Welcome to the NSLA for Small Business Landlords

The Nova Scotia Landlords Association (NSLA) and its sister organization The Canada Landlords Association (CLA) are leading provincial and national organizations for private small residential landlords. We provide a unified voice for private landlords and promote and protect landlord interests to national and local government.

Network with top professionals
Get advice from experienced landlords
Learn how the Landlord and Tenant Board works

Meet our recommended partners
Take part in landlord activities, social events.
A chance to "get involved!"

Credit Checks For Only $10/Check – With Membership You Can Make Money!

With a one time registration fee (only to cover our costs) you get access to credit checks for as low as $10 with the leading background screening companies in Canada.

We have kept this price since 2009 to help landlords pay the lowest price for the best services to help you succeed!

With so many “for profit” start ups charging up to $29.99/check you save $20/check.

…so after only 5 credit checks with us you are making money thanks to our huge savings for you.

Many of our members have conducted hundreds of credit checks and the huge savings is like “making money”.

Even making thousands of dollars or more!

With such low costs you can run multiple checks to find the best applicants for your rental property!

It’s important landlords run your own checks to avoid getting fake ones with fake scores. And only from the best companies.

And At Fair Prices

Join Our Community Association And Run Credit Checks For Only $10/Check

It’s a Deal That Can’t Be Beat! All For A One Time Fee!

Become A Professional Landlord And You Can Succeed.

So many experienced and successful landlords are part of our community. And we have so many small landlords who are “in the trenches” and working hard to succeed and creating great rental homes, with great service, and renting to their 5 star clients/tenants.

Yes, you can succeed! Learn from long term landlord successful experts and use the best credit check companies in Canada at very lost costs!

Tags: credit checks, criminal checks
Posted in Tenant Credit Checks, Tenant Screening | Comments Off on Credit Checks For Only $10/Check – With Membership You Can Make Money!

It’s Important To Pay Your Rent To Your Small Landlord

My name is Laura and I post under my name on the Nova Scotia Landlords Forum. I’ve been active there for years to try to help other tenants and give some of my advice to help small landlords too.

These are crazy times for everyone.

And while tenants are suffering it’s also important to know your landlord might be suffering too. This pandemic is hurting everyone.

We Need To Stick Together

I used to own a house and we rented our basement out years ago and it really helped us cover our mortgage. When my husband died my children were grown so I decided to sell the house and rent.

Renting has a lot of advantages.

I don’t have to worry about any maintenance issues and my landlady has a service to cut the lawn and plow the snow. My landlord cover my utilities so she can get just one payment each month to keep things uncomplicated.

My landlady is a teacher and her husband has his own contracting company and they are terrific.

“Are You Going To Pay The Rent?”

When all this chaos started in March and the government said “tenants don’t have to pay rent” my landlady called me and asked me if I was going to pay the rent.

I told her “of course I will”. She was thankful and said if I needed a break just call her.

My Landlady Is Professional and Kind, And I Make Paying Rent A Priority

I’m in a pretty good situation where I don’t need to worry about buying food and my children are adults now. I know others might not be as safe as I am.

I’m going to pay the rent not only because it’s the right thing to do, but because I want to keep my excellent relationship with my landlady and know that if I don’t pay rent it could hurt her financially (and even lead to her selling this place).

Pay You Rent And If You Can’t Call Your Landlord

My landlady isn’t some big global corporation. She and her family invested and thanks to them I have a great place to stay at a great price.

Rent Strike Hits Small Landlords, Not The Corporate Landlords

-Not paying rent will just get rid of the small nice landlords who care about you.

-Not paying rent will not impact the big heartless corporations.

-The whole “rent strike” people are likely corporate landlords who want to get rid of small landlords who are their competition. At least that’s what I think.

Stay Home and Stay Safe!

I’m so happy to have a great rental with a great landlady. I feel safe and don’t ever want to move.

With Love And Wishing Everyone Stays Safe,

Laura

Tags: eviction, Rent, rent strikes
Posted in Good Tenant Tips, Naborly, Nova Scotia landlords, Nova Scotia tenants, Rental Property, Tenant Credit Checks | Comments Off on It’s Important To Pay Your Rent To Your Small Landlord

PAY YOUR RENT CAMPAIGN 2020

Smart Tenants Will Pay Rent & Cooperate With Your Landlord For a Win-Win Situation

Small landlords know the challenges tenants face. Because we faced them too! Many us were renters before.

We want to work with you to keep you renting from us.

Please know that just because we own a rental property, or rent out our basement, doesn’t mean we are rich. We aren’t.

Many of us are working class people who have decided to avoid the crazy stock market and buy a rental property to help us when we retire.

We need rent to be paid so we can also survive and want to cooperate with you to make sure we have a win-win relationship. We have to pay our mortgage, property taxes, insurance, maintenance.

There are calls saying “Don’t Pay Rent” all over social media

We want to make sure tenants know good landlords want to work with you for all of us surviving.

We support tenants in need, but many of us are also on the financial edge!

To prove our support, thousands of landlords and this association are lobbying both the provincial and federal government to create a nation-wide “rent bank” that will help tenants in need get grants or low-cost loans to pay rent.

This will make sure there is no “landlord-tenant” conflicts or haggling and keep landlords in business and tenants safe in their rental homes.

Something similar to the Canada student loan system where people in temporary need get financial help from the government.

Landlords want to work with tenants (and tenant groups) to make this happen. And happen fast!

Avoid The “Don’t Pay Your Rent” Memes and Media

This isn’t a poor tenant vs. a rich evil landlord issue.

It’s a working class tenant facing challenges renting from a working class small landlord who is also facing challenges.

If you don’t pay rent (like so many are saying) it will lead to eventually being evicted with large debts, and your search for a new home will include no reference and bad credit.

Good Landlords and Good Tenants Working Together

Tenants make sure you pay your rent on time, or work it out with your landlord.

Short term easy answers like “don’t pay rent” will lead to unnecessary problems for tenants a few months from now.

These groups should be joining us to lobby for a nation-wide rent bank to truly help tenants instead of wanting to “stick it to the landlord” (which only lead to legal issues down the road). But it’s so sexy to be a revolutionary, right?

Be Smart

If you can’t pay rent work things out with your landlord who will give you a discount or deferred payments.

Paying Rent or Cooperating With Your Landlord On A Fair Payment Plan Is the Smart Move!

Tags: evictions, Rent, rent strike
Posted in Nova Scotia landlords, Nova Scotia renters, Rental Property | Comments Off on PAY YOUR RENT CAMPAIGN 2020

Did Your Tenants Pay May 1st Rent?

Create your own user feedback survey

Tags: evictions, non payment, Rent
Posted in Naborly, Nova Scotia landlords, Tenant Credit Checks | Comments Off on Did Your Tenants Pay May 1st Rent?

Nova Scotia Landlord PROTECTION MEMBERSHIP

With The Challenges Nova Scotia Landlords Are Facing These Days We Have Created A New Level Of Membership

Become A PROTECTION Member And Get Tools and Services To Help You Succeed For A Low One-Time Fee

Includes Access To the Nova Scotia Landlord Forum Filled With Experienced and Successful Landlords!

Experienced and successful Nova Scotia landlords know one of the keys to success is to find good paying tenants. A good tenant will pay the rent on time and treat both the rental property and the landlord with respect. While many people think all landlords are rich the reality is very different.

Nova Scotia And Bad Tenants

Nova Scotia landlords do not have it easy at all! We aren’t big corporations with economies of scale, expensive lawyers on retainer and millions on the bank. We have a lot of challenges trying to run our rental businesses. Not only do we have to face tenants who abuse the system we also have to worry about new changes such as how legal marijuana will impact our rental properties.

Good Tenants

We also know there are lots of good hard-working and honest renters out there. These are people who do treat their landlord and rental with respect on pay on time and respect the lease. These are tenants who desire there to be more high quality affordable housing for rent and don’t want those bad tenants to get landlords to leave the business, leaving less rentals on the market.

Nova Scotia Landlord PROTECTION MEMBERSHIP (All for a low one-time registration fee to cover our costs)

Manny recent posts in the Landlords Private Member Forum have shocked Nova Scotia landlords and made it clear that we face major challenges these days. Landlords are facing big problems from midnight move-outs to tenants

With all these new challenges our Nova Scotia landlord team has come up with PROTECTION Membership to help landlords succeed.

For only an affordable one-time registration fee (no yearly fee) Nova Scotia landlords get access to a ton of amazing tools and services that can’t be beat!

Rental Kit Library

Get all the documents you need to succeed via your own online library you can access 24/7.

Access to the Forums, Including the Private Members Forum (for verified landlords only)

Network with experienced and successful landlords and property manager to you and your rental business succeed. Only verified landlords get access to our private members forum. This means you are networking and getting help from others who ‘have skin in the game’ like you do!

Discounted Credit Checks

Get huge discounts on credit checks.

Tenant Friendly Credit Checks (With RISK SCORES from Transunion)

These are credit checks where the tenants don’t have to give you any of their personal information. Instead it all goes to TRITON who then provides it to you. It makes tenant applicants feel safe and it’s every easy to get them to pay for the credit check (and save you money!)

Criminal Checks

Times are changing and many experienced and successful landlords are making that ‘last criminal check’ on an applicant they want to rent to. And now as member you get a HUGE discount to make sure you ad your property are protected.

Insurance

Get Access to one of the est rental insurance packages in Canada. Also covers student rentals. You also get a big discount as a member

Property Management Software

Get a discount on premium property management software to help you get control of your rental business.

Become a Landlord PROTECTION MEMBER and get the tools and services you need need to succeed! All for a low one-time fee that helps us cover our costs…that’s right ONE TIME FEE!

Tags: credit checks, criminal checks, insurance, landlord foru, Landlord Forum
Posted in Halifax landlords, New Brunswick landlords tenants, Nova Scotia landlords, Nova Scotia Landlords Association Protection Membership Review | Comments Off on Nova Scotia Landlord PROTECTION MEMBERSHIP

Nova Scotia Landlords & Tenants Working Together

We Invite Nova Scotia Tenants To Join Us In An Important Conversation On How To Improve the Rental Industry

Nova Scotia And Bad Tenants

Good Tenants

We also know there are lots of good hard-working and honest renters out there. These are people who do treat their landlord and rental with respect on pay on time and respect the lease. These are tenants who desire there to be more high quality affordable housing for rent and don’t want those bad tenants to get landlords to leave the business, leaving less rentals on the market.

Good Landlords & Good Tenants, Working Together!

Good Nova Scotia landlords are looking to rent to good tenants and good Saskatchewan tenants want to rent from good landlords. So how about this? Let’s all work together as positive forces of good and improve the Nova Scotia rental industry!

Instead Of Confrontation & Blaming We Want Cooperation And Communication

We are inviting good Nova Scotia tenants to join us in the following ways to help improve our situation:

Share Your Stories and Opinions With Us

Share your experiences renting in Nova Scotia and you can help other tenants, landlords and educate people and play a role in improving the Nova Scotia rental industry.

Become A Tenant Community Leader for the Nova Scotia Tenant Forum

We are looking for 5 experienced Nova Scotia tenants to help run our Tenant forum and make it as helpful as possible for other Nova Scotia tenants to learn from. As Tenant Community Leader who will be able to invite other verified tenants to join our forum to help educate the community. The goal is to create a sophisticated place for tenants to chat with each other.

Provide Us With Your Ideas for Policy Changes

Do you think some things need to change in Nova Scotia? We invite you to share your policy ideas with us.

Nova Scotia Landlords and Tenants in our Nova Scotia Rental Community

Let’s work together in 2018 for our mutual success. Let’s improve the rental industry and play a role in forming new policies. We invite tenants to join our community. If you are interested please email us at tenantexperiences@groupmail.com by January 15, 2018. Make sure you let us know about you and your renting experience and how you want to help (please note only those accepted with receive a reply)

Update on January 15, 2018

Thank you for the overwhelming response of Tenants across Nova Scotia (and the region)! We now have filled the available positions for Nova Scotia (and regional) Tenant Community leaders. Keep watching for our next recruitment drive!.

Tags: bad tenants, banks, evictions
Posted in Halifax landlords, New Brunswick landlords tenants, Nova Scotia landlords, Nova Scotia renters, Nova Scotia tenants, Prince Edward Island Landlords | Comments Off on Nova Scotia Landlords & Tenants Working Together

Nova Scotia Landlords Take Control Of Your Rentals! It’s Time To Join the NSLA, Start Winning & Start Running Credit Checks To Find Great Tenants

Take Action and Take Control Of Your Rental Business! Complaining About The System Won’t Help

Nova Scotia Landlords Need To Start Making Credit Checks Part of Your Tenant Screening System

A Smart, Inexpensive Invest Can Save you Thousands of Dollars and Months of Stress Down the Road!

We keep hearing about landlords facing stress and severe financial loss when they rent to bad tenants. It’s almost a never ending story and it goes like this.

Good Trusting Landlords

Good landlords have a nice, well-maintained property for rent. Being good, honest hard-working people and offering a terrific rental, the landlords put up the property for rent. They put up ads in the local paper or online and look forward to potential replies.

Want To Find Good Tenants ASAP To Cover Costs (especially the mortgage!)

As they are rental property investors, they are also eager to get the property rented as soon as possible.

After all, they aren’t a multi-million dollar corporation they are just normal hard working people with plan for a good future. Small residential landlords have jobs and have families. They also usually have mortgages on their income property.

They hope they can find a good tenant fast who will help them cover their mortgage and maybe even provide a little bit of cash-flow each month. This extra money will help with things like minor repairs in the property and replacing things the tenants want replaced.

Landlords Have Honest and Positive Intentions

Many small landlords were renters themselves not that long ago.

And many have friends, co-workers and relatives who are tenants and are great tenants! These landlords are good, decent people and have put a great rental property on the market for good, decent tenants to rent.

Nova Scotia landlords want a win-win situation with themselves being great landlords and hoping to find great renters.

Landlords See The Best in People, and the Best in Potential Tenants

Because they or their friends or relatives rent, they expect all tenants to be good people who pay their rent on time and respect the landlord and the rental property.

Landlords Are Trusting

Being good people landlords see the best in people. So when tenants want to rent from them most Nova Scotia landlords trust them and trust they will pay the rent on time and be good renters.

After all, when they used to be tenants they paid the rent on time and respected the landlord and the rental property.

Landlords Get Burned

In so many cases we have seen landlords follow this pattern…and get burned! Just like what happens to Ontario Landlords.

We see this over and over in the news.

For example we see this in Global News report GLOBAL NEWS HEADLINE: Hacket’s Cove Landlord Says the Residential Tenancies Program Isn’t Helping Him

In this story a tenant didn’t pay rent for months. The landlord found the system failed him. To get the tenant out he decided to sell the property!

Landlords Can Protect Ourselves

We’re landlords too. We know landlords who got burned and sell and look to invest in other places including Florida and in Ontario to become a Newmarket landlord or even just give up completely.

Make Credit Checks Part of Your Tenant Screening System

Landlords can join the Nova Scotia Landlords Association for a low one tie registration fee. This comes with lots of services including the ability to run premium credit checks very inexpensively.

Invest In Rental Business and Your Future Instead of Whining About the System

Instead of whining the system isn’t fair (reality check: it isn’t fair!) become pro-active an protect your rental business. You can join the Nova Scotia Landlords Association and begin to run credit check for a very low fee.

Credit checks tell you “who you are really renting to” and help you find great tenants (and avoid the liars and scammers out there).

Imagine If Every Landlord Ran A Tenant Credit Check

This would mean good tenants would have lots of great choices and the bad tenants out there would be out of luck. It would mean Nova Scotia landlords would have a fair playing field and there would be lots of great housing for tenants.

Nova Scotia landlords there are lots of terrific tenants out there who want to rent from you.

The problem is only one bad tenant can cause so much financial grief and even leads some people to get out of the business. With careful tenant screening you protect yourself and also help all the good tenants out there who are looking for a great rental property and a great landlord.

Tags: Halifax landords, Newfoundland landlords, Newmarket landlords, tenants
Posted in Tenant Screening | Comments Off on Nova Scotia Landlords Take Control Of Your Rentals! It’s Time To Join the NSLA, Start Winning & Start Running Credit Checks To Find Great Tenants

Nova Scotia Landlords Allowable Rent Increase 2016 for Land Lease Communities

Nova Scotia Landlords Can Raise the Rent 1.5% in 2016 for a Land Lease Community

Successful and experienced Nova Scotia landlords know how important it is to rent out well-maintained properties. If you have a nice and safe rental property you will attract more good tenants and avoid the “pro tenants” out there who can destroy your rental and end up costing you thousands of dollars in lost rent and damages.

Of course, maintenance and property improvements are not cheap. And the reality is costs are rising. This is why it’s important for landlords to make sure the rent you are getting is increased each year to help you cover your costs.

Nova Scotia Landlords Can Raise the Rent 1.5% in 2016 for Land Lease Communities

Every year the government publishes how much landlords can raise the rent in the coming year. This is called the AARIA (Annual Allowable Rent Increase Guideline). In 2016 you can only raise the rent by 1.5% Will this cover your additional costs?

Are You Going To Raise the Rent This Year?

If you own a single family home, condo or multiplex are you going to raise the rent this year? If so, how much will you raise the rent?

Tags: credit checks, Rental Property, Tenant Screening
Posted in Nova Scotia Landlords Rent Increase Guide 2016 | Comments Off on Nova Scotia Landlords Allowable Rent Increase 2016 for Land Lease Communities

Nova Scotia & PEI Tenant Screening: Tenant Credit Checks

Landlords in our region are facing lots of challenges these days.

And while we want to discuss issues such as low rent increases the media continues to attack landlords.

After all, we are easy targets and easy for the media to define.

Another Landlord Is Trouble

According to a report on CBC News, landlord Lee Cowan of O’Leary says her rental unit has been trashed.

The landlady say when her tenants not only trashed her nice 3-bedroom property they moved out without proper notice….they didn’t even tell her!

What Damages Did The Tenants Do?

A lot.

The landlady said the damages included:

– Appliances destroyed

– Basement was flooded and now smells horrible and has damaged the enter unit

– Cabinets have been ruined

– Drywall has been destroyed all over

Landlords and Facebook

Cowan has posted her story on Facebook and received a lot of positive replies.

Positive Replies and Support Are Not Enough

“I have gotten thousands of responses,” she said.

“To say thank you to these people is not a big enough word. I can’t think of a big enough word to say how many people have said, ‘We care.

We don’t know you but we care.’ They’re offering me all this support.

They’re kind, caring people. Maybe they’ll help change the system a bit, so this doesn’t happen to somebody else.”

But no financial support and no answers!

Tenant Screening

These types of terrible stories are becoming more and more common in our region.

We used to think “Oh, those bad tenants are only in Ontario or Quebec.”

Sadly that isn’t true now

As this story shows, landlords need to be careful who you rent to.

If you rent to the wrong tenants you could be out thousands of dollars.

You could be ruined financially?

What Can A Landlord Do To Avoid Bad Tenants?

Smart landlords will do proper tenant screening.

Cowan simply took the money and rented to these ‘tenants from hell.’

Being a landlord in 2013 requires more than just accepting month.

You need to do proper tenant screening, including credit checks.

Don’t be a landlord victim! Always do tenant credit checks and make sure you are renting to good tenants.

Tags: Tenant Screening
Posted in Tenant Credit Checks | 117 Comments »

Nova Scotia Landlords: Find Good Tenants

Investors become landlords because we see a business opportunity.

People need nice places to live in and investing in rental property seems like a great industry to be part of.

You’ve read some people who became landlords and although it wasn’t easy they earned enough profits to consider themselves wealthy.

With their new financial freedom they could help out family members, pay for their kids’ university tuition and even take a trip or two.

Challenges for Nova Scotia Landlords

In past blogs we’ve discussed some of the challenges Nova Scotia landlords face.

One of the biggest challenges is what you face if you rent to bad tenants.

It used to be we thought all the worst tenants were in Ontario.

And they still are, as this Ottawa landlord can attest to.

Landlords all over Canada face the ‘bad tenant’ challenge, even Manitoba landlords face this challenge.

Bad Tenants In Nova Scotia

We wrote before about what happened to small landlord Lee Cowan.

She’s the landlord who rented to a group of tenants and after they moved out (without proper legal notice) she found they had trashed the place including:

– Appliances destroyed

– Basement was flooded and now smells horrible and has damaged the enter unit

– Cabinets have been ruined

– Drywall has been destroyed all over

Lack of Tenants

Another problem landlords in our area face is something that isn’t common in other areas of Canada, even places like Manitoba.

It’s a lack of good tenants.

As a recent CBC News report illustrated landlords can find enough renters to fill their properties.

Some landlords are even offering move theaters and gyms where tenants can work out in their rental buildings.

And get ready for this…some landlords are offering tenants free TVs, yoga, rebates from local dentists and even Apple Ipads if you rent from them.

Landlords in Nova Scotia, PEI and Elsewhere in the Region

Have you found good tenants for your rental properties?

What do you think will happen in 2015?

Discuss this in the Nova Scotia Landlords Forum

Tags: Manitoba landlords, New Brunswick landlords, Newfoundland landlords, Nova Scotia landlords, Ottawa Landlords, PEI landlords
Posted in Nova Scotia landlords, Vacancy rates | 715 Comments »

Good Tenant Tips

Residential Tenancies Act

The Advice Forum