The_Reaper
Minister of Silly Walks
It has been quite awhile since I did a proper text post - but I could use a place to vent where maybe some folks would see it.
My partner and I have been helping a friend of ours try to get his life together. He hasn't had the easiest run of things - he was born to a young mom, moved through foster care many times in his youth, is likely undiagnosed on the autism spectrum, and is just getting out of an abusive and unstable relationship he entered when he was 18 to a man 27 years his senior. Despite all this - he's one of the absolutely sweetest guys you'd ever meet - who has just had too much bad luck in his life, and not enough people in his corner.
We've been helping him look for a place of his own - difficult in an expensive province and city in Canada - but we found a very friendly woman looking for a roommate and who was willing to take a chance on him. (Because of his undiagnosed autism, he is easily overwhelmed and stressed and shuts down when that happens - so he doesn't work and is on income assistance/welfare, which doesn't endear itself to a lot of potential landlords/roommates.) We got him added to her lease, we e-transferred her the rent, and we began making plans to move him in in August.
She texts today in a panic - the landlord had modified the tenancy agreement without notifying her or us to increase rent based on there being two people in the unit now. (This situation is incredibly dodgy and actually seems illegal based on our laws here, but we'll have to fight to keep the rent where it was.) She was already struggling to keep up with the rent, and our friend (who we are helping with rent expenses as well) cannot afford more than that either.
He was so happy to be talking about having a place of his own - and his own bedroom space - and it just breaks my heart that some greedy landlord may have just thrown a wrench in the entire works and now two people may end up without a home (temporarily at best, long-term at worst) because of it. I'm not a lawyer, but I've spent my night combing through our Tenancy Act, digesting every resource for tenants I can, and it does seem to me like it is an illegal/unenforceable increase to the agreement. But there's enough grey area that I'm not sure - and I don't know what happens if the landlord refuses to budge and so do we.
It's just a complete sucker punch to feel like we had finally made some progress on getting him somewhere steady and stable - only for it to be pulled out from under us. It's not even the money - I don't care if we can't recoup our part of the rent (though I'd love to get out friend's back - since that was a fair percentage of his overall savings) - I just can't understand the greed and heartlessness of someone trying to wring every last cent they can out of someone's pocket.
We're in a holding pattern until the roommate hears more and has a chance to push back on the landlord - and I'm hoping for the best outcome (I've given her the statutes to cite and what parts of the tenancy act to quote) - but it just feels awful. And we're trying to keep a brave face so we don't break our friend's heart either...he was so damned happy today when he and I were out and talking about what he needed and was looking forward to.
I'm just angry.
My partner and I have been helping a friend of ours try to get his life together. He hasn't had the easiest run of things - he was born to a young mom, moved through foster care many times in his youth, is likely undiagnosed on the autism spectrum, and is just getting out of an abusive and unstable relationship he entered when he was 18 to a man 27 years his senior. Despite all this - he's one of the absolutely sweetest guys you'd ever meet - who has just had too much bad luck in his life, and not enough people in his corner.
We've been helping him look for a place of his own - difficult in an expensive province and city in Canada - but we found a very friendly woman looking for a roommate and who was willing to take a chance on him. (Because of his undiagnosed autism, he is easily overwhelmed and stressed and shuts down when that happens - so he doesn't work and is on income assistance/welfare, which doesn't endear itself to a lot of potential landlords/roommates.) We got him added to her lease, we e-transferred her the rent, and we began making plans to move him in in August.
She texts today in a panic - the landlord had modified the tenancy agreement without notifying her or us to increase rent based on there being two people in the unit now. (This situation is incredibly dodgy and actually seems illegal based on our laws here, but we'll have to fight to keep the rent where it was.) She was already struggling to keep up with the rent, and our friend (who we are helping with rent expenses as well) cannot afford more than that either.
He was so happy to be talking about having a place of his own - and his own bedroom space - and it just breaks my heart that some greedy landlord may have just thrown a wrench in the entire works and now two people may end up without a home (temporarily at best, long-term at worst) because of it. I'm not a lawyer, but I've spent my night combing through our Tenancy Act, digesting every resource for tenants I can, and it does seem to me like it is an illegal/unenforceable increase to the agreement. But there's enough grey area that I'm not sure - and I don't know what happens if the landlord refuses to budge and so do we.
It's just a complete sucker punch to feel like we had finally made some progress on getting him somewhere steady and stable - only for it to be pulled out from under us. It's not even the money - I don't care if we can't recoup our part of the rent (though I'd love to get out friend's back - since that was a fair percentage of his overall savings) - I just can't understand the greed and heartlessness of someone trying to wring every last cent they can out of someone's pocket.
We're in a holding pattern until the roommate hears more and has a chance to push back on the landlord - and I'm hoping for the best outcome (I've given her the statutes to cite and what parts of the tenancy act to quote) - but it just feels awful. And we're trying to keep a brave face so we don't break our friend's heart either...he was so damned happy today when he and I were out and talking about what he needed and was looking forward to.
I'm just angry.
