What does common area work cover?
Everything a tenant walks past on the way to their door. On one Reborn Renos quote for a rental building in Niagara Falls, the shared spaces got their own lines:
- old drop ceiling tiles taken down and new ones put up;
- baseboard put back wherever it was missing;
- two coats of paint on the walls, trim, doors, stair railings, stringers and ceilings;
- an exhaust fan in the laundry room, vented to the outside;
- leaking pipes in the mechanical room repaired;
- drywall patched where it had been cut open for new baseboard heaters and the laundry room fan;
- the balconies: the old tile taken off and disposed of, then the concrete skim coated and painted, with the material included.
Each of those was priced on its own line, so the owner could see what every part cost. HST was added at the end.
Which parts of a building do you work on?
The halls and stairwells, the laundry and mechanical rooms, and the balconies: the spaces every tenant shares, and the ones a prospective tenant sees first. The units themselves are property turnovers when they sit empty between tenants, and income property maintenance while people live in them.
Can the work go ahead while tenants live in the building?
Yes. Common areas are worked on in buildings that stay lived in. The same quote also covered repairs inside units with tenants at home: drywall patched and painted where the baseboard heaters had been changed. If a building needs more than a refresh, such as new walls or a full interior, see apartment and commercial renovations.
What happens on a tiled balcony?
The old tile comes off and goes away with the rest of the waste. The concrete underneath is skim coated to give it a smooth, even face, then painted. On that quote the material was included in the balcony line's price.
How is it priced?
Every area and every item gets its own line and its own price on a written quote, and HST is added at 13% at the end. Small jobs have set prices, and there is no job too small. The pricing and quotes page has the details, and the request page lists what to send so the quote is right the first time: the address, the areas, and a photo of each.
Can common area work raise the rent?
Sometimes. Major work on a building can count toward an application for a rent increase above the guideline, and the Landlord and Tenant Board decides. See above guideline increases after renovations and rental maintenance standards.