It's Been Three Years

👩🏻 Top insight to share from me, Co-Founder Weiting

84 Openroom SuperFans, partners, community members gathered together for dinner at a family-owned small-business restaurant Frank’s Place in Vaughan.

Openroom had hosted virtual community updates but this was our very first in-person gathering.

We gathered to commemorate three years since Openroom.ca went live, celebrate Openroom becoming a Consumer Reporting Agency in Ontario, and thank our community for the incredible support you’ve shown us.

One word to describe the feeling each attendee left Co-Founder Vishal and I: motivating.

As part of the Openroom vision to build for a future of a transparent and connected rental ecosystem, we have always kept the ‘connected’ component in mind.

We wanted to connect legal professionals, property managers, small-scale landlords, building developers, software founders, realtors, and industry leaders, together in a room where we can openly share insights to further help each other run a compliant business that treats great tenants with respect.

💡 Top 5 insights shared

1. When you’re looking to process serve someone, don’t use the postal code of what’s on Google search. Use Canada Post Address Search. “Even if it’s wrong, it’s more right than Google search result is.” — says Christian S. (Openroom Community Member)

2. In Ontario: if a guarantor agreement doesn’t explicitly state that the liability the guarantor takes on extends beyond the 12-month fixed lease, they are only liable for the first 12 months.
   
   And, it’s ideal not to waste time at the Ontario Landlord and Tenant Board to hold guarantors accountable for unpaid rent. Go straight to the Small Claims Court. Openroom can also report into Equifax when there is unpaid rent in the cases where guarantors are held liable.

3. Reporting rental payment histories to the Credit Bureaus requires consent (e.g. using Openroom’s Rent Rewards Program or another provider), you should have clauses in your lease agreements at the time of signing the lease (in advance of move-in). It gives you the opportunity to report late payments now or later or never. See the clauses and use it for free.

4. What happens if/when a tenant (i.e. Debtor) who owes you unpaid rent files for bankruptcy in Ontario? An entire step-by-step sheet provided by solo.ca shares what you should know.

5. When signing a lease, make sure you are using the tenant’s name that is listed on a government issued ID. If it ever comes to a debt dispute, you’ll have a much easier time with court enforcement actions such as garnishments or seizures of assets. And, the Openroom’s Public Record Search members will thank you too.

Other dinner highlights included:

• a Price-Is-Right Gameshow featuring rentals.ca (a long time Openroom supporter);

• a message from a Minister at the Government of Ontario to Openroom’s dinner guests; and

• a deeper look behind Openroom co-founders (Vishal and myself).

We will host high quality gatherings where we enable open discussion and human connection.

Co-Founder Vishal and I would love to meet more of you so we hope you accept our invite in the future!

As always, the learning never stops.

The more you know, the more we know, the more we can share with one another. Most importantly, the more we can each make informed decisions to better the rental ecosystem.

📚 Time to Learn

Our friends at the Durham Landlord’s Association (DLA) is hosting: Cash Damming (Tue. Sep 9) and Insurance Strategies (Tue. Oct 14). Both are virtual events held on Zoom, and they are applicable to all provinces across Canada. There’s a small entry fee to support DLA (the volunteer run-organization).

See more industry events regarding tenant rights and conferences.

Where city should be host the next dinner? Reply back and let me know!

Do you see pain points that the housing industry needs to tackle? Reply back and let’s jam.

Have questions for me? I’m here to answer.

I read every email, and I try to respond back too.

Weiting Bollu
Mom, Rental Housing Provider, Rental Housing Advocate, Educator, and Openroom Co-Founder & CEO

What does my team at Openroom do?

At Openroom, we aggregate tenancy court orders across Canada, extract information from them, and put it to public use (e.g. public record search for tenant screening, rental debt reporting to Equifax, legal research for all, reduce delinquencies and renters get to build credit).

We also educate about rental housing, provide free resources, and we advocate for a more transparent and connected rental ecosystem to support both responsible housing providers and residents.