Court Again

Went to court today. I've mentioned it, but my landlord had been increasing my rent by an illegal amount and refusing to show me my lease. When I opted to pay him only what he could legally claim based on increases from my initial rent, he decided to put in a court order.

I told him that if my initial rent was $939.00 on January 2016, then it could only have been increased to $953.09 at a 1.5% increase in 2017, and then to $970.25 at a 1.8% increase in 2018. But he was saying I owed him $972.54 for 2017 and $990.05 for 2018.

He told me that my initial rent was discounted, and the discount became inactive after my first year, "as we had discussed". This is the man who told me that I had to pay him an extra half month of rent because even if I had moved in January 1st, he had accepted me December 15th. This is the guy who, for the first four months that I had lived in the unit, told me my cheque bounced and that I would have to write him another, and I would have to show him a bank statement showing he was wrong. Giving a discount would be very out of character for him.

I told him that we had not discussed the discount, asked him what the discount was for, and told him I would need to see the lease to verify. He refused to answer all these questions. I also told him that he had reported me as having paid less than I had for June and October 2017 and I had bank statements to prove it. He refused to comment.

Happened in a text conversation, so I had him on record for denying me my lease and not answering questions. Told him I would be reporting this information if he chose to take this to court, that I would be pushing to have him pay the court application fee, and that I would be looking into paying the Landlord and Tenant Board directly from hereon out.

So, knowing what information I had, I was surprised that he decided to issue me a court notice.

This is the second time I've been to court with him this year. First time, when I explained the situation, his lawyer cussed him out, "F*** my life. He's trying to charge for fifty f***ing dollars. I don't give a sh**, I really don't give a sh**, he's trying to evict on pennies". Then when I told him my take on the rent situation he said "I'll take your word for it". When he told the judge the situation, she laughed at my landlord, and he wound up having to pay some minor charges.

 After that exchange, I was surprised my landlord wanted to go round two.

I saw the judge again this time, but there were two hearings being held, and she was overseeing the other one. Saw the lawyer, but he was representing a different case. Neither of them recognized me.

I had prepared thoroughly once more. I had bank statements for every month since moving into the unit as well as images of each of the cheques, I had copies for each rental notice and records of him denying me the lease, and three copies of all relevant information.

As soon as I told his lawyer that he had been denying me the lease, she was just like "I'll make a copy for you. I'm doing that right now."

So now I have a copy of my lease. I'm the first person that I know of in my complex to have one.

Aggravatingly enough, it turns out his numbers mostly check out. I had a 2% "prompt payment discount" in 2016, meaning that I got 2% off if I paid on the first of the month. The discount wore off at the end of the year, meaning that it was a 1.5% increase from $957.78, not $939.

I have no idea why he would refuse me access to the lease if his numbers checked out, or why he would refuse to answer what the discount was for if there was a valid answer.

We had never discussed this. We had in fact never met before I moved in, I had only communicated with the then-Superintendant. It's also a little weird that the base rent is not stated on the lease, only the discounted rent, and that it states in the fine print that the base rent is 2% more than the stated amount.

But still, it says the lease was active January 1st, 2016, so I'm glad I didn't pay for December 15, 2015 like he was requesting. And he still misreported me for June and October 2017.

Whatever. I have a small expense to pay, but after two years and two months I finally managed to obtain my lease.