Real Estate

Rental Increase Rounding

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  • Jan 16th, 2019 10:20 am
Deal Addict
Feb 9, 2013
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Mississauga

Rental Increase Rounding

The guideline for 2019 rental increase is 1.8%. I am currently renting for $720, so increase would make it $732.96. Do landlords round to nearest dollar $733 (1.81%), exactly 1.8% $732.96 or round down to $732 (1.67%)?
Last edited by jdu0ng on Jan 14th, 2019 12:11 pm, edited 5 times in total.
54 replies
Deal Fanatic
Dec 16, 2005
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If your tenant agrees it is fine.
Member
Jul 29, 2007
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Markham
haha...good to know I'm not the only one that thought about this
Deal Expert
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Jan 9, 2011
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jdu0ng wrote: The guideline for 2019 rental increase is 1.8%. I am currently renting for $720, so increase would make it $732.96. Can I round it up to $733 (1.80556%) to make it even dollar, or are they strict about a few cents?
Good lord, can't you just increase the rent to $732.00, stay within the legal limits, and be happy with that? Is that extra 96¢/month really that valuable to you?
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Sep 4, 2005
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I'd say go for it and see if they catch on. Might as well raise it to $740 even and if you still wrote 1.8% they'd prob shrug and pay it.... which is sad :(
Deal Addict
Jul 29, 2006
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Don't give your renter anymore reasons to complain.
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Mar 23, 2008
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I would laugh so hard if your next started thread was “My tenant won his LTB case against me, and now I have to pay his filing fee as well as $0.96 for each month. How do I appeal?”

Why be a jerk? Either make it for the right amount or round down.

C
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Feb 9, 2013
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Mississauga
CNeufeld wrote: I would laugh so hard if your next started thread was “My tenant won his LTB case against me, and now I have to pay his filing fee as well as $0.96 for each month. How do I appeal?”

Why be a jerk? Either make it for the right amount or round down.

C

This is not being a jerk. It's in all fairness so they don't have to write "Seven hundred thirty two dollars ...0.96" ($732.96) so long on each checks. Why do I need to round down, it's the same reason why they don't round up. The rental rules should clarify all amounts should be exact and no rounding then. But if exact amount is "correct", then $732.96 it is.

and by they way, if I do have it as $733, then I owe $0.04 per month, not $0.96 per month
Deal Addict
Feb 22, 2007
2108 posts
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Mississauga
honestly, i don't think it would be a problem...however when we talk about money...we do use 2 decimal places...

so the exact amount would be 732.96

as for the cheque....they still have to write seven hundred thirty two (or seven hundred thirty three), and then is it either 0.96 or 0.00...

If your tenant knows the rules and your relationship is rocky, i would do exact....if you ahve a good relationship/longterm tenant...i would do 732...

if your tenant doesn't really know the rules, then i would do 733 or even 735 as a round number
Deal Guru
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Mar 23, 2008
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Edmonton
jdu0ng wrote: This is not being a jerk. It's in all fairness so they don't have to write "Seven hundred thirty two dollars ...0.96" ($732.96) so long on each checks. Why do I need to round down, it's the same reason why they don't round up. The rental rules should clarify all amounts should be exact and no rounding then. But if exact amount is "correct", then $732.96 it is.

and by they way, if I do have it as $733, then I owe $0.04 per month, not $0.96 per month
The law doesn’t need to be clarified. It’s perfectly explicit as it is. You can increase your rent by no more than 1.8%. You can round down from there to the nearest $0.05, the nearest $0.5, nearest dollar, whatever you like. But you cannot increase by MORE than 1.8%.

All I’m saying is if your relationship with your tenant gets rocky (and you’ve posted in here a number of times about your tenant issues), you’re breaking the guideline and giving them a means to punish you if they chose. Most people wouldn’t, unless they’re spiteful.

Do what you want. But the guidelines are clear enough already.

C
Banned
Nov 23, 2018
592 posts
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Round it down man. gees. Doing that won't break your bank.
However, if you don't do it, then you are giving your tenant something to complain about. Your tenant might take you to court.

The upside is like nothing, but the downside is a nightmare. Why pick up a few pennies in front of a steamroller that is still rolling?
Deal Fanatic
Jan 15, 2017
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Ottawa
jdu0ng wrote: This is not being a jerk. It's in all fairness so they don't have to write "Seven hundred thirty two dollars ...0.96" ($732.96) so long on each checks. Why do I need to round down, it's the same reason why they don't round up. The rental rules should clarify all amounts should be exact and no rounding then. But if exact amount is "correct", then $732.96 it is.

and by they way, if I do have it as $733, then I owe $0.04 per month, not $0.96 per month
It is no more work to write 96 on a cheque as it is to write 00. Same effort, same work.

As the rental rules do not clarify that the rental amounts be a round number, there is absolutely nothing stopping you from increasing the rent to the exact amount. It is your choice to round down. It may very well appear that rent amounts are usually in round numbers - but it doesn't have to be that way. Mortgage payments aren't in round numbers, so why should this shelter amount be in round numbers.
Member
Aug 27, 2018
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BRKAMZN wrote: Round it down man. gees. Doing that won't break your bank.
However, if you don't do it, then you are giving your tenant something to complain about. Your tenant might take you to court.

The upside is like nothing, but the downside is a nightmare. Why pick up a few pennies in front of a steamroller that is still rolling?
Isn't it just pathetic?

Meanwhile: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion ... ump-is-on/
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Jan 9, 2011
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Vancouver
jdu0ng wrote: This is not being a jerk. It's in all fairness so they don't have to write "Seven hundred thirty two dollars ...0.96" ($732.96) so long on each checks. Why do I need to round down, it's the same reason why they don't round up. The rental rules should clarify all amounts should be exact and no rounding then. But if exact amount is "correct", then $732.96 it is.

and by they way, if I do have it as $733, then I owe $0.04 per month, not $0.96 per month
The rules say that you can increase the rent from $720 to a maximum of $732.96. Not more. If you want to increase the rent to the maximum allowed that ends in .00, then your number is $732.00. Increasing the rent over the maximum to squeeze a few pennies out of your tenant is setting a new standard for being a cheap jerk.

Remember that the MAXIMUM rate of increase is 1.8%. You can increase the rent by a lesser amount, or even none at all. If this is a good tenant that you'd like to keep around, you are shooting yourself in the foot with trying to scrimp on these pennies. Keeping rental increases low for good tenants is a good way to keep them around, and reduce your turnover expenses, which are going to be a lot higher than the pennies you will save by by being a cheap jerk now.
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Jun 19, 2007
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Halifax
jdu0ng wrote: The guideline for 2019 rental increase is 1.8%. I am currently renting for $720, so increase would make it $732.96. Can I round it up to $733 (1.80556%) to make it even dollar, or are they strict about a few cents?
I would round to the nearest $1000. That's a far more round number, and as a tenant who generally gets no increases because I'd like to think I'm better than average and renting by choice vs buying a house cash, I can tell you first hand I would much prefer the ease of writing out a nice easy number, or typing it into the email transfer form, than the ~270 or so dollars themselves.

Honestly if someone pulled this, I would pay it (after all whats 48 cents), then put it in the back of my mind as a bullet for when needed, knowing it's there. That bullet alone, held and arbitraged for when needed or you feel like breaking rules and having a bunch of friends over to smoke weed is probably worth $500. While I treat the place like my own now in the sense I'll repair minor things and not even mention trivial expenses of a few dollars, I would do it more so in the sense that I would just ignore whatever rules I wanted.

Depends what's written in the rules, but if I were the landlord, the engineer in me who likes significant figures could make an argument that 1.8% actually means 1.8% +/- 0.04999999%, since 1.8% =/= 1.8000000%. In that sense you might be actually be able to squeeze out another 36 cents.
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Nov 14, 2003
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This is in the wrong forum section.
Deal Expert
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batcave wrote: This is in the wrong forum section.
This thread was in the Personal Finance forum. Not sure why a mod would have moved it to Credit Cards. Must have been a mistake.
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Kiraly wrote: This thread was in the Personal Finance forum. Not sure why a mod would have moved it to Credit Cards. Must have been a mistake.
Belongs in the real estate section tbh :rolleyes:

Should be locked really.
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Dec 3, 2017
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Only on RFD would you see a post about trying to break the law by 20 cents.
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OP please give me a listing of your rental properties so I know to NEVER rent from you ever.

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