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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1948-2-18, Page 6THF CASA OF LAN DLORD VS TENANT There Are—or Were—"Large Easy Chairs"—The landlord's statement of claim, telling of what he supplied with the house, "three large easy chairs" are mentioned. Two of the three are shown in the picture above—good enough chairs in their time, no doubt, but now rather looking as though they were a bit overdue for some attention by an upholsterer. Pity Poor Rentals Control People! by Fergus Neall On this page we tell, in picture and story, of one of thei many disputes continually arising between Landlords and Tenants over a piece of rented property, as illustrative of they sort of case on which our Rentals Control Administration has to arbitrate. Below follow some of the statements made by this particular Landlord, each followed by the Tenant's comment regarding same. Personally, we're only glad that we don't have to decide between the two. Landlord's Claim, It is a story - and -a -half brick -clad building 17' by 80' with one room 17' by 17' feet reserved for the owner's car. Tenant's Comment. He doesn't tell abou' leaving those big double garage doors wide open even in sub zero weather—or of the icy breezes that seep through the se- cond-hand corrugated iron parti- tion,to say nothing of those health• fui gas and oil fumes from his car. * * * Landlord; The top floor is only semi -finished. Tenant; If "semi" means "half" that's about a 005 overstatement. See the picture of this "semi -fin- ished upper floor"—I mean garret --which doesn't, however, show the daylight that comes through the roof in several spots. * * * Landlord; These living quarters were formerly occupied by a gard- ner. Tenant; From the looks of the place that gardener's name must have been Adam after he got chas- ed out of Eden. There appeared to he the dirt of at least several cen- turies, and the whole place, except- ing for the living room had appar- ently been used as a catchall for the whole neighborhood's junk. Landlord; There is no plumbing. Tenant: P11 say, there isn't. 1 bad to partition off a corner of the kitchen to make a bathroom, where 1 installed a chemical toilet—which , hail to purchase. * * * '.andlord; Drinking water has to be carried from the main dwelling —the tenant of his own volition has recently been having water trans- ported, Tenant; During the Summer I had the privilege of using an outside tap sticking through the wall of the landlord's house; but when the danger of freezing cane along, this was slitit off without notice. Rather than dig a well on another man's property 1 bought two 250 -gallon tanks, had them put in the living room, and Have water hauled at e cost of $5.00 per month. 5; * * Landlord; In addition, hydro has been supplied from the main house. This, however, may have to be dia.. continued as the load at times is too heavy for existing equipment. Tenant; Three 10 -watt light bulbs and the radio represent all the elec- tricity we use, having even spent $100 for an let box rather than use our frigidaire and so put extra load on the very old wiring. However, in November, the landlord put about 100 chickens in a small build - ;fig not far front ours, and has more chickens in still another near by outbuilding—and has placed electric lights in both, with elec- tricity supplied from an outlet on the rear of our "house". But maybe, at the present price of poultry, chickens are more important than humans, k :k 5 Landlord; The tenant has the right to free use of the fruit and to the use of any desired land for a gard- en. The tenant has further been given use of free wood, of which there is considerable along the fences, Tenant; In May we were told that if we wanted apples we should just help ourselves. But when .he apples did appear I was told to see that my family touched nothing but windfalls. There is much wood, semi -decayed and otherwise, lying around. I was told at one time to help myself, but declined with thanks because coal is the only thing I can burn in either the stove or the fireplace basket. As for the garden, 1 was originally offered r plot which I couldn't find time to use—and in the Fall it was turned into a chicken -run for the land- lord's chickens, * * * Landlord; It was understood when the tenant took over the premises he would make certain improve- ments and in consideration would receive greatly reduced rental dur- ing the winter months. .These im- provements were not made, but in- stead the tenant has, in a measure. demolished the premises. Tenant; A few of my "demoli- tions". Hitchen and garage are separated by one layer of corrug- ated tin and one layer of summer shutters nailed together to make s wall. I plastered the shutter side, which is toward the garage, with asbestos fibre and cement in an ef- le rt to eliminate gas and oil fumes, also chilly breezes later on. The east wall of the kitchen, which is formed by an unused garage door, I insulated with asbestos fibre. I painted the concrete floor of the kitchen with plastic paint. I never put a wood floor in this section, due to the fact that the cost tf putting the building in any rea- sonable condition was prohibitive unless a rzasonahle rental was of- fered for at least five years—which was the original understanding when 1 took the place, In the kitchen I built a 12' drainhoard cdmpiete with sinic—supplied by myself and dug a pit some 10' out- side the place to which I ran a cgs posal litre. But what's the rise -1 spent approximately $400 of any own money in improvements, and now ant told I ruined the Ace, Living -Room, Library and Sleeping Apartment All Complete—The above room, together with the kitchen and "semi -finished upper" floor, c onstitute the whole of the rented space in ques- tion. The floor is of cement, resting directly o n the ground as there is no cellar underneath. Kitchen and garage—the latter used by the L andlord—are separated by a layer of corrugated tin and a layer of summer shutters. Tenant cl aims that $40 per month is too much for this accommodation in wintry weather. Semi -Finished Upper Floor or Unfinished Ga Rentals Control people the Landlord describ The tenant claims that this is a gross exagger opinion?' This picture, like all the others, is f volved in rret?—In telling his side of the story to' the ed the above as. a "semi -finished upper floor". ation of the actual condition. What is your ram an actual photograph of the dwelling in - the case. Great interest has been aroused throughout Canada by the an- nouncement from Ottawa that Rent Controls on residential properties arc likely to be continued indefin- itely. Only naturally; perhaps, many owners of such properties are more or less up in arms. "Why should we be singled out?" they ask. "Why not let the Law of Supply arid De- mand` bring things to their pro- per level, the sante as they are doing with food and clothing," On this page we illustrate an ex- ample of why it is probably best for such restrictions to be contin- ued, ontimued, at least until the Housing Shortage is less acute. This is an actual case which recently came to our notice, and interesting too as showing the sort of problem our Rentals Control Administration is constantly forced to try and straigh- ten out. Worried Veteran - Early this January a young vet- eran of our acquaintance carate to us asking for advice, "For a while, after I calve back from overseas, my wife, my 8 -year- old boy and thyself lived in a couple of rooms in a city rooming' house," be said, "But we wanted a place of our own; and in answer to an advertisement rented a place or, the outskirts of the Village of BLANK. (Ed, NOTE; As settle- ment of the case is stili pending, any names used are fictitious) "The rent was to he $40 a month, with the distinct understanding than by any chance, we stayed on for the Winter there was to be a sub- stantial reduction. The landlord failed to keep any of the promises he made. I spent hundreds of dol- lars of my own trying to make the place at least liveable; and Pd spend even more if I wasn't afraid of getting thrown otit on my ear— which might happen at any time, as the landlord wants to sell the Property and as I haven't any lease, I "understand that a new owner could turn me out. Now, we're into the Winter. My request for rent reduction has been absolutely re- fused; and although I've searched for forty miles each way from the city where my job is, I can't find any place to move into. "So now, what should I do? Shoot the landlord—or just sit still and think what a sucker I antra Good Advice As is always our custom in such cues, we advised him to take the matter to the proper authorities— to the Rentals Administration in the city where he worked, At first he scoffed at the idea, "I knots those Government Departments" he said. "I'll get a letter saying that the matter has been carefully filed, and they'll probably get around to attending to it sonic time in 1013 or thereabouts,' We persuaded him, however, to do as we advised; and the sceptical young veteran was astoliialixnl— pleasantly—at the speed with which things started moving, Within a matter of days he had been asked to write stating his crsc fully and freely. The Is nctlord had been ordered to tell his side of it; and at fhc present time of writing there promises to be a prompt settlement of the matter—possibly before this little tale sees the light of print. When that settlement does come, we shall report what it was. In the meantime, some of the land- lord's claims—with the tenant's comments on same appended—may be of interest as 'illustrating how widely two different viewpoints of an identical matter may vary. As the old saying put it, "It all cue. pends on where you sit." But, as stated earlier, our prinei• pal object in commenting on such a typical case at such length is this —to try and show that if more paople, instead of indulging in use- less complaints anti empty wailings against the "Powers That 13e". would really make use of those Powers, the better it would be for them. MOPSY byGIAbYS PARKER BUT THATS TWIGS WHAT YOU CHARGED MO LAST WEEK KOR SPEEDING, YOU'RE ENSODURAGING INFLATION "Everything's Up -To -Date in Kansas City"—or Kitchen, Bed- room and Bath all in one: With no plumbing or running water available, the tenant had to instal a chemical toilet in one corner of the kitchen, which is also used as sleeping quarters by the 8 -year-old boy. BELOW, an outside view of what the landlord describes as a storey -and -a -half detached brick -clad building. The garage door shown is commonly left open, even in zero weather. Rentals Offices For the information of any of our readers who may be interested; Offi- ces of the Rentals Ad- ministration are main- tained in the following Ontario centres:• Barrie Brantford Cornwall Hamilton Kingston Kirkland Lake Kitchener London North Bay Ottawa Owen Sound Peterborough St. Catharines Sault Ste. Marie Sudbury Timmins Toronto Windsor Others will be opened shortly in Belleville and Brockville. Inforination rel rding problems of ei- ther.•Landlords or Ten- ants may be had by ad- dressing any of the above, or by writing to Room 421, '3 Adelaide St. West, Toronto. rou ll'ni id1.10) S, opb,v nl The Si. Regis Hotel ruuuNrc • Evers Sown 15555 Tee 51055. Shower end Telephone • Single, 33.ae and op— Double, S•t.ae up ® Good rood. Ginnie and Oneonta Niebtls Sherbourne ai Carlton 1 Tel ISA. 4135 ROOMS BEAUTIFULLY FURNISHED $1.50 up HOTEL METROPOLE NIAOARA PALLS t'P. — Q.N.R. STATION WHEN H COLD stuffs up the nose causes mouth breathing, throat tickle and night coughing, use this time -tested Vicks treatment that goes to work Instantly..+ 2 ways at mica At bedtime rub good old Vieka VapoRub on throat, cheat and back. Then watch its PENETRATING. STIMULATING action bring relief from distress. It PENETRATES to tipper breath- ing passages with soothing medicinal Vapors. It STIMULMES cheat and baok surfaces like a warming, comforting poultice... and it keeps on working for hours, even while you sleep -to ease coughing spasms, relieve muscu- lar soreness and tightness—and bring grand comfort! Try it to- , night...Vicke VapoRub.