[00:00:00] Kevin Breitner: Hey there Ontario Landlords, uh, welcome to another episode here, how we can get you some information today. Uh, we’re going to have a conversation that is not. Uh typical on this show we normally are talking about residential tenancy and landlord, uh issues and problems that we can solve there, but The commercial side of real estate investing is something that we should [00:00:30] also think about as well a mentor of mine I said that once you get into commercial real estate the game changes and the power shifts um, and really what he means by that is that Um, in the RTA and the residential, residential tenancy side of things, so much power lies with the LTB and in the tenant’s favor, where on the commercial side of things, it really matters what’s set in the lease.

And that’s what it’s all going to come down to once you get into the Commercial Tenancies Act. Uh, we’re going to talk about some things today and some [00:01:00] differences, what we need to think about. Uh, we’re just going to touch on this topic here because I know that, uh, we’re going Uh, again, this isn’t as common as residential landlords, right?

Everybody kind of gets how residential, uh, investing works, right? I have a house. I know my house, uh, appreciated in value. So I’m going to go out and I’m going to buy a second house and I’m going to let Frank and Susan live in that house. And it’s going to be my retirement fund or however people want to think about it.

They know that it’s going to appreciate. They know that everybody does need a roof over their head, right? 40 percent [00:01:30] of Canadians pay rent, uh, right now across the country. Okay. That’s a large number, which means there’s a lot of. opportunities, uh, to be a residential landlord, but there’s also a lot of businesses, uh, in our country.

There’s a lot of businesses that need to house, uh, brick and mortar to have a place to run their business out of. And that’s basically the biggest difference is, uh, when you’re renting out a house, you’re renting out somebody’s home that has become their place to live. And as Canadians, we are very nice and we never want anybody to have to leave their home.

[00:02:00] Um, but on the commercial side of things. Your business is now renting from my business and there’s no reason that any business should be out there. So there’s different ways to solve problems. There’s different ways to going at it. We don’t have to wait 6 to 10 months to get somebody evicted if they haven’t paid rent.

I think that is probably the biggest one that people talk about all the time. But, um, right now with what’s going on in Ontario with the issues with the LTV and everything, I know there’s a lot of investors that are thinking about, [00:02:30] Leaving the province or leaving the country when really I still think Ontario is the best province in this country.

I think the real estate game here is great. Um, again, 40 percent pays rent and a lot of them live here in Ontario. So we can benefit by putting a roof over somebody’s head. But the commercial side of things, whether that’s a large apartment building. Or a little tiny condo in a retail plaza that you can rent out to somebody’s business, like a dog grooming or anything like that, that people can have a tendency [00:03:00] for in those little places.

So, today we’re going to bring on an appointed bailiff for the province of Ontario, uh, Nolan Revin is a bailiff. We’ve known each other since we were children, believe it or not. Uh, our dads used to play baseball together. And then as we grew into men, we competed against one another. Uh, so we’ve known each other again, almost our whole lives, uh, around the baseball field.

Uh, but, uh, we’re not going to talk about baseball today, although we could probably have a very fun show on that, but, uh, let’s, uh, welcome in Nolan [00:03:30] Revan and, uh, Hey, Nolan, how are you? Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do.

[00:03:34] Nolan Revin: Awesome. Great. Thanks for having me this morning, Kev. I’m happy to be here.

Uh, happy to talk a little bit about the Commercial Tenancies Act and how a bailiff, uh, can be, um, beneficial for commercial landlords. Uh, I’ve been a bailiff, like you said, since the year 2000, um, and I’ve, uh, enjoy helping my customers, uh, get responses from, uh, situations that they find difficult or thought that, uh, [00:04:00] you know, they wouldn’t have a positive result from, um, it’s something that, that, that drives me to, to sort of, you know, Go to work every day and, and, uh, and help people.

[00:04:10] Kevin Breitner: Awesome. Um, so thanks. Uh, what we’re going to do here is we’re going to lean on some of your experience and your knowledge here on the commercial side of things for people to understand basically how it’s going to work on your side. If there is an issue or something that goes on, uh, in regards to the lease.

Like I know, uh, obviously on the lawyer side [00:04:30] too, when it gets into that realm of things, but there are still some problems that you can solve before it gets out of control. Correct.

[00:04:37] Nolan Revin: Oh yeah, there are plenty of things that we can do much before, you know, legal interception. Uh, and we hope, uh, and most of the time we find that a lot of it, uh, is solved, uh, without any type of, you know, sort of actual court or legal, uh, Uh, ramifications or any type of, uh, uh, you know, backlash going, going, uh, you know, going on or [00:05:00] happening against the, the, the, the landlord or myself.

[00:05:03] Kevin Breitner: Yeah, no, um, obviously when something’s going sour, it does cost money to correct the problem and I think the goal is to stay out of court cause that’s what’s going to cost more money than anybody needs to, or wants to have to pay to correct something right once you get lawyers and everything involved.

So. The main one, like I started off with saying, was about rent, right, non payment of rent. Uh, and that is the biggest fear of any landlord is having to cover the bills without anything coming in. None of us want to do [00:05:30] that. So, um, Let’s say I have a, um, a little retail plaza with five units and I have one of my units that’s not, uh, paying me rent, uh, and I give you a call and say, Hey, what can I do?

What, what are we looking at here? What’s a situation here?

[00:05:48] Nolan Revin: So it’s, it’s a good situation. It happens often where, um, you know, obviously, uh, landlords have great tenants and then they have obviously that, that one or a couple problem [00:06:00] tenants. Um, and it’s, it’s a two type solution. There are two ways that we can deal with that.

Um, and we would have a conversation and decide which one is best for you. Uh, as the landlord, it would really depend on a bunch of different circumstances. Uh, the two, the two remedies that we offer are something called a termination of lease, which is where we are doing just that terminating the lease that you have in place.

[00:06:30] Um, changing the locks on the premises, posting a notice, and telling your tenants they are not allowed to go back into the unit and, um, in every respect, ending the lease. Um, the second remedy available to you is something called a distress or a disdrain, and that is where you attend the premises while the business is open, you serve them a notice of statement of account.

And give [00:07:00] them a reasonable amount of time, five to seven days. The act usually speculate, uh, stipulates, uh, to pay the amount of arrears. Um, or you will start the next step of things, which involves appraisals, seizing goods, and all that type of stuff.

[00:07:18] Kevin Breitner: So just to bring that back, let’s say that tenant again is behind 7, 000 in rent, right?

They’re going to have that option within five to seven days to come up with that money, to be able to keep the lease in good standing [00:07:30] order moving forward. Correct.

[00:07:32] Nolan Revin: Correct.

[00:07:33] Kevin Breitner: If, um, we were going to close doors, lock everything, and go that route, uh, is it 17 days? Is that, am I right about that?

[00:07:41] Nolan Revin: Well, that’s a separate issue.

That’s the, that is the, the termination. So the, the termination, yes, is after the 16th day. So you can go in on the 17th day is correct. Uh, post a notice, uh, after business hours, change the locks. You’re looking for, um, you know, no confrontation. You [00:08:00] don’t, you want your job and everything to be done, uh, peacefully.

Um, and then what you’ll do is change the locks, post a notice and advising them, the lease is over. Please call me in the morning. Now, again, the ball is still in the landlord’s court. You don’t have to forcefully end the lease if you don’t want to. If he comes back. Begging the next day on his hands and knees with X amount of money saying, Hey, I’ve got this amount of money.

Will you let me back in? [00:08:30] And I promise I’m going to do better and I’m going to pay. And it’s up to the landlord. You can, um, or you can effectively say, Nope, not interested in dealing with you anymore. Lease is over. You’ve got again, five to seven days to make arrangements to move all of your goods out.

[00:08:50] Kevin Breitner: See that, um, it’s good to know right there as a landlord that you can actually turn around and solve that problem really quick. You’re not looking at months and months and months of [00:09:00] having your, your business not making any money because no one is paying you rent, right? And you’re having to fit all those bills as well.

Um, obviously when you’re looking at a large commercial property, like when we’re talking about being a commercial landlord, we’re only talking about business to business here. This is not about a commercial property where we are looking at having. A 12 apartment building like I know that is a commercial landlord in a way of your no You are a residential landlord.

That is a commercial purchase a commercial property You need a commercial [00:09:30] mortgage on anything larger than um, five normally unless with rbc if you listen to that episode They’ll give you six residential, uh units in their mortgages But once you’re over five traditionally you’re now in a commercial mortgage But you’d be using a bill instead of our paralegals at Stonegate Legal Services for anything you’re looking at a commercial, um, tenancy, a business to business transaction.

And it’s not somebody’s home. It is where somebody runs their business. Um, so when we look at [00:10:00] larger buildings, like, Um, when you’re talking about, wow, I, I just think about like factories and stuff like that when you get into it, like the big numbers of things, like I’ve never dealt with anything on that great scale, that’s for sure.

We’re talking about little condo commercials, little things like that, but do you wanna share anything that, uh, that you’ve experienced with these years about something big? We don’t have to use any names or anything like that, but, uh, a story or something that we can.

[00:10:26] Nolan Revin: I’ve done buildings as, as small as [00:10:30] one room where somebody operates a very tiny small business out of everything up into, you know, 100, 000 square foot warehouses that aren’t being paid for.

And simply, it really boils down to what the landlord wants to do. The one thing I’ve found in common all these years is, Most landlords aren’t acting on the 17th day. They’re waiting a few months and they’re working with their tenants or trying their artists, [00:11:00] or some of them are tenants that have been in there for seven, eight, nine, 10 years.

And maybe they’re going through a rough strat and you know, the tenant, uh, sorry, the landlord figures, you know, he’s a good tenant. He’s going to make it out of it and, and he doesn’t. Um, so as far as sharing anything, the only thing I’d say, um, as we touch briefly on the subject today. Uh, is uh, don’t wait so long.

Don’t wait too long. Um, um, you know, there’s a [00:11:30] remedy there and there’s also a way to do it a little bit softer approach where you don’t have to follow the letter of the law in the way of just because you decide you want to terminate a lease, your tenant still shows the ability that he wants to work with you when you really don’t want him out.

You just want to get paid. Sometimes the little prod is helpful and um, it, it, it fixes things in the future because they don’t want to do this every time. [00:12:00] And you know, pay extra, the bailiff fee and the locksmith fee and all that kind of stuff, plus their arrears. So, um, it sometimes teaches them a lesson without having to push them the whole way out.

Um, so it can be really helpful for the landlord just to know that the tool is there.

[00:12:19] Kevin Breitner: I, I, I think you’re, you’re, you’re hitting on a very good point there, right? It’s about the relationship always, uh, that’s going on. And sometimes you don’t want to, to ruin that, but, uh, also [00:12:30] not waiting too long, right? And just kind of making sure people understand that it is still a business.

Now, again, whether you’re a residential landlord or a commercial landlord, it is still a business and you need to be, Dealing with your tenants properly. Um, so in residential you want to be making sure you’re increasing your rent and giving your notices if rent is not paid on time to keep that relationship just so that they know that they, they are, uh, expected to pay but that you want to make sure that you’re still not, uh, enforcing everything, everything’s documented and stuff like that in case you get [00:13:00] further down the road and need something at the LTV.

But again, with, uh, with today’s conversation with what we’re looking at, this is a good, good start. I think a good introduction to people to understand a little bit about how commercial can be different than residential, about how, uh, as an investor, this side of it is a little bit more protected for you and for what you’re looking for.

I will say. Uh, actually filling tenancies in commercial and residential when you’re looking for a good tenant, they’re about the same thing. Uh, when you’re looking for somebody, it takes about the same amount of time, really, [00:13:30] can be quick, can be long, right, depending on, uh, what you have and what’s, lots of different things that happen at that time.

But anyways, um, I, uh, I think this was a very good introduction to commercial, uh, landlords and how a bailiff can help. Uh, we will definitely have Nolan back again where we can dive into. Uh, a little bit more specifics about each of those, uh, ways we can end a tenancy or deal with non payment of rent and maybe get into a couple of other situations where they can help with our commercial landlords as well.[00:14:00]

But again, the goal of this podcast is to keep things bite sized so that you can get a little bit of information while you’re doing something quick, short about a specific topic. So we won’t take much more time today from you guys, but I want to thank you all for listening again. Uh, thank you, Nolan, for joining and, uh.

We’ll talk to you again soon. Bye for now.

[00:14:19] Narrator: Please remember while we are professionals, this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. The advice shared may not apply to your unique situation. Always seek [00:14:30] personalized advice from a qualified professional before making any investment decisions.

[00:14:34] Kevin Breitner: Hey everybody, thanks so much for joining us this week. I hope you enjoyed the episode. If you’re finding it informative and useful, make sure to like, subscribe, uh, share with a friend so that we can keep getting the information out there to Ontario landlords and uh, keep on joining us. We’ll see you next time.