Cigarette butts sit cluttered with dust and some bottle caps on the floor. In the corner sits a one litre Coca-cola plastic bottle filled with discoloured water and more cigarette butts.
The main closet is filled with all sort of junk, so much that you cannot even fully open the door.
Down the hall, a door is pulled off its hinges leaning up against the wall.
In another corner, a window is broken and paint is peeling off the walls. The stench of second-hand smoke in the apartment is still thick even though smoking is prohibited in this apartment.
The basement unit on the corner of O’Brien and High was rented by a young mother with her eight-month-old child and her boyfriend.
Roger Guillemette perseveres though. The longtime North Bay landlord expects it will cost roughly $5000 to get this apartment back into good enough condition to rent again.
He says this is typical for landlords, especially after an eviction notice has been given.
“I get nervous, I get scared,” said Guillemette about when he has to evict one of the tenants in the 12 properties and 50 units he owns in the city.
“It has gotten to a point where we are scared to talk to our tenants especially if they are on drugs and you do not know what to expect.”
Tricia Marshall is Roger’s wife. She believes things have gotten worse for landlords, especially in the past 4 1/2 to 5 years.
“Our normal used to be painting, and cleaning, not smashed windows, junk, and garbage,” she said.
“This is totally different. We even had one case last year where we had a drug den that was in one of our apartments. We had no income for one whole year and it affected all the other apartments. We lost all good tenants and you are only attracting again a negative group of individuals.”
But there is hope, recent news of a ransacked rental unit that had close to $50,000 in damages has led city council to step up.
This Tuesday, council gave unanimous approval to a motion requesting the province find ways to “protect basic important tenant rights, while investigating policies and regulations to help protect property, and penalize those who cause damage to property, and help recoup costs for those damages.”
See related: Council wades into growing issue around rental units damaged by tenants
The local landlord community appreciates the support.
“I’m excited more people are listening because we have been beating our heads against the wall the past few years, no one listened, no one cared,” said Marshall.
“The residential tenants' act is written in such a way that it is for the tenant not for the landlord. To clarify, we don’t want it for the landlord we really want it just balanced so it is exciting that council but a motion forward but it is a municipality this still is a provincial issue so now we need Mr. Vic Fedeli to help us.”
Unlike other provinces, Ontario tenants do not need to pay a damage deposit before renting a unit.
“It is illegal to ask for a damage deposit in Ontario,” stated Marshall.
“I believe it would probably take away about 75 percent of this kind of stuff. I am sure of it.
“In this tenants circumstance for instance, if it was a $1000 deposit, that is a lot of money and they want that money back so they would be more willing to go through a maintenance check at the end of the move in and the end move out, then get their money and they would be happy to get their money back if there was no damage.”
