A breakdown of your rights and obligations regarding your lease
By Danny Al-Mashhoor
The legal aspects of housing law are obscure for some. In a March 24 interview, Me David Searle, a lawyer and housing professor at McGill University and UQAM, walked The Record through four hypothetical scenarios to better understand the rights and obligations of tenants and landlords regarding housing matters.
Scenario 1: André (16 years old) is in the process of signing a lease with his potential new landlord. What does he need to know when signing a lease?
Let’s say André is signing lease beginning July 1. He will be asked to pay that month in advance. That is legal, according to Me Searle. “The landlord is allowed to do that. When the July 1 arrives, André does not pay anything. The next rent he pays is the month of August,” explained Me Searle.
However, the lawyer noted that it is illegal for a landlord to request the rent of the last month in the form of a deposit. Me Searle stressed that there are a few options for tenants who face such a situation: “First, look elsewhere. Alternatively, inform the landlord and see if they are willing to comply with legislation which provides that no deposit can be claimed for the last month. Lastly, the least preferable option, but sometimes you do not have a choice, is to pay it. Moving forward, get advice as to what you can do to get your money back.”
Some other things André should consider are his privacy rights and a credit score check, noted Me Searle. If a tenant gives authorization to a landlord, they can do a credit score check.
A landlord can check your identity, but they should not keep documents about your identity, Me Searle said, because that information could fall into the wrong hands. André should definitely not give his Social Security Number to the landlord, the lawyer added.
If André has a bad credit score or has had bad experiences before the Tribunal where he has been kicked out of an apartment, that can be an issue. If André is 16, the landlord is probably going to ask if it is his first apartment. If so, he will probably ask for someone to sign as his guarantor to pay if ever André cannot pay himself, concluded the lawyer.
Scenario 2: At the signature of the lease, the landlord requests a $200 security deposit from André. How would you respond to that situation?
“Basically, a landlord cannot ask for a security deposit. Any time that it is requested by the landlord, that amount is owed back to the tenant,” said the lawyer.
Scenario 3: Nicole (35-years -old) rents an apartment. Her landlord requests a rent increase. What are her rights in this situation?
Let’s say you have a one-year lease. There is a three-to-six-month window in which the landlord can come and make suggestions to change that lease, for instance, to increase the rent, explained Me Searle.
If Nicole has a July to June lease, the landlord can only make the rent increase attempt by sending a notice to Nicole between Jan. 1 and March 31. In that period, the landlord has to send a notice giving Nicole three options: First, she can accept the increase. Second, she can choose to leave the dwelling. Or third, she can refuse the rent increase but remain in the dwelling.
Nicole has a month to negotiate on one of these options. If Nicole receives the proposed rent increase on Jan. 15, “she should start negotiating right away,” said Me Searle. If it goes well, they can put the outcome of the negotiation in writing.
Should they not be able to agree, Nicole should make sure that her landlord receives her refusal before Feb. 15, no more than one month after receiving the initial notice. When she sends her refusal, the landlord will have one month (in this case until March 15) to open a case before the Tribunal [Tribunal administratif du logement] to decide on the rent increase request.
The landlord will have to provide a full accounting and demonstrate the legal process followed to get the rent increase. The Tribunal would agree to an increase only if it corresponds with the calculations that are made based on the landlord’s expenses and interest rates the year before, noted Me Searle.
Scenario 4: A tenant wants to break their lease. In what instances can they do so?
Me Searle described a series of situations for which a tenant would be able to break their lease with no legal consequences. For instance, he noted that a tenant who is a victim of domestic violence, a tenant who enters a long-term care facility, or a tenant who enters subsidized housing are all situations where a lease can be terminated with two months notice.
He added that tenants can also do lease transfers. A landlord can then choose to simply end the lease if they do not wish for the lease to be transferred. Me Searle warned, however, that tenants need to present a good candidate to the landlord.
Some helpful resources:
Tribunal administratif du logement
Éducaloi
