| rev:text
| - I had the misfortune of working with one of the founders in 2011-2012. I'm writing this review now as I inadvertently came across this company again as an agent for a condo I'm considering to purchase. I can't speak for everyone at Performance Property Management, but in general, the attitudes and behaviours of founders seep through the culture of the company as a whole.
They were passably competent, but intentionally dishonest - to the point of conniving. All I can say is that tenants and landlords should know their rights, and not count on this company to help account for your interests. They advocate neither for the landlord, nor for the tenant. The most damning evidence of blatant deceit is described at the end of this post.
Let's rewind to 2011-2012. I didn't have a lot of money, but me and my girlfriend (now wife) are dependable, pay rent on time, and were (and still are relatively) frugal. My wife finally came across a relatively small, but convenient condo on King West. (Edit: I was stationed overseas at the time.)
SECURITY DEPOSIT
The first red flag was Performance Property Management asking for a damage deposit. Note that this contract was not directly from the land lord, but rather, on Performance Property Management's letterhead. (I want to clarify this in case a reply comes in feigning ignorance). For years now, and several years prior to 2011, Ontario law has stated that security deposits are illegal. (I'm not going to insult the readers' intelligence by including a "Let me Google that for you" link.)
We were in need of a rental very quickly, so my wife decided to proceed anyway. She was unaware of her rights, but Performance Property Management either didn't bother looking into Ontario law before drafting a contract, or intentionally asked for an illegal security deposit. One of those things is true.
In any case, we proceeded at the time as "beggars aren't choosers". In retrospect, I would never have signed this contract.
CUT YOUR OWN KEY (SERIOUSLY)
The second red flag was when we asked for as second key. Now, I'm young... but I wasn't born yesterday. Every new property, comes with two keys (at least). If you request additional keys, it ought to be the responsibility of the landlord to cut a new key. This also provides additional security measures for the landlord, so that tenants aren't simply making copies without approval. The founder who was in charge of our unit, simply said that the land lord refused to provide another key, and told us to pay for it ourselves.
I didn't have a lot of money, but I had $13 for a condo security key. However, you can see from the simple nickel and diming that this company really doesn't care about anybody or anything beyond getting a commission cheque. I'm unsure if the property owner was even aware that I had cut my own key, and never gave it back to Performance Property Management, but I really had no incentive to do so after paying for it myself. I simply checked with a locksmith as to what my legal responsibilities were, and asked him to destroy the key for me.
Now imagine what would happen if I had kept the key until now. I could stroll into the same condo and likely barge right in. It might even be a new owner by now, and certainly is a new tenant. Imagine the legal ramifications for the previous landlord had I any criminal intent.
SUBLETTING UPON EXIT
We bought our first condo so we wanted to sublease and move out early. Rent prices had risen since we first signed our lease, and therefore potential commissions, so Performance Property Management was eager to help out in this once instance when our interests happened to align. We told them when we'd like to move out, and they quickly found tenants to view the condo within days.
We contacted them in terms of pro-rating our rent for the last month. No response. We waited and contacted them again via the exact same email thread. No response.
Finally, we were sick and tired of this, as we knew that they already had a tenant lined up. We weren't going going to pay rent for the entire month so that they could likely pocket the extra rent themselves. We emailed them again via the same email thread saying that we'd keep the apartment until the end of the month anyway to enjoy the view. Within 4 hours we had a frantic response, but they wanted us to eat the extra two days between our vacate day and the next tenants move in day. (FWIW, we looked up the new rental cost online and noticed that they had jacked it up by $300 already for the new tenant.)
We had no money to waste in 2012, but I had the urge to simply stay for the rest of my term to make a point. Had we stayed, Performance Property Management would have been in breach of the contract to the new tenant upon the expected move in date, and our existing lease would still be valid - thereby not making us squatters. However, we needed the $600 at the time more than we needed to spite this awful company.
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