‘To me, this is just a big cash grab’: Landlords charging $50 for rent receipts

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This article was published 07/02/2018 (2824 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg resident is frustrated by a new fee imposed by her landlord, requiring $50 to print a rent receipt she can use for income tax filing.

Kat Hermary has lived in her same apartment block on Fairlane Avenue for nearly 10 years and said this is the first time such a fee has been charged. She was alerted to the new cost in a Feb. 1 letter slipped under her door by Rancho Realty Services.

“To me, this is just a big cash grab,” she said. “I’m on a fixed income, I live on CPP. My rent for a one-bedroom apartment here is $969 per month and now they want $50 just to get a lousy piece of paper that they can print off their computer.”

Hermary said she met with her resident manager to discuss the issue, but realized he’s simply following marching orders from Rancho Realty.

“While I was sitting in there, trying to talk to him, he had message after message after message of people wondering why they suddenly were getting charged. But of course, he’s only the messenger — it’s not his fault,” she said.

Adele Kozyniak, director of property management for Rancho’s residential division, said the company found the practice of printing receipts for all of its 1,800 residential suites to be time-consuming. Under the Residential Tenancies Act, landlords aren’t required to issue rent receipts unless the tenant is paying by cash. So Rancho opted to start charging $50 per receipt to cover administrative costs.

“Fifty dollars was just a discretionary fee based on what other property management companies have been charging,” Kozyniak said. “We thought it was a fair cost to recoup administration costs internally.”

Asked if their company had received blowback from tenants about the new fee, Kozyniak tread cautiously.

“We’ve got some feedback and they understand. Sometimes they just need further clarification on the costs involved and they leave knowing that, ‘Yes, yep, OK, I understand,’” she said. “Some of them decided that they want to go to the pre-authorized payment plan (which would mean getting a free receipt annually).”

“Sometimes people have a difficult time with change and we appreciate that,” she added.

In a call with the Free Press Wednesday, a Residential Tenancies Branch (RTB) spokesperson confirmed that if tenants paid their rent in cash, or by direct deposit, their landlord is obligated to provide a written receipt when they receive payment.

If tenants pay by cheque, money order or debit, then they can be charged for receipts, since they should technically have records of payment already, which can be used as proof of receipt for income tax purposes.

But contrary to what the RTB said, when Hermary called Canada Revenue Agency to see if she could use her past bank statements, she was told they wouldn’t be admissible. “So we’re all stuck,” she said.

Real estate lawyer Carl Dalton said tenants could fight the fee at a RTB hearing, but would have to prove the fee is unreasonable to win their case “It’s not atypical for property managers to charge for what they consider are extra services,” Dalton said.

“(Hermary’s) question is reasonable in this. How big is the fee? Most people don’t complain because the fee is nominal. If I was the tenant, and if I wanted to argue it in front of the RTB, it sounds like it would be an uphill battle.”

Hermary said she doesn’t think it would be worth the hassle to pursue a hearing, but she will continue talking to her property manager in hopes of waiving the fee. Kozyniak said Rancho Realty would “potentially” consider kiboshing the $50 surcharge for people on fixed incomes.

jessica.botelho@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @_jessbu