Member of the Board of Directors at Small Ownership Landlords of Ontario Inc. Proud housing policy & landlord advocate. Reach me at varun
@sriskanda
.com
There are some subdivisions in Niagara that look like ghost towns.
Completed but unsold inventory.
Unsold lots with no buyers.
Empty houses with for sale signs.
No kids playing at the park.
Today at the LTB:
A Toronto realtor (who posts flashy pictures riding around in a Lamborghini) is at the LTB after his landlord alleges he hasn’t paid the $11,000/month rent in a few months.
Full eviction order with no redactions to be posted soon
2 Teslas. A law practice. A brand new Mattamy built home in Brampton that he got for under $700K. He then spent $800K on deposits for 2 luxury homes in Oakville totalling $5 Million and is stuck when prices fall. Well, that’s real estate! Profit is never guaranteed.
Ideal Developments owned by Shajiraj Nadarajalingam (or "Shaji" as he is often called) was once a full fledging real estate development company with numerous projects in the pipelines including high-rise condos, townhomes, mansions and pre-fabs in the GTA.
20 years ago agents made 2.5% of the purchase price when representing the buyer of a $300,000 house.
Today they make the same amount but that same house is worth $1 Million+.
Has the amount of work required significantly increased to warrant a $20,000 per deal pay increase?
I learned today OPP will be laying charges against a tenant that obtained housing using forged paystubs, credit scores, job letters and identity documents.
Those tenants never imagined their Landlord would book an appointment with me.
Always hold criminals accountable.
There's plenty of Canadian homeowners who were living a lifestyle using the growing equity in their home. Refinancing to renovate, buy a Benz, go on vacation & maybe buy another rental. Home owners today are waking up to reality and giving their lifestyles a complete overhaul.
Not paying your rent in Ontario has consequences. This tenant is threatening to sue an old landlord for uploading the LTB eviction order on
The tenant has no case. It is not a breach of privacy to post the order of a court/board/tribunal.
Today at the LTB in Guelph:
Tenant racked up $43K in rental arrears. Filed for bankruptcy in February and sought protection from the landlord creditor. Rental arrears is cleared so the tenants can not be evicted.
The landlord is scheduled to lose the house to the bank in April
Today at the Landlord and Tenant Board:
The tenancy will not be terminated.
The Tenant agrees to not make anymore threats towards the landlord or his staff for a period of 1 year starting today.
Gotta love the LTB. Take your money elsewhere. Ontario is not a safe investment.
The shooter in the Vaughan condo situation is 73 year old Francesco Villi. He sued the 6 directors of YRCC 1139 in July. He believes that the electrical room beneath his unit is improperly constructed, resulting in the emission of electromagnetic waves which have caused him pain
Forcing landlords to disclose the rent price history of their units will help tenants feel like they have more power/leverage when shopping for a rental unit.
It does absolutely nothing to address the ridiculously high cost of renting in Ontario.
Canadians don’t want a “free” car with their condo. They want an affordable home without the frills on top. We can reduce prices if we drastically cut the commissions for Realtor’s and restrict giveaways/promotions on new construction projects. We should all be offended by this:
After taking possession of a property back from defaulting tenants my clients discovered receipts for the tenants plastic surgery. Not to mention the Gucci purses. She couldn’t pay rent during 2021 but had $18k in cash for this.
To answer your question:
We are keeping properties empty because it’s better to have no rent income for 1-2 months than be stuck with an awful tenant and have 1 year + of no rent.
If you want landlords to take a chance on you we need automatic evictions in Ontario.
This exposes an industry that makes it very easy for inexperienced fly-by-night developers to come in, take deposits, not build & leave with the money to rinse & repeat with another business name. We need more protection for home buyers & tougher penalties for white collar crimes
The postal code M5V (Toronto) had 121 cases and it is the highest non-payment of rent across the entirety of Ontario's court orders: $1,727,041.08.
The average dollar per case was $14,273.07 owed.
Source:
Small landlords are telling us the current wait time to evict with the Sheriff in Brampton, Ontario is 6-8 weeks. This means a tenant can live for 2 months rent free even AFTER the LTB makes their decision and orders an eviction.
Its reported the Vaughan shooting were 6 members of Board of Directors for YRCC 1139 which is the governing body of 9325 Jane Street (Jane/Rutherford Condos). Online the condo corporation is described as “corrupt” and the management as incompetent.
@nasmadotali
Ya like every other typical realtor? These units rent themselves. It will likely be leased in the next 12 hours. Im a realtor that’s sick and tired of cookie cutter condos that have insane rent prices & the lack of purpose built rentals in this province that contributed to that
Getting tired of seeing the cars of Realtor’s in promo videos. We get it - you drive an expensive car. Unless it’s included in the sale of the home please give it a rest. It’s cheesy not classy. The rest of insta is not impressed. We don’t work in the automotive sector.
This is a clip filmed by friends of Shaji. This is the interior of his mansion at 5 Ridgevale Drive. Note the Lamborghini Aventador parked inside beside his wine cellar and the basektball court. This lifestyle wasn't earned. It is paid for by other peoples deposits.
Because opening a garbage chute door to toss your trash is just far too much work - right?
Condo buildings tend to take a downward spiral once more than half the units are tenant occupied. So that’s basically most condo buildings.
Deeply saddened by the murders of 6 fellow Sri Lankans in Ottawa today. A man who was in Canada as an international student from Sri Lanka has been charged with 6 counts of murder and 1 count of attempted murder. The accused lived inside the home.
Spoke to
@ctvottawa
about the need for automatic evictions in Ontario.
Hearings should only be scheduled if there is a reasonable prospect the tenant can void the eviction:
6 people in the Chinese community say mortgage broker Po Yuk "Peggy" Chan of Northwood Mortgages defrauded them of close to $800K. This shouldn't be surprising to anyone who works in the RE industry in Canada. Great reporting by
@FarrahMerali
@gakhal_jas
yup and they get to keep his money because he was greedy and foolish enough to sign on the dotted line and agree to pay $2.5M for a cookie cutter house.
How Sayanthan can afford a $11M mansion while at the helm of a TSX-V traded company which plummeted in value by 97% in 6 months is another story of fraud, market deceit and how people easily get away with white collar crimes in Canada. He pumped it, got the mansion & dumped stock
🧵I've had a ton of people share with me the article of a couple who had their house unknowingly sold while they were on vacation. Many of you want to know how this is possible and how to protect yourselves. This is called title fraud. Read more below.
Yucheng Mao hasn’t paid more than $60K in rent at a 52nd floor condo at 181 Dundas Street West in Toronto. He has been evicted & will likely be seeking another rental in the city. He may be using a “straw tenant” to secure a rental on his behalf. Small landlords protect yourself
Olivia Chow was elected on a platform that will discourage investment in multi-family housing, deter corporate landlords from constructing new rental units in Toronto and increase property taxes beyond rate of inflation for struggling home owners/landlords in Toronto.
I know within the first 5 minutes of meeting a tenant if I’m going to pass on them or proceed to screen them.
Did they arrive on time? How is their appearance? Do they drive? How does their car look? Signs of drug use? Who did they come with? Did they bring their ID with them?
My tenant finally agreed to move look at the mess. It's horrific. Been a landlord 13 years, no more! Sorry for the rant but this business has left my mental state damaged, myself almost penniless and has caused my family alot of grief, I feel so broken and helpless.
#FixTheRTA
The reason why Shaji felt the need to steal money from innocent home buyers smells like any other ponzi scheme. It's a pathetic attempt at propping himself up on a pedestal, living a lifestyle while struggling to present himself as a knowledgeable/successful real estate venturist
We need evictions of non paying tenants in 30 days. We would see a sudden decrease in non-payment cases. Professional tenants will stop taking advantage of backlogs to live for free. Rental supply would increase just as fast as LL market confidence.
I’m pleased to hear landlords & tenants are getting their applications heard sooner - within 4-6 months. This is down from 8-10 months. There is still a long way to go. We need hearings in 30 days.
Fixed and variable rate mortgages are likely peeking out this week and we could start to head back down as we go into 2024. As interest rates go down we are likely to see an uptick in buying activity amongst buyers. Now is not the time to buy tho. Here's why:
Then came Ideal Developments which has more failed projects than successful ones. In the last 10 years they have sold & taken deposits on 600+ units across the province, none of which were ever built. It appears Shaji only builds when it benefits him.
I recently was asked to evict a tenant from a penthouse condominium downtown Toronto and find a new tenant. The monthly rent is $5000. Landlord gets a call from the building. This doesn’t surprise me. If you’re saving $5000 a month on rent leasing/financing a lambo should be easy
The media keeps talking about Villi being an abusive & controlling father. They aren't talking about the electrical room below him, if it's built to code, if he experienced a humming noise in his unit or why other condo owners also complained of runny noses. Change the narrative.
Realtors: Please normalize this in your broker remarks:
"Landlord will conduct their own credit check using Single Key. Please only submit income information. All credit checks submitted will be verified for authenticity"
You can cut out a good amount of offers with fake docs.
Immigration lawyer facing discipline proceedings by the Law Society has also failed to pay rent to 3 previous landlords. Even the lawyers use LTB backlogs to their advantage:
A number of Plaintiffs who put down $750,000 to purchase prefabricated homes from Ideal Developments in Mississauga are seeking a determination that the transfer of title to Sayanthan for $11m is invalid, fraudulent and was done only to evade creditors:
🧵1/ Last month a small landlord approached me with a problem I hear often. He had a tenant that was 3 months in default. He filed an L1 and called me to learn what else can be done. Waiting 10 months for a hearing with no rent while paying the mortgage will ruin him.
Racism in real estate: I see this often. Landlords have a preference for the race of their future tenant. In this case mandarin/cantonese speaking tenants only. Listed for lease by a realtor which makes it even worst. What’s the point of hiring the “pros” if they break rules.
Shaji always attempted to present himself as a highly successful and dedicated philanthropist within his community. He started Ideal Hope which claimed to have built 36 houses in Sri Lanka, they never got charitable status and their website is now dead:
Ashley Hope Nelson took over a FB group called “Landlord Rights Group” with 6K members and renamed it “Tenants Rights Group”. The group is now full of messages telling LL’s to kill themselves:
@Ahrrggghh
My best tenant was done with a handshake agreement. On paper he was a shit show but he remained in the unit for more than a decade until he died. Great guy, hard to find solid folks like him now.
So you want to buy a pre-con condo but you're concerned you cant make mortgage payments? Evertrust Developments is offering a "mortgage top up" where they pay $1000 per month towards your mortgage to a maximum of $24,000.
What if I stole your car and then hired a lawyer to negotiate the return of that car for some cash? Sounds illegal right? So why are paralegals telling LL's that a Tenant will move out for cash. If you know a paralegal/lawyer that did this please DM me. It's extortion.
I'm not sorry for anyone complaining of higher property taxes as a result of Bill 23 passing. We are in a housing crisis. We need more homes. Everyone has to do their part and that may mean you forking over a little bit more every month.
Using money from promissory notes and private mortgages on undeveloped/vacant houses Shaji started "Ideal Entertainment" in an effort to collaborate & make movies with legendary composer AR Rahman. Rubbing shoulders with celebrities boosted his image and helped hide his crimes.
Let’s use today to remember one of the leading Tamil lawyers: Alfred Duraiappah. He was murdered inside Ponnalai Varadaraja Perumal Kovil (temple) by the LTTE in 1975. The Tamil community should be saddened by the loss of Tamil legal scholars, not celebrating it.
#TamilHistory
An “award winning” Realtor with a Homelife brokerage screened/placed a tenant for their landlord client. All the documents were fake. Ignored huge red flags. Tenant defaulted from month 2. Realtor awards mean NOTHING. They aren’t given to those who display the most competence.
7/ This needs to end. Far too many small landlords are putting themselves into financial ruin by taking a chance on a tenant that doesn’t qualify for market rate rentals. This LL felt bad for the young couple with a child that had trouble finding another house. Big mistake.
@ATHOMEActivism
Many condo corps are made up of friends who work together to control the corporation. I’ve seen landscape, snow removal and CCTV installation contracts be given to friends of the board members in exchange for kickbacks (not this building).
I previously released a tweet in regards to a tragic situation in Hamilton, Ontario which saw 3 lives lost. The tweet was insensitive, careless and failed to account for the gravity of the situation. I sincerely apologize for my poorly chosen words.
This is the mansion next door at 5 Ridgevale Drive. Shaji took title in 2014 for $1.3M & then sold it to Sayanthan Navaratnam (CEO FaceDrive until Sept 2021) for $11M in 2020. The money used to build this mansion/lifestyle was the money taken as deposits on other failed builds.
This is extremely bad advice. Extorting your landlord won’t end well for you - trust me.
What this lazy Canadian investor hasn’t taken the time to learn is what can happen to the tenant when they are caught attempting to extort their landlord for cash.
If you are a tenant in Ontario and the landlord wants you gone, consider a cash for keys deal.
$20k or $30k minimum.
Make sure a paralegal is involved.
Money needs to be in trust or as certified cheque so you dont get screwed.
Once you get the money landlord gets the N11.
Ahad Khan and Tasmina Amberin are back in the LTB today for another non-payment of rent case.
They are professional tenants that bounce from house to house using LTB delays to live for free.
This article is about their use of fake documents:
Big flashy mansions in Markham benefits Shaji. This is the artists impression & in progress work for 3 Ridgevale Drive, Markham. The house that was demolished was purchased by a "straw buyer" of Shaji's in May 2017 for $1.7M. Title changed 3 more times afterwards within 12 months
L1 application filed December 2023. Hearing is scheduled for this week. 8 month wait with no rent. At $2600/month it works out to $20,800 in losses.
Order will be on this week which will severely impact their ability to secure future market rate rentals.
Why do real estate agents keep saying "stop renting". What's wrong with paying rent and not having to deal with the headaches of home ownership? Why do we ridicule people for choosing to rent vs buy? Why do agents not value the work they do for Tenants?
In the early 90's Shaji started his branding of Ideal with Ideal Flooring in Markham. They quickly became popular but it wasn't long before allegations surfaced that Ideal was inflating the sqft of customers homes to provide higher than needed estimates to complete jobs.
Vadim Vilensky has been suspended from Re/Max Realtron. Not exactly sure what he said or posted (related to Israel-Palestine issue) but his social media has since been removed.
Why didn't his Realtor say "maybe a $1.9M house with all these upgrades isn't for an Uber driver". The buyer over extended himself and his Realtor allowed it to happen. Nobody ran through "what-if scenarios" with this buyer.
I once rented a small mattress in a furnace room at Midland & Kingston for $350 a month. Yes, I slept with the furnace. There’s a reason I get insanely angry when Realtor’s don’t know housing struggles.
@bcinflation
You are losing respect from a ton of real estate professionals. You took out a bunch of loans to buy a bunch of houses without planning for an increase in interest rates. Nobody feels sorry for you.
4/ After filing the L1 I went to Toronto Police Service and sought approval to protest at the property tomorrow The purpose was to bring to the public’s attention the backlogs at the LTB and how powerless a small landlord is once they provide housing to a professional tenant.
I have been part of a condo board meeting in Scarborough where police were called to help keep the peace. Many owners feel powerless and voiceless, especially since condominiums are popular starter homes for new comers, immigrants and those inexperienced with cdn real estate.
I learned today there are paralegals (I have names) who teach and encourage tenants to use LTB backlogs to their advantage and evade their contractual obligations even if they have the money to pay rent.
Complaints to
@LawSocietyLSO
coming shortly.
@RE_MarketWatch
@ronmortgageguy
he sold it to her. better save her deposit $ or its divorce court. far too many people get screwed by their realtor thats also family. usually with selling them a bad deal they cant get out of or placing a "professional" non-paying tenant in their rental.
Tenants in Windsor have been charged for fraud under $5000 after the Landlord discovered they lied on their rental application. The previous landlord reference the Tenants provided wasn't the owner of the property: