Renting a Place to Live/Tenants/Landlord Obligations
|
|
Landlord Obligations
I had signed a residential tenancy agreement with a landlord, and I was supposed to move in to the apartment last week. When I arrived with my belongings, the apartment was still being painted. I had to stay in a hotel because the smell was awful and I could not unpack my things properly. Can I take this matter up with the landlord?
Yes. Your landlord has an obligation to provide you with premises that are available for occupation and habitable at the beginning of your tenancy. You have a choice to reject the tenancy, or apply to court for an order that the landlord make the premises habitable. If you still want to rent the apartment, you should ensure that you continue to pay the rent.
If you want to cancel the tenancy agreement, you can apply to Provincial Court or the Court of Queen's Bench for damages against the landlord. The damages can include a general sum for inconvenience and anxiety, and specific items such as the costs of the hotel until you find somewhere else to rent, moving costs, storage costs, and anything else that could be reasonably attributed to the inconvenience you have suffered.
If you still want to live in the apartment, you can apply to the Court of Queen's Bench for an order that the landlord make the premises fit to live in. You may then also claim general damages and for specific items as described above.
Before taking legal action, you might wish to try talking to your landlord to explain the difficulties you are having to see if you can work out a course of action acceptable to both of you.
I need to get in touch with my landlord urgently. I thought there was a notice in the entry to my building that had his address and phone number on it, but it is not there anymore. Isn't he supposed to keep a notice of his address on display?
Yes, however, he only has to take reasonable steps to make sure that the information stays posted. If it is torn down every other day, it might not be reasonable for the landlord to keep replacing it. What is reasonable will depend upon the individual circumstances.
If the information in the notice has changed, the landlord is supposed to post a new notice. A failure to comply with any of the notice of landlord provisions under the Act is an offence for which the landlord can be fined up to $5,000.
You may want to ask other tenants if they know how to locate the landlord. You may also consider where or to whom you give your rent. If you send a cheque to an address or give your cheque to a building manager, those may be ways to start looking for your landlord.
I am having a problem with bugs in my apartment building. I have told my landlord several times about the number of ants in my apartment but he has not done anything about it. Is there anything I can do?
Yes. If your landlord ignores the problem, you can make a complaint to your regional health authority who will investigate the matter. The office has the power to order that the matter be dealt with in some way. The law prevents your landlord from evicting you because you made a complaint.
Your landlord has an obligation to make sure the premises comply with public health requirements at all times. One of these requirements is to ensure premises are free of pest infestations.
If the public health authority investigates, it can serve notice on your landlord to fix the problem. If your landlord ignores the order, you can either apply to court to end the tenancy, or serve your landlord with a 14-day notice that you are going to end the tenancy. Your notice to end the tenancy will become void if
- your landlord fixes the problem within 14 days, or
- your landlord serves you with a Notice of Objection to your notice.
If your landlord serves a Notice of Objection, you would have to apply to court to try to enforce your original notice to end the tenancy. Given the time and expense of this process, you might want to consider simply serving your landlord with notice to end the tenancy. You can serve notice to end the tenancy at any time, providing it complies with the rules that apply to your periodic tenancy.
My landlady served me with a notice that she was coming into my apartment today to fix the dishwasher. When I got home from work, I found a different person here who I had never met before. Since I live by myself, I was a little taken aback and concerned. Shouldn’t my landlady have told me that it was going to be someone else who came to do the repairs?
Your landlady can ask others to enter the property on her behalf to carry out repairs. She can pass on this right to enter to others. You might want to talk to your landlady about the repair person if you had concerns and request that she give you the name of the person who will be coming on future occasions.
See Also
This page was last updated in May, 2006.
Back