SANAULHAQ ZARAWAR has a tenant who will not pay the rent and will not move.
It is the type of stressful situation that says that he wanted to avoid when he hired a real estate agent to find a “good” tenant for his only rental property, a four -bedroom house in Whitby, Ontario, shared with several family members as an investment.
“Why would I have paid a real estate agent to make sure you have a good tenant and make verification and background verifications?” said.
The tenant moved to the house in 2023. Several months later, says Zarawar, he stopped paying. In panic, Zarawar took a close look at the application and began calling the references himself.
It was then that he says he realized that he could be dealing with a fraudulent tenant. The tenant, who was also represented by his own agent, seemed to have requested false documentation, listing employers who never responded calls and falsely claiming a second applicant who would contribute to the rent.
It turns out that the investigation was not included in the contract with its real estate agent, he says.
CBC spoke with the owners who said they were frustrated to discover that their real estate agents had not examined the tenants before moving. Despite what they can verbally promise, real estate agents are not contractually obliged to veterinary tenants, as some owners mistakenly believe.
“He promised that he was going to make the background verifications,” Zarawar said about the agent he hired. “I trusted two real estate agents and that was a big mistake.”
He says that the tenant now owes him almost $ 40,000 for rent and unpaid public services.
In many big cities in Canada, many small owners hire real estate agents, believing that they will help them find good tenants for their rental properties. But agents do not really guarantee research in standard contracts, and have no obligation to do so, despite what they can promised verbally.
“Yeah [landlords] He wants the investigation and background verifications to be something that his real estate agent must legally do, then they must request that that be added, “said Toronto Paralegal Bita Di Lisi.” Verbal promises are not legally binding. “
Both real estate agents and Zarawar tenant declined to comment to CBC News.
In Ontario, owners can direct complaints about a real estate agent to the Ontario Real Estate Council (REC). Since CBC first communicated last December, Rec has said that “there may be confusion related to standard forms” between agents and owners, and says that it has begun to communicate more with agents on the subject this year.
High bets in a hot real estate market
The bets are high for the owners, despite starting to fall, the rentals remain high, and also the mortgage rates, which makes it expensive if things are on their side.
Meanwhile, the overwhelmed-owner-inquiline boards throughout the country face long delays. In total, the owners say that it is almost impossible to evict a problematic tenant before their rental delays begin to accumulate. Zarawar says he has had two audiences on this subject in the oncant and tenant lessor, with long delays in the middle and even without resolution. Only the LTB can issue an eviction order.
And as rentals have increased in recent years, they have also done fraudulent applications. According to Rentpanda, a rental services company in Ontario, 9.1 percent of all the requests that had been reviewed from May contained fraudulent information, ranging from false ID to adjusted T4 statements. That is more than quadruplicate since 2022, when it was 2.1 percent.
Brampton, Ontario, the Pamela O’Hagan Property Administrator says that fraudulent rental requests are increasing and that the owners must take the investigation of the tenants.
That increase is the reason why many owners say they use real estate agents.
“You hired a real estate agent thinking that you are going to mitigate the risk, but unfortunately that is a false sense of security, and there must be much more awareness about what a real estate agent is really obliged to do for you,” said Pamela O’Hagan, a Property Administrator in Brampton, Ont., Which survives about 250 units of rent.
When talking with CBC, he said a recent request he had received from an agent who said he had “very clear” fraud indicators, including a false payment heel and references.
“Anyone who knows what they are doing would have caught this: for this real estate agent, it is fast in cash [to earn commission on a rental] And simply not his bread and butter. ”
It is not the work of a real estate agent
The owners that CBC spoke with this story said that he believed that the main work of his real estate agent was to examine the tenants. Experts say this is not the case.
“The investigation is not the responsibility of a real estate agent and any owner needs to understand that he has to read his contracts and assume the responsibility of his investments,” said Di Lisi, a legal assistant based in Toronto.
“Things go wrong with the tenant and the owners want to blame the real estate agent, but this is not their work, no matter what they tell you.”
Even so, the past fall began to add research as part of the information seminars offered to the stock market houses in Ontario.
“Everyone needs more education when it comes to contractual obligations, as well as how to properly examine the possible tenants.”
She still describes real estate agents as “the first line of defense” against the so -called professional tenants, or those who knowingly use false information about their application to play the system.
Di Lisi’s advice? Always call the second lessor of a tenant, as well as labor and personal references. It also suggests paying additional credit verifications and verifying legal disputes or complaints.
Ask for change to the standard contract
For Mischa Hamara, a small commercial owner, wants to see the reform in how these contracts are written.
“When someone looks in your eyes and says: ‘I’m going to make a strong veterinarian and get a great tenant’, and they don’t, there should be something you can do about it,” he said.
Hamara lives above a small commercial space in Toronto she owns. Commercial tenants are much easier to evict, but the payment of real estate agents is much higher. Hamara paid his agent for the standard, not reimbursable $ 14,000, or a five -month commission, for a tenant who finally never moved.
He says the agent offered to find another tenant at a small rate, but he didn’t want to work with him again. (The agent declined to comment to CBC News).
Similar to Zarawar, Hamara says she began examining the same tenant after realizing that something was wrong. He says he found some evidence that he thinks he should have raised “serious red flags” to his agent, including a now eliminated Facebook page that warns people who do not do business with him.
‘This is your investment’
Hamara does not believe that COB can offer much help to owners in these situations.
“Just on their website, he says they can’t recover money, so why would it bother me complain at this time?”
If there is a real estate agent in the violation of the Code of Ethics of the Real and Business Brokers Law, that agent could only be subject to paying a fine to Rec.
COB says that he only began to collect data on complaints related to research tenants in 2023. He says that the number remains low, with only nine this year until May.
Of these, COB said that six agents would complete an information course on the verification of the tenants. Three are still under review.
Hamara’s warning is for other owners: don’t expect your agent to do the investigation and take that.
Since then, he has hired another agent and has worked with him to add research verifications and background to the contract, something that Di Lisi says that the owners should do if they really want to protect themselves. But they must still perform background verifications, she says.
“At the end of the day, this is your investment, and you will be trapped with anyone whoever accepts to lease.”
