Advice Centre

• Landlord-Tenant Publications - If you want to self- manage, take advantage of the extremely helpful publications put out by The Landlord and Tenant Board. They cover the full scope of Landlord-Tenant relations. Go to www.orht.gov.on.ca . The Tenant Protection Act was replaced by The Residential Tenancies Act on January 31, 2007
  
• CMHC Rental Guide- CMHC has produced an extensive guide on the do's and don'ts of home rental
  The development of the guide has been underway for some time and will be extremely useful for Landlords and Tenants. More education is better for all as well informed landlords and tenants make for a much more effective market and ongoing relationship. Go to www.cmhc.ca
  
• R ecycling -Recycling should be part of all tenancies. Make sure that your tenant has blue, grey and green boxes and is aware of local recycling instructions. Some municipalities recycle a much wider range of bottles, tins and plastics than the City of Toronto. Hopefully Toronto will move out of the dark ages and start to incinerate it's garbage like a number of other Canadian cities. A number of areas in Toronto are moving to "wet" garbage collection and the green boxes hopefully will be city-wide in no time. City Council has adopted some new garbage policies which allow for greater re-cycling and a charge for garbage containers. More on this later . Go to www.toronto.ca/recycle
  
• Insurance- Make sure that your current property insurer will cover you when you rent your home , or a part. Many insurers consider that tenants constitute an increased risk and will decline your coverage. Clients of our House Management program can benefit from our group insurance.
  If you are the owner of a condominium unit, make sure that you have insured the improvements in excess of building standard.
  
• Notices - Legal notices under The Residential Tenancies Act  (RTA) are normally given from the end of a rental period.
  
• Tenant Insurance - Make sure that your tenants are insured. You don't want to be the person of last resort if guests of the tenant are injured on your property.

• Buying a Duplex or Triplex ? - If you are thinking about buying a duplex or triplex make sure:         
• that each unit is separately metered for electricity and the breaker panel is in a
                     common area with common access
                  •  the units comply with current fire safety regulations eg. fire doors, closers, smoke
                     detectors, CO detectors
                  •  wiring is reasonably current and to code
                  •  and above all, have the property inspected by a competent inspector and by the
                      property manager you wish to manage it 

For an excellent listing of real estate related websites go to www.canadarealestatedirectory.com