"Give thanks to the people who have given you hardships" cheer up

Originally Posted by Mepper

-Today someone came to check our roof. Turns out we have asbestos in our house. Since there's holes in the ceiling, this whole time there's been asbestos particles roaming all over the house. We called the landlord 3 times and they refused to make accommodations for us for the night; they also refused to believe there's asbestos because they were told there wasn't any when they bought the house (the house is 50 years old...it shouldn't be a surprise to them)

This is serious, I understand how much of a pain going through legal channels can be, but if a house is unfit to live in and they've been charging you however much to live there, you really need to seek council, especially when it has meant the deterioration of your health and the destruction of your valuables.

Chances are that once you leave they'll try and pull this irresponsible behavior on another set of unlucky students.

Originally Posted by swarley

landlords are ppl too, I think half the conflicts can be solved if students are completely responsible for utilities, internet etc., but of course some students are lazy and don't want to do this............b/c they have so much "work" to concentrate on.

Landlords are offering a good, in this case a house, just because we're students doesn't mean that they are not responsible for providing living arrangements that are habitable. It's the exact same as someone selling food knowing full well that it has gone bad.

My Uncle is a landlord and i can tell you that he would NEVER allow half of the stuff of this thread to go on for fear of legal retribution. I'm sorry to hear that McMaster students seem to be getting taken advantage of.

yea why havent u talked to the council of off campus whatever?

My place hasn't been half as bad as some of these horror stories... just a basement apartment with uneven flooring and much too small

I wonder if there is a MacLandlordInsiders thread about bad experiences with students..

I havent really had any issues, besides a landlord asking for a damage deposit (which is illegal in Ontario). My friend called an inspector to his house before and they gave his landlord one month to fix a whole bunch of issues.

Also, someone posted something about heating. You can find it online that your landlord is supposed to provide a minimum room temperature of 20 degrees in Hamilton during the winter (obviously excluding if you purposely turned down your heater).

If you need answers about the Residential Tenancies Act you may contact the Customer Service line for the Landlord and Tenant Board. They can advise you what to do.

I think it's important to note that not all landlords are created equal, and you should pick your house equally based on their reputation (find out if they have other homes in the area and ask) as the house itself. My landlord is awesome! Maybe we got lucky in that way but just saying they're not all bad. He encourages us to contact him with an issues, usually comes bi-weekly to mow the lawn/ clean up around the outside of the house, and sometimes even brings us a 24 of beer! Could not be happier with him and it has made our first year living off campus really enjoyable.

heyy yea i did have bad experience except it was with my roommates
more about responsibilities also our landlord wasnt the greatest
so im still living off campus next yr just in a different house

My only "real" bad experience was that my landlord(who lived upstairs) beat his wife up occasionally and there was so much yelling going on. One time, she shrieked like crazy at like 6 AM in the morning and I thought our house was broken into.
Oh and their kid only ran in the house. After crawling, I think he just learned to run. No walking. That was so annoying during exam time.

Originally Posted by maclover

My only "real" bad experience was that my landlord(who lived upstairs) beat his wife up occasionally and there was so much yelling going on. One time, she shrieked like crazy at like 6 AM in the morning and I thought our house was broken into.
Oh and their kid only ran in the house. After crawling, I think he just learned to run. No walking. That was so annoying during exam time.

0_0 , IDGAF if it was my landlord I would've called the cops.

Second year:






Amongst other stuff between 2nd and 3rd year that I'll talk about when I'm not lazy.

Originally Posted by JEFF_CHAN

Second year:
..
Amongst other stuff between 2nd and 3rd year that I'll talk about when I'm not lazy.

You just didn't go into the basement for months? Haha..

Originally Posted by RyanC

You just didn't go into the basement for months? Haha..

Washing machine doesn't work. Landlord never bothered getting it repaired. Nobody really complained since we went home frequently enough to just wash our clothes at home.

Plus as you can see from the well-lit parts of the video, the basement looks sketchy as hell. We had no reason to go down there.

Only reason we found this out was because the Landlord was showing people the house. Poor girls. I wonder what their reactions were when they saw that...



Also while I'm here, that house also had
- Mice living in the stove
- Rats living in the walls
- A ceiling that caved in
- Mould growing on the living room carpet due to the ceiling that caved in

This is not my situation but I have a friend who lives in a house with 3 other girls. The girl in the basement directly below her smokes and the smoke goes into her room and basically suffocates her. She has told the girl to stop but the girl says she doesn't do it but my friend can't breathe.

Originally Posted by krysal

This is not my situation but I have a friend who lives in a house with 3 other girls. The girl in the basement directly below her smokes and the smoke goes into her room and basically suffocates her. She has told the girl to stop but the girl says she doesn't do it but my friend can't breathe.

I had this issue. Our lease said no smoking, but whether or not yours does, that's not the point. You have a right to breathe. Contact the landlord and/or threaten (or actually look into) legal action.
http://www.smokefreehousingo n.ca/s...ords-laws.html
It's been done successfully before--you can make a "reasonable enjoyment" argument or a human rights argument, if you have a medical condition (ie a disability) such as asthma, allergies, etc that the second-hand smoke is aggravating.