Can a Tenant Be Evicted in the Winter?
As we move further into fall and the cold winter months approach, the big question I often get is “Can a tenant be evicted in the winter in Alberta?” The answer is a resounding yes, but there are rules and process to follow.
Watch the video to find out what you can do about a tenant who doesn’t pay rent in the winter months.
Just to add to this there are always exceptions to the rule, but generally in Alberta winter evictions are just as valid as summer evictions.
Winter Evictions
Alberta landlord and tenant laws don’t take into account weather, time of year and many other factors. Rather they provide a fairly balanced protection basis for both landlord and tenants in Alberta. This is a good thing because the banks require payments throughout the year no matter what season it is!
Some landlords complain the tenancy rules in Alberta are biased towards tenants, but the reality is we have a pretty good system in place. The rules are fairly well laid out and self explanatory when it comes to non-payment issues, damage issues and even overstaying past the end of a lease.
However, there are also multiple gray areas within the Alberta Residential Tenancies Act that can cause challenges for those landlords without experience. The lesson from this knowledge is the better you understand the process and the rules, the easier it is for you to navigate through them. Plus you make fewer costly mistakes!
If you are curious about the eviction process I have many article son the site breaking down some of the information, or if you need urgent assistance consider my consulting calls which you can order on the right side of the page.
As the eviction process can be confusing for both parties I’ve also created a guide explaining evictions for tenants.
This isn’t a “how to avoid eviction guide”, but rather it explains why you may get evicted, the process and some of your options along the way. I’ve had many landlords pick up the guide as well as it helps fill in the blanks they may be looking to fill about evictions in Alberta from a tenants side as well.
You can grab your copy of my eviction guide for tenants by purchasing it through the link/image below,
Landlord put an evection notices under my door for not payment of rent he put on the notice from Jan 4 to the Jan 18 that 14 days.. But he didn’t put the notices under the door till Jan 9th so would it be 16 days after the 9th.. I have had nothing but problems with him he doesn’t fix nothing that needs to be fixed.. Example my fridge leaks, there’s holes in my ceiling in the storage room from water damage that still not fixed and I cannot turn my light on in the storage room because of that problem, The upstairs tenant had flooded the bathroom and it leaked down into my unit in my bathroom so my ceiling probably needs to be replaced or there’s black mold growing in bathroom, and lastly my sink in the kitchen leaks constantly.
Hi Kerri,
If he didn’t put the notice under your door until the 9th, then it would be actually 15 additional days after that. The day the notice is received and the day the tenant is to vacate don’t count.
All of this is really unimportant though as to actually evict you and to be able to change the locks the landlord requires a court order. So if you don’t vacate by the 18th, you could tell him the eviction notice was wrong and he haas to resubmit it correctly or he could go file directly at the RTDRS to get a hearing which would take a couple of weeks.
The big issues is the non-payment. You can and will be evicted if you don’t make the payment, even if the landlord is refusing to do the repairs.If the property is in such bad shape, I’d suggest looking for a new place immediately and move on.
With the increased vacancy rates in the province it is much easier to find a place these days and the rates are even lower than what you may be paying.
Bill
Bill
Hello, I have a property that has a legal upstairs and downstairs suite. The renter I have upstairs is moving out because of my renter that is downstairs. He is an all around a-hole. He has a dog in the backyard that poops all over the place and he doesn’t clean it up after being asked to many times. He has access to the breaker box so when he feels the upstairs renter is being to loud with their music or tv or whatever he will cut their power. He throws their clean laundry on the floor when wants to in the shared laundry area. With the economic state I will have a hard time finding a upstairs renter to put up with my downstairs renter. I would rather remove my downstairs renter and keep my upstairs renter, that has been there for almost 7 years. How can I remove my downstairs renter appropriately?
Hi Curtis,
You need to put your foot down and lay out the law. The basement tenant is interfering with the rights of the upstairs tenant for peaceful enjoyment. The problem you face is proving this so you need to send a stern letter to the basement tenant now, explaining the issues and how they must be corrected or you will be forced to evict him.
The intent of the written letter is to build up your evidence showing what the issue is and that you warned him. Without documented proof the lower tenant could show up in a hearing and say this is the first he heard of it and the eviction may get thrown out.
Showing you are taking it serious, showing you have warned him and providing documentation proving it if future events occur are all part of the puzzle to successfully evict him. Or perhaps the stern warning will correct him.
Bill
Just a quick note, if you feel the need to swear at me, inform me what a horrible person I am for helping to evict people in the winter or generally provide advice to me that doesn’t benefit anyone, your comment will be deleted and you will be blocked from this site.
If you took the time to read through the site rather than providing blanket statements about me you would realize I help both landlords and tenants in tough situations.
I firmly believe if tenants need to be evicted for items like non-payment they need to take control of their situation and either discuss things with the landlord to come to some sort of agreement, or they need to be evicted, time of year does not matter.
I also believe that if tenants are getting evicted incorrectly or without reason they to can benefit from my assistance.
As a landlord who has been in the situation of evicting tenants for non-payment I still have to make my payments to the bank and the ramifications of not covering those payments may not seem as important to you when you’re commenting anonymously, but they affect me, my family and my livelihood.
Using fake email accounts doesn’t help your credibility either, so please simply go away.
Bill
Hi it is not always the tenants fault if they are late with the rent it could be from an unexpected layoff or injury that occurred at work or else where. Why are they not given a chance to catch up on the rent instead of been treated like a criminal which does happen here , not every tenant is late with rent because they want to be, there should be laws in alberta to protect the tenant from unfair treatment from these big rental companies who try to make out every tenant that is late with their rent a bad person
Hi Jane,
You are correct, it isn’t always the tenants fault, but it’s still their responsibility to ensure the rent is paid. It’s entirely reasonable for tenants to be given a chance to catch up and they shouldn’t necessarily be treated like criminals, but you should be on the other side where your mortgage payment bounces due to a non-payment, or a bounced check from a tenant.
You think landlords treat you like a criminal, you should see how banks treat you when you miss a payment.
There are specific laws in Alberta that protect both the tenant and landlord and this site explains many of them for both sides. the first line of defence though should be communication. If you’re going to be late due to a layoff, or an injury, don’t tell the landlord on the 1st, tell them as soon as you know.
I recently had a tenant ignore my emails when he was late because he didn’t want me getting mad at him. How do you think I felt not getting a response? You need to communicate! Failure to communicate leaves everyone guessing and room for bad assumptions. Explaining your situation and offering a plan to get on track can make the process much easier or if it doesn’t you may have one of those bad landlords you don’t want to deal with at all and you need to figure out how to move on.
Bill
The landlord was informed in the middle of Dec. home for days off and laid of by email .Can not rush ei the governent tells you when it starts . I pay more rent then a morgage would cost, just not interested in buying home at my age. Have dealt with banks,did not receive six calls a day about anything. Then you get the office staff that uses the fact that they are not from this country so they do not understand such things as ei or how it works. Right now it looks bleak for my job as most oil companies are starting to cut projects maybe another 1980 landlords should give good tenants that run into a little financial trouble for a few weeks a break not phone them all day not trying to steal anything from them
hi i have a question…. my landlord wrote the eviction notice on my door literally on the door in marker spelling my name wrong and since i wasnt home he changed the locks to the front door and boarded up the back door so i cant get in and kicked my cat and kittens out of the house. can i break into the house to retrieve mine and my sons belongings?
Hi, I’ve written about this in several articles, without a court order you cannot be locked out. You can call the police, you are legally still a tenant and he can even be ticketed for illegally changing the locks and not providing you a key.
B
It’s -45°c on my last week of tenancy, my truck is frozen, all local movers are shut down, this house has been sold and I’m not sure when they take possession of the property. I’m trying to be fair but I already feel as if they screwed me over. They got me to sign an email notice to vacate the home, they only gave me 45 days, they got me to pay half a month’s rent but got me to sign saying I’d leave the 14th of January. I wasn’t aware that I was entitled to a 90 day notice and now I have nowhere to move, and no way to move. What are my options if they decide to get cranky over this? I’ve been here for 5 years and never late on rent. Utilities paid up. Never once did I refuse a house showing. I’ve been nothing but fair and cooperative and I feel they are taking advantage of that. They keep reminding me tomorrow is my day to vacate. It’s honestly been stressing me out more than I am.
Hi Jon, sorry just saw this today, been under the weather.
Worst case they have to evict you which will take a couple weeks. Throw in they gave improper notice, even though you signed it, and you should have additional time to vacate. Where it gets dicey is it could invalidate their sale if the sales contract gets frustrated by you still being there. Both parties should be trying to work with you as it could cost them all additional legal and carrying costs.
B
I recently acquired a room mate to live in my basement as a means of helpings with the bills, unfortunately I find it is not working out in my best interests, am I only required to give 14days notice?
Hi Amanda,
I’d start by discussing this with your tenant and asking for their cooperation in leaving. Depending on the specific set up and the lease (either verbal or signed), you may have other options to get them out such as a 14 day eviction notice or an option to simply terminate the rental.
If things escalate to a confrontational status you have more options, but it’s probably not the route you would want to go.
Bill
Hi Bill,we are renting a 1 bedroom basement suite to a lady from a foreign country on a month to month agreement. She had applied for her husband and two children to imigrate to Canada, and this was just granted. In fact she will be returning with the family on Dec 26 and her expectation is that they will all live in the basement. We have let her know that we are not in agreement with that arrangement and voiced our disapproval of having more than one person in the suite. The issues are that the upstairs tenants are expecting only one person in the basement, utilities will go up, noise levels go up, etc. What are my rights as a landlord to insure that she complies to original agreement?
Hi Kent,
It may come down to your lease. Does your lease specifically state only the people on the lease are allowed to live there? If so and the new people aren’t on the lease they can be asked to leave.
If it’s vague or you’re not using a lease it may be more problematic for you (which is why you always need a lease), being month to month also could cause you problems with a vague lease. With a fixed term, you at least have the option of not renewing if things aren’t necessarily going your way with the tenant.
If she’s been there for 365 days, you can give her a 90 day notice of an increase as well to help cover the increased cost and wear and tear. This will need to include three full months, so to make it active April 1st, you need to give her this prior to the 1st of January.
Bill
i have a question. we got behind in feb 2013 and our landlord never gave us anything to sign saying when we had to pay up rent. we did a verbal agreement that when we had extra cash we would give to him. we have stayed on top of our rent every month. and nowhe is trying to evict us with 2 small children. he also has not fixed anything I have ask him to fix. can he do this?
Hi Chloe,
A verbal agreement is just as good as a written agreement in the courts eyes, the problem is it is much harder to prove.So, make sure you document everything as far back as you can recall including any extra payments you may have made to help reduce the outstanding amounts.
The issue at hand here is you haven’t mentioned now much you paid back already. If it was a very small amount, you can understand why the landlord may be getting aggressive with trying to either get you out or get his money back that he is owed. Even if you stayed even from that point on, the outstanding amount would need to be paid down or at least an appearance to being paid down should have been made.
At this point, again depending on what was paid, he would have a strong case for eviction, your options would be to negotiate a written repayment structure with them to make monthly payments or if he does take you to a hearing for an eviction to make sure you make an appearance and ask to have a payment plan in place allowing you to stay as long as you stuck to the payment plan.
Of course if you missed any of the payments, you would be liable to be evicted right away, so your priority would be to make sure the payments are something you could meet and that you stick to.
Make sense?
Bill
Hi, my neighbour is being evicted in Feb. Now, he has no lease agreement and the owner of the house has passed away recently. Her son is now in possession of the house and has decided to sell the property. Does he still have to move in the middle of winter?
Hi Julie,
You didn’t watch the video, did you….
Bottom line, your neighbour can get evicted in the winter if there is a reason for the eviction. Like the sale of the property. Note I said sale.
He can’t be evicted because they want to sell, but only after there is a firm sale. and he then has 90 days after the sale is firm. Now that doesn’t mean he can try and delay or interfere in the attempt of the homeowner to sell, or that can trigger an evictable situation. rather he may want to try and work with the seller to make the property potentially more attractive to someone buying it as a rental.
Bill
Hello..
We have a rental property in Hillcrest AB. Our tenant did not pay the rent for the month of October instead giving us a hand written list of items she indicated she paid for that totals her entire monthly rent to the penny. There were no receipts or detailed bills for any of the work. We were never approached to discuss the items she is charging us for, nor was there any agreement or request to do the work completed. She also changed the locks on the building without our knowledge and is now charging us for this. We have no access to the rental property and gave her a 14 day eviction notice on October 14, 2014 for non payment of rent and replacement of locks. We contacted her after the 14 days were up and she will not respond. What can be done to get her evicted. The items she is charging us for is cleaning materials and outdoor pesticides and ant killers as well for the replacement of the buildings locks. She also is charging for lawn maintenance. We have been very accommodating for any request that she has made for repairs and maintenance on the property including cleaning of the gutters, replacing outdoor lighting, removing debris from fallen branches, ect.
Any information would be helpful.
Hi Michelle,
Without an agreement in advance any of the repairs she has completed could be seen as complementary or also as a violation of the lease. This is simple non-payment of rent if there weren’t any original agreements in place and she wouldn’t have much of a leg to stand on fighting this.
Now some of this may be dependant on your lease, but there’s enough legal history around situations like this you would have very good grounds for eviction.
As for changing the locks without providing you a key that is in direct violation of the Residential Tenancy Act as well.
From what I see looking at the area of service provided by the RTDRS you will have to go through the court system to evict the tenant and i would suggest getting on this as quickly as possible. You’ll need to determine which is the closest court serving the Hillcrest area (check with the local RCMP or town administrators for guidance here).
The guide for evicting tenants I sell off of this site specifically details the RTDRS process, but the information about preparing evidence and what you should include may be very valuable for you. The downside of not being properly prepared is your case potentially being thrown out or the tenant winning. The details are always in the documentation you are able to provide backing up your side of the claim.
Regards,
Bill
I own & live in my own. I don’t want to evict, but have given a notice to vacate given today for the tenant to be out by April 30/14. Is this an appropriate time parameter as he is yelling that it is 90 days! He has paid month to month & would not sign the Room rental agreement! I am aware that I am not covered by RTA but I am not considered an Innkeeper either. It is considered shared accommodations.
Hi Soleiha,
If I understand this correctly, you have a property that you do not live in, but are renting rooms out of, correct?
If that’s the case, you do indeed fall under the Residential Tenancy act and the rules in place for the RTA apply here. There’s nothing in the rules stating a 90 day “eviction” or even the roughly 60 days you have outlined here. you can evict with a 14 day notice or a 24 hour notice depending on what the reason for the eviction is.
The important part being, you need a valid reason to evict which you haven’t elaborated on here. Other than not signing the lease which is not a reason for evicting. I don’t know how many times I can say this, but tenants NEVER EVER get into your property until a) the lease is signed, b) you’ve received the first week/month’s rent and full security deposit in cash, money order or bank draft.
It seems to have gotten so bad with leases in the last several months, I actually offer lease packages now to help landlords get on the right track. You can find these across the menu system at the top of the page.
Hope this helps,
Bill
Hi there I rent a room from a guy who is leasing a house. I was given a 10 day notice to vacate the premises, on the grounds that he was almost evicted himself due to him not being able to pay his damage deposit. I have paid my rent on time and in a few cases in advance. I am paid up until the end of this month ( February 28 ) he is also with holding monies that was borrowed for personal use and now he is holding it as a damage deposit that I was never charged from when I moved in.
What can I do about him with holding that money and what is the actual amount of days that he legally has to give me to evict me.
Hi Stephanie,
If you’re renting a room you may fall under the Innkeeper’s Act which means there isn’t a specified eviction period. You may want to talk directly to the landlord/owner and explain what is going on, although the agreement you have in place is with the tenant as a subletter.
Your only avenue may be to go through small claims court and it is something that should b started sooner than later as once he is gone, it can be virtually impossible to track him down.
Bill
hello, i live in northern Alberta, i watched the video, and i was told by someone who owns rental properties, that a person with a family cannot be evicted between Nov 30, and April 1st if they are living north of Peace River Alberta. Is this accurate. I’ve looked online for documentation on this, but am unable to find any. If you know of any info, would you kindly forward it to me via email. Additionally, my landlord has told be that he will be turning off the power tomorrow….this is against the law right?
Hi Aaron,
In some provinces there are rules in place preventing winter evictions, just not in Alberta, no matter how far North you are. On the positive side though, there are rules and steps that must be taken to evict you and families tend to get more time to move.
The more grievous the reason for the eviction, non-payment versus non-payment threats and damage to the property, the less time you have.
As for the power, that is a huge no no. The landlord is not allowed to do that and can face some serious consequences no matter what the reason for eviction. You’ll need to make them aware of that, I’m not sure of the steps you need to take on your side, but you may want to talk to the power company and explain you are still there.
Bill
Can I evict my tenants in the winter. I have not received rent for half of dec yet and now there is late fees.
Jolene, did you watch the video?
I explain it all there.
Bill
i’am 68 years old in bad health,i had a fight with a person who pray on older seniors,i put in a word with the managment but nothing was done,now i’am now kicked out, january 31 2013.
Hi Robert,
Was it a physical confrontation, or just verbal? And did you threaten them? And when did it happen? If you threatened another tenant or individual in the building it may be grounds for the management to evict you with a 24 hour eviction, depending on the severity of it. I’m not sure if this is the case or whether the 31st is the date you meant you had to be out?
If you feel you have been wronged, I would write a letter to the management informing them you feel the eviction isn’t right and would like to fight it. At this point it would then be pushed to either the courts or the RTDRS where you could have your side heard and depending on circumstances potentially get the eviction over turned.
You would need to have evidence showing you were not at fault and that this may be an invalid eviction as well. You haven’t provided information about your circumstances, but I’m assuming they have just given you some type of eviction notice, possibly a 14 day eviction notice and depending on the reasons, there may be good grounds to fight it. The notice itself may also be invalid as I see the majority of landlords and management teams out there neglect to fill them out properly invalidating them from the start.
Hope this helps a bit,
Bill
Can I be evicted in the winter for the landlords personal use?
Hi Cassie,
You would have to define landlords personal use. If they were moving into the property as their primary residence or if they had family members moving in there are specific rules of how much notice they have to provide you and yes you can be evicted, although technically it’s not an eviction unless you don’t leave, then it is a termination of the contract or agreement.
Off the top of my head, I believe it’s 90 days notice they have to give you, but I would recommend you confirm it by looking it up in the Residential Tenancy Act which you can find links to on this site. If they have given improper notice to you, it basically resets the clock and the time frame starts again when you receive proper notice.
This is actually where the majority of landlords mess up and might be highly beneficial to you.
Hope that helps,
Bill
Can a tenant be evicted for drugs being used in the house and, if so, what proof is required?
Hi David,
Great question. If you have somewhere in your lease that the tenant is not allowed to undertake illegal activities within the property then yes you can evict them for a breach of the lease.
If it’s not in the lease, technically it’s not a breach, but you could report them to the police. The issue is whether there is any proof.
If you cannot prove they are actually using drugs in the premises, it;s unlikely the eviction would stick and this is the hardest part. If you have witnesses, photographic evidence of them using drugs that would likely be considered proof.
You are far better off evicting them for other reasons whenever possible and including this as another reason.
Regards,
Bill
Bill was absolutely right
– “You are far better off evicting them for other reasons whenever possible and including this as another reason.”