Landlord shares rental horror story to urge others to do their homework

An Edmonton-area family says it spent about $80K to fix damages done to their property by tenants. CTV News Edmonton's Nicole Weisberg takes a closer look.

An Edmonton-area family finally feels like their house is back to a home after they claim tenants caused tens of thousands of dollars in damage.

The Prince family built their Beaver County homestead nearly fifty years ago but with their children grown and their winters spent in the U.S., they decided to sell in 2020.

“These people came along with $17,000 and said, ‘Okay, we’re serious, we want to rent this and we want to buy it. We will buy it by April 1, 2022,” Elinor Prince told CTV News Edmonton.

While they hadn’t previously considered a rent-to-own arrangement, Prince said the couple was incredibly kind and excited about the property.

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“They seemed so nice, you know? First of all, she came to the house and she said, ‘You know, I had a dream about this blue house.’ Because this was blue,” she said, signalling to the main house during the interview. “She tells me all this sentimental stuff.”

After working out an agreement where a portion of the rent would go to a down payment, Prince and her husband returned to the U.S.

About a year later, after they said the tenants started falling behind on their payments, their adult children made arrangements to check on the property.

‘It was just a nightmare’: landlord’s daughter

Prince’s daughter said she provided notice of the visit and upon arrival, the man renting the home gave them a tour.

“The first thing, besides stepping in poop when you came in…the smell. The smell would hit you, and it was a mixture between the dog poo that was all over the floor and cat. It was just horrible,” Colleen McGale told CTV News Edmonton.

McGale said her childhood home was in disarray and resembled a puppy mill, with dog kennels and dog runs littering the basement and detached shop.

She said there were feces from different animals including horses scattered across the property and a dead cat in the hot tub.

“He’s like, ‘Oh, that’s our dead cat in there. The dogs killed it so we just tossed it in there.’ And I was like, ‘Oh.’ McGale said quietly.

“We don’t know how long it had been there but it was still there when we took possession of the property again. So I went home and I called mom.”

“When we heard about all the damage they’d done, that just broke our hearts,” recalled Prince. “My husband especially because he put so much effort into this house.”

McGale returned with 14-day eviction notices that she taped to the doors.

She said the tenants initially refused to leave but ending up moving out within three weeks

“They took all the shower heads, they took the kitchen faucet, they took all the appliances except for the fridge. They took the hot water tank. They took light fixtures, light bulbs, the light fixtures in the front of the house,” said McGale.

“They took everything that they could take.”

Options for landlords

McGale said the property was appraised at around $585,000 before the renters and $385,000 afterwards.

Her husband is a contractor and he estimated the cost of the clean up alone was about $80,000.

“They couldn’t even pay the rent so we knew that going after them wasn’t going to do us any good.” McGale said. “The best we can do is warn people about renters like that.”

The executive director of the Alberta Residential Landlord Association said it is not uncommon for landlords facing damages to cut their losses.

She said while it may seem futile, they can try to file a claim with Residential Tenancy Dispute Resolution Service (RTDRS) or the courts.

“The best thing to do is file in court, so there is a file and it would be put on Equifax,” Donna Monkhouse told CTV News Edmonton. “Make sure it gets on Equifax and the credit bureau, so if they go to buy a house or they go to buy a car, that pops up.”

Moving on

Prince wishes she had done more homework on the tenants but there is a silver lining to the fiasco.

McGale and her husband purchased the property, cleaned it, gutted it and renovated and now the entire family lives there.

“We ended up living in the basement but it’s got a walk out patio and everything. So it’s wonderful,” said Prince.

“I’ll tell you, I won’t rent out a broom,” she joked. “I’ll give it to somebody but I won’t rent anything ever again.”

“It’s just sad,” McGale said tearfully. “My grandparents lived here, my dad built it…so now it’s the way it’s supposed to be.”