Recently I’ve been going back and forth with maple leaf property management to try and rent a townhouse but ran into them making me sign an ‘intent to rent’ promissory note in order to see a full lease. They sent me a generic lease, they haven’t even updated the language to reflect the new late fee policy. In order to review the completed lease (payment schedule, tenant responsibilities for services, etc) I had to sign this binding contract. They disclosed most the information to me but the point is I want to review it in a single legal written document.
The promissory note puts you on the hook for 1 months rent, fees for them to release the property, fees for them to to post the property again, and any difference in rent should they find a tenant that rents it for less, should you fail to move into the property. To me this reads as a way for them to get around the 25% maximum holding fee policy as well as get you to sign away your rights as a tenant.
I’m posting this hopefully for other people to find as I could not for the life of me find anything relevant about this promissory note as it pertains to residential tenant landlord laws or city policy. If maple leaf management ask you to sign this document I highly recommend talking with the renters helpline, tenant union, or get some legal council before continuing.
Sorry about the rant.
TLDR; do not sign legal documents without knowing what they are