my head ( female #1), then left MY residence, came back inside and pretend to punch me, went outside and when she did it the 3rd time I used (reasonable force) and pushed her with 1 hand on shoulder. She tripped over the front door threshold that is really tall. I did not intend on her falling and verbally also explained ” I am sorry I didn’t mean for that to happen”as her boyfriend was running towards me and in the house. He started trying wrestle me to the ground. When we landed, I found out after the physical altercation that my wrist on both sides of my right hand and my thumb was hurting. It still is hurting really bad on day 57. During the fight With the male, his girlfriend(female 1) was punching/kicking and scratching me repeatedly in the back and front of my head. I put him in a arm lock and asked politely if he was done fightin? I ended up being the one charged with assault on a female and the male( because they had called the police and the police didn’t know any landlord tenants laws about me having rights to be at the address still)… In the end I got the assault on male dropped up but, I got a second charge on a separate female who is like 70 years old has crutches for cp or something for “chest bumping her” She is 4 foot nothin. I’m 6′ tall and I never even Accidentally touched her… MY QUESTION is should I have these people charged with unlawful entry, assault and if this court case goes through; is the like a class 1 misdemeanour assault charge? What r the reprocutions? Also if I call the local police, will I not have to give a full statement and everything can and will be used against me? Maybe get my lawyer to do this?
_________________
***URGENT***
Hi Rick,
We’re not lawyers, so legal advice isn’t what we provide. Having said that, here’s what I can tell you.
The landlord can’t evict you without a court order and the police can’t remove you until that court order is in place and has been enforced by a bailiff.
If you feel you have been assaulted and your property was illegally entered you should have immediately filed a report with the police. You can still do it after the fact, but it loses a considerable amount of credibility. It’s doesn’t negate it, it just weakens your position.
If you feel you need legal questions asked there are several free legal consulting services in Alberta you can use, you can start by simply typing “fee legal alberta” into Google to get directed to some options.
Bill
Hello, My husband rented out his dads house to his cousin and his girlfriend. However there was never a written lease. Now here we are 3 yrs later and my husband wants them out because they havent been paying the rent. My husband is such a nice guy that at times´people always advantage of him!!1 Well his let them slide a few times with not paying because they didnt have it. The had agreed that when tax season came they would pay about 4 grand they owe him well, tax season has come and gone and still no payment. A month ago my husband sent them a text message telling them that they had a month to leave because now his father ALSO wants them out! Well here we are a few days before the month is over and they are refusing to leave…..PLESE HELP US what else can we do to get them out!!!! we live in iowa….please email me thank you so much!!!
Hi Mr.s De,
Is the property in Iowa? This site specifically deals with evictions in Alberta. However, I did some quick searching for you and found this link to Rent Iowa where they talk about the eviction process, here’s the link Iowa Eviction Process.
Bill
If you have a similar problem in Alberta what can you do? I currently rent to a couple of friends without a contract ( dumb I know), and I caught one of them doing drugs on the premises after clearly stating multiple times that it was not acceptable, let alone legal. I gave him 14 days written notice but he refuses to acknowledge the notice, he will not sign the paper. And claims if we do not give him 30 days notice that he can press charges? Is that true? He also has yet to pay rent for this month.
Hi Mrs. Cross,
All the answers here are for Alberta? Tenants don’t need to sign any eviction notices, if that were true why would they ever sign one? They don’t even have to leave if you give them one, unless you have a court order thats the only way to force them out.
Anyway, if he’s doing drugs on your property he is not only in breach of the verbal terms (yes verbal leases are dumb), but he’s breaking the law. If he won’t leave, your next step is taking him to the RTDRS or the courts to get him legally out of the property.
I break out all of this in my eviction guide which you can purchase here Eviction Guide to the RTDRS for Alberta Landlords or you can try it on your own. It’s not that hard to do after you’ve done a few, but the first time it can be incredibly confusing, and it can be incredibly frustrating if you make a mistake along the way and suddenly your tenant gets to stay another month for free, or your eviction gets tossed. My guide explains how to avoid those problems.
Bill
I have a girlfriend who i have broken up with and who has been living with me for free not paying any of the bills etc. I am the only person named on the lease,……. She has basically put me in breach by keeping pets in the house and the breakup now contributes to my dilemna,
How can I legally evict her if I am the renter and she is not on the lease?………I need help!
Hi Mike, you asked basically the same question last week, here’s the answer again.
You’re caught in that gap where there isn’t a lot of rules on paper. Many of these situations if they escalate only get settled in a court. Under a situation with shared space it gets muddier and usually defaults to the lease, but in this situation there is no written lease so it’s even muddier.
You’ve got a couple options, you can try and work things out with the landlord, negotiate to offer to help advertise, keep the place clean and make it easy to rent out again quickly so that there is basically zero vacancy for them.
Or failing that you can suggest that if she is keeping the deposit you then don’t have to worry about keeping anything clean or tidy leaving a bunch of extra work for them once you move out. This is a little underhanded, but sometimes when people refuse to negotiate you have to wake them up.
There should be a fair middle ground that works for both parties instead of strong arming one side like it sounds like they are doing to you. Yes you didn’t provide enough notice possibly, but things change, so if you help them fill it quickly it should be no harm no foul. At least in my world.
Bill
I live in a house with 2 other renters. The utilities are in my name and now one of the tenants isn’t paying his portion. What are my rights on collecting payment? Can I go after the landlord for payment? The Lease says utilies are extra. The tenant is now 3 months behind and I need to pay the bills but can’t afford his portion and mine. Please help.
Hi Sarah,
Are the other renters paying rent to you, or the landlord? If they are paying to the landlord, you need to talk to the landlord about the utilities, if they are paying you, you need to deal directly with the tenants as it is not the landlords problem.
If they are paying the landlord, you may want to talk to the landlord about getting the utilities out of your name and into theirs. It’s not really fair for you to have to track down the tenants for payment as you are taking all the risk if they skip out.
Bill
They pay rent to the landlord.
Would I have to take him to small claims court if he doesn’t pay or can the landlord issue his a demand letter for payment? Also if he decides to leave without paying can I go after his damage deposit for the outstanding amount as long as I have proof as to how much I’m owed?
Hi Sarah, you’ve got a rather muddled situation here and I haven’t run into this before. The key thing here is if the landlord is collecting rent from everyone, he should be collecting the utilities as well or at least that is how you should have it to protect yourself.
Right now, you have no recourse except to go to small claims court against the other tenant. I’d either ask the landlord to take over the utilities, have him collect them or ask for a deposit from each tenant in the future for one months utilities. The last option likely won;t work as the rules state you can only get a total deposit no more than the total of the rent, but it may be a loophole the way it is set up.
Bottom line though, I’d get those utilities out of your name or get some guarantee in writing that the landlord will cover it.
Bill
Can the landlord take over the utilities in the middle of a lease? Would they just need to send out something in writing stating that the utilities effective whatever date will now be collected with the rent and any outstanding amount will be demanded in full. Is that a possibility?
As long as everyone agreed with it it would be fine, although starting at the beginning of a billing cycle would be best. They’d want to do it all in writing as well so there is a paper trail. Although thinking about it, at this time, why would the landlord want to transfer the utilities to himself? You’re doing all the work and taking all the risk, so moving may be your option or the threat of moving anyway.
Bill
Hi, I have a crummy situation.
I have a condo and I rent the spare rooms but we have a shared living space, kitchen, dining and bathrooms etc. We have a month to month Lease which states that I will charge a late fee for any late rent and that I can end the lease if the rent is not paid. My tenant moved in January and hasn’t paid rent on time yet. In February he did not pay the full late fee so in March when he paid rent I explained that the oldest outstanding balance had to be paid first and this made the current rent only partially paid and late. He disagreed and I insisted that the outstanding dept would be paid first from the month he gave me and that the rent was considered late. He has been difficult and hard to get along with since he moved in and in February I didn’t get paid the full rent until the 20th of the month so I decided this time I would give him an eviction notice to encourage him to pay sooner or just move out so I could rent to somebody else. I was planning to be away when the eviction date came up so I made arrangements for my uncle to collect the outstanding money. I tried knocking on the tenants bedroom door to let him know of the arrangement but he refused to answer so I left a note on the door instead. I know he got it because I heard him come out and get it after I had gone to bed. While I was away I contacted my uncle to see if he had heard from the tenant and he replied that he would call. Shortly after my uncle contacted me and told me that the tenant had refused to pay the outstanding balance and that he wasn’t leaving and there was nothing I could do. He used several swears and was very aggressive and rude to my uncle and said I would have to waste my money taking him to court to get him out. I arrived home today and I haven’t seen the tenant yet as he’s at work but I have several concerns and I’m hoping you can answer some questions.
a)I read that since we have a shared living space our lease is not governed by the tenant act but solely by the written lease we’ve both signed, if this is the case do I still need to apply to court or the RTA to force the eviction or can I get a bailiff straight away?
b)Due to the aggressive behavior with my uncle, I’m not comfortable talking to him at all, also I have pets that I’m concerned for and property that he could easily damage if angry. Is there anyway to speed along the process even though he hasn’t made any direct threats?
c)Can you confirm for me that insisting the money he gave me on March 1st could be used to pay the late fee from February making his March rent late and the eviction notice valid?
I really appreciate any help you can offer.
Thanks,
Raelea
Hi Raelea,
You really have to make sure you set the rules right from the beginning. Since the tenant “got away” with not paying on time right from the start, you’ve set the precedent. Not that you have to be hard headed about it, but you need to be firm, or you end up in situations like this.
So as you’re now aware, you aren’t covered by the Residential Tenancy Act, instead you are covered by the Innkeeper’s Act, at least sort of. There are specific articles explaining this on the site and hundreds of comments and answers about what is involved with those articles.
What you need to know at this point is that if he is aggressive and threatening and causing a disturbance due to this, or you fear for your safety, you can call the police and often they will help you. Otherwise, your lease is what outlines the specifics of the situation for you (so hopefully you have a signed lease, I do have roommate/Innkeeper style leases available for purchase here if you need them going forward). This lease may provide you options, but as your tenant pointed out, it may come down to evicting him via the courts and not the RTDRS as they only handle RTA matters.
Before you can hire a bailiff, you need a court order, but it may not hurt to read through all the comments under the Innkeeper related articles first as there are many tips and suggestions in there for you.
I can’t really comment on the late charges as this would all be dictated via your lease and I’m not familiar with any rulings otherwise.
Bill
Hi Bill,
Thank you so much for providing everyone with such helpful advices. My parents have two tenants who have been consistently delaying in paying rent. They were a nightmare! We’ve given them 14 day notice, and filed a report in the RTDRS to schedule a hearing. Currently, I’m worried that they won’t move out even if the court orders them to move out by a set date. I read that you can hire professional to force them to move out, but if we take it upon ourselves for the task, can we change the locks and tell them that if they want their stuff, they’ll have to schedule to pick up their stuff? If not, is there a less costly way to complete the eviction process?
Another question I had is, how does the court ensure that money owed will be paid to us if their bank account is empty? Thank you very much!!
Cheers,
Bonnie
Hi Bonnie,
typically you’re supposed to give them either a 14 day notice or file with the RTDRS, but not both. They didn’t even allow this originally, but perhaps due to backlog it’s more common now.
To make the court ordered eviction legal, you need to have a bailiff present to enforce it. If they are still living there after the time indicated on a court ordered eviction, you can’t change the locks unless the bailiff is present. No getting around that.
As to ensuring you get your money, there is no guarantee. A judgment will be filed on their credit report and if they ever need to improve their credit or intend on purchasing a car or home in the next ten years you may get paid as part of a requirement of them to clear previous judgments on their credit report.
Also with the judgment you may be able to file to get their wages garnished, but depending on their job this usually results in them quitting and finding a new job and then you have to try and search for them and repeat the process making it a waste of time if it’s less than a few thousand dollars.
Bill
Hello,
My name is Jon, I have tenants renting on a month to month lease. I’ve given them notice to end tenancy for renovations which they agreed too – when the time came to leave (Dec 1) they balked stating I needed to provide 1 year notice to evict on basis of renovations. They are correct and have cancelled renovations plans.
We would still like them out as soon as possible. What options do I have to provide the shortest possible notice and legally be able to remove them from the premises – I’m worried they aren’t looking for new accomodation and plan to stay as along as possible.
Hi Jon,
And that’s the biggest issue with month to month tenants. Ending the lease when you need it ended. You’re in a bit of a quandary now as you’ve already laid your cards on he table as far as why you were terminating. If you terminate for any other reason and then do the renovations it is possible for them to come back and potentially charge you for an illegal eviction.
You could try a couple different things, you could ask them to move and offer to fully refund their security deposit no matter the condition of the place when they leave (after all you are doing renovations), you could offer them extra money to leave early, like a departure bonus, or you could give them a substantial rent increase with the extra income being built up to cover the future cost of your renovation.
Bill
Hi there, we have a tenant that is on a 12 month term lease and so far the first 3 months the rent payment has been late. It started out as his girlfriend and him together on the lease but she left and it is him and another friend who we don’t know. He has smoked in the condo to wich it is clearly stated no smoking and no pets. Can I evict my Tenent as I fear he will be constantly late on his rent and I don’t know who the other People are in the condo.
Thanks for your time
Hi Chris,
Standard procedure for a late payment would be to provide the tenant with an eviction notice and/or written letter informing them that this is against the terms of the lease.
Eviction notices in Alberta are voided if they are for unpaid rent and the tenant pays before the eviction date, but they also provide proof if you need to evict them later for a continuous breach like paying late for three months.
The more evidence you have of this behaviour (such as eviction notices or written letters), the easier the eviction process.
If you haven’t done this it’s not impossible, it just requires more work on your part later to prove they paid late. Just because your bank statement shows the payment went in late isn’t quite enough!
Also, if you do intend to evict, you need to evict for everything applicable, in this case, depending on your lease, you should be able to add subletting and smoking in a non-smoking property.
Bill
Hi Bill, Thanks for all the posts and help! I signed a 6 month lease with a homeowner, and when we arrived, they had not even packed their bags, so we waited on the couch while they packed and left. The house is filthy, they left moldy food in the fridge, the stove does not work so we cannot cook. Can we leave while getting our damage deposit back? I think the landlord is legally allowed to use the damage deposit as rent if we leave before the end of the lease is up, so not sure how to get out of here. My wife and I have a small infant, so we don’t want to be left on the streets.
Thanks kindly for your help.
Hi Kevin,
Definitely not a good situation, but with the current tight rental market, it’s a situation many people find themselves in. What do you do, walk away and end up on the streets due to housing shortages or take it and suffer through. If the market wasn’t as tight the right thing to do would be to simply walk away, as these people obviously weren’t prepared, aren’t necessarily the type of landlord I like to see out there and they weren’t looking out for their tenants, but then what?
In your situation you have a few options, you can simply break the lease and the landlord has the option of retaining a portion of your deposit to cover the following month’s rent. Or you could even fight that saying the property was not in the condition as advertised, although you’d need documentation backing up your argument. Along with this, since it sounds like the landlord most likely didn’t even do a walk through inspection, you could fight to get your entire deposit back and walk away leaving them to their mess.
You really don’t want to be there, so priority right now will be to get money to move out. With the lower price of oil, I am expecting the market to ease up considerably and there will be many more vacancies and rentals out there along with likely lower rates for these properties.
The landlord doesn’t have to return your deposit until ten days after you vacate and they may try not to refund it at all if you break the lease, so you will need first months rent and a security deposit saved up for your next place. And then depending on how much you want to fight for your deposit back, you will require some time to arrange that as well which could involve a day off work.
As part of my services I do offer consulting sessions, typically for landlords, but I also help quite a few tenants when they are being taken advantage of. I could walk you through the steps and explain you your options in further detail as well. You can find more information about it here, Eviction Consulting Services.
Hopefully everything works out for you,
Bill
Thanks Bill for the helpful advice. If we break the lease and walk away, finding somewhere else for the first of next month, can the landlord sue us for the remaining 5 months rent on our lease if he does not find new tenants? That is what we are worried about, paying rent in two locations, we cannot afford. If he serves us eviction instead of us leaving on our own can he sue us for the 5 months remaining, or is the lease null at that point?
You are very kind with your help, an thanks again.
Hi Kevin,
The landlord can’t really come after you if you break the lease, the onus is on them to fill it as quickly as possible. It is possible for them to come after you for additional advertising costs and with the marginally slower rental market maybe one month’s rent, but the courts look at the market and say the landlord could easily mitigate any lost rent by filling it up right away.
This closes the door on landlords trying to double dip by collecting five months from you and renting it simultaneously and prevents them from coasting by not trying to fill it and collecting on a vacant property.
Hope that helps,
Bill
Thanks Bill! Very helpful. Does this apply even if the owner is away? Would he be expected to hire a management company to show it and rent it and a cleaning company to clean up his mess, and would we be on the hook for those costs as well as lost rent? The owner is away for the duration of the lease (6 months) and left us with his “furnished” mess. What if there are safety concerns (the front door cannot lock from the outside, there is exposed electrical wiring, and the dust and dog hair is making our infant child cough all night? I wish I was just being picky but sadly I not. We also haven’t paid this months rent because of the situation – but he has our security deposit in the event we leave. We wouldn’t have moved in, except that we had no where to go (we are temporarily here from BC). Thanks again! You are the most help I have found yet!
Just wanted everyone on the site to know that Bill called me personally to help me through this. He’s very helpful, and explained the rules and the situation quite well. I’d recommend him to anyone seeking advice! If it was more involved I certainly would retain him as a consultant. All the best Bill and thanks again! Kevin
Thanks Kevin,
Hopefully everything works out well for you!
Bill
Hi
I hhave a question regarding end term lease. We will have to leave at end of the month. But vacancies are less than 1% here. I have been looking for somewhere to go for at least 6 months now. Nothing. I have 5 kids under 5. We pay our rent every month on the first. But what can I do with no where to go.?
Hi Anna,
Unfortunately for you, if the lease is ending and the landlord doesn’t want to renew, you will either have to move out, or he will be able to evict you. If you’ve been looking for six months, the only good news is with the current economic slowdown since the oil prices dropped you may have better odds of finding a place and that should definitely be your priority.
I know vacancies are low, but the landlord will be able to evict you. It will have to be through the legal system and not just an eviction notice and due to the children you may be given an extra 30 days, perhaps longer but ultimately you will have to move on, so doing it sooner rather than being forced out must be a priority.
Bill
I have moved here from Vancouver Island in July. My townhouse was provided by my ex spouses company. Whom has rented the unit from a Real Estate company. So technically we were subletting. The boss and realty company had an agreement. How rent would work is when my ex spouse got paid the rent would be taken straight from his pay to his employer who in return would pay the rental company for the townhouse. My ex spouse and I are no longer together and since he has been fired and moved out. Dec 7th the boss wrote to the realty company and withdrawn his lease and “gave his 30 day notice” to vacate. What are my rights as I am still in the townhouse with two small children and I am having no luck with finding other accomidations?
Hi Lainie,
I don’t have great news for your situation as the rules when it comes to employees housed by the company are different than normal Residential Tenancy Act rules.Now if somehow you can come up with rent to make the payments now that the lease has been withdrawn you may be ab;e to stay on, but it will be a reasonably quick eviction if payments aren’t made.
Due to having two young children, you may be given additional time, but that is not a guarantee either. Your best bet would be to start negotiating with the landlord for extra time and to possibly take over the lease. This would save them from finding new tenants and buy you more time.
Bill
Hi Bill,
I have an over-boarding tenant, who I evicted in Sept. They have a 6 month month fixed lease ending in December in any event. The tenancy has been a nightmare since day one, with broken promise after broken promise. The issue I have is getting back possession. The two tenants have essentially sublet to include their boyfriends, and one tenant sublet to their father, who used the garage. Can I include all these additional people as lessees or can I only go after those on the lease. I need possession from all parties.
Please and thanks,
Paul
Hi Paul,
If you evicted them in September, you should have been on it back then, leniency like this could cost you normally and going through a hearing it could be viewed as not that serious which affects the time they may be given to get out.
However, since it is a fixed term lease, you don’t have to renew, which it sounds like you already know. You can give a 14 day notice to vacate to the subletters and also give notice to the tenants that you will not be renewing and that they need to be out at the end of the lease.
Make sure you document everything and if it’s verbal follow it up with letters/emails to make sure you have evidence to take to a hearing.
Bill
So on the date eviction what is the clock time like midnight that day but have a baby and nine yr old and can’t get place till next day at 9am please need to no
Sarah, when I get comments like this it’s hard for me to answer. It makes no sense and reads like a ten year old wrote it, and yet you have a nine year old, so you must be in your 20’s!
You probably didn’t come here for a life lesson, but the reality is if you want help from people, learn to ask for it clearly. People will be much more eager to assist if you make it easy for them rather than confusing. At the very least re-read what you wrote to see if it makes sense!
Bottom line, I think you are asking what time you have to leave if you are evicted. The eviction notice is supposed to state the time, but if it doesn’t the commonly accepted time for any eviction notice or vacating of a premise is noon of the eviction date, not midnight.
If that was your question I hope it answered it, if it wasn’t, please try re-asking in a clearer manner.
Bill
I think that is less a Life Lesson, and more Smug Jerk. Given her phrasing, I suspect English may not be her first language. Add to that a pending eviction, young child and younger baby, I think her stress level is high enough without needing condescension added.
Hello Robin,
Perhaps it is a smug jerk, but maybe it’s simply getting tired of getting comments left by people who don’t take the time to ask clear questions.
By the abbreviations and style, it’s more like someone texting their friend than a language issue. And the big issue is I’m not even positive I gave her the answer she was looking for as I really can’t be sure of the question.
I’ve helped hundreds and hundreds of tenants and landlords on this site for free, at least make the effort to ask a clear question.
Bill
I signed a one year lease with a friend. She has become my worst nightmare. We both pay our share of the rent to the landlord but she is now refusing to pay the Utility bills (Which are in my name) and always has some crazy reason why she shouldn’t have to. I run a home office and have signed a contract with my employer making this residence the primary operations office for the organization. I have asked the landlord to renew the lease in only my name as I will be needing the space for my work. The landlord has agreed but understandably will not get involved in any roommate drama. My question is, after the expiry date of the current lease (With both our names on it) am I able to legally give her notice? If so, does she have to leave?
Hi Louise,
Tricky situation you are in. While she is on the lease it is a problem, but if the lease is coming to the end of the term the landlord needs to notify both of you the lease is not being renewed. This allows them to get the other tenant off the lease.
The tricky part being a new lease with you at that point. Once she is no longer on the lease she would effectively be subletting from you which changes all the rules as you would no longer be under the Residential Tenancy Act. The tricky part being the landlord can’t just end the lease, it has to be at the end of the term and she may try to fight it.
I wouldn’t give her notice after the fact, once you’ve confirmed the timing on the current lease terminating make sure she is aware the lease ends on XX date and she needs to be out by then. The more time you can give her the better.
If she refuses to leave you will have more options ranging from bringing in the police to locking her out to court to get her out. The police sometimes don’t play well with Innkeepers/ Residential tenancy Laws as far as the landlord (which would be you in this case) are concerned, but it can work very effectively. Locking her out can cause issues as well, but given enough warning and cause it can work and court takes time but is the most effective.
Bill
Hello Bill,
My ex-boyfriend had to leave the place he was staying and had nowhere to go. I told him he could stay with me for a couple weeks; it’s now been over a month. He pays me nothing in rent, eats all of my groceries and uses all of my toiletries. He constantly drinks and comes into my home inebriated, causing me to either have to leave my home and go stay somewhere else, or get zero sleep. I am at my wits end. I did get an eviction notice from the courthouse and it states that he needs to be out by December 4. He has no intention of leaving. I am moving out myself by the end of December. I love my apartment and would like to have my last memories of it be pleasant. What are my options here? He says that he is going to stay there even after I move out. Help!!!
If you have a court ordered eviction notice, once that eviction date arrives if he hasn’t vacated you will need to hire a bailiff to make everything legal. You’ll likely want to change the locks at that time (be sure to inform the landlord about this and make sure he/she has a key as well or you can be evicted) and then if he returns he can be charged with trespassing.
Making him aware of this may also help him decide to simply vacate, but from his past track record, that isn’t a guarantee.
Bill
Hi, I have a house that I rent out to employees. One of the employees refused to sign the rental agreement when he first moved in, and 6 months later he quit working for me. I have given him over a year to find a new place to live, since the property is for my employees only. But he has no intentions of moving and when I told him I would have to evict him, he called the cops and told them I was harassing him. Can I evict him? How much notice do I have to give him and what should I do if he refuses to leave?
Hi Katelyn,
You may have backed yourself into a corner for several reasons. First, if he refused to sign the agreement, he should never be allowed in. It is a condition of the rental.
Second, as soon as he was no longer an employee, under the Alberta Residential Tenancy Act in section 11 it states you can give him notice equal to the termination period or one week whichever is longer. By giving him a year, it could be argued he is not living under an employee/employer relationship in the property but under a landlord tenant relationship.
Without any signed agreement stipulating the rules of this tenancy it leaves you wide open, potentially. You could try moving forward with an eviction, but unless he is breaking any portion of the verbal lease and due to your generosity of letting him stay, it could get thrown out.
There may be other options, but unless I know more, I wouldn’t be able to advise you. Is he paying late, breaking any property rules etc? At this point with what you have informed me you should probably proceed with an eviction based on the termination of the employment and then find out where it takes you. Failing that you could discuss other options to get him out.
Bill
Hello
We are about to rent our townhouse. We downloaded a standard lease.
I have heard rumor that in the winter months we would not be able to evict
if renter doesn’t pay rent or breaks lease terms?
Is this true?
Hi Marcy,
Definitely not true in Alberta, although many other places it does delay evictions. with the number of people migrating to Alberta they often want to apply the local Landlord and Tenant rules from where they resided previously and this can backfire on them, although many landlords haven’t done enough of their own homework to fully understand the rules as well.
One other point for you, if you downloaded a standard lease it may or may not have applicable wording for the province and as such much of it may be either illegal or may not apply. Hopefully you found it from a reputable source.
We do have lease packages available on this site as well if you need a lease that works in Alberta and I also include complete walk throughs of how to use them and additional forms that you may need with them. you can find them listed across the top menu system.
Finally, before you sign up a tenant you may want to go through the free course I provide that teaches landlords how to screen tenants. You can find it here Tenant Screening Course
Hope that helps,
Bill
Hi Bill,
Our tenant gave us notice one month ago. He was renting a room on a month to month basis. On the last night of his tenancy, he became very verbal towards us, and we felt unsafe with him being in our home (as we have children) so we even paid for him to stay in a hotel for the night. The individual never paid his damage deposit, and was inappropriate during his tenancy (walking through the home with just a towel on). It is now the final day of his tenancy, and he is no where to be found. Will not respond to emails or texts, and has moved out NO belongings. We were to have another tenant move in TODAY, and have no idea what to do!
Thanks,
super annoyed!
Hi,
If he has become threatening it can be definite grounds to have him removed right away and you would be within your rights to have the police come in and assist.
You are out of luck regarding the damage deposit as he should never have even made it in without paying it in advance and as for his conduct, in the future this needs to be addressed immediately.
At this point you’ll need to follow up with him to ensure he vacates as soon as possible or you will remove his items for him. I see this was asked on the 1st, I usually reply to comments on the site within two to three days versus consultation calls that i respond to usually same day or within hours.
Hopefully things worked out,
Bill
Hi Bill,
I’m renting a house in Edmonton with 7 other tenants (most of us are UofA students). We all have fixed term lease until April 2015. The house was sold recently and currently in transition. The new landloard wants all of us to leave (unless we are willing to negotiate a new lease with increased rent). We told him it’s illegal to do so. Then the old landlord came to us and would like to terminate our lease in less than 2 weeks. The old landlord threatened that if we didn’t leave by the possession date, the new landlord would change locks for all entrances. We know this is illegal. But in case this really happened, what should we do? Can we call police and insist on staying in the house? Or we have to find a temporary place and then go to court? Can we ask for compensation (such as cost of temporary stay)? What punishment will the old or new landlord receive? Thanks!
Brad
Hi Brad,
There are some pretty specific rules in place when it comes to a landlord selling the property and tenants rights. From what you’re telling me, neither landlord seems to know them.
If the new owner retains you as tenants, the lease previously in place remains in place, he can’t force you to sign a new lease, although he can do that when the current lease ends. If he doesn’t want you as tenants, he has to request vacant possession from the current landlord, making it the current landlords issue.
The current landlord cannot evict you if they are selling the property until they can a confirmed sale. At that point they can give you 90 days notice to vacate. If they need you to vacate sooner, then they need to negotiate with you to vacate. This could consist of giving you a free month of rent, paying you to move out, covering any moving expenses or any variety of details that are agreeable to both parties.
If they do lock you out by changing locks, you can indeed call the police and at that point you will likely want to proceed to the RTDRS or the courts to apply for any costs you encounter during this. These could be the cost of a locksmith to rekey the locks, the cost of new keys etc. Be aware if the police show up, you’ll need to prove you live there before they will let any locksmith just change or rekey the locks. So you may want to to make sure you carry around info showing that is your address (updated driver’s license, copy of the lease, etc) just to cover yourself.
The landlord could be liable for some fines, depending on the severity of the situation or how brazenly they breach the rules. To help protect yourself, you may want to inform them of their obligations and requirements for this as well, in writing, so that you have a documented history of making sure they understood the rules and potential ramifications.
Hope that helps,
Bill
Hi Bill,
Thank you so much for the information! We’ve contacted landlord advisory board as well as student legal services. You are the only one who can answer all our questions clearly! I just have one last question: we only have the old landlord’s email and the new landlord’s cell phone. Can we email and text them as the proof that we have informed them in writing? My appreciations again!
Best regards,
Brad
Hi Brad,
Emailing and texting will work, just make sure you make a reference in the emails/texts that since you don’t have the landlords address you are limited to emailing/texting them.
The more methods you can use to get them the info, the harder it is for them to deny they received it and the more proof you have that they most likely read it.
Glad I could help, I get really disappointed in landlords that don’t understand the rules and take advantage of tenants. As a whole the system is reasonably fair in Alberta for both sides, it can never be perfect, so we work with what we have.
Bill
Hi Bill
I have recently moved back to an acreage that my ex wife and I jointly own. My ex wife was living here and had entered into a verbal agreement to lease a part of the barn and the yard to a tenant so he could store vehicles, tools and other “stuff”.
I wasn’t interested in continuing this arrangement and my ex wife communicated this to the tenant on my behalf. The tenant contacted me by telephone approximately six weeks ago and I reiterated that I wasn’t interested in renting the space and he should come and collect his belongings. To date he hasn’t appeared and on Tuesday, September 2 I contacted him by phone. He indicated he’s would come on Thursday, September 4 but I haven’t seen him. I left a voice mail message this morning, Sunday, September 7 clearly stating the arrangement was over and he needed to collect his belongings.
Unfortunately I don’t have any contact information for this person other than a cell phone number and I’m beginning to suspect I won’t see this guy again. Can you advise on how what options I have and how I can legally get rid of everything?
Many thanks, Robb
Hi Again Rob,
I see you posted the similar question in two places. I’m not sure of the specific rules of disposal for “warehouse” space like this as it falls outside the RTA or the IA which this site deals mostly with.
You may need to contact a lawyer, or even a self storage place to ask how they deal with unpaid rental space. there may be a specific process to sell it either via auction or some other manner so you can recoup any outstanding money owed.
Bill
hello! I really need some advice I don’t know what to do . I moved into a condo my aunt owns on January 15 of this year . she told me she didn’t want a damage deposit I insisted on giving her $1200.00 for damage to be used incase of emergency s or when I moved I’d need it for the next place. I had a situation arise that I couldn’t pay rent this month so I asked her to take it out of the damage like we agreed if I ever needed it. I never signed a lease or anything . so now she is kicking me and my children out at the end of the month . can she do this ? do I have any rights here ? thats not even a months notice and she just told me via text message . is that considered written notice ?
Hi Amy, you can fight the eviction, but if you’re not paying the rent, the result will end up the same, it may just give you another week or two or possibly a month depending on the circumstances.Then you are really stuck as now you don’t have rent or a deposit for a new place.
Your best avenue would be to sit down and rationally discuss this with her. For this to suddenly change direction so quickly from a happy agreement to her evicting you there may be more to this than just the non-payment and you need to see if that is reparable or not.
Bill
Hi Amy,
Correct me if I’m wrong Bill, but it seems the landlord has not followed correct procedures according to Residential Tenants Act when providing notice of eviction.
If you are unable to discuss this matter with your landlord than your next step would be to write a letter of objection and served onto your landlord.
Your letter of objection would state that you not moving and you would have to list reasons why you’re not moving.
Some reasons for example, she has not properly served you with an eviction notice. Maybe she doesn’t have written on the notice what you owe for rent. Could be a number of reasons. Being as it may you never signed a lease there’s plenty of room for interpretation on what was agreed originally.
Then your landlord has to either write another notice of eviction, hopefully properly. Which you can object to once again. Or your landlord can make an application to take you to court where you will be able to plead your case and present evidence.
Hopefully it doesn’t have to go that route being family and all but know you do have other options.
Hi Michael,
First, thanks for jumping in, I appreciate other ideas and thoughts as this can be a community resource for both landlords and tenants. Second, you are absolutely correct about objecting to the eviction.
Most of the eviction notices I see that people have found for free aren’t valid. They’re missing details to make them legal, they’ve been served with incorrect timelines and many more reasons.
The problem ends up being if she’s not paying, the landlord can accelerate this and go directly to the courts or the RTDRS at this point bypassing any further eviction notices. And if the tenant isn’t paying, that becomes the problem.
Which brings it back full circle to what both of us suggested which is discussing options with the landlord to see if something can be worked out.
Regards,
Bill
Hello, I’m renting a two bedroom condo. At the time of the showing, my girlfriend and I, two other potential renters and the lady showing the place all assumed there was central air. We find out after we moved in that the unit never had central air, the only one in the building. The lease states air conditioning is supplied. I find out there’s a portable unit in the closet. But there’s no place to properly vent to the outside. The rental management company suggests we get some fans. I said no thanks, the lease clearly states air conditioning.
The owner then installs a window air conditioner. Now the bedroom is cool but no other area in the condo is. Again the rental management suggests buying some fans. I point out the air conditioner is poorly installed and is a security issue. They say I’m overreacting.
Is there anything I can do at this point? I realise we are coming into winter but the last two months have been hell. We are expecting our baby in November and the heat has been especially hard on my girlfriend. I just feel there should be some kind of retribution?
Hi Michael,
I think you might be between a rock and a hard place here, unless you could prove they intentionally mislead you.I’m unsure of any avenue to get some sort of discount as I’ve never run into this before.
You may want to approach them and simply ask for a lower rent as the unit wasn’t as advertised, or you could ask to be put on a list for the next vacant unit with air conditioning, although that would involve moving again.
Sorry,
Bill
Hi Bill,
I suppose the proof would be in the emails back and forth where we stated that the only reason we rented that unit was because we were lead to believe there was central air. A statement the rental management never disputed.
The first day we moved in I called to report the central air wasn’t kicking in and they told me to get a water hose and try cleaning out the fins.
The rental management company never did their homework.
Hi, I’m not sure what my options are at this point basically this all started back in 2011. We originally signed a 6 month leases after the 6 months the lease turned over to a month to month agreement. We had been at this property for at least a year. Anyways in January of 2011 I broke up with my boyfriend at the time and went to the rental office under our apartment building returned my keys and requested to be taken off the lease as I was no longer going to be living there, they said ok and agreed. At that point I thought all was good and they were going to take me off the lease. In about May 2011 my ex was still living at the apartment and had gotten evicted due to non payment. About just over a year ago at work on pay day my boss brought me into the office and stated that he could not pay me in full as my wages were being garnished. The lawyer I worked for at the time was able to gather the documents for me. I was never listed on the eviction notice (as I wasn’t living there to be evicted) also I was never personally served with court papers they were served on my ex’s brother, according to the affidavit (who had been staying there but not on the lease) I basically knew nothing about any of this until I was garnished at work I called around and thought this was all dealt with until I just pulled up my credit report and noticed that I’m sent to collections for the remaining amount (as they couldn’t garnish my entire cheque and I was in the process of switching jobs) I provided the collection agency with all my ex’s current information such as phone address and work (we share a child so I knew all his current info) it seems like I have been the one stuck paying off an apartment he bailed on paying when I wasn’t living there for months. I also have a screen shot from trans union showing my address in a different location in March of 2011. I think thats everything sorry if it seems a little confusing, please let me know if I have any options. Thanks so much!
Hi Jessica,
The issue is you should have received something in writing acknowledging you were moving out. The reason landlords want everyone living in a property on the lease is so they can go after any and all the tenants for outstanding rent or damages.
Banks have a similar process with mortgages as well, as it helps protect the investment.
Possibly in your favour though is that you may not have been aware of the hearing and you could use that to appeal the garnishing. More important could be whether you were even listed as a tenant on the paperwork that was filed for the hearing. Since they came after you I would have to assume you were as the judgment must have been against both of you.
You’ll likely need to do some detective work, see if you can remember details of who you talked to about having your name removed and see if you can appeal the original decision based on you a) not living there anymore and b) not receiving notice of the hearing. You can’t just go in saying you didn’t live there, you’ll need plenty of details to collaborate your story, so start backtracking and trying to remember names and dates of people at the building you talked with about this.
hope that helps,
Bill
Hi Bill
We have some renters who never signed a lease, and after giving them an eviction notice after 6+ months of paying half the rent stated ‘we would be sorry’. We gave them 2 weeks notice however are not sure what to do if they don’t leave, and worse, if they cause damage. Can you advise please?
Hi Robbin,
If you intend to rent to some one, you really need a lease in the future to help protect you. While not impossible to evict them without one, it can make it a bit harder.
If they don’t leave, you will need to take them to court or go through the RTDRS to evict them. You will want to do up a 24 hour inspection notice to get into see the property as well. Although, if you don’t have a lease, you likely never did a walkthrough inspection either meaning you will likely have problems charging them with any damages, but you can at least see what you are getting into. You may want to look into one of the lease packages I sell off of this site to protect you in the future as the packages explain the leases and help prepare you more.
Hope this helps,
Bill
Yes, lease agreements are helpful and will be used in future. Thanks for your advice!
Hi there, back in May, 2014, my cousin decided to sell her condo townhouse. Since I couldn’t afford it right away, my mother purchased it so I could live there with my boyfriend so we could start out a new life in Alberta (originally from Ontario). The current tenant was given more that 90 days notice of eviction by my cousin but we are feeling like she isn’t intending on leaving. She was given the eviction date of October 1, 2014. If she doesn’t leave by then, what are our options?
Hi Christina,
If you followed the proper notification process and gave them the three months notice, if they don’t leave you can evict them. You will need to do this through the RTDRS or the courts.
Bill
I have been renting from my landlord for just about 2 years now. We were on a fixed term lease and a few months ago he notified us that our rental property had been sold and that new owners wanted to move in before the end of our lease. He then told us that he had a second property that we could move into to save us the trouble of trying to find somewhere else to live. We knew that we didn’t have to move because we were on a fixed term lease but we agreed because he included things such as utilities with the move and it worked out better for us. We have a signed document stating that a new lease would be signed when we moved and what was included in this moving deal. The landlord did not complete a moving out inspection on the first property, nor did he complete a moving-in inspection the second property. After moving the landlord advised us that we would sign a new lease agreement when the original lease expired and until then everything would stay in effect. We questioned him on whether or not the utilities would be included even though a new lease agreement was not signed as we had a agreed to the that when he discussed the move and we were informed that no such deal was put in place. In our original lease we also had exclusive use of the backyard and garage (we paid extra for the garage) and he then decided that this part of the lease would not be applied and we now share a common area with the tenants in the basement as well as the garage. In the middle of June (2 months after moving) the landlord sent an emailed notice that the lease would not be renewed as he has sold this property as well and he was giving us 3 months notice (we only needed 2 as that’s when our lease expires). Since that time every time we question him about anything pertaining to the house, the lease etc he threatens us with a 24 hour eviction or calling the RCMP as he feels his life is in danger – no threats were ever made by us the tenants. He has continuously emailed and his emails get more threatening – stating that if we don’t do things his way things will get very bad for us. Today we were served with papers for a civil claim stating that the we had done almost 14,000.00 worth of damage to the first property that we had agreed to pay and never did so he was taking us to court. It was the first we had ever heard of this, the first property was not damaged in any way shape or form nor had we made any commitment to pay. When he served us with these papers he had the police come with him as he wanted protection and now he had sent us another email stating that if we get our before the end of the month (which is the end of lease anyway) he won’t take us to court for the damages to the other property but if we do not agree to this he will proceed with a 24 hour eviction notice. He has stated that when the notice is given it will be given by law enforcement and I will have not choice but to leave in that amount of time. We have no damaged the rental property nor have we threatened him or the basement tenants in any way at all. What are my rights, I have 3 weeks left to this lease and I’m leaving anyway I have no intentions of staying beyond that, can he make me leave in 24 hours?
Hi Tracy,
Quite an interesting scenario. I guess my first question is, weren’t you aware he was selling it. He would have had to come in at some point with a buyer and for an appraisal and a home inspection? For both properties?
As for having a lease, even with a lease, the landlord can break the lease and evict you after the property is sold, but he has to give you 90 days notice in writing after there is a confirmed sale and not before.
As for the 24 hour eviction threats he is giving you, they are just threats. The only reason he can give you a 24 hour notice is if you do threaten him or other tenants or if you are seriously damaging the property and even then, to get it enforced he has to take you to court to get make it legal.
He cannot give you a 24 hour notice and then show up the next day and change the locks. It does accelerate how quickly he can have a hearing, but then he has to prove there were threats etc.
I’m really hoping you’ve got email documentation on most of what you’ve explained here. Especially the exit walk through of the previous property. If you can show he blew off or simply didn’t do the ext walk through and perhaps more importantly you have some pictures showing it was in reasonable condition, his $14,000 damage claim is thrown out the window. It really sounds like he is bluffing.
At this point simply document everything that is going on, and continue to prepare to move at the end of the month. He may continue to try and bully you out sooner but even at the end of the month if you haven’t left, he still has to take you to court to get a court ordered eviction. He can’t simply change the locks, or you can bring in the RCMP to regain access.
The reason I’m suggesting documenting everything so far and moving forward is just to cover yourself if he does try to push forward with the suit for the damages. You won’t want to miss any scheduled hearing and you want documentation backing up your position and his lack of an exit walk through along with his changing/evolving story as it will put him in a bad light and make you look better.
Hope that helps,
Bill
Hello,
My family and I are renting a 3 bedroom house with a std. lease agreement. Recently one of the 3 bedrooms became uninhabitable due to a suspicious smell coming from a hole corner of a wall. I advised the landlord right way, they patched the hole but the odour persists. It did not smell like mold to me, more solvent type, which is very concerning since I have kids. They eventually sent someone to check the air via a mold test. It came back negative, which was not a surprise to me. They are considering the issue closed, but the smell continues. We have not occupied the room since the issue arose and dutifully paid rent. There is a reduction in rent for not being able to use the bedroom for the first month and I’m wanting to continue this reduction until it’s resolved. My fear is that this is unacceptable to the landlord and may try to evict me. That’s a very scary prospect since I have kids. What can I do to protect my self?
Thanks,
Merdad
Hi Merdad,
Fortunately since it was tested for you can rest easy about the mould aspect, however if the smell persists there may be more to it. Now, without a mutual agreement in place any continued reduction in rent could indeed be deemed a breach in payments terms and could result in an eviction.
Is there any way you can negotiate with the landlord to potentially have you cover the cost of an inspection by someone else and if something is indeed found to be a problem that you get compensated back for it? It sounds like the landlord feels like it is dealt with, so you need to make sure he is informed and works with you on this and hopefully it is something simple.
Holding back rent could just lead to repercussions for you if nothing is found to indicate a real problem. Now you may also be able to talk to Health services about an inspection, but this is a different can of worms depending on the outcome or how the landlord feels about it.
The important part being you need to ensure it is not a health hazard for you and your family.
Bill
Hi Bill!
I am currently renting a home and am the sole person on the lease. I have rented out two rooms to two other girls. One of them has caused nothing but problems, has made our home a very negative place and is generating way too much tension for myself and my other roommate.
I am writing her an eviction notice and am giving her 36 days to vacate to make it an easy process of leaving on Aug 31. I have a few questions though.
Do I need a specific reason to have her evicted?
Does she still owe rent up until the date of eviction IE August 31?
If she moves out tomorrow will she still owe me rent up until August 31?
Can I hand her the letter in person?
Thanks so much!
Hi Kassandra,
You’re getting into kind of a tricky area here as you really need a reason to evict, but depending on the level of tension and the issues, it might be less of an eviction and more of an intervention before things really go down hill.
As for rent owed, as long as she’s living there she would be required to pay rent. You need to make a personal decision about whether she would be required to pay until the end of the month. If it’s just not working I would suggest you let her know as long as she gives you a few days notice you will pro-rate the months rent.
This gives her freedom to move quickly without penalizing her rather than forcing her to pay rent at two places which might incite her to stay until the end of August or longer.
And yes you can hand her the letter, but you might be better of discussing it.
Bill
Hi Bill
My husband and I purchased a home and are taking possession Aug 1/14. There are tenants in there and they have asked several times if they can stay through our Realtor and we have said no as we need to move in. If they don’t move out what is my recourse as they were not my tenants to begin with
Hi Colleen,
Once you take possession they are your problem and you have to follow the rules of evicting them which may or may not be a problem depending on whether you are buying it as an investment property or as a home to live in.
To start with your should have had a term in the purchase contract asking for vacant possession. If that’s the case, the seller of the property needs to get them out and again there are certain rules for that. Once the seller has a sale, he can give the tenants a 90 day eviction notice, if the closing period is shorter than this he may be able to negotiate with the tenant to get them out sooner, or potentially forfeit the sale for not fulfilling the contract.
If this wasn’t included, you simply get to inherit the tenant and need to make sure you have signed copies of leases, signed walk throughs all provided as part of the sale and all clauses your realtor should have insisted on if you were keeping the tenants. Without these forms you are leaving yourself wide open.
From there depending on the lease and whether it was a fixed term or month to month, it can be another set of headaches. If you’re moving into the property it’s much easier, but if you are simply going to populate it with new tenants, then you have bigger issues if it is month to month and you can’t simply evict the tenants on a month to month.
So that’s the basics and much of this now depends on the specific circumstances and clauses included or not included in your purchase.
Hope that gives you some ideas,
Bill
I’ve been living in my rental for 6 years. Always paid my rent on time. My landlord wants to sell house. I thought about buying it but decided not too and went with am building a home instead. My landlords attitude towards me changed. I have not signed a lease agreement since 2009. He now wants me to sign back dated agreements and pay a 1000 non refundable pet deposit. He also gave a letter june 12 stating I either buy the house or vacate buy july 17. I told him all his documents he has sent me are invalid. He also tried to raise the rent on me another 300 a month starting August 1. Its july 16 and his freind hand delivered a court order for the landlord and tenant dispute. Hes stating I breached agreement. I asked him to provide the 2009 agreement and go over breaches with me. He sent me an unsigned 2011 agreement but he put my exes name and mine on it. I believe he thinks I moved in at that time….. i have proof that I moved in 2009. Any ways . He won’t provide original papers. He said I never told him about my dog. Which is not true. And did not tell him my fiance lives with me. He knew and had no problem because they were conversing about the sale of house and possibly us buying it. As soon as he new we weren’t interest in house he became like a child throwing a tantrum. He states im a tenant that won’t leave. But he hasnt provided me with proper notice. I told him we were moving out in november as that is when our house is done. He said not an option for us. He wants us out badly. He even states that im damaging house. Which im not. He still takes my rent cheques. Im under the impression that I should be allowed 90 days and a good reason to evict? My court hearing is July 23.
Hi Luisa,
Don’t make any additional payments, landlords cannot change the rules after the fact and this can be decided at the eviction hearing. He should have provided you his entire case in the hearing application you were given.
Gather your documentation to counter any of his evidence (such as proof you moved in during 2009 with bank statements showing you paid him, ID with the new address etc), any evidence you have about him being aware of the dog etc. Without a signed agreement it’s hard for him to say a dog wasn’t allowed. It becomes he said she said and if you poke holes in all his other evidence he will lose credibility.
Absolutely do not miss the hearing and be civil and cooperative with the hearing officer. They can see through lies and deceit for the most part and if he has no actual evidence or rather flimsy staged evidence they will throw his case out.
For the sale of the home, he has to provide you 90 days notice, after it is sold, so that gives you lots of time. Just document everything from here on in including any calls or contact the landlord has with you leading up tot he hearing.
Hope that helps,
Bill
Thanks for the information. This really helps.
Hi Bill, our roommate served us with a notice on June 24th, that she’ll be leaving no later than June 30th. We had her on a 1 year lease until March 2015 and her dog has caused unbearable urine damage for the 3 months that she’s lived here.. She is not wanting to deep carpet clean after two requests have been made and now I’m concerned she won’t be able to leave in a timely fashion. She also did not provide a reason for leaving. We are willing to let her break the lease which has a rerent levy of $300 (half a month’s rent) and details surrounding the return of the security deposit that deductions may be made for deep carpet cleaning and for repairs beyond normal wear and tear. If she doesn’t leave on June 30th and already served an improper notice, what advice do you have for us? Btw I really appreciate your website but I feel like I’m spending so much time just trying to do this peacefully and fairly.
Hi Andrew,
You’re stuck in a bit of a loop here. Also I’m not quite sure of the situation. You’re the owner? You’re subletting? Is it a room or a suite that she is renting?
Depending on the answers, you may fit under the Innkeeper’s act versus the Residential Tenancy Act. Depending on where you sit, dictates which direction to go. Under the RTA, your next step if she isn’t gone is to take her to the RTDRS or the courts. If you are under the Innkeeper’s act, you can force the issue and potentially get her out sooner.
I have additional articles on the site that break down the difference between the two and how you can determine where you fit. Note that the Innkeeper’s act isn’t enforced consistently across the city, nor the province and there are specific rules and steps required to make it more enforceable. The lease you used may even preclude you form going down that route.
If you do end up in court or the RTDRS to evict her, as of last update it was two to three weeks for a hearing, so you can always start the process and then cancel later, but if you wait and suddenly find a month has gone by, now you are two or three weeks behind.
Hope that points you in a direction that helps,
Bill
Hi Bill,
We are the owners and she’s renting a room in our house and we share common areas which puts us under the innkeepers act I’m sure. Can I charge her rent until she actually moves out since otherwise she’d be living at our house for free?
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
Yes in that case you fit under the Innkeeper’s Act, although there are some specific rules you may want to look at under the Act that address posting the Act and making sure people are aware you fall under it. If it doesn’t specifically mention it in your lease, you may want to add it, or I also sell some room rental leases on the site you may want to look at.
As for charging her rent, most definitely. Whether your pro-rate or come up with a daily rate is up to you, but you need to charge her something or why would she leave?
Bill
HI i have a family living upstairs from me. they are not on the lease but i am. they have been tardy in paying rent and they owe me back rent/bills. he threatens violence and says he will not be paying th back rent. i just want them gone what do i do ?
Hi Mike,
If he is threatening violence under the Residential Tenancies Act you can serve him with a 24 hour notice of eviction. If he doesn’t leave, you immediately need to file with the RTDRS or the courts to get an eviction and let them know there are threats of violence and that you served him a 24 hour notice.
If you want to have a chance to collect the back rent, you will need to go to court or the RTDRS where you can get a judgment for outstanding money owed.
Bill
We have tenants that are way behind on the rent. We met with them one night and gave them a 14 day notice. At the meeting we got the impression they have no money to pay and `most likely` won`t be out when the eviction becomes due. We are in an area where we have to apply to the courts to evict them. What forms do we have to file, when can we start the process and where can we get the forms we need to submit to the courts. They are to be out the 19th of June. What realistically be the soonest we could get then out.
Hi Heidi,
You’ll have to grab the forms from the courthouse or you can visit the Alberta Courts website to find the application (it’s buried in there, I remember trying to find it once ages ago), I believe it’s a landlord notice of application, but you may want to confirm that at the courthouse.
If you suspect they won’t be out, you should be able to file early for a hearing and depending on how busy the courthouse is, you may get a hearing within a week or two after the eviction date in your notice. From there, depending on circumstances, your evidence, whether kids are involved and a few other factors it could be as quick as a few days, or it could be the end of July.
Every case is different and it depends on circumstances, evidence and how both parties act during the process.
Hope that helps,
Bill
Hello, we are in a fixed term lease with our landlord. Our first few months of renting got off to a bit of a rocky start as we hit a financial mountain but we went to the RTDRS (with all rents fully paid) and had a conditional order for which we have met every single month, our rent has never been late. Things have been going well but now the Landlord is coming after us for Utility money for which was incurred in the early months as he didn’t cancel his services and when we set up for services there was a delay in the process. ANYWAY…(I’m just trying to give you as much context as I can). Suddenly we received a notice that he would not renew our lease with outstanding utility money so we made arrangements to meet with him and give him cash for June Rent and Utility $ he agreed and we thought we could have a civil conversation and he arrived and began swearing and yelling at my husbands place of business and served us with a 14 day notice for June Rent and the Utility Money and stormed out, the notice also accused us of threatening to assault him which we never have. We plan to object to his notice as the Rent has now been paid through email money transfer literally 5 min. after he walked out the door and we are still needing to rectify the utility $ but I understand it is not covered by the RTA. We really want to stay as our daughter has gained friendships in our area and her school is here, honestly we want to buy this house as he has stated he wants to sell and are working on getting our financing. Aside from objecting to his recent notice what can we do about the false assault allegation?
My apologies I should have added that our lease is up July 15, 2014. Can we fight this?
Hi Matlyn,
As I mentioned earlier, re-read your lease and make sure it doesn’t have a month to month default clause in it. If it doesn’t, and even if it does depending on how it is worded, you will be out of luck.
Your inlaws will have to take you to court or the RTDRS to actually evict you and you may be able to get an extra month or possibly 60 days in a hardship case, but you will have to leave.
Sorry,
Bill
Hi Matlyn,
It sounds like the relationship has definitely soured for you. At this point unless you can get the landlord to work with you, you will likely have to be out at the end of the fixed term. In Alberta at the end of a fixed term the landlord doesn’t have to renew and you are forced to move out. You may want to check the lease itself to see if it has any wording about the month to month defaulting to month to month.
If it does default to month to month, you may have other options. You’ll definitely want to fight the false accusations and realistically even though the landlord was late with the transition of the utilities, they were your responsibility which it seems you understand.
Make sure you document everything and keep a record of all conversations and follow them up with emails if you can so you create a paper trail. You’ll want to be able to show you tried to work with the landlord at least which counts a lot in a hearing.
Sorry I don’t have better news,
Bill
Hi Bill,
My Girlfriend and I were supposed to take over an appartment on June 1st. The tenant who is already in the appartment gave the 1 month notice to the homeowner at the beginning of May that she was supposed to leave by the end of the month (May). But yesterday (May 30th), the homeowner tell us that the tenant didn’t find an other place. So she stay in the appartment. We need to leave the one that we are already in, I can stay a couple more days (1 week maybe), but not a month.
My question is, what we (me or the homeowner) can do to get that appartment faster? The homeowner is a friend of us. Does she need to get a 14 days notice? Or she can take a 24hours notice. Also the tenant tell her that she is unable to pay the month (June). Is she supposed to leave because she gave the 1 month notice and the homeowner already found someone else?
Thanks a lot!
Hi Mike,
You’ve run into a problem that is becoming more and more common. With the tight rental market people are having a harder time finding new places creating a ripple effect.
In your landlords case it can depend on whether the tenants lease was up more than anything. If it was month to month, the landlord may have more headaches trying to get them out, even if the tenant gave notice.
Part of the onus in situations like this has ot fall on the landlord. They need to stay on top of the tenants to make sure the move out is on schedule and if they feel there will be problems, they need to delay trying to put someone in, or situations like yours occur.
At this point, it is going to come down to whether the lease was up, how the tenant gave notice and how the landlord wants to proceed. They shouldn’t use a 14 day notice and a 24 hour notice isn’t applicable, so they may have to try going to court or the RTDRS, if they have enough evidence to back up that the tenant mislead them about vacating and that they took enough precautions.
Not great news for you, but I hope it helps you understand the situation,
Bill
Thanks Bill,
I think it is a month to month lease.
I have tenants on a one year fixed term which ends in August. They have continually paid the rent late and have short paid it twice. I have earnestly asked them to pay the rent on time throughout all of this and they promise they would, then they don’t. I got a promise from them that they’d never do it again so I waited to see what they would do on the first of May. If the rent was paid on time well, okay then I would believe they just had a couple of bad months. They paid late again and short paid the rent $150.00 to boot!!?? They said it was to replace a broken tap in the kitchen, (there was a walk through and check list done, and signed by both tenants, no broken tap when they moved in). I was done believing their promises and hearing their excuses and felt that this behavior would only continue. The tenant actually suggested that I use the damage deposit for the rent??? To make a long story short I sent them a 30 day eviction notice for significant breach of the lease (continuously paying the rent late), by registered mail on May 02 , to leave by May 31, 2014. They are refusing to leave until the end of June. I have all of their excuses and my asking them to stop paying late, in emails. Now they are saying I did not fulfill my obligations like fixing the furnace, not fixing the tap, etc. I set them up with the phone number of a furnace guy (he agreed to go over the next day to fix the problem) but the tenant told the guy to forget it as he fixed the thermostat himself??? I said I’d be down on May 31, 2014 to collect the keys and they said come ahead we’ll be sitting here with a house full of our family. I took this as a veiled threat. I don’t trust a word these people say which is why I don’t feel I can let them stay. I feel I had a legal and legitimate reason to evict them. I think they feel they are in a position to take advantage of me. They offered me two months rent in advance to let them stay but I feel if I accept anything from them I’ll never get them out. They pay late that is the problem. My payments for the property come out on the second and I can’t pay those late. I’ve had to borrow money to cover my costs and it has become a serious issue for me. I explained the reasons why I needed the rent paid on time every time, but they continued to do it. The term is up in August but I don’t trust them at all. This has been a nightmare for me. I don’t have scads of money to enforce all of this. What is up with this??!! What can I do?? Can someone actually take over my house and put me through all of this? If they paid the rent on time and in full as I’d asked them to and as the lease specified there would have been no problem. Why is it that I am the one who has to suffer here???
Hi Wendy,
First off, never use the damage deposit as rent. Second, there isn’t a 30 day eviction notice in Alberta. There is a 14 day and a 24 hour eviction notice depending on the scenario.
If they are not intending on leaving, even after your notices and conversation, you need to take the next step and go the RTDRS or the courts and file to evict them. I would continue to use the continuous breach angle and you may not get an eviction date until the end of June at this point, possibly not until the end of July depending on how quickly you can get a hearing.
They will have to make payments during that period or often the eviction date is accelerated.
The problem right now is you don’t understand the rules well enough to know the correct steps to get this done quickly. In the grand scheme of things, once you’ve gotten rid of problem tenants and understand the complete process it’s much easier and can be dealt with swifter if it ever occurs again.
With low vacancies across the province right now, it’s getting harder for tenants to find new places, if they’re bad tenants who cannot count on references form current landlords or if they have a bad track record it’s even harder. This is why so many of them are trying as hard as possible to delay, drag out or use excessive lengths to avoid getting evicted. Your only recourse is to understand the rules as well or better than them, or to make sure the “bad tenants” never get in to begin with.
I do offer a free course on screening tenants that will help you in the future, you can find it at the following link, How To Screen Tenants – a Five Day E-Course.
In the meantime, as I suggested, you need to use the RTDRS or the courts at this point to get them out. I do have a guide you can purchase on this site that will help you walk through the RTDRS process and explain everything along the way if you intend to go that route, you can find it here, Learn How To Evict Tenants With The RTDRS
Hopefully this helps move you forward Wendy,
Bill
Hi there, couple quick questions for you. Our landlord served us a RTRDS Eviction notice, on which our eviction date was set for the day we received the package. The paper work attached looks like it was all done a few days ago, despite a large portion of it being incorrect, and just handed over to us now. Are we over-holding Tenants at this point, even though we received no previous eviction notice, the notice was for less then 24 hours, and is for a lack of payment? We are also on a 6 month fixed lease, the end of which is at the end of June.
Another question while I am here, is a Landlord able to evict someone for financial reasons if they have a debt with him, but have been paying it off in recent weeks? We were almost 3K in debt at one point, and now that it is down to less then $1000, and brought in health and safety for issues with the property he has refused to fix that he is evicting us, not when we owed him a ton of money.
Hi Ty,
Not sure what you mean here Ty, you received a court ordered eviction notice from the landlord via the RTDRS? Or you received an application to attend an eviction hearing?
The process is the landlord has to file at the courts or the RTDRS, serve you a copy of the application with the hearing date and then you need to attend the hearing. The hearing has to be a minimum of three full days after you receive the application from him in order for you to review and prepare any defence.
At the actual hearing the verdict is decided. So from what you’re telling me something doesn’t quite make sense. Either he skipped a step or you’re potentially misunderstanding the paperwork he gave you.
You’ll want to review it to see if it is a hearing date and if so for when, if you haven’t been given proper notice for the hearing, you can call in and get it rescheduled or if you never received notice of the hearing, you can appeal and will have to attend a new hearing.
A 24 hour eviction is only for serious damage to the property or threatening the landlord or other tenants. Also, he can’t give you a 24 hour eviction notice and a RTDRS eviction notice from the court as they conflict. It’s one or the other.
As for the fixed lease, that’s the worst part for you. If it’s a fixed lease, the landlord doesn’t have to renew. So it is most likely whatever happens at the end of June you will have to vacate or he can evict you at that point for over holding. So time is shortening for you.
As for evicting for financial reasons, yes you can be evicted for non-payment, but it appears a side agreement with a payment plan was in place which may negate an eviction for non-payment as you are paying the outstanding balance down.
Your bringing in Health and Safety may have caused the landlord to up his game so to speak and to accelerate your departure, but a landlord isn’t allowed to evict tenants as a retaliatory response, especially if he is refusing to fix things.
At this point you need to first determine what you have been given. If it’s an actual court/RTDRS ordered eviction, you need to appeal it immediately. First thing Monday morning. If it’s an application for you to attend a hearing, you need to review it and prepare for it.
Hope that gets you started,
Bill
Thanks Bill;
Sorry for the confusion, we are all awfully confused over here ourselves and trying to make heads and tails of this all. It is a order for a court hearing that we have received, and we plan to appeal it. I did some digging over the weekend, and we think we have good grounds for a counter-case, as well as evidence to appeal his eviction. We understand that he has the right to not renew the lease, and we are going on the assumption that this eviction notice is, at the very least, his sign that he has no wish to renew.
Thank you for your time,
Ty
Hi Ty,
The important parts for you now are to review the paperwork that came with the hearing order to find out what exactly you are getting evicted for. If you can build a good enough counter case, you can simply use this information at the upcoming hearing rather than file a counter case.
If you lose this case,then your next avenue if you wish to continue fighting would be an appeal.
As part of the hearing documents he provided, you have access to all of his evidence, so that is where you need to start with your defence.
and again, either way, by th end of June you can be assured he will not renew, so you will either have to appear at another hearing where you will get evicted or you will have to move out by the end of the term.
Hope that helps,
Bill
I am a tenant who has been renting the same house with my 2 college children for 2 years and 3 months. I must be honest I have paid my rent late one or 2 days on occasion. A little over a month ago I dropped the monies of at 10pm Short 40 dollars which I noticed on my car floor. He rushed right over at 11 and demanded the monies which I gave him. The next night he dropped off a letter that he was not renewing lease. I am to be out at noon May 31st. I have no desire to continue renting from him but cant be out by this time. I have arrangements and can be out by the 20th of June but no sooner. When I asked him if I could stay an extra month and offered to pay for June rent that day, he said no cause there are new renters coming in. I cant be out. I have no where for me and my children to be. I am a single woman with a full time job and a part time job without having this planned could not pull together this unexpected move in this amount. of time. My house is pretty much packed up and almost ready to go. Should I inform him I cant leave so new renters can make arrangements? How much time do you think it will take for him to get a court order to get me out?
Hi Beth,
You’ll want to be up front with him and let him know you won’t be out in time, do this all in a written format so you have proof if it does go to court.
He did give you a month and a half notice approximately, so if it does go to court, it will be a fairly quick eviction. However, it can take 7-10 days to get a hearing so the hearing itself wouldn’t be until potentially the 11th of June at the earliest and they would likely grant you until the 20th to get out, if you show you tried to work with the landlord.
If you just ignore him though and don’t show any evidence that you tried to work with him, it might go quicker. Also, if they do give you an eviction date of the 20th, if you’re not out by that date, he can come in with a bailiff and lock you out right away, so there won’t be much of a window for you if it does go to court.
Bill
Hello Bill.
What is the quickest way to evict over holding tenants? Going to court? I own a rental property under a legal entity name. Can I still go to court by my self or do I have to hire a lawyer to represent me and the company in court?
Winston
Hi Winston,
Either the RTDRS or the courts are the quickest if they are going to be difficult. you can use an eviction notice, but if they don’t leave at the end of the eviction notice, you then have to go to court or RTDRS anyway and now you’re two weeks behind.
And yes, you can represent yourself and use a lawyer as a last resort unless they specialize in landlord tenant issues. you’d be far better off using an eviction service company if you wanted to hire someone to deal with it as it is their primary business and they are more familiar with the ins and outs than the majority of lawyers who rarely run into evictions.
Regards,
Bill
Hello Bill,
Thank you very much for your prompt reponse. As you mentioned, with eviction notice, tenants then live at least 2 weeks free rent and the process will be 2 weeks behind. This may be not a good choice even though it saves money at first, and hope it does.
Which eviction service company for edmonton area that you highly recommend?
Thanks again.
Winston
Hi Winston,
Interesting how short cuts can cost you more in the long run, right? Best to do it the right way. You may want to talk to a friend of mine Kim of Associated Eviction Services in Edmonton. Here’s her web page, Associated Eviction Services.
Regards,
Bill
Hello wonder if you can give me some advice, we have put an accepted offer on an acreage in Sherwood park. We then sold our home for the down payment. We were supposed to move in by May 1st, but just found out that the tenants in the acreage did not pay Marchs rent so the owner took them to tenant dispute folks they were given a judgement to pay the rent however the dispute officer gave them an additional month to pay the rent and now need to be out by 30 April instead on 31 march. Unfortunately we can’t buy the house until later in late May due to financing and inspection. Further there is no guarantee that the tenants won’t even been out I guess they can even appeal the decision. So now my family maybe living on the streets due to having to sell my house and not having anything to move into. What should we do what can the landlord do this is a terrible experience for us any advise would help and more importantly how long can these tenant stay in the acerage how many appeals can they get in Alberta how many adjournments is possible
Thanks
Kevin
Hi Kevin,
Either two people named Kevin have identical situations, or you asked a similar question on two posts. I’ll try to put all the answers for you here.
At this point you need to put all the pressure on the seller. If he cannot provide you with the property as per the purchase contract, he is in breach of the contract and you have the option to sue him. All this means squat if you have no where to live though.
Options for the seller at this point would be to approach the tenants and forgive the outstanding rent if they move sooner or to negotiate with the tenants to get them to leave on time or sooner.
Depending on the actual eviction order they landlord received, he may have an actual date they are to be out of the property in the order. If they’re not out by that time, it’s pretty quick after that to have them out, usually a day or two, although they may have issues getting their furnishings and belongings out in that time frame, but that falls back on the current owner.
Yes they do have options to appeal, but if the tenants couldn’t be bothered to show up for the first hearing, they likely won’t take the time to appeal either. Not that they don’t have the right to, it’s just not common.
At this point, you may want to consider talking to the lawyer that is representing you on this and walk through some of the options available to you. Without having access to everything and knowing the complete story, there may be additional options available to you, but understanding this is not just an eviction, but potential breach of a contract involving a sale of a property it kind of escalates the options and the complete answer.
If you’d like to consult with me, I do have consulting options listed in the menu on the top of the page and I could likely give you some more in-depth answers if I have additional information from you. Hopefully, this has set your mind a little bit more at ease for now.
Regards,
Bill
Thanks for the reply in such a timely fashion it made me feel much better
Hello, my wife and I have a large home, with our children gone off to school we desided to rent one of their bedrooms to a person from outside our family, this person paid the first months rent and then a small deposit but signed no lease or any kind of agreement, all was done verbally on a month to month basis. After a short stay with us in our home it has become clear we do not want to continue having this tenant stay with us, how can we get this person to leave?
Hi Kevin,
Sorry to hear things aren’t working out. In scenarios where you’re renting out space in your home, one of the most important parts is setting rules in place that everyone can fit into. That’s where your written agreements come into play.
Unfortunately, we’re not in an environment where verbal agreements carry much weight, so if you’re going to carry on renting out a room, you’ll definitely want to get some paperwork in place. Self promotion note, I do have forms available from the top menu on the page for both regular rentals or for situations like yours where you fit under the Innkeeper’s Act.
Which brings me to how to get the person out. You really require a reason to evict someone. Under the Residential Tenancy Act it’s pretty specific, but since you’re renting out space in your home as I mentioned earlier, you are outside of the Residential Tenancy Act and fit under the Innkeeper’s Act. This gives you much broader reasons to evict someone.
Rather than having to actually go down the eviction road though, you may want to simply discuss it with the tenant and let them know it’s not going to work on and give them a deadline to move out. If you’re on a month to month basis, I would suggest doing this immediately and letting them know you want them out by the end of this month.
Depending on how this plays out it may accelerate the problem in which case you can accelerate the eviction, or they may understand and start making arrangements to move out. You may even consider offering a partial rebate if they leave sooner to speed up their exit.
If things deteriorate quickly, you can then evict them fairly easily in most cases under the Innkeeper’s Act. To find out more about this, there are a couple articles on the site that have dozens of comments and advice on the eviction process and the articles can help explain your rights as a landlord in this case.
You can find the articles here, Innkeeper’s Articles, and Innkeeper’s Article 2.
Hope that helps,
Bill
Thanks Bill, excellent information, we both appreciate your timely response and advice.
Your welcome Kevin, hopefully it plays out well for you.
Bill
I have tenants that have been late with their rent payments for both of the two months I’ve had them in my condo and I’ve had numerous noise complaints from the neighbours. I am planning to evict them via the RTDRS process but want to make sure I have all my ducks lined up. I haven’t provided them with eviction notice for the first two months so don’t know if I have enough evidence to prove this unless I can use my bank record and a couple of text messages from them for this. I do have sufficient evidence of noise issues which include several police visits and a fine from the condo management company.
Hi Lucie,
You definitely need to get them out as it’s unlikely they will turn themselves around, at least not before you get in trouble with the condo board!
You don’t necessarily need to provide them with an eviction notice, although it does mount up as evidence. As long as you have records and receipts showing payments were late you can show it is a continuing trend, that combined with all the complaints should allow you to portray them as problems that need to be evicted.
Hope that helps,
Bill
Hey Bill, my lease terminates at the end of the month. Been here 2 years. Verbaly told the landlord I did not want to sign another long lease. Now im having troubles finding a place. She was upset that we would not sign another long term lease. I asked if we could do a month to month providing I give her 60 days notice before I move out. Its just the upstairs and we would like a full house. She has now all of a sudden changed and is being very nit picky about things that were never an issue before. We are honeslty pretty good tenants. In a perfect world I would say we are. She has already made a few coments about having to take some of our damage for things I feel most lanlords would see as general wear and tare. Like a few small light scratches in the hardwood floors and things like that. My question and concern is am I able to stay here for another month and just tell her to keep the damage rather then turn things into a huge nightmare. What are my rights if she holds back my damage? When a lease says it terminates at acertain date does it ean I have to be out? Or does it just become a month to month? Im not looking for a free ride or anything but I do not want to be taken advantage of and am having a hard time already getting a new place and cannot afford to not get my damage back? (1600)
Hey Matt,
The big problem (from a landlords perspective), is that the damage deposit is not rent. The big problem (from a tenants perspective) is that the landlord won’t refund any of the deposit back and try and rip me off.
Some concerns for you, if you don’t agree to a new term lease, your lease does not necessarily default to a month to month (check the wording in the actual lease you signed, some leases do indeed indicate if a new lease isn’t signed it defaults to month to month). Worst case she can refuse to renew and you have to be out at the end of the term.
You can overhold, or stay past the end of the term, but she can then evict you through the courts or the RTDRS for overholding your lease. This will take a couple weeks, possibly a month, but also can add extra expense to you and lost time from work.
Also, the landlord does not have to give you your security deposit back on the day you move out. They have ten days to return it and/or a statement of any deductions. As a tenant looking for a new place, you will want to have enough money saved up for both the first month’s rent and the security deposit, or you are putting yourself in jeopardy when it comes to getting the new place.
Finally, when you moved in, you should have completed a walk through of the property with the landlord noting the condition of the place. Both the landlord and yourself should have signed it and you should have a copy. This is what should protect you from any normal wear and tear charges against you. The more detailed, the better for you, especially in the case of a a landlord you suspect will take advantage of you.
If you didn’t complete and sign a walk through, the good news is they cannot deduct anything from your security deposit as there is no proof of prior condition. They still don’t have to get it back to you for ten days though.
If you feel she is wrongly holding back your deposit, your recourse is to file at either the RTDRS or the courts to recover your deposit. This is not an immediate process and can take a week or two to get a hearing, so you are back to making sure you do not put yourself in a situation where you are dependant on the deposit to get a new place.
Hope that helped answer your questions, as is often the case, it may not be what you were hoping for, but now you know what to expect.
Bill
Could my landlord lie and say that she served me the papers for RTDRS so that I wouldnt respond or show up for the hearing? or is there something in place to prevent that from happening? I know about the affidavit of service form but thats not really proof of serving cause she could just fill that out and sign it. I wouldnt put it past her to lie and say she served us, it scares me because i have children and i want to fight this. Also if she can or does suceed in lying and i dont show what would happen? would it be a 24hr court orfer to evict? I have 3 small children and im very worried.
Hi Natasha,
It is possible for the landlord to lie about serving the papers and this can turn into the dreaded he said/she said scenarios. I’ve seen it from both sides where both landlords and tenants have abused this.
Tenants have lied about receiving notices and landlords have lied about serving them. The onus would be on either party to prove they were indeed served, or not served. While the affidavit holds some weight, if the landlord also had pictures of the notices posted to the door it would hold more weight, if there is a history of you not taking calls or ignoring emails and contact from the landlord it would also add validity.
If you can show timelines where the landlord has contacted you and you have promptly responded all the time, this would work in your favour.
Bottom line is that if you do get served eviction orders without getting proper notice to appear in a hearing, you can file an appeal and get the eviction either over turned or delayed depending on the circumstances.
Bill
HI I have a situation that is beyond messy, someone sub rented their home(which their not allowed to do at our property as we have rentals, this was done prior to taking over as managers) the sub letters have been issued 14 day eviction notice a month ago and the home owner doesn’t know if they are there or not as they are avoiding them, they want us as the property owners (mobile home situation, home owners rent a pad from us) to do something about it, I have just moved (lees than 2 mths) from another province so I’m not fully up to speed with all the legality of this new sub renting situation as it shouldn’t have been done in the first place. Any direction as to what I can (if anything) do to remove the people from the home would help.
Hi LC,
It’s actually even messier as this is not covered under the Residential Tenancy act, but the Mobile Homes Act.I am not exactly sure of the specific rule sin this case either, sorry LC.
Here is the link to the actual Act if it helps,
Regards,
Bill
I served our tenants with a 14 day eviction notice. They must be out Jan 9 at noon. The violated the lease by smoking in the house. I have pictures and numerous complaints from the other tenant. They have cause over $10,000 damage to the house by flushing an ashtray of cigarette butts down an already plugged toilet causing the water to overflow for 8 hours straight. Today they emailed me the rent for the entire month, which I will not accept. I want them gone, the homeowners want them gone and now the insurance company wants them gone. They have no intention of leaving on the 9th and I have not intention of allowing the restoration of the property happen while they are still in there smoking. What is the fastest way to get them out if they aren’t gone by the 9th?!
Hi Stella,
The quickest way is always to go via the courts or the RTDRS and to skip the 14 day eviction notice. It sounds like your 14 day eviction notice may have been invalid anyway. You would have had to give it to them on the 25th or prior to allocate the proper amount of time for a 14 day eviction notice which is actually 14 days plus the day you give it to them and the day they are supposed to be out, so really 16 days.
Since you’re evicting them for reasons other than unpaid rent, I would take the money while you can as you know there will be damages you have to pay for which could include repainting.
So at this point, you can start preparing to go to the RTDRS or the courts now and then on the 9th, you can go file at one of them and get a hearing. FYI, I do sell a complete guide to preparing your documents and then evicting tenants through the RTDRS. Reading it would have saved you these lost 14 days.
Regards,
Bill
i was issued at 24 hour eviction notice that states as of december 17 a 24 hour eviction…. there is no reason or explaination why and the paper it was printed on clear states it wasnt printed till the 18th is this a legal eviction notice.
cause the way its written my 24 hours would have been up before this document was even printed.
Hi Bill,
If the dates are wrong and not clearly shown, the notice will likely be invalid and the notice must also clearly state the reason for the 24 hour eviction.
24 hour evictions can only be used in situations where the tenant (you in this case) has threatened the landlord or other tenants or is causing severe damage to the property.
If neither of these apply to you, you are far better off ignoring the eviction and waiting to be heard in court whee it will be overturned and likely thrown out.
If however, you are guilty of either of these then you can still wait until the court hearing, but your eviction will be quite quick, although delayed until that hearing takes place.
Hope that helps,
Bill
Hi Bill,
I have just served my tenant a 14 day eviction notice for non-payment of rent. For the two previous months(her first two months of tenancy) she has also paid his rent late. In the notice it states she has until the specified date to pay the rent or leave(from my initial understanding I had to include this note in the eviction notice because it was for non-payment). After reading your article, it sounds as though I could have served her the notice without that note because it has been a breach of continuous late payments, not just one late payment. Is this true? If it is, is there anything I can still do now to get her out, even though I gave her the notice saying she could still pay? I’d rather have her out altogether.
Also, if you are giving the tenant 14 days notice to leave for non-payment of rent, and they do choose to leave, are they bound to pay you for the time they spent on the property that month? Or are they just staying there for free?
Thanks for you help. Your website is great!
Hi Jules,
When dealing with a single late payment, the notice is null and void if they pay before the eviction date. So you are absolutely correct, however, when they continually pay late, you can file it differently, not so much as late payment, but a continuous breach of the terms of the lease. FYI, many eviction notices, especially the free ones, don’t include the clause you mentioned, meaning they are invalid. the tenant could easily wait until the last day, not pay and the landlord could be stuck with the tenant for another month or longer for free, so good job!
In your case, since you’ve already started it with the eviction for non-payment, your hands are tied. Next month however, you can simply bypass this step and either provide an eviction notice for continuous breach, or fi you feel they will fight it , go directly to the RTDRS or the courts.
If you suspect once they get the notice that they can’t simply pay off, that they then won’t pay you, you would be better off going to the RTDRS. There you can get a judgment against them for payment and even with the judgment they may not pay, but it stays on their credit bureau for ten years (and a landlord recently advised me you can renew it for another ten years!) impairing their ability to get financing in the future unless they pay you.
I actually had a tenant pay me four years after he moved out when he couldn’t buy the new vehicle he wanted.
And yes, they do owe you for the time spent on the property, even if they get a notice.
Glad you’re finding the site helpful! If you do plan on going to the RTDRS, I do sell a package on this site that walks you through all the steps, explains what you need to do to successfully evict the tenant and what you can expect through every step, it’s available either on the right side of the page in the revolving ads, or on the menu bar across the top.
Hi there,
Great website. I have a tenant who has been served his eviction notice for multiple breeches of our lease. His move out day is October 31, but it doesn’t seem as though he is moving out. I will provide him with another letter tomorrow informing him that if he doesn’t move out, I will be taking legal action including filing with the RTDS and Queen’s Bench.
Is this the right thing to do?
Thanks!
Hi Vince,
It never hurts to give them one last notice to show you are serious. Although you can only file at the RTDRS OR the Queen’s Bench, not both!
Let him know you’re serious and then start preparing. Best case, he realizes you’re serious and leaves, worst case you have the paperwork started and can file once it’s apparent he isn’t leaving.
Regards,
Bill
My tenants continue to distrub the neighbours (loud music in the middle of the night, parties), its gotten so bad that cops have come to MY house to request us to do something. We had issued them a warning last month however the noise disturbance continues. We gave them an eviction notice (14 days) and they aer supposed to vacate by May 23. Honestly I dont think they will leave – what should i do next? I will take them to dispute tenancy board however will i be able to deduct the overholding tenants damage deposit??? I have a lot of potential tenants that want to move in on June 1 but with them not leaving i’ll be losing potential future tenants. Can i deduct damage deposit?
Hi Mary,
If it appears they won’t be leaving, you better start preparing for the RTDRS or to file at the courthouse. You can’t have an actual hearing until after the eviction date in your eviction notice, but if it appears they haven’t left (or started preparing too) by the 21st, which just happens to be today, you can file on the 22nd and then cancel the hearing if they do leave.
You’ll want to get in ASAP to verify if there is any damage and you’ll need to give them notice you are coming in at noon on the 23rd to verify they have vacated. You need to provide 24 hour notice, so I would suggest giving them notice today that you are coming in tomorrow night and also give them notice of inspection for noon on the 23rd which is when they should be out. Your eviction notice should state that.
As for deductions from the deposit, the hearing officer or judge will inform you what you can charge for any additional time they spend, but you also want to update the potential status for any damage. If there is damage to your property and you provide evidence they did it (showing the original walk through with them signed by both parties and pictures if possible) it will go a long ways to getting the tenants out quicker.
If your evidence ends up being weak for the eviction and you haven’t properly prepared it wouldn’t be unusual to be granted until the middle of next month or possibly even the end of June.
If you haven’t gone through the RTDRS before, I’d recommend you consider purchasing my walk through of the process.I explain exactly what you need to do, how to prepare your information and what to expect through out the process.You can find it here, RTDRS Eviction Guide and Walkthrough
hope that helps,
Bill
I am a tenant and I have leaved in the apartment for 4 years half and always pay my rent on time, I usually give 6 to 12 months post dated cheques. during these four years I have seen this landlord evicting tenants when they complain of anything. the landlord is a she, she tell them that she need for family use. On my case she gave me illegal rent increase which is less than 90 days, so I replied her that her notice is faulty, along with other complain regarding the apartment, that she should serve me a proper notice. shortly after she serve me with eviction notice instead of rent increase notice. the reason being she want to use it for her family. I object to the termination because I believed it was retaliation. now she taking me to court for immediate eviction. she did not include my Objection letter. I have her on voice record telling she want me moved because I complain too much about the apartment. what is my faith since the court date is the last day of my termination notice. what is the minimum time will the court give if I lose. I will like to move out but I want the landlord to know she can not just abuse tenants because she can. You guys should know that there are some bad landlord out there.
Hi David,
Thanks for your comments. It’s true there are some bad landlords out there and they actually make it harder for all the good landlords.
It sounds like you have some good evidence, especially the voice recording. Make sure you document everything that happened and bring all the notices, objection letters and anything else you have to court with you.
If the judge determines that she is trying to evict you illegally and is misrepresenting her case it will make it very hard for you to get evicted in the future without extremely obvious breaches of the lease.
If you could also contact one of the other tenants who was evicted and bring them in as a witness that may also be beneficial. Finally make sure to include the list of deficiencies you have for the property, if the judge is upset enough with the landlord’s behaviour he may order her to do the necessary fixes as well!
Hope this helps,
Bill
I will be moving to a house where the current tenant has been issued a 14 day eviction notice, with the departure date being April 7th. We were to sign a lease with him effective April 15th. Today they put a note in the landlord’s mailbox stating that they will not vacate until April 28th. My understanding is that he is going to talk to them and assess the situation but that given their past, he is not fully confident they will even leave on the 28th. My concern is this: I have given my notice to my landlord who has already found a new tenant for May 1st. Obviously this will leave me in a difficult situation should the people not vacate by the 28th. As I understand, moving forward with court ordered evictions could take a week or two to take effect. What would you suggest I do in this situation? I have a storage/back up plan should I not be able to move in prior to May 1st, however I really don’t want to have to take that risk. I am viewing the inside of the property this weekend (either by the tenants choice or by the landlord issuing a 24 hour entry notice). Would it be advisable that I ask the landlord to move forward with legal action as a precaution if the April 28th date is not met? Is any verbal agreement binding should he make arrangements with them to move by the 28th and then change his mind and want them out sooner?
Any advise you could offer on this situation would be GREATLY appreciated.
Hi Ashley,
This is a classic example of how tenants not leaving when they say they will can affect not just the landlord, but other tenants. In this situation, I would recommend to the new landlord that he commences with either an RTDRS hearing or a court hearing as soon as possible.
At this point he cannot have the actual hearing until the eviction date has past, but he can file it tomorrow or Friday with the hearing coming next week.
At the hearing he can explain everything, ask for an eviction date of the 28th or even earlier if he expects a lot of cleanup (he could try for the 15th, but the hearing officer or courts may say that isn’t enough time, even if they have been given previous warning, although it never hurts to ask!).
He should probably included evidence of the new signed please an even include a statement from you, if possible, regarding you giving notice and possibly being out of a place to live.
The important part of all this is the landlord has to do this sooner rather than later. If he believes them and waits until the 28th to see if they actually go, he still has to go through the courts or RTDRS after that date and that would push your moving in back until possibly the 15th or even past the 30th of April if the courts give them a full month to move on.
I don’t have all the facts about why they are being evicted and this may cause other issues, but from the basic facts, even if they absolutely guarantee they will leave on the 28th, he should proceed to a hearing of some kind, after all, they probably agreed to pay the rent at soem time and abide by the lease and if they are getting evicted, apparently that didn’t work out so well.
Bill
I own a house that my ex wife and son live in. I have been advised by my lawyer that this is not a good situation. I had asked her over a year ago to find a place to live but that has not happened. We need to sell the house and get everything finished with the divorce. I just sent her a letter informing her that she has to move out by June 15th, 2013. What are my options if she refuses?
Hi Gary,
This fits beyond an eviction scope. Since she’s your ex-wife you run into issues like Dower rights if you both lived there. This basically says she is a 50% owner and you can’t evict an owner.
You’ll have to discuss your legal rights with your lawyer and see if you can force a sale potentially or establish some type of by-out to get this dealt with.
Regards,
Bill
I would totally recommend Bills Book.
If you are a first time landlord or have had a few renters before this book is a must have. It teaches you the first steps to the eviction process right down to the details of getting rid of a real problem renter.
He also covers things you should include in your rental contract and move in inspection. There is nothing he has missed or left out!! Period!!
Wayne K
Hello,
We have a tenant that has been given a court ordered eviction for the end of December , he was also given a court order to pay Decembers rent on the first at noon at the property which he ignored , our lawyer said to now issue a 14 day notice for eviction for him to leave because he has ignored the court order to pay the rent . Today was the day he was to be out December 16 , he did not leave . What would happen if we just went and put all of his stuff in the garage and changed the locks ? He has already disregarded the judges order , Would he then have to take us to court ?
Hi Val,
You need to check the court order you received for the eviction. Typically they will provide the final eviction date and if there is an additional order to pay it often accelerates this eviction date. Is this where the December 16th date comes from?
Do not give him a 14 day eviction notice, you already have a court order and that would just muddle things up and worst case mess up your court order. Not sure why a lawyer would even suggest that unless he had no idea how this works.
If the 16th is the date he has to leave to make this enforceable, you need to hire a bailiff at this point to make everything valid. The bailiff will come down, either post the notice the tenant is not allowed on the property or provide them with 30-60 minutes to pack up and get out. At this point you can change the locks and establish a date and time for the tenant to meet you and grab the last of their goods.
If you change the locks without doing this step, or pack up their items before, you are infringing on their rights and could jeopardize the entire order.
hHope this helps,
Bill
The order was for the 31 of december it was also in the order for him to pay Decembers rent which he did not due that is why the lawyer suggested we issue the 14 day , because the tenant is in contempt of court ?
Hi Val,
The 14 day eviction is the step you take first, if that fails, or the tenant ignores it your next step is going to court. There is a potential that if you file a 14 day eviction notice it will reset the clock for this individual. The order itself has specific wording as to what you can do if the tenant does not pay on a court mandated payment arrangement.
If it was a stay/Cinderella order, also known as a conditional order there are prescribed steps to have them removed. If it was an unconditional order (which this one wasn’t as there was a condition to make a payment), they simply have to be out at a certain point.
Go back to the order and read through it, it likely says if they haven’t paid, you can immediately proceed with the bailiff and get them out right away.
Bill
Hey, my landlord just gave me an eviction notice which stated that my wife and kids had to move out of the basement bec the lease contract is void bec we smoked in the house, which we didn’t. Furthermore she has been coming in our house without notice and how we know is that me and my wife were out and cameback and the eviction notice was sitting on table. Could I get some advice on it bec its chrismas time and we spent almost all of our savings in gifts. She will not give the deposit back as notice said we owed her rent for this month plus late fees of 9 days equal to grand. Please advice and my apology for a lenthy post.
Hi Rashid,
To evict you for smoking, first she will have to prove you were smoking. The onus is on the landlord to do this. Second, without providing you proper notice of entering your premises, the landlord is in breach of the Residential Tenancy Act (RTA). Third, she has to return your security deposit within ten days after you move out and/or provide a statement breaking out andy hold backs and why.
So some quick questions, what type of eviction notice did she give you? It’s probably incorrect and can be easily voided, you can also object to it, but I would need to know the eviction date and the length of time. This inclues the eviction date, what date you received it etc.
Finally, have you paid December’s rent? If you haven’t, she has every right to evict you, whether the smoking is just a distraction, I cannot tell yet.
Hope this helps and let me know the answers to my questions and I will reply tomorrow some time.
Regards,
Bill
Hi Bill, I am renting the top part of my duplex out to people and they haven’t didn’t pay rent last month and I served them with eviction notice on the 16th as they told me they would rather take an eviction then pay rent. I am subletting to them and the landlord is aware of the eviction, he is the one who suggested it. What do I do if they do not move out? As I am subletting I don’t know what rules apply to me.
Thanks,
Chris
Hi Chris,
You really needed to look into the rules more when problems first started.If they would rather take the eviction than pay, I would assume they are much more aware of the rules than you are and may have likely managed to scam you out of rent for not just June, but most likely July at this point as well.
If they hadn’t paid by the middle f the month, you should have skipped the eviction notice and proceeded directly to the courts or the RTDRS to expedite the eviction. At this point, you should be filing at one of the places tomorrow to get a hearing and to move forward with evicting them or they will never leave.
The RTDRS and the courts are both backed up right now, so it could be two weeks before you even get a hearing which could leave you in the middle of July (still without rent for June or July) and then quite likely they will get at least until the end of July to move out, leaving you on the hook.
At this point you need to get all your evidence and paperwork put together today and file that application tomorrow. I would suggest using the RTDRS to expedite matters, but it will depend on where you are located. I would also suggest you pick up my Guide to the process, Complete Eviction Guide For the RTDRS to help walk you through the process.
Time is of the essence for you now and you don’t want to make anymore mistakes. The guide explains all the steps you need to take to file, what you need to file and how to ensure you get a timely eviction from your eviction application. It will take a ton of stress off of you that you are most likely going through and it will clear up many future headaches if you intend to continue subletting.
Hope that helps,
Bill
Hi Bill, I am a tenant needing some advice on fixed term rental ending July 31.
My fiance and I have been on a fixed term rental the last year. Our term is coming to an end July 31, 2023. The landlords had inquired on if we wanted to do a month to month, after a discussion with my fiance we felt renewing the lease was best option for us. We then advised them we would prefer to do another fixed term 1 year lease. As our goal was to prepare ourselves to buy our own home. While they had verbally implied that we could continue renting with them. We know this because they moved new tenants down stairs and asked us about how we would like to split the bills. In the process of all of this, they suddenly changed their mind and decided that they did not want to renew the lease and have now given us till the end of the lease term July 31st move out. Mind you we have never been problematic tenants we haven’t missed any rent payment and have taken very good care of their place. The lawn is maintained and the home is clean. We have been very kind and respectful to them but I feel they haven’t done the same us. Infact have been taking advantage of our kindness. When they were doing their showing for the basement. The wife called me few time and asked me to do their showing for them because her husband had worked night shift and she wanted him to get rest. They renovating their basement, they would ask little favours here and there to let the contractors in or accept their supplies for the basement for them. I I always obliged and helped out without any hesitation.
Here is the kicker, they want us moved out by July 31st. Our wedding is on July 30th. We are a family of 5 with young children and our cat. I start a new job on August 15, 2023. Finding a place that is pet friendly requires time. Finding a place for a family of 5 requires time. Planing a wedding is stressful enough later on packing and having to find a place in 30 days. There’s no way we can pack, plan the remainder of our wedding and be out by the 1st of August. We have requested for them to give us 90 days from the day our lease ends which will put us at the October 1st move-out date so we can get our wedding out of the way and plan to find a place and move out. Their reason is that they want to move back into their home however I don’t believe them because I heard them speaking to the new downstairs tenants when they were moving in. ( It was a young fellow who moved in his elderly parents to the basement). I heard him telling the landlords to get people without children to rent the upstairs. In consideration for his elderly parents the noise. He continued telling them that they had a nice home and that regardless it would always rent out. Shortly after this our landlord changed their mind about us either doing the month-to-month or renewing the lease. They have refused to respond to our communication requesting the 3months curtsy for us to plan to move our family. What are our options in this situation? Its not that we don’t want to move. We are willing to move out, we just need the 3 months which will put us out on October 31, 2023. We are more than happy to continue to pay them their rent and continue to take care of the premises as is and if they change their mind we will stay too. What can we do in this situation if they refuse to offer us the 3months?
So sorry to hear about your situation. Unfortunately without any new signed agreement in place and just a verbal chat about utilities you wouldn’t have much chance at winning against an eviction if it comes to that.
Under the Alberta RTA a landlord doesn’t even have to provide notice they aren’t renewing a fixed term lease, although that often backfires when ending up in hearings as tenants are typically given additional time to compensate for no notice.
In this case with advance notice if you don’t vacate by the end of the lease term they can easily proceed with an eviction which would likely end up with you being court ordered to vacate by the end of August if not sooner.
going that route might buy you an extra month, but it would also appear on your rental history making finding future rentals more challenging.
In most cases a reasonable landlord, especially after you being helpful, would consider working with you and extending a bit of possible. When did they actually give you notice? Could you work with them to help show the property to Just some thoughts on options to make this work amicably.
Bill potential future tenants to take your place? Would they consider higher rent for the three months to compensate?