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  • Talk to your Landlord!

    I work for the phone company. I don't care where you live... it can be a houseboat, a cabin in the woods or a cardboard box under a bridge. If you have a valid address and our techs can work it, we will set you up. (note: the box under the bridge probably doesn't have a valid address)

    So I really don't care that you are clearly in an illegal suite. We know it's illegal because our address team told us the municipality says no suites are registered. So no, we can't change your address to unit 2. We can't. You're not registered. How do you get registered? Dude, you're talking to an agent from Guatemala! How would they know? I live in Canada and I don't know! (don't care to google it for you either) Besides, your landlord needs to do that. They SHOULD have done it before you moved in.

    My advice? Stop bothering the phone company until you're properly registered or we might google 'how to report an illegal suite'. If our attempts to add the address hasn't done that already. (probably has)

  • #2
    Sounds to me like a sense of paranoia/guilt is getting the better of this person.

    What does an "illegal suite" mean ... they are living somewhere that is not designated as a living space or a rental unit?
    Customer service: More efficient than a Dementor's kiss
    ~ Mr Hero

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    • #3
      Yes, exactly... municipalities have bylaws covering what can be a suite and what can't. You have to get a permit and meet whatever standards are required. Or you can just ignore all that and rent out to someone, which I'm sure is what's going on here.

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      • #4
        I know people who have lived in unpermitted apartments. Usually they were converted from other spaces--a garage in one case, a basement in another case... Usually the conversion is very half-*ssed because the property owner didn't want to pay for all the stuff to make it legal. So the folks in the garage apartment had zero insulation and froze in the winter and broiled in the summer; the folks in the basement apartment had water intrusion problems, and so on.

        Sometimes you run afoul of housing density laws. So someone might not be allowed to subdivide a house they own into multiple apartments, but they do so anyway so they can rent them for more money.
        “There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged.
        One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world.
        The other, of course, involves orcs." -- John Rogers

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        • #5
          Yeah, you see cases about these "Illegal Suites" all the time on Judge Judy and Peoples Court.

          Basically, in order to rent as an apartment, the "apartment" has to meet a bunch of criteria and the city gives it a "certificate of habitability" and signs off that "Yup this can be rented out as an apartment by itself."

          In the court cases that come up, usually what happens is someone doesn't do everything needed to make it a true apartment (including having things like an accessible washroom, proper kitchen, escape routes, etc... ). The city/county notices, and slaps the "landlord" and says "You can't rent that as a living space. Get rid of your tenant."

          The Tenant then has a short time (days/weeks, maybe a month depending on how extreme the apartment is and how generous the city is being) to find a new place to live.

          So after getting the boot, because it was an "illegal apartment", the tenant will sue for those months of rent they lived there, saying "I had no idea this cot in a closet was not a legal apartment!"

          Sometimes the doctrine of clean hands is applied. More often, "you ate the steak" explanation is used. While the landlord cannot get anything from their tenant for having to break the lease and boot them out, the landlord does NOT have to pay back the rent paid for time served. At best, if the tenant was booted out on, say the 15th and they had paid that months rent, it's up to the judge to decide if half the month, all the month or none of the month will have to be reimbursed. But previous months have to be paid for even if it is illegal.

          Watching the court cases, you find all sorts of fun excuses people come up with for these leases. Things like "I was only renting an Office in my house. I couldn't help it that he slept on the couch." or "I rented my unfinished basement to the tenant. They agreed they would pay to finish the basement for a discounted rent."

          Most of the time, it feels like these are wink-wink nudge-nudge situations that people turn a blind eye to just to help civilization go around. When things escalate too far to the point they can't be ignored, then people get unhappy and show up on the TV courts.

          Comment


          • #6
            Quoth Nunavut Pants View Post
            Usually they were converted from other spaces--a garage in one case, a basement in another case... Usually the conversion is very half-*ssed because the property owner didn't want to pay for all the stuff to make it legal. So the folks in the garage apartment had zero insulation and froze in the winter and broiled in the summer; the folks in the basement apartment had water intrusion problems, and so on.
            Mrs. TGK lived in one of those with her ex. Apparently credit issues and a record on his part, made it nearly impossible for them to rent a legitimate place.
            I'm trying to see things from your point of view, but I can't get my head that far up my keister!

            Who is John Galt?
            -Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

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            • #7
              Illegal suites abound over hear. Mostly because to rent a legal suite you would have to have a job that paid minimum $20/hr and I hope you don't like hot water or watching tv either. Before I got this place I've checked out 'shared housing' where you all get your own bedroom but the rest of the house (ie kitchen bathroom living room etc) are shared. I've seen walkin closets with the poles to hang clothes off still there renting at $800 a month because it's that bad in this city. My friend is paying $1200 for an apartment room in a place where you most definitely don't want to be out after dark unless you look like you could bench press a car. She still has to pay for all utilities (lights, hydro, heat, etc plus whatever bonus ones ie cable/internet) on top of that. And if you say no? Well, there's literally hundreds of people lined up to say 'yes' in your place. And then the city has the nerve to complain when places like tent city spring up. Hell, I work two legal decent paying jobs and one under the table so it doesn't go on my taxes job and I can't afford rent and two meals everyday. Instead of dealing with the housing crisis they've built brand new luxury housing for the tourists to have their season homes. At one point I had a friend who was sharing a small basement suite with 4 other people... There were only two rooms that could generously be called such.

              It doesn't surprise me at all that they don't have a registered address, only that they're dumb enough to push the issue when they know their suite isn't legal.
              Don’t worry about what I’m up to. Worry about why you are worried about what I’m up to.

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              • #8
                It doesn't seem like it would be so difficult to arrange a work-around. If I had popular teen-aged children, I could have a second phone with a separate phone number installed in my house, couldn't I?

                The fake landlord could add the price of a separate line to the fake tenant's rent, couldn't he?

                Comment


                • #9
                  Quoth workerbee222 View Post
                  It doesn't seem like it would be so difficult to arrange a work-around. If I had popular teen-aged children, I could have a second phone with a separate phone number installed in my house, couldn't I?
                  That was already done, we installed him as a second line on the main floor. This dip just had a bee up his butt that we needed it to be listed as unit 2.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    When we were looking for houses, the agent took us to one home where the owner proudly boasted about having 8 rental apartments in the basement. I thought this was unusual on it's own, but particularly because this was a small home. He took us downstairs and rudely started opening doors without even knocking. The "apartments" were closets with barely enough room to have a mattress on the floor.
                    D.I.L.L.I.G.A.F.
                    Quoth = Crossbow "EvilHomer, Irv, Gravekeeper, and Seraph: the Four Horsemen of the Dumbpocalypse."

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