Well, ok, I tend to be a literalist and take people at their word.
Look into the actual process of eviction, as a separate question from contesting the rent increase. If you were any place I have ever lived, you would have an opportunity to appear in a court and contest the validity of the eviction before it is allowed to go through.
It seems unlikely that the landlord has a legal right to simply throw your stuff out on the street without filing papers – that can probably be challenged successfully, since she would probably lie on it.
If the landlord or spouse moves into the building, track their movements. Are they “living” there if they go back to their real home most nights, if they don’t move any posessions in, etc. Think about ways to demonstrate that this is a sham to jack up your rent.
The way to REALLY mess with them is to stay there for the length of your lease.
But be ready to move then – you’ll be looking at a 50,000% rent increase.
Wel, if she is old enough to be a landlord she is probably old enough to have been born in the former czechoslovakia, to me this makes her czech, although i am not familiar with any particular czech characteristic (other than the fact that they consumed more beer per capita than any other country) that is relevant to the rant.
If someone would enlighten me as to just what a cunt-rocket is I would be grateful.
Pravnik I just rtead your second post, I now understand.
Well you really had me confused with the term “cunt rocket” but now with your reference to “Canadian culture” I am positively dumbfounded. Please explain.
Also, we have a little bet here, is your major diplomacy or spelling? (If you are a dual major I am going to clean up.)
It would seem to me that calling someone “turd for brains” is an unusual strategy if you are trying to get them to be more tolerant and less demeaning towards others.
If the governemt tells the landlord how much heat they are required to provide or whether or not they may use a lead based paint is that rent control. f the government merely prevents landlord from gouging a tenant more than once a year that is not rent control, that is a sensible policy. When the government controls the price, that is rent control.
Tenants are at a serious disadvantage in the landlord/tenant situation. A tenant may use all of his available capital in finding, renting, furnishing and moving into an apartment at which point a landlord definitely has him over a barrel. Barring the landlord from raising the rent for a year is a way of evening the playing field. A landlord can ask for higher than market rates, but he risks leaving the apartment vacant until someone comes along to pay that rate. Given that all landlords are in the same situation, the true market rate (the one that would exist without the law forbidding increases) is probably lower than the actual rate. Thus the landlord is protected (in fact he is probably over compensated)and the tenant is protected for a year.
[QUOTE=DanBlather]
It may be illegal, but how is it immoral? "
“Property is theft.” - Pierre-Joseph Proudhon.
There are in fact lots of people who do not believe that anyone should have the right to own property, some even live in capitalist countries. How is it moral, just and fair for private property to be passed from one person to another for generations, denying the use of that property to all but the privileged few descendants of the original owner. Oh wait, not the original owner, at least not here in the United States (and presumably in Canada as well), make that the original usurper.
For the record, in the original depiction of the landlord, I read it with the idea that some words were meant to be insulting (“likes to touch chickens…”) while others were meant to be descriptive (“Czechoslovakian”). Assuming that Czechoslovakian is meant to be an insult because it is associated with insulting words is a logical fallacy, guilt by association. You can clearly tell the difference because while many people are (were) actually Czechoslovakian, complaratively few really enjoyed the sensuous feathery feel of barnyard cloaca*. Assuming that the OP meant to denigrate all Czechs, Slovaks, and other residents of the former Czechoslovakia because one of them is the evil, money-grubbing landlord is another fallacy, but I’m not sure which one.
In any case, Baffle, your landlord’s schemes sound more like bluster than anything else. Be firm, be looking for a new and more stable place, but I don’t think you’ll end up having to move on his schedule or coughing up more dough.
*Upon reflection, I suppose cloaca don’t have feathers, but as I am not myself a chicken fetishist I will have to wait until an expert appears to correct me.
So I guess calling someone a money grubbing Jew is OK because jew is descriptive and not all Jews are money grubbing. How about bean-eating Mexican, lazy Puerto Rican, drunken Irishman, and cheap Scotsman.
BTW, I’ll concede “rent control” and substitute the longer but more descriptive “control of how often you can raise rent”.
FWIW I’m of Irish descent and “Drunken Irishman” is fine with me. Just about every native Irish person (including Grampa from Limerick) I’ve known has been what I would consider a heavy drinker. It is a stereotype, which - while simplistic and sometimes offensive - are frequently used as a humorous way of generalizing about a group. If you are so sensitive that you can’t handle it, and want to pretend that there aren’t general characteristics of groups that don’t necessarily pertain to everyone in those groups…ummm…again…spend your time in MPSIMS.
Bean-eating Mexican is such a strong cultural trait that I’m tempted to call it a fact. Every Mexican I’ve ever known (including a former girlfriend) ate a lot of beans. Every single Mexican restaurant I have ever been in, including many in Mexico, have served beans as a side on virtually every platter. What do you find offensive about Bean-eating Mexican?
I haven’t known many Puerto Ricans, and those I did were drug dealers, but my sample is so small that I wouldn’t subscribe to a stereotype along those lines. I’ve never heard the Lazy Puerto Rican meme, so I don’t quite know what to say about it. Maybe factually inaccurate, and if so, not particularly offensive - more stupid than anything.
Of course Money Grubbing Jew has an enormously strong historical context, of which I’m sure you are well aware, and thus much more care should be used in pulling that out. Your joke using that stereotype had damn well better be pretty funny.
I can’t believe you can’t understand how cultural references should and shouldn’t be used, and that the context means a lot. The context of the OP is in a PIT rant. Figure it out.
Thats the smartest thing you’ve written in this thread.
Well, if he’s got a Canada Student Loan what he is getting cash wise is set, and has been for awhile, and you only get so much for living expenses, which is lessened by having a job iirc. They calculate what you get based on your income the past summer (how much you can save), your expenses, your school tuition and expenses, and there is a maximum you can get. His is maximum would be less than what mine was, as I am a single mom and was when I went to school and I was still just barely making ends meet.
Not to say he couldn’t try and go to a bank and get more money, but I just thought I’d point that out.
If it’s of any consolation, the statistics you quote (0.5% vacancy) is not a true reflection of the market for rental housing. The figure specifically applies to APARTMENTS (and row houses, but same idea). The problem is that apartments have suddenly become a hot commodity because of their value when turned into condominiums. No one has built any apartment buildings in Calgary in 20 years, because for the last 20 years, running an apartment building was a money losing proposition, and it’s still a money losing proposition today because you can get more for your land building either condominium complexes or single family houses.
If you’re just looking for a place to LIVE, the market is just fine. There’s probably 3 or 4 suites for rent in my neighborhood alone, last time I checked, and I recently moved into a reasonably good(not great) place close to the train station. It’s a bitch for me because I make relatively onerous demands on my landlords (i.e. I MUST have the garage, I got a lot of stuff and I’m not parking my car on the street and my car does not touch snow) but still, there is no lack of available rental opportunities, even for me. If you’re not as demanding as I am, finding another place to rent should be a snap. Yes you’ll have house mates, you have house mates now, so no biggie.
There is a new law coming in, specifically to address the issue of apartment building owners raising rents 10 fold to force people out of apartments for condominium conversions. That is the real issue. For the rest of us who don’t live in apartments, there is no housing shortage at all.
“your relentless pursuit of a few extra dollars shows you as the most vile, disgusting cunt-rocket I have had the sheer pleasure of meeting in my life.”
It would seem, then that the OP is using the term incorrectly. Is that right?
And it’s clear he’s not insulting all Czechs; he’s coming up with inventive and amusing insults for this particular Czech. To read racism into the post is ludicrous.
This guy is an obvious idiot. Hopefully you don’t buy into such crap.
You want someone’s property make them an offer to buy it. It is a simple process really. As the owner I can pass it down to descendants or give it to my cat. My business not yours.
In the past groups of humans took things from other groups of humans. This happened in Europe, NA, SA, and well, pretty much everywhere. Now we have laws and relatively stable governments to prevent this (at least for the most part). I don’t spend time feeling guilty or resentful for the things my ancestors did, or had done to them, far in the past.
The problem in Calgary at the moment is that with 3.5% unemployment levels and above average wages we have lots of people moving here. As a consequence there is great pressure on housing and infrastructure.
