How to Use the RTDRS
Since the Residential Tenancy Dispute Resolution Service or RTDRS came along, the eviction process in Alberta has gotten somewhat easier for landlords. The RTDRS provides a streamlined method for getting your eviction hearing heard and it’s done in a less formal and less complicated setting than the typical court eviction process.
What’s not to like about a process that takes away the stress of making a full fledged court appearance, plus you don’t need a lawyer to represent you either!
In the following video I explain how you can use the RTDRS to bypass the standard 14 day eviction notice and get an eviction started even faster. Let me know if this helps you or send me any questions you have so I can add some more videos or posts to answer questions Alberta landlords may have about the eviction process.
Using the RTDRS to evict tenants or deal with problem landlords can make the entire process far easier and less stressful than a court appearance, so don’t be afraid to try it!
If you’re new to the eviction process and would like a step by step guide to help you get through a tenant eviction I also have a guide to help you out.
With the average eviction costing a landlord two months of rent or more you don’t want to delay and you really don’t want to make a costly mistake.
Learning the RTDRS Process
The Alberta Landlords Guide to the Eviction Process helps you learn and understand Alberta’s eviction process through the RTDRS and takes additional stress and confusion out of learning how to properly evict a tenant.
Time after time landlords who have purchased the guide have told me what a difference it made understanding the process and having a guide to get them through it.
Sure you can do it on your own, but at what cost and what mistakes will you make along the way? If you’re serious about an eviction or want to get a headstart on knowing the ins and outs of evictions you need to order this guide today.
I’ve created this as a downloadable e-book so you will have it within moments of ordering it and can start preparing your tenant eviction right away. Evictions don’t typically get easier the longer you wait and with the current backlog at the RTDRS the sooner you start the process the quicker you can regain control of your property and move forward.
Additionally if you’re looking for more information about evicting tenants I’d suggest you start on my Getting Started Page.
Question
Girlfriends ex boyfriend both have name on lease aggreement Ontario
Boyfriend is abusive and harassing both her and I via text and email
Threatens both of us
Has been rude vulgar offensive
Does not stop
It’s constant
I’m throwing your stuff out
Your a worthless s@@@
Leaving all the water heat air conditioning appliances and electronic son and running
Has called me on to fight him
Has held her down and theeatened to kill her
What the hell do we have to do to safely secure her home and belongings have him removed
Immediately without notice court proceedings we have record of these messages
And she fears for her safety
I have observed her mental faculties diminished and come near mental breakdown since this remains ongoing and with his ever more sever and vulgar threats and extremely upsetting words
She is in constant terror worry and is petrified to even make a call or lift a finger becomes sick and shakes to even the thought of this and worse when resolution is attempted
He is controlling her and holding her happiness and safety hostage and is forcing her to give up her home and belongings and seek residency three times the cost of her current lease
He is far more financially secure to be in a suitable position to afford a new place utilities and everything he wishes to have
Please in urgent immediacy advice
Ontario Canada advice please
Sorry just don’t know the Ontario rules for this. We focus on Alberta here as we know and understand the rules.
If he’s threatened to kill her you may have recourse through the police, you should also be bringing this up with the landlord to see if she can move out and/or have the other person removed. Although if the boyfriend knows where she currently lives that may not work either, so moving out even if it costs more may be a much wiser decision than the current situation.
Bill
Hey Bill, thanks for this site. I have a question for you.
I am a new landlord with tenants who are consistently late on their rent payments. We have gone through cycles of not paying for up to 2 months, then paying everything back in full and the cycle continues. Now it’s gotten out of hand and I want to file for eviction. I read on your website that if I chose to take them to court myself, the courts won’t file for eviction if this was a first non-payment event. Our tenant complained that cheques are too expensive and that she doesn’t have online banking so she insisted on paying cash. Can she used this to leverage against my position in court by saying that there is no paper trail to prove that this was her first non-payment event when really it isn’t?
Hi Mike,
I think there was some confusion with either your understanding or my explanation, so I’ll try to clear it up.
If it’s a first offence for non-payment you can still file for eviction, the issue is when it involves non-payment it’s pretty cut and dry. If they pay before the hearing, the eviction is null and void meaning they get to stay or if the hearing officer or judge gives them a date to pay by and they pay before then it’s also null and void. So you could be wasting your time, or making a point to them that you are serious.
If it’s a multiple time issue, then you can use a different tact. Rather than evicting for non-payment, it becomes continuous breach of the payment terms. Now, even if they pay, it’s a different issue and you should be able to evict them with minimal issues.
To make this work though, you need to prove it’s ongoing.
What I teach landlords to do is to make sure they create their own paper trail to collaborate the story. I’m not saying fabricate anything, rather make sure you document and follow up every instance with written documentation so you have backup if it comes to a hearing.
If you’re accepting cash from her, you must be writing a receipt, it should be dated, have the tenants name and address on it and what it’s for. If it’s late, it should be noted and/or a follow up letter should be sent to the tenant explaining it was late and why it’s not acceptable.
If you have phone conversations with her about late rent, you need to follow it up with a written letter or email recapping what was discussed and what both parties committed to.
If you’ve done none of this so far, you may have an uphill battle proving it’s not her first offence or that you’re even serious about this in the eyes of a hearing officer or judge. If that’s the case, you can start creating your documentation now, but you might be looking at a 50/50 chance of evicting her. I don’t like 50/50, so I’d spend an extra month if that’s what it takes creating some documentation.
I do offer a consulting service and I can walk you through the exact steps to help you out if you like, or you can use this information to try it on your own. I charge $50 for a 30 minute call and considering how much you’ll lose if this ends up being a full month of not getting paid, it is a steal of a deal, you can find out more here, When You Need Expert Advice.
Regards,
Bill
P.S. and yes if you ask more questions here I will reply, but subsequent answers get slower and slower 8′]
I am a tenant living in a basement suite of a house with another top floor suite that has been rented out. The landlord gave the tenants upstairs an eviction notice three weeks ago and they still have not left. The cops have been here as well and they still are not gone, with no intentions of leaving. I have tried to ask the landlord what is happening with no response. Clearly these people will not get out and we are left to put up with them until something is actually done. Is there any way that this problem can be resolved faster if not immediately?
Hi Brett,
It sounds like the landlord may simply not understand the process. They need to either hire an eviction company to do the eviction for them or they need to learn the process and get these tenants to either the RTDRS or the courts so they can obtain a court ordered eviction.
You may need to leverage your position and tell the landlord if this isn’t dealt with you will be vacating. Perhaps the fear of being vacant with a bad tenant may accelerate the issue?
You may also want to refer the landlord to this site so they can get better educated on the process as it should only take a couple of weeks to a month to get most tenants out.
Bill
I’m not sure what to do in this situation. I rented out my place for March 1st. The tenants gave me a partial payment towards the damage deposit. They then paid the rent in full on March 1st. Can I evict them because they haven’t paid the full deposit? I try to call them and they ignore my messages. I didn’t give them a copy of the lease agreement (not that it was signed by them), but everything was verbal. I’m starting to think i won’t ever get my money for the damage deposit. Can I consider that I’ve received the full deposit but only a portion of the rent?
Lesson #1 Patty is no one gets in without paying the security deposit and rent up front either in cash, bank draft or money orders. Worse yet, they didn’t sign the lease? You are not off to a good start.
You can’t evict them for not paying it in full and it can be an uphill battle trying to collect it, you don’t have a lease in place at this point if it’s not signed and I’nm going out on a limb that you didn’t do a signed walk through either, so you likely can’t even charge them for any damages unless they are excessive.
Depending on how you labeled the payment you received you’re probably out of luck on that as well. We’re reaching a real crisis these days with landlords simply not understanding the rules and tenants being able to leverage this lack of knowledge into months of rent free living or forcing landlords to bend to their every whim.
You can push a bit to get the deposit, but if they aren’t getting back to you, I’m suggesting you are in for a long term problem here . Document everything going forward, use multiple ways to leave messages for them (posted on door if they don’t answer, emails, texts and calls), show up at their work (you do have their work off of their application form don’t you?) and follow up with any other references they have if you reach a dead end.
If you are really stuck, I’d suggest you consider using my consulting services to help you figure out this landlord business now before things get worse because you’re putting an incredibly expensive asset at risk.
Bill
What you are telling them to show at their work and harass them? This is NOT good legal advise! I have been studying law for 12 years and that is breaking 182 and 423 of the CCC. I think you need to learn the law yourself Travis.
Well Cathie/Travis good luck with your studies… Maybe another 12 years and you can give up studying. Although wow you must have missed this section, so give it another read.
We don’t provide legal advise here which is the first issue. We provide information about the eviction process and options for landlords and tenants.
It is not illegal to serve a tenant or even meet a tenant at their work.
The sections of the Canadian Criminal Code you referred to are hilarious, particularly section 182 which has to do with dead bodies.
It’s great you’re adding to the commentary, but when you make this kind of stuff up it really points out the problem with tenants who get evicted and huff and puff about rights, but don’t actually understand the rules.
I do not condone or promote anything illegal, I promote following the rules and working within them and I help both landlords and tenants. If you truly have been studying law and didn’t just make stuff up (which isn’t looking probable) you need to go back through, read more on this site and basically get your s&^t together instead of making it up.
Bill
P.S. my tolerance for people disputing my knowledge or ability to help pisses me off.
Wow Cathie if you are a lawyer I highly Recommend that you report yourself to the law society for fraud. Clearly you are impersonating a lawyer. Neither one of the sections has anything to do with what Mr. Biko has spoken about. And you’re also fully aware, well perhaps not because you didn’t study well, that intent plays a big portion of this. So there’s no offence for dead bodies or harassment good luck in your law career I hope you’re not one of those $500 an hour lawyers. Somebody’s ripping somebody off somewhere?
Hey, random question. I have a friend who has been living in his parents house his entire life for free “rich family” and now his mother is trying to evict him for not producing a bank statment. She said she wants him out in under 20 days. No notice has been served only a verbal lashing. He has lived here rent free his entire life. There is no lease or rental agreement. He has never had to pay rent. It is a farm house. Im wondering what kinda of legal options he has as he cant really afford to move out so fast. He does have a full time seasonal job “farming” .
Hi Travis,
Family issues like this seem to reside outside the RTA as there is typically no rental agreement in place and the setup was never intended as a tenancy agreement. In more serious cases it can end up being disputed in court, but typically if your folks say get out, you need to get out.
Best case scenario would be to negotiate with them for additional time and make sure your friend gets moving on this.
Bill
Can you tell me if I have to accept a note from a tenant telling me that they are no longer moving even though they gave 2 months notice that they were moving? We did not give an eviction (though we were about to) because they gave us notice they were moving. Now they say they are staying. We want them gone for many reasons. Thought it was a done deal but now this.
Hi Rob,
You don’t have to accept it, but if they don’t leave your only option is evicting them via the RTDRS. Not accepting it doesn’t change anything, it still requires a court/RTDRS order to officially get them out.
If you have multiple reasons for evicting them, I’d start making sure you have a paper trail and documentation to back up your hearing application as these are key to a successful eviction. Too many landlords assume they can go in with a couple pieces of paper and get tenants kicked out and then complain about how the system favours tenants.
I explain this in my eviction guide (available here, An Eviction Guide For Landlords in Alberta) along with other tactics landlords need to know to help make sure they successfully can evict a problem tenant.
Bill
Thank you for such a quick reply. I’ve just purchased your guide and will be reading it…… today!
So we should just send a letter staying we do not accept their note stating they are not moving on the date they stated? And if they do not move on that date we will commence with an eviction notice. If they do not move would we need to give them a full 3 months notice? ( I know read your guide).
Hey again Rob,
I was actually sitting at my desk when it came in, so good timing, I usually only reply a couple times a week due to time constraints.
I’d let them know (via email and/or written notice to create a paper trail), that you’ve already planned on them moving out and due to previous issues if they fail to vacate you will evict them for these previous issues. Also make them aware that this could result in additional costs to them as the costs of filing plus potential additional costs can be charged to them.
This might be enough to help them move on, or if not it can be added as evidence that you tried to work with them. Ultimately it will come down to what the previous issues were and whether they can be considered breaches of the lease. Depending on what sort of paper trail there is with those breaches it can also add or negate to your eviction capabilities.
If it was something like late rent and you verbally said not a problem, yet it kept repeating it self and you have no paper trail saying hey, enough is enough, it can cause you more issues. If they were late and you followed up saying it’s ok this time, but please don’t let it happen again (showing you are an understanding landlord) and then for the next six months it continued on and you did nothing (now showing it’s not really an issue if they are late) you could have dug yourself a hole. Hope that rambling made sense!
Since you ordered my guide so quickly (thank you!), I sent you a direct email if you want to ask me more questions. I’m heading out shortly, but can reply later today (but read the guide first 8′], it has LOT’S of answers!)
Regards,
Bill
I have a tenant who’s lease expired Aug 31 and it’s now Sept 9. She doesn’t appear to want to renew yet she hasn’t moved out. Yesterday I gave her 24 hours to respond but that has now come and gone. Can I go there, remove her items, and change the locks? We have no lease in place, and no money. I do have her damage deposit, but for all I know that may be needed to clean the place up.
Absolutely not Travis, and depending on how you initially dealt with the end of the lease, you could find yourself now stuck in a month to month lease which is not going to be beneficial to you.
The only time a landlord can ever change the locks on a tenant is if the tenants vacate the property, abandon the property or there is a court ordered eviction and the bailiff attends to enforce the eviction order.
Your proper step with the information provided at this point is to move to an eviction for overholding. In Edmonton you can go through the RTDRS for this. Depending on previous interactions there are definitely some steps you will want to take to ensure your eviction works. I cover much of this in my RTDRS eviction guide and via my consulting services.
Normally I reply to these comments a couple days after they are listed, but I didn’t want you to find out the hard way about changing locks, so though tI should respond right away.
Regards,
Bill
I have leased a property where the lease is in my name only. Listed as occupants were my girlfriend and children. Since the signing we have split and now I would like to have her move out.
I have 2 concerns in that she is in breach of the lease I signed by having pets, and secondly she is occupying the residence but has not paid for any of the costs, utilities or other items which are all in my name.
Am I entitled to evict under the process as the signer of the lease or do I have to get property owner to file a breach against me……this creates quite the conflict?
Mike
Hi Mike,
You’re in kind of a gray area (seems to be an ongoing theme lately). It sounds like they were on the lease as occupants, but not as signers of the lease. So the landlord may have a challenge evicting them for that.
However, for the breach of the lease (pets), the landlord can evict all the tenants. Which includes you…
He can renegotiate with you to stay after the fact, but you’d want to give him a compelling reason why he should.
Additionally, there may be some family law/common law issues at play here. Depending on how long you tow have lived together you may have bene living in common law which brings up a whole new scenario. You may want to actually talk to a family law lawyer to discuss your options and future ramifications.
Bill
Hello,
I am a landlord and have been renting my property to a tenant foor a little over 3 months.
She has been late since day one.
First, she was 3 days late, then 9 days late, then 36 days late and is still in arrears for this current month. I have filed with the RTDRS and have my hearing tomorrow. I am evicting on the basis of continous late payment and non payment of rent.
She has continously made up excuses as to why she is late and is never bothered to let me know in advance. I have to ask her and then she tells me her excuse.
I also gave her an eviction notice earlier in January and the eviciton date has passed.
The tenant is counter suing me for breach of quiet enjoyment, lost wages and time due to installations of new washer/dryers. The renters downstairs are a couple who apparently fight and argue. She claims that she feels unsafe and threatened because of them and because of that she has stress and is tring to sue me for 5 digits.
When she brought up the downstairs disturbance I spoke with that tenant and informed them I recieved a noise complaint and if they could “keep it down”. However, I didn’t say anymore as I didn’t feel it was in my right to tell a couple how to live their life and what not to fight about. She did continue to complain about them and I repeated the same steps (asking the downstairs to keep it down).
My question is: Does my first hearing get affected because of her claims? Although, it has nothing to do with the late and non payment of rent. Will the hearing officer evict her?
My issue is that she continously gives rent late (or not at all) and is currently living in my home for free, acting like it is her right to not pay rent or pay late. The bank who holds my mortgage does not care and is not lienent. If I was going to make up excuses like that they would take away my home and slash my credit. Furthermore, if I was leasing a vehicle they would have repossed it.
And FYI I was very lienent with the tenant. Listened to her reasoning as to why she she can not pay rent and gave her the benefit of the doubt multiple times. But, I feel she took advantage of my lienency and paid rent late or not at all because of that.
Lastly, I don’t even live in Alberta. I am from BC and am here JUST because I have to evict her. However, I must say that because of this whole ordeal I feel like I will just move into the house muself and live in alberta because I can not mentally deal with people like her ever again.
Hi Sam,
Fortunately this isn’t the US, most claims like this get thrown out fairly quickly as they are just people trying to make money out of nothing.
The rules are so different in Canada that if she tried to move forward with legal assistance it would also get shut down as it sounds like she couldn’t afford legal fees and you aren’t able to realize repayment fro your legal costs in Canada, at least not in full which makes litigation expensive and you have to be serious about it.
I would expect the hearing office to move forward with an eviction order for you, as to how soon and with any additional attachments it depends on how you filed your application. I go through specific ways to expedite getting tenants out in my guide, so I’m not sure if you followed these techniques or submitted a default application as the majority of landlords do.
While leniency does have it’s place as a landlord, unfortunately when you’re lenient with the wrong tenant it costs the landlord significantly.
As an out of province landlord you do have the ability to attend the hearing via teleconference, you don’t have to physically attend, although serving the tenant must be done either by you or an agent (friend/associate) that you appoint locally.
i do offer a free course on screening tenant, if you do plan on renting it out again. If you registered on the site you should see an email talking about it shortly.
Regards,
Bill
Hi,
My data rented out our single house to a family of 5 around 1.5 years ago, the first year was OK, but in the second year problems started to occur.
Firstly, the tenant was consistently being late on rent payment and making multiple partial payment each month. My dad tried to reason with the tenant but was told to get OUT of our own house.
Secondly, Tenant’s son got into problem with another kid, and that kid came to the property we rent out and did thousands dollars of damages. Personally I don’t know what really happened, because I was told 3 different version of the story by the tenant, and I tried to contact the police officer investigating this case but was ignored. I was later told by tenant that the kid was caught, I later was able to came in contact with someone from the court and they told us to submit a damage estimate but was told restitution is considered by judge but not guaranteed.
My dad was depressed due to the damanges and late rent and wanted the tenant to be evicted, but he made a mistake and on the notice he said he wanted to sell the house and gave a 2 month notice, the tenant didn’t object at that time.
But in April 2015, when we tried to collect the final month of rent, but the tenant entrenched in our house and refused to meet us. Instead the tenant left us a note at the door step and says that the tenant agreement is altered and not the original agreement and they are withholding our rent and wanted a copy of the original agreement. But currently they won’t event meet us! Also they said we need to gave them 3 month of notice. I looked at our agreement, apparently it is not signed correctly as i saw a place that require a signature do not have one, also at the time when we signed the agreement we did not have a scanner, so we used 2 printed copy of the same agreement and signed them separately, and tenant and us each kept 1 copy. dose this means the tenant can just write something on it and called it altered agreement and not the original?
What are some of the options we can use to evict them ASAP? as the tenant is such a burden to us both financially and mentally. Should the tenant be responsible or partially responsible for damages cause between his son and the other kids?
thanks
Hi Alex,
When it comes to evicting a tenant you need to two things, a breach of the terms of the lease and proof of the breach. Hopefully you’ve got plenty of correspondence between the tenant and your father about the late and staggered payments as that will form your proof. The late payments are the breach.
Your only realistic option at this point is to take them to the RTDRS for an eviction. As for the damages, the tenants are responsible for them as most leases make the tenant responsible for the actions of any of their guests.
If you don’t start the hearing process right away this tenant will be around for ages, and you will also be out of luck trying ot get any of the money owed. As it is, you may only get a judgment which still doesn’t guarantee a payment, but it does open up other options for you to potentially get money or future payments.
So bottom line, at this point you need to evict them for continuous breach of the payment terms, I explain this in another post on the site which you can find here, What to Do with Continually Late Paying Tenants.
Also, don’t delay on this or it will simply cost you more money!!!
Regards,
Bill
Hi
I own a property that my brother rents he got married after he started renting now he is getting divorcedand his ex won’t leave she is not on the lease only my brother is how do I get her out?
Hi Shantel,
You’re getting into a bit of a gray area here as there are typically family law rules that can come into play in scenarios where a spouse needs to evict someone. If in this case though you are the owner of the property you may be able to give her a 14 day notice to vacate as she isn’t listed on the lease.
From there is where it will get tricky as I’m not sure the RTDRS will be able to accept the case as it is clouded by the marriage issue. I would start there though and see where it goes or barring that call the RTDRS directly explain the complication and they should be able to advise you if they can even hear the eviction case.
If they can’t then it will either be directly to the courts to get a judge to rule or worst case hiring a lawyer.
Bill
My son owns a condo and has allowed a friend to live in one room. My son can no longer afford to pay all the build by himself including his friends food. He gave him a verbal request to leave giving a month notice. The friend has never paid rent and refuses to leave. Now what can my son do.
Hi Laura,
I’m assuming no lease, no real verbal agreement or anything?
Your son still has some options although he’s made it harder. He can talk to his landlord, explain the situation and request to get the locks changed at his expense and lock his “friend” out. I’d give him some warning about this though in case he tries to break back in. Your son’s friend may have some recourse through the courts due to the lack of any paperwork or agreement but it’s unlikely he would bother.
There’s no real landlord tenant relationship with your son and his friend in this scenario and if there was it would fall outside the bounds of the Residential Tenancy Act and may fit under the Innkeeper’s Act, but again without paperwork confirming where this stands it may fit under the cracks somewhere and require a court hearing to decide.
In this situation most realistically talking to the landlord and getting the locks changed (with warnings to the friend) would be the easiest route although their may be repercussions through the courts. Alternatively he can have the landlord evict him as a tenant not on the lease, but this would also potentially give the landlord an option to evict your son for bringing in additional tenants that may or may not be allowed on the lease.
Bill
I have a room mate who was on the lease but we now rent month to month,my problem is that he didnt pay his full share of rent for two months,he has refused to obey house rules – for the record he moved in with me. He refuses to clean up his room & has moldy food in there – Im scared of bugs!!! He has made our lives miseriable,what can I do to get him out!!!!
Hi Karen,
Since you’re both on the lease, you’re both responsible for the payment and the property. You may need to talk to your landlord, explain the situation and ask for assistance from them. You could stop paying, in which case the landlord could go after both of you or the landlord may be able to work with you to break the lease and possibly have you stay while bringing in another tenant in a subletting setup which may give you more control.
You could also simply discuss this with the tenant and explain if things don’t turn around immediately you will be contacting the landlord about breaking the lease.
Bill
Hi Bill,
thanks for this website. We are in the process of evicting a tenant for many late rent payments, bounced rents cheques and now non-payment of rent. We have served them a 14 days notice and I hope that works but in case it does not and we have to go to the RTDRS we will require evidence. I have bank statements showing the bounced cheques and texts recently with the run around for the rent. Will this suffice as evidence at the RTDRS?
Hi Adam,
Bank statements will definitely be required, plus the returned check paperwork. Including texts and any other documentation will also help. You want to include s much evidence as possible to prove your case.
Bill
This is an extremely puzzling situation. My father has a tenant that has been in his rental property for almost 3 years.. The tenant has never paid rent but is promising that he his coming to millions of dollars and he keep promising to pay him handsomely when this happens. My mother is a partner in this property with her husband and she wants this tenant evicted yet my father doesn’t. Can she go to RTDRS on her own to evict or does she need his concent. Also there was never a rental agreement signed and again no rent was ever paid out.
Hi Krissy,
I actually haven’t run into this before, but from my experience I would be siding with your mother on this. Unless you can absolutely positively verify and then get some sort of contract signed with a lawyer ensuring your parents actually would be compensated, there is no reason to keep the tenant in place.
As for what happens when two parties both with interest in the party have separate ideas of how to proceed it can get tricky. They may have to consult a lawyer to determine the correct path when both parties have an equal interest in a property and want different outcomes.
Sorry I don’t have better answers, I simply haven’t run into this before.
Bill
What are your thoughts on eviction without a lease signed, do you think RTDRS will still be a viable option?
Hi Krissy,
Not having a singed lease isn’t a huge issue as long as there was some kind of verbal agreement. Even a verbal agreement will stand up and one would have to assume that the tenant wasn’t simply allowed to stay for free.
Bill
How effective is documentation as well as recordings as suggested by the RCMP to evicting a tenant with the RTDRs.
Hi Mary,
Documentation when submitting your application is key. You can’t just go in and expect to get an eviction with out it.As for recordings, you start getting into some privacy/gray areas, but better to submit it and get it thrown out than not to submit it and have no proof what so ever.
Bill
That’s not always helpful. We went thru the process by the book. Countless call to RTDRS, served the two weeks eviction notice AND paid the 75.00. We proved all the infractions -late rent for 6 months, 2 months with no payments, condo violations they had broken on top of the rental agreement infractions. They didn’t even start packing. The mediator gave them the chance to pay up all monies in full, and they did. RTDRS gave them that chance PLUS 3 months to vacate. Now it’s 3 weeks later and rent was not paid AGAIN.
SO WE DID NOT GET THEM OUT SOONER. Also, now we have to find a 48 hour eviction notice. Not easily found – anyone know where to find this?
While at the hearing we had to prove EVERYTHING. Our tenant says “late payment of rent is no longer an issue. I have 17 contracts” no proof and gets 3 months longer to reside in our property.
Thanks for just prolonging our headache. System at work at its best.
Hi Lisa,
Sorry to hear things didn’t work out as well for you. Fortunately for the majority of landlords though, this hasn’t been the case. For every landlord that it hasn’t worked out for, I typically seen dozens more who it has.
Of course the majority of those I talk to have purchased my guide and explained it really helped break down the process and gave them some additional tips on how and what you need to do to get the results you want. (I checked my records and see no purchase of my guide by you, so you simply followed the confusing generic steps on the RTDRS site?)
The first problem I see with your situation was eight months of late or non-payments. How quickly landlords react to situations like these is a huge indicator to the hearing officers how serious the problem is. By waiting so long, even if you wee just trying to be helpful, it appears it wasn’t a serious problem.
Did you provide them with eviction notices or signed letters explaining the breaches each time and as eventual backup for a hearing if things didn’t change? This type of evidence would have gone a long way to showing that you tried to warn them and that you were taking action to protect yourself.
Part of the hearing process is to prove EVERYTHING, otherwise bad landlords would be evicting tenants out unfairly left and right for all sorts of nefarious reasons. How large was your application? Some of the clients I’ve coached or who have picked up my guides have submitted well over 100 pages of evidence and documentation backing up their application for an eviction.
You’re also referring to a mediator in here, so it sounds like you had several things on the go and that can also cloud the issue.
Again following the steps in my guide can help avoid much of this confusion and really does help get the tenants out faster as many people who have purchased it can confirm. The RTDRS is not a perfect system and there is room for improvements, but if you truly understand how it works, it can definitely help make the process easier when it comes to removing problem tenants.
Half an hour of consulting me myself or an eviction service company would likely have pointed you in a much better direction, saved you hours of stress and headaches and made your process far less painful. It’s disappointing that you came here, bashed the process and yet so many others have succeeded with this same process, I’m sorry it wasn’t as stress free as it can be.
Bill
What I learned going through the RTDRS process is that you have to document everything. It was a fairly easy process and the judge attempted to mediate the situation. He gave the tenants a chance to pay the outstanding rent over 3 months (I really wanted them out) and made it clear if they missed by just ONE HOUR, they would be out in 24 hours. So they smartened up!
I realize that I was doing a lot of my communications verbally and this did not serve me in the process. Do not ever just tell your tenants something, document it. Even if it feels funny to send your tenant a 14 notice the day after the rent is late, it is best to do so than to wait for a week or so and then have to wait another 2 weeks for the rent.
The Guide was very helpful in getting prepared for the RTDRS process. Thanks Bill
Linda Rasmussen
Hi Linda,
You are so right! You don’t want it to come down to an argument about who said what. By documenting and providing written back to both parties after the fact you can make your life so much easier.
Really what it comes down to is who can make a better impression to the hearing officer. If the tenants look like they are very nice people and trying to make a bad situation work, while the landlord comes across as a tyrant, guess who wins and guess who gets disappointed?
Now consider the same story, but the landlord has a hundred emails that start by nicely asking for rent and show a trail of tenants working the system, outright lying and suddenly guess who wins now?
For the tenants stuck dealing with slumlords, the same holds true. I’ve seen and heard absolute nightmares where landlords have broken every possible rule, but they come across as great people and the end result is the tenant loses.
It really doesn’t matter which side you are on, being properly prepared to show without refute what occurred can make everything much rosier for you.
I’m glad the guide helped Linda and thanks for the feedback, I’m sure others will find it helpful.
Regards,
Bill