#landlordism

[scavengedluxury]

Not sure how you could interpret this information as landlords being the ones facing a crisis, but go off.

#uk politics #landlordism #the torygraph

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Finding it a bit steamy this summer? You're not alone. Across Canada, people say they are really feeling the heat, especially in their homes. And we're tracking it. CBC teams have installed temperature and humidity sensors in dozens of homes in several cities, including Vancouver, to see just what happens to people when things go from hot to sizzling to seriously dangerous. This is one of those stories.  Renters in British Columbia have received notices from landlords warning them against installing air conditioning units in their suites, or risk jeopardizing their tenancies. CBC News has spoken to tenants in multiple buildings under different management companies who have expressed frustration after landlords denied their requests to install air conditioning units, just weeks after the province announced a program to provide air conditioners to eligible British Columbians. In June, the government said it would provide 8,000 units to medically vulnerable low-income households over the next three years. In a related program, B.C. Hydro is offering residential customers $50 off the purchase of a qualifying air conditioner until July 28. [...]

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada, @vague-humanoid

#cdnpoli #British Columbia #tenants' rights #neoliberalism #capitalism #landlordism

[lesbiansandgayssupporttheminers]

Quick reminder that Charles is a fucking dickhead.

#uk politics #king charles #cornwall #landlordism #feudalism #fuck the monarchy #fuck the king

[nando161mando]

#superman #man of steel #rent is theft #landlords are parasites #house #cost #renters #landlord #landlords are bastards #landlords are scum #landlords #all landlords are bastards #landlords are leeches #landlordism #landlord insurance #ausgov #politas #auspol #tasgov #taspol #neoliberal capitalism #australia #fuck neoliberals #anthony albanese #albanese government #working class #class warfare #class war #classism #classwar

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

Happy to be a member of the Kingston Workers History Project in Kingston, Ontario. I've neglected to share some of the articles we are putting out, so here's one on tenant activism in the 1960s and 1970s:

"In 1968, a group of tenants and activists came together in Kingston to form the Association of Tenants Action in Kingston (ATAK). They opposed high rents, argued that tenants should be able to bargain with landlords, and built a wider movement to defend working class and poor people in Ontario against unjust housing conditions. Led by tireless activists, ATAK used diverse tactics to challenge rising rent prices, low vacancy, and hostile landlords. ATAK provides us with an important historical lesson about the effectiveness of grassroots organizing and the dedication of intelligent, diligent leadership to hold governments accountable and advocate for tenants, workers, the poor, and the unhoused."

- "ATAK: Tenant Action in the ’60s and ’70s," Kingston Workers' History Project. November 27, 2022.

#kingston ontario #kingston workers history project #working class history #tenant organizing #tenant action #tenant protest #renters vs landlords #landlordism #rental housing #working class struggle #local history #canadian history

[mariemariemaria]

So, if most tenants in Ireland would rather be homeowners, why don’t they just buy houses? Because they can’t afford to. House prices in Ireland are of course extremely high, and mortgages are difficult to secure, but that’s only one part of the picture. Between 2010 and 2021, property prices in Ireland increased roughly in line with the EU average. But during the same period, average rent payments in Ireland increased by almost 70 per cent,  compared with an increase of only 16 per cent across the EU. What makes our housing market so dysfunctional is partly that our tenants are paying such excruciatingly high rents to private landlords every month. Average rents in Ireland have in fact become higher than average mortgage repayments – in other words, tenants are forced to pay a premium for the reduced rights and privileges they endure.

This is a self-perpetuating form of exploitation: the higher the rental payment, the harder it becomes to save up for a deposit, and the more time tenants have to spend paying extortionate rents as a result. This in turn feeds the cycle of escalating house prices, as investors with deep pockets are incentivised to buy up lucrative rental properties, pushing would-be homeowners out of the housing market and back into the rental system. Not only have successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael governments done nothing to break this cycle, they have, on the contrary, lavishly subsidised it, pouring ever greater sums of State money into the coffers of private landlords. More than half of our renters are now in receipt of State assistance, largely in the form of payments such as HAP  (Housing Assistance Payment), which goes directly into the pockets of property owners without improving the living conditions of tenants whatsoever. The nice thing about being a landlord in Ireland today, as the late Margaret Thatcher might observe, is that you never seem to run out of other people’s money.

#sally rooney #irish politics #marxism #dont really know why people are surprised by her politics #she was never exactly subtle about it #landlordism

[feckcops]

A landlord king: Charles lets out homes near Sandringham worth £75m

“Marple’s semi-detached cottage in Flitcham is one of the few houses in the area not owned by the royals. In this village alone, at least 39 properties are owned by Charles. There is a clear giveaway. ‘Anything with a light blue door belongs to the king,’ one of Marple’s neighbours explained.

“It’s not just Flitcham; the light blue doors – the colour was chosen by the queen mother – can be seen in 12 other villages nearby. Many houses also show their royal connections through names such as Diamond Jubilee, Victoria or Queen’s cottages. In total, more than 300 residential properties in the area, together worth about £75m, are owned by the king, an investigation by the Guardian has revealed.

“The extraordinary extent of Charles’s footprint in this remote patch of Norfolk was discovered by an analysis of property titles in the Land Registry.

“In Anmer, every house is owned by the Windsors. The queen’s purchase of the old school house in 2006 for £625,000 completed her ownership of the entire village. The Sandringham real estate portfolio was probably inherited by her eldest son last year.”

#king charles #queen elizabeth #british royal family #british royals #royal family #royals #british monarchy #monarchy #landlords #landlordism #neofeudalism #feudalism #land ownership #renting #republicanism #british republicanism #uk

[aqueerpolysocialist]

TIL the origins of the term 'gentrification'.

(I'm reading 'The New Enclosure: The Appropriation of Public Land in Neoliberal Britain' by Brett Christophers)

#neoliberalism #politics #gentrification #land #landlordism #rentierism

[o-kurwa]

#landlords

[animentality]

#reddit #remote work #covid #real estate #eat the rich #fuck landlords

[scavengedluxury]

#uk politics #landlordism #rentier capitalism

[left-reminders]

#landlords #landlordism #rent is theft #anti capitalism

[allthecanadianpolitics]

As his real estate empire showed signs of trouble, a robed Robby Clark appeared in a promotional video, standing at the bow of a yacht, arms raised to the sky as a camera circled overhead. 

"You can stick me in the desert with nothing and I'm going to come out owning the desert," Clark is heard saying at another point in the three-minute video.

It was posted to several Instagram accounts like "billonaireclassy" in March 2022 and shows the former YTV child actor- turned-real estate investor living a life of luxury. [...]

By early 2024, the corporations had only $100,000 in the bank and owed $144 million to lenders, faced dozens of lawsuits from creditors and received court-ordered bankruptcy protection. [...]

But court documents and interviews with experts help explain how they became one of the largest holders of residential real estate in Ontario, and now are on the verge of losing it all. [...]

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada, @vague-humanoid

#cdnpoli #capitalism #hypercapitalism #Ontario #landlordism

[epicsauce]

#i just want to live somewhere without it being someone elses jurisdiction fuck offff #previously landlord post

[nando161mando]

Landlords provide nothing of value

#landlord #landlords are parasites #landlords are bastards #landlords are scum #landlords #landlords are leeches #landlordism #landlord insurance #charter bus rental pittsburgh #rent is too damn high #limo rental pittsburgh #rent is theft #rental #rent #rent is due #ausgov #politas #auspol #tasgov #taspol #neoliberal capitalism #australia #fuck neoliberals #anthony albanese #albanese government

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“The Kingston Community Legal Clinic is warning residents after a Landlord and Tenant Board adjudicator decided a landlord was wrongfully attempting to evict their tenant.

“The landlord seeks possession of the rental unit so his mother can live there,” adjudicator Laura Hartslief wrote in her June 28 decision on the fate of Jason Martin’s home in the basement unit of 151 Fraser St. “I am not satisfied that it is more likely than not that she genuinely intends to live there.”

Jordan Morelli, a physics professor at Queen’s University who owns the rental unit, said he is devastated by Hartslief’s decision.

“It’s a complete outrage that we’ve lost this thing because I’ve been trying to get my parents here for two years,” Morelli said. “I really want my parents to be living in there.”

John Done of the Kingston Community Legal Clinic represented Martin at the Landlord and Tenant Board hearing. He said his clinic has seen a significant increase in evictions for landlords to renovate units or to use for their own use — which is what Morelli applied for. In many of those cases, but not all, landlords evict a tenant who is paying a lower rent, renovate the unit, and rent it out again for sometimes double the cost.

Done said that, at first, Martin was resigned to moving out, but when Done saw Martin’s case, he urged him to push back against Morelli.

“These are situations we see all of the time in a Landlord’s Own Use application, and our view is (that) once we start putting these under the microscope, a lot of them don’t have merit,” Done said. “Once Mr. Martin said he would accept our help, then there were, indeed, some things that sort of leaped off the page. … There were the hallmarks of these (types of) landlords’ applications that I don’t think they could show good faith.”

Martin, who on Wednesday said he still couldn’t believe he was successful, said Done worked wonders. Martin said, the stress of the case, which was drawn out over two years due to a scheduling overflow caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, has caused Martin to lose five jobs over the two years.

“When I got that decision, I actually had to leave work,” Martin, who has been working steadily at a local fishing tackle manufacturing company since the end of May, said excitedly. “I couldn’t believe it, and I was overwhelmed. I was shaking, I couldn’t talk, my brain went to mush. I’m very happy with the decision.”

Morelli owns a total of 10 units within five properties in Kingston. He said he wanted to use Martin’s apartment as a new home for his mother, Henriette Morelli, who currently lives in a two-bedroom condominium with her husband, Edwin Morelli, in Saskatoon.”

- Steph Crosier, “Tenant wins at board hearing,” Kingston Whig-Standard. Jul 11, 2022. This was a front page story in the print edition.

///

We are happy that this story is now out in the open for all to see. It won't be the last word on the matter, that's for sure. But it clearly demonstrates why Queen's University professor and faculty association president (as well as former president of the Kingston NDP riding association) Jordan Morelli's N12 eviction notice was thrown out at the LTB. In our opinion, what this stories reveals is that Morelli is willing to exploit the housing crisis for his own financial gain. 

Prior to this instance, there was two previous times where he claimed family members were moving in to units when they never did. He paid these tenants a meagre $3000, money which they quickly burned through with their rent prices hundreds of dollars a month higher. Meanwhile, he charged higher rents to the people moving in: one unit went from $409 to $1150 a month, while another went from $670 to $1200. He made that money back within months. 

Morelli wants to claim he is a victim in all this, and actually goes so far as saying that the landlord tenant laws works well for tenants. But the facts speak for themselves: The LTB rejected his case because they do not believe his story. Additionally, close to 90 percent of tenants at the LTB have no legal representation, and if it weren't for KUT and KCLC supporting Morelli's tenant, Morelli would most likely have someone living in Martin's unit's at double the rent. 

Tenants can win when they stand up and fight. Get to know your neighbours and organize with them! In Martin's case, former tenants stood with Martin to explain what had happened to them after moving out. This sort of solidarity led to Martin staying in his apartment at a rent price he can afford. KUT stands with tenants across the city and will do what we can to help.

- official statement of the Kingston / Katarokwi Union of Tenants, July 12, 2022 (Martin is a member)

/// The tenant union had helped several other tenants of Morelli, who had also been told they would have to move out of his own properties for the same reason of family need, and the communication between tenants allowed them to learn he was using the same line on several tenants - allowing the tenants to resist his efforts or negotiate for better accommodation to leave. Martin’s is the first official victory against this particular landlord, but likely won’t be the last. Of course, Morelli is a self-pitying landlord in all of this, being quoted in the article as saying: “Somehow I’m the bad guy in all of this; they’re trying to paint me as a villain.”  Morelli is hardly the worst landlord in Kingston, Ontario, and nowhere near as powerful as a rental company like Homestead. His tactics are typical of landlords everywhere. The reason why he acts the way he does, and can act the way he does, is at base a structural issue, in which housing is an investment and a means of accumulation rather than a basic right. But Kingston is a smallish town, with a proportionately smallish, vague, fragmented, and often dysfunctional ‘left’, so Morelli’s role has been controversial and increasingly divisive. Notably, it was discovered by the tenant union that his mother, who he has been claiming he was going to move into one of these vacated units, is a retired university professor who likely doesn’t want to live in a tiny basement apartment! 

As the press release from KUT notes, Morelli is a major player in the local political scene, as former riding president for the federal NDP, as secretary of the Kingston and District Labour Council (and had the temerity to send this article to other council members, even after the Council passed a pro-tenant motion!) and at Queen’s University, where he is a professor and head of the faculty association. In those roles, he is a bad faith opponent of tenant rights, student activism, grassroots unionism, and the left-wing of the NDP (as well as the small, overlapping and fractious autonomist, anarchist, communist and decolonial groups in the area). For instance, this was his response to the Ontario government, controlled by Conservatives, capping rent increases!

If there was any justice in the world or social democracy and labour unionism was not so pathetically degenerated, this kind of coverage should get him kicked out of the KDLC or NDP.

#kingston ontario #tenant union #tenant organizing #tenant and landlord board #tenant rights #tenants #landlords #landlordism #rental housing #housing is a human right #rental capitalism #canadian politics #labour council #queen's university