Market Square

[jeffster]

If people were taught how to take care of themselves and their surroundings, then you'd have a lot more private landlords listing affordable rentals, as the risk is less. And the region itself could afford more housing.

That might help. Another thing that might help is making it very easy to evict for non-payment of rent or for damage to the unit. If a tenant doesn’t pay, they’re really just a trespasser who can’t be removed, and if they damage the unit, they’re really just a vandal who happens to have the legal right to continue damaging the landlord’s property.

Of course in real life a change like this would probably be made by a right-wing government in a way that just makes it easier for landlords to harass all tenants, not just the problem ones. But in principle making it easier to get rid of bad tenants would make it more attractive for small landlords to get into the game and possibly make a lot of basements, additions, and above-garage units available for housing.

There are probably equal amounts of bad landlords versus bad tenants. If you have ever witnessed a tribunal you can see a huge divide between good tenants and bad landlords and vice-versa.

As a former superintendent, though, I can tell you first hand how hard it is to get great tenants. We (the wife and I) did do a pretty good job and only has one problem tenant (serious mental issues - threatening to kill people, but because he had friends in WRPS nothing happened). And by hard I mean, having to make judgment calls and wait on the next perspective. We didn't want just anyone living there, so to some extent, we judge each character as they came along (not for race, btw).

Funny thing is, when we started the job, the place had a 40% vacancy rate, we had a couple dealers living there, plus a couple that didn't pay rent. Within 6 months, we had managed to get rid of the deadbeats and have 100% occupancy. Save for the mental patient, everything else was grand.

BUT -- knowing what I know, I don't think I could be a landlord. These days everyone takes everyone to court, including if you reject applications. Is what it is.