Bed Bugs - Heat Treatment vs. Pesticide Treatment

We are often asked about the difference between heat treatment and pesticide treatment. Here is a side by side comparison of a heat treatment, and a typical pesticide treatment for bed bugs:

Pesticide Treatment	Heat Treatment
30 Minute-2 hour process	6-8 hour process
Minuimum 2 services; potential 3 or more!	One Service
Bed Bug eggs not killed	100% eliminated
Bed Bugs in walls not killed	100% eliminated
Bed bugs in furniture not killed	100% eliminated
Bed Bugs in clutter not killed	100% eliminated
Intense preparation required by tenants	Minimal preparation required by tenants
Residual pesticides left in affected areas	No toxic chemicals used

 (Thank you to our friends at Assured Thermal Solutions of Vancouver for the statistics contained in this chart.)

 

Are You a Rental Housing Professional?

ROMS BC is very excited to announce the long- awaited arrival of an accreditation program for landlords in BC. Members currently have access to workshops on more than 25 topics ranging from tenant selection to enforcing orders, but until now there was nothing physical to show for the time you spent improving your knowledge. You will now be able to show that you are more than just an average landlord; you are a Rental Housing Professional. Many members take as many workshops as they can, and accreditation will be a wonderful way to recognize this dedication to landlords improving their professional and managerial skills.

The ROMS BC Rental Housing Professional accreditation program is open to all members and members’ staff, including but not limited to office staff, on-site managers and caretakers. Participation is as easy as attending workshops and collecting credits. Five credits are required for accreditation, which lasts three years and can be extended. Workshops of four hours or less are worth one credit, while workshops over four hours are worth two credits. And as a bonus; once you acquire four credits, your fifth workshop is free (up to a $49 value).

Credits will be offered for any workshop presented by ROMS BC!that has a cost of $29 or more [before any applicable discount]; workshops presented by Associate members are not eligible for credits.

But what about all the workshops members have already taken? ROMS BC is willing to award credits for any workshop attended after January 1st, 2011.

ROMS BC recognizes that many members act as landlords with their spouses or business partners, and that their combined knowledge contributes to their success. Because of this, in addition to individual accreditation, joint accreditation can be achieved. (Joint accreditation is not applicable for property managers or staff.)

--Hunter Boucher

Short Cuts?

Landlords, like everyone else, are on the look out for the most efficient way to deal with their affairs. And in a perfect world, all of our shortcuts would lead directly to our destination. However, we don’t live in a perfect world, so sometimes it is necessary to do extra work to avoid what could turn into a disaster.

When renting out a building - usually a house or multiplex - that has more than one unit where utilities are not included, it would seem efficient to have one of the tenants put the utilities in their own name, and have them collect a share from the other tenants in the building. This would mean you would only have to deal with collecting the rent and no other money each month. This sounds great, but it opens you up for many other issues.

One potential disaster is that the utilities do not get paid by the tenant who is responsible for them, though the other tenants have been paying their share to the tenant who should be paying the bill. The end result is the utilities being cut off - and the tenants who paid their bills on time coming after you.

Or the opposite; the tenant who is responsible for utilities pays the full bill, but the other tenants decide that they’d rather not pay. Again, the tenant who paid the full amount of the utilities - or could only pay part of them seeing as s/he didn’t have enough money - will be looking to you to fix the issue.

The warning to heed? Unless the utilities are billed for one specific unit only, do not require any of your tenants to have the utility bills in their own name.

-- Hunter Boucher and Carly Ludwar