This is a tenant's review of the services that Landlord Resource Center (LLR) has provided.
Just viewing the place was a pain in the butt. The only available hours that they have are from 9:00 to 16:30, Monday to Friday. These are hours that I am at work, making it very difficult to find the time to get out and view a property. They are also incredibly difficult to communicate to. They use a series of emails that seem to go to their entire office? I wasn't sure who I was emailing many times. Phoning wasn't much better, but at least that way I could have a person dial me in to the correct person.
Once we had settled on the place we had to view the tenancy agreement. They would not email the tenancy agreement to me to review. I had to take time out of my day to travel to their office which is very much out of the way, and once there they would only let me see the tenancy agreement after handing over the security deposit. On a positive note, the security deposit was a very reasonable amount. On the flip side, there was an additional fee added on the tenancy agreement to the rent, a "On-time incentive", a fee that would only have to be paid if we were late to pay rent. I do not know why this was listed on the rental price in the tenancy agreement and not as a penalty for missed or late rent payments. Speaking of payments, LLR advertises to landlords that there are multiple ways to collect pay: digital or physical. In order to be applicable for digital, the landlord must have registered a number of properties with LLR. This is some arbitrary number as far as I can discern. In my case, our landlord did not have enough properties with LLR and so we had to have post-dated cheques prepared. That would not have been as big of an issue if I did not already know of a secure and easy to use digital method of funds transferring known as Interact e-Transfer. I use this all the time with previous roommates and friends and family when I need to pay or collect money from someone. I do not know if LLR knows about this technology, or if they do what reason they could have for not wishing to use it. I am actually curious how their digital payments work for landlords with enough properties.
The suite looks great, has very good and up to date technologies including ethernet connection in every room and separate furnace and water heater from the upstairs suite. I commend LLR for the work done on the renovations. Not all of their suites are like this however, so keep that in mind when going to viewings.
To summarize:
+Renovations look great
+Renovations include modern living technology such as separate furnaces and water heaters for upper and basement suites
+Security deposit is a very reasonable amount
-Very difficult to communicate to the company
-Hours of availability do not work for those that work 9-5 jobs
-Tenancy agreement was not easily available before agreement
-Tenancy agreement was worded oddly and seemed to have a larger focus on money than other aspects of a tenancy agreement
I would consider other rental property management groups, however I noticed that LLR seems to be growing and is attracting more landlords to their services. Unless LLR goes through a management change, I do believe that they will continue to view the tenants as just money pieces. I would not recommend using their services as a tenant. read more