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.
We can only touch very briefly on what your rights are as a landlord, because until or unless the family law aspect of your situation has been clarified—presumably by a family court judge—the rights available to you as a landlord under the Residential Tenancies Act, contract law, etc. are available and relevant to both co-landlords. To get a better idea of how to bring the matter before the courts and what position to take if action is initiated by either party, we suggest that you speak to a family law lawyer. You can contact the Law Society Referral Service, where you will be referred to a paralegal or a lawyer who will provide you with a free 30 minute consultation. Their website is www.findlegalhelp.ca. You could raise this as a preliminary issue at the beginning of your hearing if you file an L2 application to follow up on your N12 notice(s). Please note if there are multiple units, then you must file an L2 application for each unit. It is not the role of the LTB to determine Landlord/Landlord disputes. I am not sure how much further we can comment on your situation, given that our role is to give summary advice to landlords who have difficulties with their tenants. Your tenants are caught in the middle of a landlord/landlord family law dispute, and are probably not too worried for the time being because the conflict is working in their favour.
As you might imagine, a situation such as yours is complex and difficult to separate into its component parts. There are no legislative guidelines to help determine the rights of what can loosely be called “landlord-landlord disputes.” These matters tend to be determined in the courts, and presumably the family court involvement may end up determining what rights each of you have in the context of property ownership, and in the landlord and tenant relationship. We only give advice to the small-scale landlord community. However, my own assumption in this matter is that if the tenant was to get legal advice on the issue, he would be told to deal with your ex-spouse exclusively, and to consider you to be a neighbouring tenant, rather than a landlord. This stems from the fact that your ex-spouse is the sole person who actually showed and rented the unit to the downstairs occupant, (presumably) charged him, and continues to charge him rent.
Section 2(1) of the RTA defines landlord as the following:
“landlord” includes,
(a) the owner of a rental unit or any other person who permits occupancy of a rental unit, other than a tenant who occupies a rental unit in a residential complex and who permits another person to also occupy the unit or any part of the unit,
(b) the heirs, assigns, personal representatives and successors in title of a person referred to in clause (a), and
(c) a person, other than a tenant occupying a rental unit in a residential complex, who is entitled to possession of the residential complex and who attempts to enforce any of the rights of a landlord under a tenancy agreement or this Act, including the right to collect rent; (“locateur”)