Property over people is probably the issue that fucks with my mind the most. Shit like this is pure evil, but the petty shit is what makes me insane. I've been told I can't lean on buildings in DTLA while waiting for a bus. I got kicked off the wall in front of the Oppenheimer building for eating a slice of pizza.
It's this libertarian idea that property is inviolate combined with "cheap" i.e. stolen land combined with white supremacy. Every white American with some wealth can buy their own little quarter-acre fiefdom in a neighborhood of their "tribe" i.e. people who look like them and broadly have similar values. All this, all with general societal atomization, combines into people feeling hyper-defensive of their "property".
very landlordly to not know that yes we do have rights actually
They know the law is written for and by them, and that in fact we don't have any rights because the cops will never uphold them
it's a free world
take away all her property and let's see how free she feels
You are literally getting in to mortgage deposit levels of money at that point, so what exactly do these landlords think they are providing that wouldn't make it worth just buying a house. I know some people wouldn't be able to/want to get a mortgage but i'm struggling to think what service these people actually believe they are offering at that point that makes it worth it.
maybe somewhere in not-Toronto.
8 months of rent on a non-slum studio is like $12,000. my 3 bedroom would be upwards of 20k. a mortgage deposit on a house here is a lot more than that.
[as I'm being drawn and quartered by an angry group of tenants]
Yeah so what...it's a free world...geeze people.
Love to live in a system where 1/3 of my life is dictated by my boss, 2/3 by my landlord, and call it "freedom".
Yeah so what (other than the fact that this is literally illegal in Ontario). Geeze people.
Honestly curious how difficult and resource consuming it is to put a case through the tenant board. Because every landlord I've had has been pretty brazen about putting illegal stuff in writing (in the lease), so I assumed those cases never get anywhere.
From what I've heard its not too bad, you can represent yourself and the process isn't too long but there can be several hearings, for patently illegal shit like post-dated cheques or on-demand inspections its fairly easy to get your lease modified. But a lot of people won't go through the effort and even if they do get the landlord to change the lease, the board can't punish them in anyway so they just stick it into the next lease.
Where its acutally useful is for evictions, since the Tenancy Act does a decent job limiting reasons for eviction and they will atleast makes sure the tenant has a hearing. But even then it can't protect you from the predatory nature of renting, the Board will happily terf you out in the middle of winter for non-payment but it will insist on having a hearing and issuing an official notice.
I have been thinking (not serious thought yet but I do need to move some time in the next year) of alternative living solutions in the city - tiny homes, an RV or a renovated bus/truck, living in a storage locker. Tiny home seems by the far best option but I'm not sure on how that would work within the city.
I really, really do not want to leave Toronto. I've spent time in most big North American cities and man... there's just nothing that really compares to here. But renting here is not going to be an option for me long term and owning is off the table completely. Probably will end up moving to MTL.
