The Chatham-Kent Landlords Association (CKLA) has joined forces with the municipality in an effort to improve life for both sides of a rental agreement.
The association is holding Rent Smart courses for landlords, while the municipality is doing the same for tenants.
Rent Smart, funded by the federal government, is a program designed to educate landlords and tenants about the rights and responsibilities of each side.
Gord Milak, head of the CKLA, said the municipality came to the association seeking support in implementing the program.
“We’ve embarked on a partnership with the municipality. This is joint education. The association will look after the landlords and the municipality handles the tenants,” he said.
Mayor Darrin Canniff is a proponent of Rent Smart.
“It makes a lot of sense. The landlords are trained up to understand the tenants’ side and vice versa,” he said. “A lot of tenants just aren’t sure. If they go through this training, they know what their responsibilities are as well.”
Milak agreed.
“It’s an education course for people who have had difficulty in rental situation, are new to the country or have credit problems,” he said of the tenants’ course. “When they’re through it, they probably know more about the Landlord-Tenant Act than most landlords.”
But landlords can take the course as well. Milak said the landlord course focuses on rights, responsibilities and relationships.
The common understanding should lead to fewer disputes.
“If it open doors to stay in housing longer or to get housing, it’s a wonderful thing,” Canniff said. “It’s one more tool we can use to get people housed in Chatham-Kent.”
He said each side has its tales of problems from the other side, but “the vast majority want to comply and want to be good tenants or good landlords.”
Canniff said just by taking this course, people have a better chance of getting into a rental property.
“They can improve their chances of landing a spot by taking this course. It will teach Rental 101 – these are the things you would be doing as a tenant,” he said.
Milak said tenants go through a 12-hour certification course. He believes it’s already paying off.
“We’ve got some landlords that have worked with the municipality and have taken in some folks who would have been a big risk without Rent Smart. But after the program, it’s been pretty good,” he said.
“In one of the most recent classes, there were all new Canadians. They were struggling with online applications. If you don’t fill in all the fields, the application won’t go through, and if you don’t have a previous Canadian address, you can’t complete it,” he said.
Milak said the course explains a great deal about the responsibilities and rights for both sides.
“That includes what is wear and tear versus damage. There’s the ability for both landlord and tenant to be talking common knowledge. This can eliminate a whole lot of assumptions that can lead to unfortunate circumstances,” he said.
Milak said landlords are already seeing benefits from the course.
“There’s a time in the tenant course where they ask a landlord to come in and talk. The questions that would come back are really good,” he said. “The municipality has gotten some really good traction on this.”
