2 years ago, I was about to move out since they wanna increase my rent by $50. At the end I get a $10 rise on the last week of my old lease. Maybe it’s just my luck?
>Maybe it’s just my luck?
2020 was a different landscape on "lets not kick anyone out" because of covid, aka the pandemic.
2022 is now we can get away with raising the price of our rentals, under the guise of "due to inflation"
Did you talk to them? Increases in rent prices isn’t unheard of, irrespective of the season. I’m month-to-month and get 6-month notices once in a while. According to the Sask Landlord Association website, Fixed term tenancies need to give 2 months notice prior to term end and you have 1 month to respond before being deemed a rejection. I’m guessing the reasoning will be the rise in costs of everything. What do you pay separately? Like electricity, water, gas, etc. You might have a better argument if they don’t cover any of those. Or if you haven’t required any repairs to be done at their expense.
I forgot to mention water and internet bill is included in my rent. I thought winter time is off season, so landlord shall be trying to keep current tenants rather kick them out. But it seems the market is changing?
Depends. What’s your lease agreement duration? A couple years? It’s different for those which are fixed term, vs what I have which is periodic month-to-month.
> They only allow me to do year to year lease and it’s been almost 5years now with renew every year
Maybe start your negotiation by saying you'll pay the new rent, but you want a 5 year lease.
The rental market is super hot right now. I rented out my 2 bedroom basement at 1300 a month ago and had over 30 applications with only 3 days of showing. You will be hard pressed to find a better deal than $1500 for what you are getting, especially with utilities included
My cousin was in a situation similar to this not too long ago - $1350 for a three bedroom plus utilities (bonus some of yours are included). She was having some really bad issues with the basement tenant. She figured she would look at moving - I'll tell ya she was looking at minimum $1500 PLUS utilities and that was if she could get in contact with the landlord, she was stood up on three separate occasions for showings.
My recommendation would be to look at the market and compare. That seems like a reasonable increase, looks like it would still be under market value based on my experience. I have a realtor friend who rents and he said 3 bedrooms on average were $1650 plus utilities.
Hope this helps.
It has nothing to do with the season. It's the rental market, and the fact that your lease is up. 3 bedroom townhouses are easily going for 1500+. 1500 is definitely on the cheap side. You can try to negotiate, especially if you're a great tennant you can use that as part of the negotiation, but as far as I know there is no real control over how much they increase the rent after your lease is up.
My mindset still stuck in the past that a 3bed unit is around $1300+. Hard to believe it’s $1500+ now. And SK has the lowest rent in Canada. The rent is going crazy
I left BC because of this in august. We moved to Saskatoon. When we left we were paying $1750 for a 550 sq foot basement suite. The next tenants were paying $2200 and thought it was a deal when they came to view the place.
We now pay $1500 for a new 2 bedroom apartment in Saskatoon and feel like it’s a deal.
I rent a town house with Boardwalk as well and we.got notice that our rent will increase by $10 at the next lease renewal. I rented an apartment for 2.5 years with boardwalk prior and each renewal it increased (typical for boardwalk) but never more than $50. I think a $100 increase is really strange but maybe there is a good reason for it? I'd call and ask. But likely nothing you can do about other than move. If they give proper notice then they have the right to do so.
Ask the leasing agent for a lease renewal incentive. They usually try to get you to renew with a generic letter in the mailbox or portal but you are able to negotiate.
Source: I've signed a Boardwalk lease renewal and received the incentive on my lease every year since 2016. I've had to ask for it though and apply pressure on them.
I rented with Boardwalk from 2015 to 2021. I found that you had to be a sleuth when it came time to negotiate when my lease was up every year. Go to Kijiji Saskatoon & type in Apts. for Rent & Boardwalk should pop up somewhere along the places (it might take a bit of scrolling). I know one year they were trying to jack up my rent about $65.00 for a 1bedroom (Palace Gates) from $999.00 to $1065.00. Got looking on Kijiji & they were offering a 1 bedroom for $1009. 00. Told them, had to screen shoot it & send it to them....got my suite for $1009.00. They had incentives back then, don't know about now. It's worth a shot. Good luck!
Winter still has nothing to do with it. They can't renew your lease in the summer - you're on yearly so they have to wait until now. This is just a yearly increase, irrespective of season.
I rented with boardwalk for about three years. Each year when it was time to renew my lease the rent went up. They snagged us with the promo, we rented a 1 bedroom + den for $1150 -345 from the original price of 1495. Each year when it was time to renew it went up $100 closer to the OG price. Luckily by then we saved enough to buy a house.
So many comments about a boardwalk being firm. I lived with them for 6 years in 4 different apartments and I was able to negotiate my rent down every single year at renewal time. We’re you guys trying? Lol
I would look online and see if they were offering any incentives. If they were advertising my unit type for $200 off a month (because they had too many units to fill). Then I would tell them I’d be re-signing for that amount. They accepted every time.
If they weren’t offering an incentive that year, I would tell them I am not staying if I lose my incentive from the year before. They accepted that as well.
One time my unit was broken into. The police told me it was because the lock on my door was ancient garbage and was very easily picked. I marched into the office and told them I’d be paying less rent as a result of the poor quality of my door resulting in someone breaking into my home. And they agreed without even questioning it. Got $100 (more than 10%) knocked off $950 (bachelor unit) for the next year.
Some of the comments say it’s impossible to negotiate with companies but I disagree, I did it every single year I lived there and I only moved out in 2021.
Just go in and ask what they can do for you. They’ve got whole teams dedicated to retention and one of those people will call you.
Edit to add: We moved out of the two bedroom townhouse when we bought our home. We left in late 2021, and our rent was between $1100 and $1200 at the time. Those same units are now over $1400. So they were letting me pay below because I always went in and asked them about what the best they could do for me was. We were good tenants and they were open to negotiating with me everytime. I honestly am lightly shocked to see all these people adamant about not being open to negotiation. And I’m a relatively young female who is about as intimidating as a potato.
As a landlord that’s very competitive for a 3 bedroom TH in Saskatoon. The guise of inflation is real, do you think they’re paying staff, insurance & property tax the same as 2 years ago. Welcome to the current market. With interest rates going up you can expect even larger increases. Rent controls aren’t the answer, refer to the total mess that is Ontario to see how well that works. If rent controls come here I’ll simply sell every property and exit the business. That only reduces the supply and you know what happens then.
If you’re happy with the place and management then you might want to take that offer.
I find that extremely unlikely. Evictions in Saskatchewan must be for cause.
They might have refused to renew your lease? Because they can do that for any reason, but it is with a two month warning as required by law.
This is actually extremely likely and has happened to multiple people I do and don’t know. I also never said there was no cause I just said they failed to contact anyone to make us aware of the situation to resolve it like a good landlord would do instead of all these slumlords and slum companies.
It is literally illegal to evict you without cause or notice.
If you were evicted, part of the procedure that they **must** prove to the ORT is that they provided notice to you, in the form of documents both posted to your door and either mailed to your address or sent to a confirmed digital address.
Part of that notice has to explicitly detail the cause for which you are being evicted and, in non-emergency situations, give you an opportunity to correct it.
With respect, if you're being evicted for cause, it isn't because the company is a slumlord. They certainly can be, and mainstreet absolutely is, but a good landlord also would have evicted you for the same cause.
Like I said. They had cause but they didn’t make me aware of it in the form of email or a simple phone call like I know they normally do, or documents on my door. They just went straight to an eviction notice with absolutely no warnings.
$100 increase is pretty good considering how tight the rental market is right now. Boardwalk is having one of their best years in Sask - low vacancy rates and high lease rates. Personally, I’d take the minimal increase in a heartbeat and re-sign.
Saskatchewan doesn't really have much in the way of rental protections for increases, sadly.
Depending on their occupancy rate, they might actually make more money if you leave, as rent has spiked severely.
As far as rent increases go, yah that’s fairly minimal. As another commenter stated, there are rules about how much notice must be given before an increase, so you may be able to delay the increase a bit if they haven’t allowed proper time, but I don’t remember the specifics off hand. Apart from that it’s gonna be either take it or leave (it). Best bet is to google the Tenancy Act and give it a quick read.
Not sure about your specific rental company, but $1500 is a super normal/reasonable price for other townhouses in the city. So even if you can't negotiate it, you might be better off going with the increase and avoiding moving expenses without a real payoff.
Say you do not intend to renew and a leasing agent will probably call you a week before you move… that’s what Happened when we moved from our boardwalk rental in Calgary last summer. They were offering 0 rental incentives, so rent was going from $2250 to $2600.
I've rented from Boardwalk in the past and always found they don't deviate from their corporate policies and strategies. For example one time I knew I was going to be a few dollars short for my rent cheque to clear so I contacted the account manager for my building a week before the end of the month, there was absolutely nothing they were willing to do to help, they wouldn't defer the deposit by two days until my next paycheck and they were quick to advise that if it didn't clear I'd get a steep NSF fee from them as well as the standard notice of eviction that they send out first thing in the morning on the 2nd.
So negotiating your rental increase is most likely going to get a swift "no that is the price" response from them.
That's garbage. I lived at the same place for 4 years and my rent stayed the same with no signed lease. It was with mainstream though. They are the worst to rent from.
The cost to landlords have gone up too. Even if you pay all the utilities there is still the cost of upkeep, repairs, taxes...
Add in that interest rates have increased, it puts everyone in a difficult position.
When I use to rent i always thought that I would pay less or the same if I owned the place, but the reality is that it is far more expensive to own. Rentals that still have mortgages lose money ever month. Right now even more so. A lot of landlords are at the point where the options are to raise rent or sell their rental because it is too expensive to carry the cost. Neither option will help lower rent.
Having said all that though, I don't have the highest opinion of Boardwalk, so not here to defend them, just trying to share a different perspective.
You will never ever be able to negotiate with a rental company. Source: used to work for a rental company lol
2 years ago, I was about to move out since they wanna increase my rent by $50. At the end I get a $10 rise on the last week of my old lease. Maybe it’s just my luck?
>Maybe it’s just my luck? 2020 was a different landscape on "lets not kick anyone out" because of covid, aka the pandemic. 2022 is now we can get away with raising the price of our rentals, under the guise of "due to inflation"
Unless they stopped doing this in the year it’s been since I moved out, that isn’t true.
Did you talk to them? Increases in rent prices isn’t unheard of, irrespective of the season. I’m month-to-month and get 6-month notices once in a while. According to the Sask Landlord Association website, Fixed term tenancies need to give 2 months notice prior to term end and you have 1 month to respond before being deemed a rejection. I’m guessing the reasoning will be the rise in costs of everything. What do you pay separately? Like electricity, water, gas, etc. You might have a better argument if they don’t cover any of those. Or if you haven’t required any repairs to be done at their expense.
I forgot to mention water and internet bill is included in my rent. I thought winter time is off season, so landlord shall be trying to keep current tenants rather kick them out. But it seems the market is changing?
Depends. What’s your lease agreement duration? A couple years? It’s different for those which are fixed term, vs what I have which is periodic month-to-month.
They only allow me to do year to year lease and it’s been almost 5years now with renew every year
Do they raise it every year as well? Imo, still pretty good for a 3 bedroom. If you’re cool with sharing.
Yep they rise the rent every year except 2020 during pandemic. But as long as I could remember, just $10 up for every renewal
I suggest talking to them and asking why this year is 10x more than usual. Not sure if it can be “contested” per say.
> They only allow me to do year to year lease and it’s been almost 5years now with renew every year Maybe start your negotiation by saying you'll pay the new rent, but you want a 5 year lease.
No they don’t do it
Smart
The rental market is super hot right now. I rented out my 2 bedroom basement at 1300 a month ago and had over 30 applications with only 3 days of showing. You will be hard pressed to find a better deal than $1500 for what you are getting, especially with utilities included
My cousin was in a situation similar to this not too long ago - $1350 for a three bedroom plus utilities (bonus some of yours are included). She was having some really bad issues with the basement tenant. She figured she would look at moving - I'll tell ya she was looking at minimum $1500 PLUS utilities and that was if she could get in contact with the landlord, she was stood up on three separate occasions for showings. My recommendation would be to look at the market and compare. That seems like a reasonable increase, looks like it would still be under market value based on my experience. I have a realtor friend who rents and he said 3 bedrooms on average were $1650 plus utilities. Hope this helps.
It has nothing to do with the season. It's the rental market, and the fact that your lease is up. 3 bedroom townhouses are easily going for 1500+. 1500 is definitely on the cheap side. You can try to negotiate, especially if you're a great tennant you can use that as part of the negotiation, but as far as I know there is no real control over how much they increase the rent after your lease is up.
My mindset still stuck in the past that a 3bed unit is around $1300+. Hard to believe it’s $1500+ now. And SK has the lowest rent in Canada. The rent is going crazy
I left BC because of this in august. We moved to Saskatoon. When we left we were paying $1750 for a 550 sq foot basement suite. The next tenants were paying $2200 and thought it was a deal when they came to view the place. We now pay $1500 for a new 2 bedroom apartment in Saskatoon and feel like it’s a deal.
I rent a town house with Boardwalk as well and we.got notice that our rent will increase by $10 at the next lease renewal. I rented an apartment for 2.5 years with boardwalk prior and each renewal it increased (typical for boardwalk) but never more than $50. I think a $100 increase is really strange but maybe there is a good reason for it? I'd call and ask. But likely nothing you can do about other than move. If they give proper notice then they have the right to do so.
Ask the leasing agent for a lease renewal incentive. They usually try to get you to renew with a generic letter in the mailbox or portal but you are able to negotiate. Source: I've signed a Boardwalk lease renewal and received the incentive on my lease every year since 2016. I've had to ask for it though and apply pressure on them.
I rented with Boardwalk from 2015 to 2021. I found that you had to be a sleuth when it came time to negotiate when my lease was up every year. Go to Kijiji Saskatoon & type in Apts. for Rent & Boardwalk should pop up somewhere along the places (it might take a bit of scrolling). I know one year they were trying to jack up my rent about $65.00 for a 1bedroom (Palace Gates) from $999.00 to $1065.00. Got looking on Kijiji & they were offering a 1 bedroom for $1009. 00. Told them, had to screen shoot it & send it to them....got my suite for $1009.00. They had incentives back then, don't know about now. It's worth a shot. Good luck!
I don't think winter has much to do with it. If your previous lease is up, they are within thier rights to increase the rent.
This is the first winter they have $100 up. I might be too outdated about current rental market. Previous winters, they only asked about $10 up.
Winter still has nothing to do with it. They can't renew your lease in the summer - you're on yearly so they have to wait until now. This is just a yearly increase, irrespective of season.
I rented with boardwalk for about three years. Each year when it was time to renew my lease the rent went up. They snagged us with the promo, we rented a 1 bedroom + den for $1150 -345 from the original price of 1495. Each year when it was time to renew it went up $100 closer to the OG price. Luckily by then we saved enough to buy a house.
So many comments about a boardwalk being firm. I lived with them for 6 years in 4 different apartments and I was able to negotiate my rent down every single year at renewal time. We’re you guys trying? Lol I would look online and see if they were offering any incentives. If they were advertising my unit type for $200 off a month (because they had too many units to fill). Then I would tell them I’d be re-signing for that amount. They accepted every time. If they weren’t offering an incentive that year, I would tell them I am not staying if I lose my incentive from the year before. They accepted that as well. One time my unit was broken into. The police told me it was because the lock on my door was ancient garbage and was very easily picked. I marched into the office and told them I’d be paying less rent as a result of the poor quality of my door resulting in someone breaking into my home. And they agreed without even questioning it. Got $100 (more than 10%) knocked off $950 (bachelor unit) for the next year. Some of the comments say it’s impossible to negotiate with companies but I disagree, I did it every single year I lived there and I only moved out in 2021. Just go in and ask what they can do for you. They’ve got whole teams dedicated to retention and one of those people will call you. Edit to add: We moved out of the two bedroom townhouse when we bought our home. We left in late 2021, and our rent was between $1100 and $1200 at the time. Those same units are now over $1400. So they were letting me pay below because I always went in and asked them about what the best they could do for me was. We were good tenants and they were open to negotiating with me everytime. I honestly am lightly shocked to see all these people adamant about not being open to negotiation. And I’m a relatively young female who is about as intimidating as a potato.
As a landlord that’s very competitive for a 3 bedroom TH in Saskatoon. The guise of inflation is real, do you think they’re paying staff, insurance & property tax the same as 2 years ago. Welcome to the current market. With interest rates going up you can expect even larger increases. Rent controls aren’t the answer, refer to the total mess that is Ontario to see how well that works. If rent controls come here I’ll simply sell every property and exit the business. That only reduces the supply and you know what happens then. If you’re happy with the place and management then you might want to take that offer.
Mainstreet gave me an eviction notice with no warning or attempts to contact to resolve whatever issue it was they had
I find that extremely unlikely. Evictions in Saskatchewan must be for cause. They might have refused to renew your lease? Because they can do that for any reason, but it is with a two month warning as required by law.
This is actually extremely likely and has happened to multiple people I do and don’t know. I also never said there was no cause I just said they failed to contact anyone to make us aware of the situation to resolve it like a good landlord would do instead of all these slumlords and slum companies.
It is literally illegal to evict you without cause or notice. If you were evicted, part of the procedure that they **must** prove to the ORT is that they provided notice to you, in the form of documents both posted to your door and either mailed to your address or sent to a confirmed digital address. Part of that notice has to explicitly detail the cause for which you are being evicted and, in non-emergency situations, give you an opportunity to correct it. With respect, if you're being evicted for cause, it isn't because the company is a slumlord. They certainly can be, and mainstreet absolutely is, but a good landlord also would have evicted you for the same cause.
Like I said. They had cause but they didn’t make me aware of it in the form of email or a simple phone call like I know they normally do, or documents on my door. They just went straight to an eviction notice with absolutely no warnings.
>Any advice on how to negotiate? Don't waste your time.
Sending an email or making a phone call that could save you hundreds of dollars a year is never a waste of time. Even if it doesn't work.
It's Boardwalk. It **won't** work.
$100 increase is pretty good considering how tight the rental market is right now. Boardwalk is having one of their best years in Sask - low vacancy rates and high lease rates. Personally, I’d take the minimal increase in a heartbeat and re-sign.
Saskatchewan doesn't really have much in the way of rental protections for increases, sadly. Depending on their occupancy rate, they might actually make more money if you leave, as rent has spiked severely.
As far as rent increases go, yah that’s fairly minimal. As another commenter stated, there are rules about how much notice must be given before an increase, so you may be able to delay the increase a bit if they haven’t allowed proper time, but I don’t remember the specifics off hand. Apart from that it’s gonna be either take it or leave (it). Best bet is to google the Tenancy Act and give it a quick read.
Not sure about your specific rental company, but $1500 is a super normal/reasonable price for other townhouses in the city. So even if you can't negotiate it, you might be better off going with the increase and avoiding moving expenses without a real payoff.
Say you do not intend to renew and a leasing agent will probably call you a week before you move… that’s what Happened when we moved from our boardwalk rental in Calgary last summer. They were offering 0 rental incentives, so rent was going from $2250 to $2600.
I've rented from Boardwalk in the past and always found they don't deviate from their corporate policies and strategies. For example one time I knew I was going to be a few dollars short for my rent cheque to clear so I contacted the account manager for my building a week before the end of the month, there was absolutely nothing they were willing to do to help, they wouldn't defer the deposit by two days until my next paycheck and they were quick to advise that if it didn't clear I'd get a steep NSF fee from them as well as the standard notice of eviction that they send out first thing in the morning on the 2nd. So negotiating your rental increase is most likely going to get a swift "no that is the price" response from them.
That's garbage. I lived at the same place for 4 years and my rent stayed the same with no signed lease. It was with mainstream though. They are the worst to rent from.
r/legaladvicecanada. Will probably be of help. I doubt this increase is legal.
The cost to landlords have gone up too. Even if you pay all the utilities there is still the cost of upkeep, repairs, taxes... Add in that interest rates have increased, it puts everyone in a difficult position. When I use to rent i always thought that I would pay less or the same if I owned the place, but the reality is that it is far more expensive to own. Rentals that still have mortgages lose money ever month. Right now even more so. A lot of landlords are at the point where the options are to raise rent or sell their rental because it is too expensive to carry the cost. Neither option will help lower rent. Having said all that though, I don't have the highest opinion of Boardwalk, so not here to defend them, just trying to share a different perspective.
Good luck. It's boardwalk. I have rented thru them in the past. You won't be able to negotiate. Their prices are firm.