So there is another article regarding landlords and tenants and once again Toronto has sides with tenants without considering the greater issue. The article focuses on 500 Dawes Rd.which I have seen before and I must say looks like somewhere I would have lived as a student, but not someplace I would like to live now. What bothers me about the article is the tenants complain about,
Bedbugs and elevator buttons covered in saliva are just two of the complaints about 500 Dawes Rd. But city bureaucrats might be backing away from the idea [of landlord licensing]
What bothers me about this is who do you think is spitting on the elevator? The landlords? No it’s the tenants, but given the current state of laws it is near impossible to evict a tenant. I know that it is a downward spiral, but it is the same thing with a work environment. If you do not allow for the adequate addressing of poor performance, then you cannot expect things to get better.
And bedbugs? Who brings them in? The landlord? Again no. People need to take responsibility for their own spaces. I had a roommate who got a kitten which ended up getting fleas. I ended up having to rent a steam cleaner to get rid of the fleas. She paid me back, but I still had to deal with the hassle.
I am not suggesting that tenants should have to rent a cleaner and do the hallways but they should be cleaning their own spaces. It is hard to feel sorry for them, when their own places are a mess. When I was a kid my mother ingrained in me, “dust attracts mites, mites attract spiders”.
Now I like the idea of landlord licensing for any buildings over 5 suites. But I would also like to see rules set up to make it easier to get rid of those problem tenants, no one should have to put up with neighbours who spit on elevators or are filthy.