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.
This may be an unauthorized assignment of the unit. A tenant cannot assign or sublet a rental unit without the landlord’s consent. If your original tenant has permanently left and handed possession to someone else without your approval, you may be able to file an A2 Application about an unauthorized occupant. Timing is very important because landlords must file the A2 application within 60 days of discovering that there is an unauthorized occupant residing in the unit. If you accept rent from the new person without addressing it, the Board may find you accepted them as the new tenant.
Yes, that can happen. If you accepted rent directly from the boyfriend for a period of time, the Landlord and Tenant Board may find that you created a landlord-tenant relationship with him, even if he was not originally on the lease. The Board looks at the real relationship, not just the written lease. If someone pays rent directly to the landlord and is treated like a tenant, they may gain tenancy rights. This is why landlords should be careful when accepting rent from occupants who are not on the lease.
In Ontario, a tenant has the right to have roommates and occupants such as friends and family members stay with them without the landlord’s permission, unless the rental unit becomes overcrowded under municipal bylaws. A landlord cannot automatically increase rent just because another person moved in. Rent increases must follow the Residential Tenancies Act rules and rent increase guidelines and are not based on the number of occupants.
In order to evict this person, you would first have to get a determination on whether he would be considered a tenant. There is an application that can be filed with the Landlord and Tenant Board for the Board to determine whether this would be considered a tenancy under the Residential Tenancies Act. The application you would file is the Application to Determine Whether the Act Applies (Form A1).
If the girlfriend was not listed on the lease and never became a tenant, she is now considered an unauthorized occupant. Once the actual tenant vacates the unit, that occupant has no legal right to remain in the rental unit however, you cannot remove her yourself. You need to file an A2 application with the Landlord and Tenant Board based on the unauthorized occupancy, you must file this application within 60 days of discovering that the unauthorized occupant has remained in the rental unit.
If your tenant has moved out and left someone else living there who refuses to leave, you will have to file an A2 application with the Landlord and Tenant Board based on unauthorized occupancy. You must file the A2 application within 60 days of discovering that the unauthorized occupant has remained in the rental unit.