Sotramont is not respecting the 15 day lease transfer rule and forcing me to pay $350. What can I do?
I tried to keep this brief but theres a lot going on.
I submitted a lease transfer on April 22 to the 2 building managers, and they didn't receive it because they apparently got fired/quit in the last few weeks. 2 new managers took over. I went in April 28 to the office and found out. They said it should have been forwarded or bounce back; neither myself or the new tenant (who also emailed them) received the bounce back. They also informed me that a lease transfer would be $350 and I have to pay it upfront (more on that later).
I re-forwarded the documents (while maintaining my original submission date of 04/22 as the 2 original emails were previously used for regular communication. It should also be noted that they didn't inform tenants of the change) and they said there was nothing attached, so again, I resend them.
Now for the last week I have been going back and forth over email because they keep saying I don't have all the required documents for them to submit the application to their head office. From the get go I have had: Notice of Lease Assignment, Assignment of lease, Signed Building rules, signed rent request, SIN, PAP, and parking lease agreement. They also requested Void Cheque, proof of income, employment letter, and Notice of Assessment (Quebec taxes). Their communication is awful and super vague, eg, they kept saying (gaslighting) that they haven't received the building rules doc (even though it's clearly in the package) when what they actually meant was that I hadn't written the unit number in a couple places 😶
This seems insane! And to top it off, they won't consider my application completed until I pay the $350 "transfer fee". I pushed back on the fee and said it was illegal to ask for it upfront as it is meant for reimbursement and their response was essentially that they don't care. They also don't consider my April 22 submission date valid since "they didn't receive it" despite that being the regularly communicated email. Beyond the April 22 date, it's pretty clear I've been communicating with them since April 28. Even then, they explicitly said in an email that they don't consider the 15 days started until their FULL internal checklist/application is submitted + $350 paid (yes I told them that their internal policy doesn't supercede the law; they don't care), so even now they are saying the 15 day clock hasn't started.
Now my question: what can I do about this? They have 15 days but they've made it clear they don't care.
Disputes with the TAL take 2-3 months. I want to move before summer. And it's not like my prospective tenant is going to stick around that long. I'm setup on PAP so if I cancel it could send me to arrears and hurt my credit score.
Everywhere I look it seems like the answer is: technically I have recourse with the TAL but that'll take months. Also if the prospective tenant cancels after the 15 days (or during my tal dispute) then I'm still on the hook and it won't just cancel my lease.