No Missed Rent. Ever.” Now Hundreds of Ontario Condo Investors Have Missed Rent.
Sireg, which manages The Simple Investor’s converted condominiums, has told investors it cannot make timely rent payments. The owners still hold title, still owe their mortgages and in many cases cannot reach their own tenants.
Urban Land Group · September 22, 2026
Investors in The Simple Investor — the condominium investment business run by realtor Todd C. Slater, known from Newstalk 1010 and his podcasts — were told last week that their rent payments are in limbo. Sireg, the company that manages the properties, wrote that it is “experiencing market and liquidity challenges that are affecting our ability to make timely rental payments” and is “working with advisors to evaluate alternatives,” according to CTV News Toronto on September 21.
The model: buy apartment buildings in smaller Ontario cities, convert them to condominiums, sell the units to investors, then manage them for a fee with the rent guaranteed. The company’s website names London, Kitchener, Woodstock, Tillsonburg and Waterloo. CTV’s reporting adds buildings in Brockville and Perth County.
Figure 1 — The marketing promise and the September letter.
The warning signs came first
One investor who owns six units in four cities told CTV she had 13 years of reliable returns. Then, in January, a $41,000 water bill arrived for a Perth County complex. Payment deadlines changed. The per-condo management fee went up $100. In September the rent did not arrive at all. Separately, CTV reports a Kipps Lane, London building without hot water for a period this summer and a Brockville building with an elevator out of service.
Figure 2 — What investors reported in the months before the suspension.
CTV estimates the business is worth more than $100 million. An investor-organized coalition says it heard from more than 79 investors holding about $26 million in its first days and has heard there are about 1,800 investors in total. Neither Sireg nor Slater responded to CTV. An automated reply said Slater is on medical leave with no return date.
Title didn’t move. The obligations didn’t either.
The units belong to the investors. The tenants, as far as anyone knows, are still paying rent — to the manager. What the owners don’t have, in many cases, is their tenants’ contact information, because the product was designed to be hands-off. Meanwhile the mortgage, property tax, insurance and the unit’s condo fees are all still the owner’s obligations, whether or not the manager passes anything on.
Figure 3 — How a stopped remittance lands on the owner.
| WHAT IS VERIFIED, AND WHAT IS NOT Source. The account comes from CTV News Toronto (September 21, 2026). We have not seen the Sireg letter, and no court filing, insolvency proceeding or regulatory action connected to The Simple Investor or Sireg was found in our search. The ~1,800 investor count and the 79 investors / $26 million are the coalition organizer’s figures, not the company’s. The company did not respond to CTV. The website quotes are as retrieved September 22, 2026. The legal points are general descriptions of the Residential Tenancies Act and the Condominium Act, not legal advice. Whether a guaranteed-rent management arrangement sold alongside a condo unit is an “investment contract” under Ontario securities law is a question for securities counsel. We express no view on it, or on the conduct of any person named. |
| THE ULG VIEW A rent guarantee is only as good as the balance sheet behind it. “Guaranteed Rent” here was an unsecured promise from the same group that collected the rent, managed the buildings and — in the conversion model — sold the units. When one counterparty is guarantor, collector and vendor, the guarantee is not a separate layer of protection. It is the same risk, counted twice. The investor’s first problem is control, not cash. Mortgage deferral, the fix circulating among investors, is at the lender’s discretion, adds interest and does nothing about the rent that is still being paid by tenants somewhere. Title has not moved. Under the Residential Tenancies Act, the owner is the landlord. The priority is to confirm, unit by unit, who holds the lease, where the rent is going and whether the condo fees, taxes and utilities attached to that unit are current — with a lawyer, before anyone tells tenants to redirect payment, because the management agreement may say something about that. Pull a status certificate on every unit. The $41,000 water bill is the warning. Converted older apartment buildings are often on a single water meter, and if common expenses have gone unpaid the condominium corporation’s remedy is a lien on the unit that, registered in time, ranks ahead of the mortgage. That is the number that turns a cash-flow interruption into an equity problem. For the market, expect tenanted condo supply in London, Kitchener, Woodstock, Tillsonburg, Brockville and Perth County. Some owners will sell. Buyers should not rely on a rent figure from the old manager: get a tenant estoppel, the lease, the status certificate and the utility account history before waiving conditions, and price the unit as a standalone rental with market management costs — not as a guaranteed-income product. |
Sources
· CTV News Toronto / CP24 — “Ontario real estate investors in limbo as ‘Simple Investor’ property firm suspends payments,” Jon Woodward, September 21, 2026 (news). https://www.cp24.com/local/toronto/2026/09/21/ontario-real-estate-investors-in-limbo-as-simple-investor-property-firm-suspends-payments/
· The Simple Investor — company website (“Guaranteed Rent,” “no missed rent. Ever.”), retrieved September 22, 2026. https://thesimpleinvestor.com/
· The Simple Investor — testimonials page (cities, SIREG Property Management references). https://thesimpleinvestor.com/testimonials/
· Government of Ontario — Condominium Act, 1998, ss. 85-86 (lien for common-expense arrears; priority). https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/98c19
· Government of Ontario — Residential Tenancies Act, 2006, s. 2 (definition of landlord). https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/06r17
· Landlord and Tenant Board — Interpretation Guideline 21: Landlords, Tenants, Occupants and Residential Tenancies. https://tribunalsontario.ca/documents/ltb/Interpretation%20Guidelines/21%20-%20Landlords%20Tenants%20Occupants%20and%20Residential%20Tenancies.html
· CMRAO — Public registry of licensed condominium managers and management providers. https://www.cmrao.ca/consumer-protection/public-registry
· Supreme Court of Canada — Pacific Coast Coin Exchange v. Ontario Securities Commission, [1978] 2 SCR 112 (the investment-contract test). https://decisions.scc-csc.ca/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/4380/index.do
Charts by Urban Land Group. Investor accounts and figures are as reported by CTV News; statutory references are general and are not legal advice. Urban Land Group has no involvement with The Simple Investor, Sireg or any person named. General market commentary; not investment, financial, legal or tax advice.