BEFORE YOU MOVE OUT

1) If you are simply looking at cheaper properties consider letting us know and if we can find anything you would like to transfer you into - or ask if the owner can adjust the rent. It is usually beneficial to the owner to avoid some vacancy time and reward longtime tenants with some form of discount or temporary perk.

2) Look at your lease. Is it Periodic or Fixed Term? Periodic leases automatically repeat. Either monthly OR yearly. meaning after your first year, there is a second year, and so forth, until you give notice that you do not want to auto-renew again. Each year only ends at the end of the year, it does not end within the year.

For instance. If your lease is Yearly Periodic commencing on 2000 Jan 1st then it automatically renews on 2001 Jan 1st and again on 2002 Jan 1st. You cannot choose to end the lease anytime other than on a Dec 31st.

This is one of our most common issues. Tenants often believe that after their first term they only need to give 30 days notice to move-out... this is an Ontario rule and not applicable in Alberta.

3) In Alberta you must give at least one full calendar month to non-renew a monthly lease. This means that if you give notice on January 6th you are NOT moving out 30 days later on February 6th, you are giving one month notice beginning the start of the next month, meaning the one month notice takes effect February 1st for the end of February.

IMPORTANT NOTE: in a Yearly/Annual Periodic lease the tenant must give a full SIXTY (60) days notice of non-renewal. After the anniversary date you have begun another full year lease.

This means that if your lease is Yearly Periodic commencing on Jan 1st you must give us notice of non-renewal on or before Nov 1st (technically on or before Nov 2nd because Nov 1st is 61 days until Dec 31st, but the 1st is a good rule of practice and acceptable even for a situation with the short month of February).

In short, if you are in a Yearly Periodic lease you are in the lease for a WHOLE year at a time and to give notice of non-renewal requires two (2) months notice in advance, not merely one (1 ) month notice.

EARLY TERMINATION OF LEASE

In Alberta you are liable for your whole lease. If you want to break it you MUST apply to the court to terminate, you do not get to choose to for your own reasons.

You can however, ask the Landlord to help find someone to takeover your lease and the Landlord is obligated to assist with advertising and accept reasonable applicants. It is not first-come-first-serve. An applicant must actually be approvable.

The tenant can help with advertising and showings as well. This is generally a successful approach.

​The landlord can charge a fee for their additional work and costs incurred for advertising and showings.

HOW TO GIVE NOTICE

You must give us notice in writing.

We will accept a combination of BOTH email and text message notice. NOT one or the other.

email office@racerealestate.com

If we acknowledge it consider it accepted. If you do not hear from us do not assume we received it and please resend it.

A combination of an email and a webform submission is acceptable too.

Our 24/7 customer service line 1-888-866-8848 will also pass on a verbal notice.

Otherwise you can mail us a written letter with a tracking number.

AFTER YOU GIVE NOTICE

Start packing early. Virtually 80% of move-outs are late.

Move-out is due by 12pm noon of the last day of the term/month. NOT 5pm or later.

Many people just don't start packing their belongings early enough and don't leave enough time to clean. You MUST consider that the next tenant may very well be moving in the next day.

HOW TO CLEAN

These are just some of the common problems we run into:

-If the home was professionally cleaned prior to your move-in you should consider getting a professional to finish up after you do so that nothing is missed.

-Appliances need to be pulled out and cleaned underneath and behind.

-Ovens need to be cleaned of all burned on food (EasyOff does work well)

-If we compensated you for insufficient cleaning on your move-in or gave you a move-in credit for additional tasks then you are expected to have the place cleaned on your move-out.

The lease Rules provide a list of requirements.
As an additional bare minimum guideline this is a checklist provided by Service Alberta: https://www.servicealberta.ca/pdf/RTA/Sample_Cleaning_List.pdf

-We require, on the lease, that the home to be professionally carpet cleaned. A rental device (such as the Rug Doctor) does not do a good enough job.

MOVE OUT INSPECTION

We do not schedule the move-out until you are 100% ready.
Most times people schedule a move-out we arrive and they are not done, so we have to reschedule it. Thus we have had to make two trips for each inspection. This is a waste of time and takes from other inspections that may actually be ready.

During the inspection staff WILL NOT engage in debate of what the place was like when the tenant moved in.
During the inspection staff WILL NOT direct a tenant to do additional cleaning or repairs as this is too late. These things are due by the move-out especially since someone else could be moving in within 24 hours.

After the inspection the landlord usually does not, and is not required, to give the tenant opportunity to return to do additional cleaning or do their own repairs. Again, these items are required to be completed by the move-out. The tenant can ask and if the owner is willing we will give the tenant opportunity to reduce their costs by cleaning and/or repairing themselves.

Additional time taken to make the property ready to rent (by the tenant themselves or by contractors on behalf of the landlord) can be charged as rent as the tenant will still have occupancy and the property is not yet ready for someone else to move-in.

The move out inspection can be done anytime within 7 days of move-out. If the tenant is ready early then they are encouraged to contact us to schedule an inspection as soon as possible.

SECURITY DEPOSIT REFUND

We have 10 days from move-out to send the refund and/or the statement of refund.
This does NOT mean we have to ensure you receive it in 10 days.
​
If the statement is waiting on receipts or quotes an estimate can be sent and a final statement sent after an additional 20 days (for a total of 30 days).

The tenant MUST provide a mailing address as the landlord is required to physically mail the move-out. If the tenant does not provide a mailing address it will just be mailed to the rental address and assumed the mail is being forwarded.

If the tenant really wants their return by email they must send an email asking for it and the tenant agrees to banking limitations of the Landlord, that is, that we can only send so many email transfers per day so your return would be placed in a queue. The placing in queue will constitute the beginning of "sending" of a refund.

SECURITY DEPOSIT DEDUCTIONS

note: We, the property manager, do NOT use "in-house" contractors to neither actually nor artificially charge tenants for profit. If there are deductions it is generally to pay contractors for cleaning, repairs, or to give to our clients as lost/unpaid rent (to pay the bank mortgage).

One of our number one issues is tenants complaining and even insulting us that we are "greedy" or "stealing" their Security Deposits. This is not true and any public comments by tenants may be considered defamation and chargeable under in the court of law.

​As a reminder in our lease the tenant has agreed NOT to review the manager for NEITHER good NOR ill, which is then fair that we neither benefit nor are harmed by conflict of interest reviews. Only reviews by actual owner clients are acceptable.