JUSTIN SMIRLIES
The Cord (Wilfrid Laurier University)

Take a look at that shit-hole.

WATERLOO (CUP) — Dealing with a landlord is a new experience for most students — and it can fucking suck.

“I think from time-to-time over the years you could say there has been issues associated with more absentee landlords,” said vice-president of student affairs at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ont., David McMurray, who has worked heavily with students living in the housing developments in the neighbourhoods surrounding the school.

“There are landlords who may not respond — as a good landlord should — to issues associated with your accommodations.”

Many students feel their relationship with their landlord is non-existent.

That is exactly the case for fourth-year Laurier business student Mike Megraw. Megraw is subletting an apartment for the semester and rarely sees his landlord — especially when help is needed.

“I don’t know the landlord as much but I do know he is very delayed in doing activities that should be done frequently,” Megraw said.

“We have a big issue with garbage in the apartments. It took him like a month to take out the garbage that accumulated over a long period of time.”

He added that at one point the garbage room in his building was overflowing and the stench was unbearable.

Additionally, a broken semi-glass door in his apartment wasn’t fixed for weeks after he notified the landlord.

“It’s a safety concern because you’re getting glass everywhere and if you’re touching the wrong part you can accidently cut your hand,” he said.

In a more extreme case, a recent Laurier graduate who asked to remain anonymous, rented an apartment last year. She believes that her landlord who lived in the side unit of the building was a drug dealer.

“He was a drug dealer… when I moved in there were sketchy things going on,” she explained.

“I was only living there because it was cheap rent and I can’t afford to live in an expensive apartment.”

According to the Laurier graduate, the landlord was unresponsive, reluctant to do repairs, had people come to the building at inconvenient times and told the tenants to not call the cops to the property.

“When we first started off we did have a few issues with the landlords where they wouldn’t do things that we would recommend and they wouldn’t spend the money where it needed to be spent. We have gotten rid of many landlords because of this,” said Ho Tek, part-owner at Domus Student Housing Inc., which manages properties for landlords that do not live in the city.

“We’ve had our own fair share of problems. We just let go of our property manager because we didn’t feel like he was getting to repairs in a timely fashion,” Tek added.

Many issues do arise with landlords if they are “absentee,” meaning they do not live in the area where they rent a house or building. As a result, it is more difficult for them to do repairs or help tenants unless they have additional infrastructure to do so.

“I don’t think it’s a big a deal, but the landlords come all the way from Vancouver to all the way from Australia,” Tek continued, noting that Domus has their own maintenance person to address specific repair issues.

“In that case, it is very important to have someone here. If there’s an issue it can be dealt with right away.”

Megraw wished there were resources at the universities to prepare him for dealing with his landlord.

“It would be nice if there were a lot more readily available resources to help out with certain issues. What can we do in the instance where the landlord is threatening to kick us out?”

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Photo: Cristina Rucchetta/The Cord