Welcome home! Here you can find your rights and responsibilities as a tenant, important policies, and how to update LMCH with any life changes that may affect your tenancy.
- Access to Your Unit
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There may be times when London & Middlesex Community Housing (LMCH) or Contractors on behalf of LMCH may need to enter your home. While we respect that this is your home, we may need to enter your unit in an emergency, to make repairs, or conduct inspections.
The Residential Tenancies Act requires that we give you at least 24 hours' written notice before entering your unit, except in the case of an emergency.
- Accommodation Requests
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LMCH supports Accommodation Requests that are made by tenants living with disabilities or accessibility needs. LMCH is committed to working with tenants to make accessible improvements to their units and common areas so that they can enjoy their homes with dignity.
Accommodation requests require the cooperation of staff, tenants, family members, and agencies to make the necessary changes that tenants request.
Forms
The Accommodation Request form needs to be filled out by the tenant and the tenant’s health care professional. Click here to access the form. The form can be submitted to care [at] lmch.ca (care[at]lmch[dot]ca) or dropped off at the main office. - Annual Review
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If you receive the rent-geared-to-income subsidy, LMCH will send you a rent review package once a year. The package includes forms that must be filled out to report the income of everyone in your household. These forms must be completed by a specific deadline that will be outlined in the package.
Click here to see an example of the Annual Review package*
These are the pieces of documentation that you will need to fill out the annual review package:- Copy of Notice of Assessment for each household member over the age of 16
- Proof of full-time student status for each member of the household over the age of 16, if applicable
- Current benefit statement for all household members receiving Ontario Works or Ontario Disability Support Program, if applicable
- Statement of your registered disability savings plan, if applicable
- CPP and OAS, and Trillium statements as well as any other pension entitlement statements.
Reporting changes to your income
If your income or household composition changes outside of your normal annual review time, please report the change in writing or in-person to your Tenant Services Coordinator (TSC) within 30 calendar days of the change. If you do not report these changes, you could be charged for back rent, lose your rent-geared-to-income (RGI) subsidy, or both.All tenants are required to file income taxes each year and provide us a copy of the Notice of Assessment.
- Moving Out
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When you are ready to move out, you must give written notice 60 days in advance to our office. In order for the 60 day notice to be valid, the terminations date must be at the end of the month. For example, if tenants give their 60 days notice on April 8th, the earliest they could terminate would be June 30th.
All keys and/or fobs must be returned before you move. You can bring these items into our main office or hand them to your Community Relations Worker (CRW) on site.You are responsible for the rent up to the end of the 60-day period after giving your notice, even if you need to move out earlier.
You are responsible for the cost of any damages beyond normal wear and tear that need to be repaired, cleaning that is needed after you move out, or disposal of items that you leave behind. These charges will be placed on your file and could impact any future RGI applications that you make.
- Rent Payment Options
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Rent is due on the first day of each month. You can pay your rent in one of the following ways:
- Pre-authorized Payment
This is the easiest way to make sure that your rent is always paid on time. To set this up, follow these steps:
- You need to get a Pre-Authorized Debit form from your bank
- Fill out LMCH’s Pre-Authorized Payment form (*hyperlink to form)
- Bring these forms to our main office or email them to care [at] lmch.ca (care[at]lmch[dot]ca)
You could be charged a fee from both LMCH and your bank if there are not enough funds in your account to cover the payment.
If you need help setting this up, please contact our office.2. Local Bank or Online Banking
You can make payments at your local bank or via telephone banking by providing them with your Tenant Code. To get your tenant code, please contact our main office. This code acts as your account number for the bank and should look something like this: 00T0001234
3. In-Person
You can pay at our main office with Cash, Debit, Cheque, or Money Order. We also accept ODSP/OW direct payments. We do not accept credit card payments for rent.We want to help you keep your home. If you miss rent payments or know that you will be missing payments, please let us know. We can make arrangements to help you if you are in the hospital or have a personal emergency.
Types of Rent
Rent-geared-to-income is rent that is subsidized by the government. It is 30% of the household gross monthly income (income before deductions). This calculation is set by the Housing Services Act. Tenants who are on ODSP, OW, or receiving OSAP pay a fixed rate.
Market Rent is the same or slightly lower than rents charged by landlords in the area.
Affordable Rent is set at below average market rent. To qualify, an applicant’s household annual gross income cannot be more than 4x the annual rent of the unit being applied for.
