BC Landlords Speak Out: “There Are Lots of Good Renters Out There, But You Need To Screen Carefully These Days!”

As part of our “Let’s Improve the British Columbia Rental Industry” we have invited landlords and tenants to share their opinions on how we can make these improvements. These opinions are from individual contributors and are not the opinions of the BC Landlords Association. We believe by fostering communication between landlords and tenants we can improve the BC rental industry. Landlords and tenants can share your thoughts and opinions by emailing us at landlordtenantsolutions@groupmail.com

BC Landlords Need To Make Tenant Screening a Priority To Find Good Tenants and Avoid the “Pros” Out There

I keep hearing about how bad things are for renters these days.  Sure, it’s never been easy as a renter.  I rented for years and know this from first hand experience.  During my student days in the early 90’s rent was already high considering what students could save during summer jobs. Unlike many people at the time I couldn’t get a loan at the Bank of Mom and Dad because said after age 18 people should be self-dependent.

Some Of The Current Tenant Issues I Keep Reading About And My Take As A Former Renter and New Landlord

Here’s what I think of the current issues that are all over the news and the radio talk shows. Hey, I rented for years and don’t belittle anyone having problems with their landlord or their rental. The thing is we need more “balance” in the discussion .

1. Pets

This has been a big issue over the past few weeks with talks we will copy the Ontario rental model where landlords can’t legally refuse tenants just because they have a pet. Sounds good but as a landlord I have to be very careful of my costs and pets can lead to extra costs. They can also lead to headaches if they bark or whatever early in the morning or crap in the area.  It’s just something to consider.

2. Fixed Term Lease “Loophole”

We need to get some balance on this. I’m sure some rich overseas landlords were raising the rent by $1000’s of dollars at the end of a lease but not all of us are rich overseas landlords! Most of us are like me and want to keep good tenants renting from us so we don’t even raise the rent.  There is some interesting information how this BC landlord and tenant loophole came to be but for most of us it just doesn’t apply

3. Rents Are Too High

Again not all of us are rich overseas investors with luxury Vancouver rentals in prime time areas. Many of us have saved to buy a rental and we only charge rents what people can afford and what we need to charge just to cover our mortgages, fees, taxes and the rest. Many of us small landlords are struggling and you need to keep us separate from the rich fat cats.

Help For BC Landlords – Screen Your Tenants Carefully!

The good news for people wanting to become small landlords is there are a lot of good renters around. I think this is because we have people coming from Alberta where the economy is in a downturn and Alberta landlords are suffering. And prices are really high in British Columbia so a lot of people are renting and saving up for a deposit. 

Be Careful Who You Rent To And Run A Credit Check

I have some good renters now who I just signed a lease with in September after the last couple moved out. When I was advertising there were a lot of very aggressive people applying who seemed to be winners. But many didn’t have references and when I ran a credit check I saw they had screwed over a lot of people and owed a lot of money.

Be careful because one bad tenant can really be a nightmare and cost you a ton of money.

What Does a Credit  Check Show You That Is Helpful For A Small Landlord Who Wants To Rent To Excellent Tenants?

First of all it shows you a ‘credit score’ from Equifax Canada.

This is very helpful because it’s a good way to see if people are financially responsible. A low score shows they don’t pay their bills on time, or at all! They might have ripped off Rogers or Bell but they also might have ripped of lots of small landlords too.

BC Landlords Be Careful and Run A Credit Check

I joined the BCLA and am running checks for ten bucks and one-time fee, no annual fee!

It’s a great deal and with good tenant screening you can make sure you find the real good tenants and avoid the professional scammers out there who will bleed you dry.