Your first stop for self-help is a review of our FAQs. Take a look at the ever increasing collection of questions asked by Ontario’s small-scale landlords as well as the actual answers provided by Landlord’s Self-Help Centre.
There are two possible notices of termination you can serve to your tenant:
The first notice is Form N5 – Notice to End your Tenancy Early for Interfering with Others, Damage or Overcrowding. This notice is a 20-day notice to end the tenancy, but it allows the tenant to correct the situation within seven (7) days. If they do not correct the situation in seven (7) days, you can file an application with the Landlord and Tenant Board as early as the 8th day.
Collecting more rent from the Airbnb renters than what the tenant is paying you each month for rent is considered illegal act. As such, you can serve your tenant with Form N6 – Notice to End your Tenancy for Illegal Acts or Misrepresenting Income in a Rent-Geared-to-Income Rental Unit. This notice is also a 20-day notice to end the tenancy (Reason 2); however, the tenant is not given an opportunity to correct the situation. You can file an application with the Landlord and Tenant Board right after you provide your tenant with this notice.
Your situation is quite complicated, because it deals not only with the rights and remedies of landlords and tenants under the Residential Tenancies Act, but also with both the Ontario Human Rights Code and the Condominium Act. Where the rights of an individual unit owner within a condominium complex come up against the rights of the Condominium Board, it is generally advisable to hire legal counsel specializing in this area of law.
Your problem is not just about noise and damage being done or experienced in or on the property, but it may also leave the condominium corporation vulnerable to insurance claims or other legal liability because minors are being locked out of the building by the adults in your unit.
Due to your situation involving children, you must also consider the landlord’s duty under the Human Rights Code to accommodate a tenant to the point of undue hardship. Therefore, the need to hire legal counsel specializing in these areas of law is even more urgent. The Landlord and Tenant Board is generally very reluctant to order eviction when children are involved, unless they are satisfied that the landlord did all they could to accommodate the tenant’s situation.
An option that you can explore in the meantime is approaching the tenant about the possibility of termination of the tenancy by mutual consent by signing an N11 agreement to terminate: https://tribunalsontario.ca/ltb/forms/
Your options would depend on whether or not the tenant is required to share a kitchen or bathroom with your daughter. If your daughter was living in the property before the tenant moved in, and the tenant was required to share a kitchen or bathroom with her, then you will have more options.
If this is not the case then your situation would be covered by the Residential Tenancies Act, and you must then follow the rules accordingly.
This would mean serving an N5 Notice to Terminate Early for Interference with Others. The N5 must list the dates and times of the disturbances, and gives the tenant 20 days to vacate, or 7 days to void the notice by correcting the behaviour during that time period. If you live in the same building as the tenant and has 3 or fewer residential units you may serve Form N7.
The forms and instructions for both the notice, and the application to the Landlord and Tenant Board if the tenant fails to correct the behaviour, are available on the Board website here: https://tribunalsontario.ca/ltb/forms/
Consistent and excessive noise can be a valid reason for issuing an N5 notice, however, Landlords should exercise caution and consider their obligations under the Human Rights Code when issuing notices based on children’s activities. Before issuing an N5, it may be helpful to advise the parents in writing that their children’s noise levels are disturbing other tenants.
First, you should speak to each tenant to find out for sure what is going on. Ask them to write down all of their complaints with specific details such as the dates and times of all the noise incidents. If you believe one tenant is causing the most problems then you may have to serve that tenant with a Form N5 detailing all the issues. The N5 is a 20-day notice in which they have the first seven days to correct the situation. If it is not corrected after seven days, then you would file an L2 application with the Landlord and Tenant Board. In some cases where both tenants are equally disruptive the N5 may have to be served to both tenants.
When deciding whether to serve a notice of termination for smoking or noise, a landlord should consider the severity and impact of the behaviour. The landlord should also determine whether the conduct substantially interferes with others or causes damage. The terms of the lease agreement should also be reviewed, checking if anything was said about smoking or noise in the unit. If the landlord has previously asked the tenant to stop the behaviour and they didn’t comply, then consider serving an N5 notice for interference with reasonable enjoyment.
We suggest that the tenant who is affected should keep a log of all the dates and times that the smoke smell is bothering him or her, and to ask someone else to be a witness. This will be helpful if they ask you to serve the offending tenant notice for interfering with the affected tenant’s enjoyment.
In the meantime you should treat it more as a problem that may require you serving an N5 notice for interference with enjoyment, rather than on the possible illegal activity of the other tenant smoking a controlled substance. When it comes to considering eviction, the Landlord and Tenant Board may be sympathetic, but they tend to focus more on the ongoing annoyance and interference factor than on the illegality side of smoking marijuana.
The N5 form is here: https://tribunalsontario.ca/ltb/forms/
In the case you are describing, a voidable notice (N5 – Notice to Terminate a Tenancy for Interfering with Others, Damage or Overcrowding) seems more reasonable. It may be helpful to obtain legal advice to help determine if the interfere meets the high threshold of an N7 notice.
At this point, what you should do is serve a new N5 as a first N5 with a 20 day termination date. If the problems are not corrected within 7 days, you would not serve a 2nd N5, you would just simply proceed with the next step which is to file the L2 application with the Board. The only time you serve a 2nd N5 with a fourteen day notice period is when the first N5 was corrected within the seven days and then the problems started again.
The most effective way to proceed is to serve the proper notice of early termination which is a Form N5 detailing all the problems caused by this tenant. If the situation is not corrected within 7 days, then you will have to file the application with the Landlord and Tenant Board to go to a hearing and have the matter decided by an adjudicator. If you have previously asked your tenant to stop the behaviour, ensure to have any/all communication of this to provide as evidence.
If the noisy tenant is interfering with the other tenants reasonable enjoyment of the premises, you may issue a Form N5 – Notice of Termination. This form can be downloaded from the Landlord and Tenant Board’s website at https://tribunalsontario.ca/ltb/forms/. In order for the notice to be effective, it will have to include a detailed account of the disrupting events and behaviours including the times, dates and duration of each incident. You will need the co-operation of your other tenants to obtain this information. Once the tenant has received the Form N5, they have a seven day period to correct the problems. If the tenant does not correct the problems you can file an application to the Landlord and Tenant Board to have the tenant evicted.
You can give the upstairs tenant an N5- Notice to Terminate a Tenancy Early. When you issue the N5, you have to be as detailed as possible when describing the issues and include dates and times when the incidents are occurring. The N5 is a 20-day notice but the tenants have the first 7 days to correct the problems, otherwise you can file an application with the Landlord and Tenant Board to go to a hearing and ask for the termination of the tenancy. If you have to go to the Board, it’s very important to bring witnesses to the hearing so you should speak with your other tenants and ask them if they would be willing to come to the hearing to testify to what is going on.
You can give the offending tenant an N5 – Notice to End your Tenancy for Interfering with Others, Damage or Overcrowding. When you issue the N5, you must be as detailed as possible when describing the issues and include dates and times when the incidents are occurring. The N5 is a 20-day notice but the tenants have the first 7 days to correct the problems, otherwise you can file an application with the Landlord and Tenant Board to go to a hearing and ask for the termination of the tenancy. If you must go to the Board, it’s very important to bring your tenant as a witness to the hearing to testify to the occurrences. If they refuse to be a witness, ensure to have all communications with the tenant complaining.
When a tenant is disturbing another tenant in the house, the landlord can serve that tenant with a legal notice (Form N5- Notice to End your Tenancy For Interfering with Others, Damage or Overcrowding ). This notice is a 20-day notice where the landlord has to describe, in detail, what the problems are and when they occur. The tenant will then have seven days to correct the situation, otherwise the landlord can file an application with the Landlord and Tenant Board to go to a hearing and seek termination of the tenancy. Based on all the issues you have described, the Form N5 would be the appropriate notice to serve the tenant. Forms can be obtained from the Landlord and Tenant Board’s website at https://tribunalsontario.ca/ltb/forms/