It’s become a familiar story for some local landlords: damage done by a tenant and unable to recoup the costs in a timely manner if at all.

Roger Guillemette is the landlord for a basement unit at O’Brien and High and told BayToday it’s going to take $5,000 to get the unit back in shape so he can rent the unit again.

He says if he caused damage like this the police would arrest him.

“They would fine me and maybe put me in jail. People that do that to our property and do this damage just walk away. They don’t get charged or fined and I’m stuck with the bill,” he says.

He adds evicting someone is easier said than done.

Guillemette says he gave the tenant notice of 15 days as required, then had to wait to go to court for 3 weeks, go through the court proceedings and wait some more.

“Then they give them time to move out and they do more damage. If they don’t move out they we have to pay $320 dollars to get the sheriff to move them out of here and that takes another 3 weeks to get the sheriff.” Guillemette says.
Guillemette owns 12 properties and 50 units in the city.

 

(photos by Chris Dawson BayToday)

 

Filed under: landlords