This Rent Check will be short and simple. It will show you every tenant's best friend, the quick snap digital camera. If you can't afford the one you see with the full article buy a cheap disposable model at the drug store or a cheap 35 mm camera at Blacks and four or five rolls of their film. Shoppers offers the cheapest processing that I've seen. Digital cameras are without doubt the tenant's best friend. With one, tenant's can document persistent problems with the unit and repairs that are needed with a date stamp in the corner. Landlords have a difficult time explaining away poorly maintained apartments when they they appear in living colour with dates stamped in the corner.
With the photos in the camera or printed out at Wal-Mart or Shoppers you can march down to City Hall, Property Standards Department and request immediate action if your landlord refuses to make repairs. You can also email the landlord the evidence if you have a computer. If not, there is always Canada Post.
Digital Cameras - Tenant's Best Friend
Digital photography is immediate. You can take the photos and immediately send them to the City and/or your landlord. Follow up with some phone calls at the numbers in RENT CHECK #8 AND YOU ARE IN BUSINESS. Give it a try. Landlords and the City tend to hop into action when they stare at the problem in full living colour. So look above if you are a tenant. Your best friend is staring you in the face. You can purchase a good digital camera with batteries for $100 or less these days just about anywhere.
Oh Yeah, those photos, make great evidence if you ever end up at the Landlord Tenant Board, especially if you turn the Date and Time Stamp function on the camera on.
