Standard lease agreements tend to run for one year. Yet, in practice, one year tends to be more of a threshold than a maximum term. With vacancy rates so low, landlords should expect to see more tenants wanting to stay put. While long-term tenants may seem like a...

Monthly cash flow is probably the number one reason you became a landlord. What should be a well-oiled machine quickly turns into a headache when rent payments are routinely late. Don't cross your fingers and hope that the rent cheques come in on time each month. Be...

Recently, the Calgary City Council failed to pass a measure that would have eased zoning restrictions and simplified the process for secondary suites in some of  the most crowded areas of the city. Other cities throughout Canada have embraced the idea of secondary...

Cash flow matters. In fact, monthly cash flow likely is the reason you became a landlord. Late rent payments mess with that goal. You don't have to sit back, cross your fingers and hope that your tenants will pay on time each month. You can be proactive with property...

Rental property owners in a quiet suburb of Denver are still reeling from the discovery that their seemingly nice tenants converted the basement of their rental home into an illegal pot grow operation. In the process, the tenants caused tens of thousands of dollars of...

The U.S. Supreme Court recently upheld the doctrine of "disparate impact" as it applies to rental housing discrimination cases. Disparate impact applies in cases where the discrimination is unintentional. A policy may appear harmless on its face, but nonetheless...

Loud music, barking dogs, rambunctious kids. If there is one thing tenants universally despise, it's noise. Quiet is the best amenity landlords can provide if they want to attract the very best tenants. But, there's more. As you will see from the examples below,...

A 42-year-old Pennsylvania woman recently was awarded $450,000 for injuries she sustained after tumbling down the stairs at a rental property. The woman claimed the fall was caused by a faulty handrail, and pursued the property owner for compensation. The owner told...

It's frustrating when tenants won't pay rent. But, it's worse when a bad tenancy ends with the landlord paying out a monetary judgement to the tenants. That's what happened when an Ontario landlord chose to hurry along the process by disposing of the tenants'...

It's every landlord's nightmare: 10 people arrested for criminal activity at a rental property. That's what happened when RCMP officers raided a B.C. rental home, after numerous complaints from neighbours over noise and disorderly conduct prompted a search warrant....

Peruse rental ads in many major cities and you'll see that times are changing. Smoke-free housing was once considered progressive, but now it's commonplace. There was a time when "green" meant a property was energy efficient. Now, some landlords are forced to navigate...