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Protesters who say Ontario is the ‘worst place’ to be a landlord blame provincial bureaucracy

Protestors were at Queen’s Park on Wednesday and provided new insight into the housing crisis in Ontario. For anybody looking to rent, the protestors say a failing provincial bureaucracy has made Ontario the worst place in Canada to be a landlord.
Some protestors say they’ve also been caught up in the rental squeeze.
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They’re small landlords with one, two or a handful of rentals, who say they’re the victims of a provincial bureaucracy that leaves landlords struggling if they have to get rid of bad tenants.
Lorrie McKibbon and her husband have been sprucing up their house in east Hamilton and love it. But their home ownership got off to a rough start.
“It was terrible. Every day was a different day.” When the McKibbon’s bought the house it was occupied by a tenant.
There were missed rent payments, they couldn’t get him out for months and the place was a mess when they moved in.
“People buy houses for retirement, they keep them. They hope they’re being well looked after and they can retire. You don’t have that anymore because you get people who think they can just be squatters and not pay the rent,” McKibbon said.
McKibbon shared advice for anyone thinking of becoming a landlord in Ontario, “Don’t. Don’t. Run. Run far away.”
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Kevin Costain from Small Ownership Landlords Ontario (SOLO) said, “People are losing their investments first and foremost, but some people are having their lives completely destroyed.”
They say the province’s Landlord and Tenant Board is up to a year behind in hearing appeals from tenants and landlords, and nothing gets done.
“When I talk about my own case of having my house burnt down you know you’re talking about the impact of a person terrorizing you. And not for just a minute or a day. This person was terrorizing me for 16 months,” Costain said.
The Hamilton & District Apartment Association (HDAA) says this crisis is also one of the things forcing people into encampments. Landlords are afraid to rent.
Lynn Page from HDAA said, “I have clients who’ve lost up to $80,000 last year, and then you add up the damages left behind and the unpaid utilities.”
They say this all adds to the rental crisis in Ontario.
“This is the riskiest place in Canada, definitely in the U.S., the riskiest place to be a rental operator. It’s not a smart move to rent out a property in Ontario,” Costain said.
CHCH News attempted to contact the housing minister and they did not respond.
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