Case Study #2: Fanshawe - Lease Duration Issues

Problem: A residential Landlord in the Fanshawe College area owned a townhouse that was never fully rented. They had three single bedroom leases and with one week remaining before the academic year started in September, then needed help to fill in one bedroom. However, their problems were much larger than that: how could they have their unit always paying them the full amount of rent?

Meeting: The Landlord was from outside of London and could not be available to rent out their property all the time. They suffered and their property was empty for four months in the summer. Although they had three bedrooms filled for the next 8 months, they needed one more tenants right away and in eight months they would be empty again. This cycle continued for several years, and the Landlord did not seek any help with renting their property until now.

Short Term Solution: In the short term, it was evident that the single bedroom  to be filled. After advising the owner to clean up the property and solve all of the outstanding maintenance issues, the bedroom was filled on an eight month lease to coincide with the other single bedroom rentals at the property. The owner was now getting paid the full amount of rent for the next eight months. We advised this owner to contact us in a few months to begin the process of renting their house for the next year.

Long Term Solution: At Core Rentals, we specialize in renting out full houses to Fanshawe College students. This process begins in December, five months prior to leases expiring at the end of the academic year. In January the Landlord of this property contacted us and wanted us to handle the renting process for the next year.

We already crafted a waiting list of groups looking for student rental housing at Fanshawe. In January, a group of first year Fanshawe College students signed a joint lease for twelve months on this specific townhouse starting on May 1. Core Property Rentals and Management was able to
find a group that signed a joint lease, took over the whole house, increased the rent by 10% of the year before, and the house will not be empty for the next 15 months.

Conclusion: The Landlord was extremely happy that that they outsourced their student rental housing to Core Rentals because they did not have to show the house themselves, they increased the total rent per month, and the found a group that signed a joint liability 12 month lease starting in May 1, which the Landlord thought was not possible.