Dog bite victims injured on leased premises in Kentucky are no longer out of luck if the dog owner fails to carry renters insurance covering dog bite attacks, according to Kevin Renfro, attorney and managing partner for Becker Law Office. In a recently decided case,...

The right to collect a damage deposit not only helps rental owners, it helps tenants as well, says the The Association of Quebec Landlords (APQ). While APQ has advocated for reform of the Province's rental laws for many years, the right to collect a deposit is among...

The owner of an apartment complex in Pennsylvania has agreed to pay $15,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by HUD over discriminatory leasing practices. The charges stemmed from the treatment of families with children. The on-site manager was accused of stating a...

Ontario's Rent Increase Guideline for 2013 is set at 2.5 per cent. While the annual Rent Increase Guideline continues to be based on Ontario's Consumer Price Index (CPI), which is a measure of inflation calculated monthly by Statistics Canada, due to recently passed...

Many of the proposed changes to Manitoba's Residential Tenancies Act received Royal Assent on June 14, 2012, and are now in effect. Manitoba landlords are subject to the following changes: Landlords must use prescribed forms when terminating tenancies.  These forms...

Having to repair damage to a rental property is a concern of every landlord. The cost of damage goes beyond restoring the unit -- it also means longer vacancies while the property is being repaired. These three steps can help to minimize losses from damage, and keep a...

Freddie Mac's U.S. Economic and Housing Market Outlook for June shows that rental market activity continues to be a bright spot for the housing market, with demand for rentals expected to increase this coming year.    According to Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac VP and...

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) Spring Rental Market Survey was just released, and it shows that the average rental apartment vacancy rate in Canada's 35 major centres decreased slightly to 2.3 per cent in April 2012. The survey is conducted twice...

Training tenants to behave takes some commitment on the landlord's part, but it saves time and money in the end.  The best place to begin is with organization: Too much Information One trick to getting tenants to follow the rules is making it easy to find them. A...

Two recent disputes over secondhand smoke highlight how the issue may impact landlords who do not have smoking bans. In a recent decision, the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal awarded damages to two strata corporation residents who repeatedly complained about secondhand...

Each time a  tenant moves out,  you must jump in and prepare the property for the next tenant.  As a general rule, you will want to restore the unit to the condition that you want it to be in when the next tenant leaves. Often, there is little time between tenancies,...