Hi there, just looking for advice on next steps from responsible landlords.

For 4 years I've rented the ground floor of a house thats separated in multiple apartments, up and downstairs. So many people have moved in and out and there has been constant noise and many sleepless nights because of it. When I first moved in, I was alarmed at the everyday noise of the people above me (being able to hear them speaking in normal tones, simple walking across the floors sounding like a stampede etc...you know the drill). I texted the landlord to ask about what could be done and he simply said it's an old house and renovations would take weeks. He said he'd talk to the people upstairs about being quiet.

Fast forward 3.5 years and the landlord rolled the dice on a temporary lease with someone who turned out to a professional tenant. The landlord has since initiated eviction but since the court date, nothing has been decided. In the meantime, the squatter upstairs has not paid a dollar in rent, shared bills, and is a serious drug addict and doesn't work. We have lost entire days worth of sleep over this guy directly above us all night ranting, pacing, yelling, slamming doors throwing stuff etc.

We made many calls to bylaw to try to get some support to get him to shut up. Every time we contact landlord he basically just says, sorry, hopefully hell be out soon, call the police if it gets too bad.

Last night after yet another call with a bylaw officer, he asked us a few questions about other tenants living there and then said, I don't see any sign that this is a legal 2-unit.

So I did some reading after that phone call and discovered that there are sound proofing and FIREPROOFING requirements to make it legal that our landlord has definitely never done.

I looked up the public list of legal 2-units in our city and confirmed this property is not on the list.

What should we do now? For full transparency, the LL of his own volition offered half off our rent until we get the squatter out, but since having found out that this place was never properly sound or fireproofed makes us really upset over the 4 years of our lives we've suffered through so many sleepless nights over crazy loud noises from even the slightest movements upstairs.

What should we do, from your perspective?

The officer we spoke to last night said they would be sending out a fire inspector within the next day or so, so maybe we don't have to do anything?

But from a justice perspective, this is not the first sketchy, not legal thing our LL has done and I don't want future tenants to suffer because he either doesnt know or doesnt want to follow the laws.

Thanks for reading and thanks for any advice you can share.

Hi there,

We have had our dishwasher not working since June. I’ve followed up multiple times, it was supposed to be fixed/new one installed in August “allegedly” but still nothing. Followed up last month. Is it fair to ask for a rent reduction? It is included in our rent. I don’t want to be an annoying tenant, but it’s been 5 months without a working dishwasher. How much would you request reduction and how do you go about asking the landlord for this without coming off rude?

Hello,

I recently moved into an apartment 4 months ago, I was sent a lease, and to be honest the price was pretty good and I thought I was being scammed, so I never signed it. But I ended up moving in, paid first and last when i got the keys right away, and have been paying rent since. I think it was a big oversight on their part not to have me sign and agree to a lease.

Now they have come back saying they want me to sign the lease. Do I still have to? I don't see the advantage of agreeing to a lease at this point, I've already moved in. It seems like an oversight on their part, rather than mine honestly. Sure I should have signed it but I never did. Why agree to it now? I've been here 4 months.

Hello
The city ( Hamilton, ON) is warning renters and offering help

I fear I'm posting here too much ... You guys got a couch I can crash on in this sub ? 😅

Fast forward last month I was having several bank issues. Money has gone missing, a company says they didn't get paid, the bank says they did, they pulled money again. Paid my rent and it was delayed processing and now rental management wants to introduce a new way of paying rent through a different company. Stating that they are transitioning and our rent Will be processed through this new secure payment company.

Is it mandatory to switch to this new company to process rent payment?