Dealing With Minor Disputes With Tenants: A Guide for Landlords

Sometimes, situations will come up with your tenants that don’t meet the threshold for a filing with the Landlord and Tenant Board. You could have an issue with junk piling up outside, dog poop accumulating in the yard, complaints from neighbours about noise levels, or other minor issues that you need to communicate to the tenant. The big question is how you do this without damaging the relationship with your tenant and turning the situation into an emotional one. 

Remember That You’re Running a Business

The big thing to keep in mind is at the end of the day, you’re running a business. Unfortunately, it’s a business in which you sometimes have to navigate conflict. It helps to adopt this mindset to keep things from getting heated on your part. Think of it like working in customer service – your tenant is allowed to get angry, but you aren’t. It’s a request for the smooth running of your business, nothing more. 

Try to Talk to Your Tenant in Person and Follow Up Afterwards

A personal visit is always best to work out any situations. Send a text or email to your tenant and ask them if you can meet up, and let them know that it isn’t in regards to any rent increases or anything of that nature, you just need to have a quick chat. 

If they won’t make themselves available for that, write them an email outlining the nature of the issue with concrete steps you’d like them to take to fix it. Run it through an AI assistant to make sure the tone is professional and not too emotional. Keep it strictly business and make sure you give them actions to take. You’ll also want to invite them to contact you with any questions they’ve got. Try to come across as helpful, but be firm about wanting the issue resolved. 

If you managed to get them to agree to an in-person visit, send them this email anyway to make sure next steps are clear. Once the issue is taken care of, follow up again with a thank you text or email to let them know you appreciate that they were amicable about the situation. 

If Your Tenant Does Not Want to Resolve the Issue

Humans are creatures of habit. It’s just easier to keep doing what we’ve been doing. We also don’t like being asked to change something that’s working for us. If your tenant doesn’t want to do anything about the issue, it may seem like you’re at an impasse. You’re not. 

Consider the following before you proceed:

• Does the issue violate bylaw or any other regulations? 
• Are you holding the tenant to the same standard that you have as the property owner, and can those standards slide? 
• Is the tenant doing something that inconveniences someone else (e.g. justified neighbour complaints?) 

If someone else is involved in the situation like a neighbour, or regulations are being violated that could result in fines for you as the property owner, send another email which outlines the issue more firmly and ask your tenant to please reconsider. If nobody else is being affected, no laws are being broken, and your property isn’t being damaged, consider dropping it. 

You’ll also want to try for a compromise at this point; if there’s junk piling up outside, offer to help them dispose of it. If they’re contravening city noise bylaws, let them know that they have to turn off music and so on at the time required by the city. Ultimately, the power is in your tenant’s hands for these minor disputes, and you have to treat them with respect and tact. You do, however, want to do something as this kind of thing can snowball into a larger issue very quickly. 

Consider Hiring a Property Management Company 

At Highgate, we’re all about the tenant relationship. We’re personable, friendly, and an excellent intermediary between tenants and landlords. We deal with these kinds of situations all the time, and it’s generally easier to say “yes” to someone who isn’t the landlord since the stakes seem lower for the tenant. We also handle tenant screening, rent collection, repairs, maintenance, and anything else you need to have done. Contact us today to find out how we can help you navigate tenant disputes and so much more.