so, i had a little talk with my landlord, who decided he wanted to get a rent increase in before they froze it. status: denied.

well, let's deal with the smoke, first, huh?

i may be his sole source of income right now - well, except his pay check with the police, of course.

he hasn't raised rent since i moved in in oct, 2018. i know this place was previously occupied, because there cans of paint from the previous tenant - and because he told me as much. this region, like so many others, went through a wave of italian immigration, so this place seems to have been built with a kitchen in the basement. that's really what i inherited, although the landlord explained that this section was separated out to house an elderly relative, at one point. likely story.

so, i'm paying what i signed up for; he could have raised the rent by the legal amount, pegged to cpi, which was 2.2%, at any time since october, 2019.

i wondered why he didn't...but he didn't...

the legalities are that they announce a maximum rent increase in june, based on the cpi of the previous year and that comes into effect in january of the next year until the end of the calendar date. further, you need to give 90 days notice. that means that the 2.2% (a very high number, relative to recent years) kicked in on january 1st and expires on dec 31st.  as today is sept 11, and he requires 90 days notice, he'd have to date the increase to jan 1, 2021.

but, that's past the end of the calendar date, unfortunately.

denied.

the weirdness stems from the fact that they didn't announce a rent increase number this year, due to "instability".

instability, huh? i guess that's newspeak for deflation.

the cpi last year was 2.2% - an unusually high number. but, the cpi this year is -0.3%.

so, dougy is bringing in a rent freeze - it's for the people!

right. it's deflation, guys.

now, i suppose that they could revamp the legislation between now and then, which would probably not be in anybody's interests. but, if they don't, the fact that they didn't announce it doesn't change the reality of deflation in front of us.

and, are we going to have inflation over the next year? two years?

the rent freeze could last a long time - not because of an order by doug ford, but because we may be in for several years of deflation.