Evicting tenants isn’t just stressful, it’s time consuming, however the actual eviction process in Alberta isn’t that difficult once you understand how it works. This article will give you an idea of not just how evicting tenants in Alberta works, but also what your options regarding tenant evictions are.
I’ve also put together a walk through explaining the Alberta Eviction process I can email you which you’ll find just to the right. Just fill in your name and email and I will send it right to you.
As a landlord your number one priority should be getting back control of your property and understanding the typical steps in an eviction is the first place to start.
Once you understand those steps it will give you an idea of what to do next. If this requires evicting tenants through a hearing, it’s well worth the time it typically takes to get problem tenants out.
Evicting Tenants – The Guide
The Alberta Eviction site has plenty of information to get you started with the process and for those looking for extra assistance. I’ve also created a detailed eviction guide which shows you how to evict a tenant step by step using the Residential Tenancy Dispute Resolution Service (RTDRS) in Calgary, Edmonton and several other parts of Alberta.
If this sounds exactly what you need, or you want more information about it, click the link below,
A Guide To The Alberta Eviction Process
If you’re currently just looking for information about the process and preparing yourself, just in case, I’ve created a quick start page which will direct you to some of our most popular pages, helps you determine whether your property fits under the Residential Tenancy Act or potentially the Innkeeper’s Act and even provides information about eviction forms.
You can get there by clicking the big graphic below.
Over the last couple of years I have answered hundreds of questions in the comment sections of these various posts and articles. If you have the time, be sure to scroll down and read through to see if the answers you are looking for are there.
Need To Talk To Someone About Evicting Tenants?
If you don’t have the time and need answers quickly to urgent eviction situations, I also provide consultation services. These 30 minute sessions help point you in the right direction and I can answer many of the questions that landlords (and tenants with problem landlords) may have and often it results in saving you hours of research time and in some cases an extra month of lost rent!
To find out more about this service visit this link, Alberta Eviction Consulting Services.
Finally, if you’re simply interested in learning the basic steps involved with evicting a tenant, I have put together a free walk through you can get, along with additional information about the eviction process, by just filling in one of the boxes on the top right of this page, or just below this post.
Thank you for visiting and I always appreciate any questions or comments you may leave!
Hi Bill, I was wondering if a non smoking agreement has been signed and states no smoking on the premises, does that mean no smoking is allowed outside in the back yard?
Hi Gary,
Typically the non-smoking clauses state non-smoking within the property, so it could depend on the wording and any additional explanation included regarding the allowable areas. Without specifying an area like the yard it might be hard to enforce.
Bill
Question.
We are 400$ short on the total rent payment. We sent the rent one the 1st but it was 400$ short. The landlord and property manager(s) are going through with an eviction.
Are we still entitled to our damage deposits if the home is cleaned to standards and there is no damage, even though we are getting evicted?
Thank you VERY much for your help sir.
Hi D,
If they are evicting you simply for nom-payment of rent you can nullify the eviction by paying the outstanding amount. If you plan on moving on as this property won’t work they may end up deducting $400 for the shortfall from your deposit and additional amounts for post move-out cleanup, advertising and other costs.
On top of this, they don’t have to refund any of the deposit for ten days after you move out, so if you’re counting on this money for your next place, don’t.
Now if you believe they are keeping your deposit unfairly, you can apply through the RTDRs to see if you can get some or all of it back, but that can take an additional few weeks just for the hearing and ultimately there is no guarantee the landlord will actually pay you (it’s the same issue the other way around for landlords, we win the case, but still never get paid).
It can impact the landlords credit, but depending on the landlord it may not concern them. So depending on your scenario, moving ta this point may be more detrimental to you than anything. Especially if you’re cash short and need that damage deposit.
Bill
I legally smoke marijuanna. I am under the supervision of a specialist. I have been told by my landlord that they consider marijanna illegal. They have also stated that they will evict me if i am caught smoking it on property. I live in Alberta,Canada. Can they actually evict me?
Hi Nelissa,
If the property is non-smoking, then yes. While you may legally be able to smoke marijuana there are still issues regarding the ability of where.
If your lease specifies it is a non-smoking property you could theoretically sit in your car or backyard, but that may lead to other issues the landlord may be able to leverage.
At this point and with a slower rental market I’d suggest you consider moving onto a place where you would be ale to smoke or consider alternate methods of using marijuana.
Bill
Hi. Two questions. 1) For medical reasons I had to temporarily move out of condo and am renting to a company who has moved in 2 of their employees (company plus 2 names on the lease). In November the company moved in a third person without my knowledge who happens to be a smoker. The condo is a non-smoking property because I have very severe smoke allergies and will eventually be moving back in. I told the company to immediately vacate the smoker. I did eventually agree to a third renter, but they must be a non-smoker. The company said in writing, they would not be moving in a third person because there were only 3 months left on the lease. I have just discovered that they did move in a third person again without my knowledge and who is a smoker. The lease ends April 30, 2016 but can I remove them all immediately for violating the lease twice? And does this warrent keeping their damage deposit?
2) I was notified by the company March 25 that there are mice in the garage. I immediately dropped off bait and traps and spoke to one of the renters who said the problem has been going on for months. Is there not responsibility on the renters to notify me immediately of pest problems? It would have been easier to control 2 mice instead of 20. On my last visit, I see the traps are sitting unbaited up high in a box. Is this willful neglect? I provided the means for pest control and they are not using them.
Thanks for any suggestions you may have.
Sue
Hi Sue,
You need a court order to legally vacate them and it will take a few weeks to a month to reach that point. You should start documenting and sending letters to the company explaining the issues. If this comes to a hearing the documentation you start now will be evidence, so voice all your issues and breaches.
Since the lease is up likely before you’ll even get to an eviction date you’ll want to point out the smoking issue and that they will need to deal with the residual smoke residue issue. Realistically they will likely walk away and leave you to deal with it via the security deposit.
Regarding the mice, again include this as part of the correspondence with the company. Yes they should be responsible to update you, but at the same time you are required to inspect your property so it’s shared blame.
Bill
Hi Bill ,
Quick question about the return of my damage deposit as I assume I will shortly be served with an eviction notice . I live in a multi unit condominium and as far as I know , each unit is privately owned by separate owners . I’m assuming this gives the owner the right to set specific rules for each unit as many units do have dogs and cats
When I moved in , it was stated on the lease that pets were not allowed . Due to an imperfect situation and short time line , I signed the lease for this condo as it was a reasonable price , despite knowing that I do have a cat. We have lived here 4 months now and have not had any problems or warnings , however I recently received a notice saying that another tenant(s) had placed multiple complaints of said animal and I have one week to remove it permanently from the property. I am in a slightly better situation now and am choosing to look into moving opposed to giving away my pet ( seems silly but it’s not something I can bear ) , however am wondering what my rights are in terms of retaining some or all of my damage deposit . I am a meticulously clean person and have caused no damage to the property , in fact it is in better condition now then when I moved in . I pay my rent on time , every time , and my damage deposit is in the neighbourhood of $1500 . Any information you have would be very appreciated .
Thank you
Darby
Hi Darby,
Often in condo units the rules are set by the condo board and their rules overrule the Residential Tenancy Act. So even if the landlord permitted dogs, but the condo board didn’t, you lose. Unsure what the specifics are here, but just a general heads up for people.
I definitely understand not giving up the pet, they do become family, so moving seems like the best option and currently the market is your friend. Many landlords are desperate around December and January as those tend to be slower times of the year to find tenants.
The landlord may attempt to retain a portion of the deposit, but they would have to prove damage. If you did a walk through inspection that both the landlord (or their agent) and you signed, you will also do this on the way out, so make sure you review it carefully and take lots of pictures.
If you get an eviction notice, depending on the item line I’d suggest writing a letter back to the landlord explaining that due to the eviction notice you will do your best to move out ASAP, hopefully November 1st if timelines permit. This may open their options to try and retain your deposit for breaking the lease, but if they initiate the eviction it gets into a gray area and if you take them to the RTDRS to dispute it you will likely win, based on leaving the property pristine!
Hope that helps,
Bill
Hi Bill,
I have 5 brothers. We each inherit a 5th of my deceased fathers estate. The problem is that 1 brother won’t vacate the home. We gave him a few months to get his things in order and he could stay in the house over winter. This was 2 years ago. He has never paid rent and expects us to pay the taxes on the estate. One brother is the executor of the estate but can’t seem to get the other brother to leave.
What must the executor do to evict the brother who doesn’t want to leave?
Thank you kindly.
Hi Scott,
You’re getting into issues beyond a standard eviction which include estate law and possibly many other areas. You may need to consult with a lawyer specializing in estate law for this and it will likely involve going to court for some type of hearing.
Bill
I live in the basement of a mainfloor/ basement house. The tenant upstairs is excessively loud between the hours of 1am and 5am. I tried for the first year living there to sort it out directly with the tenant (nicely). about 2 months ago I just had enough so advised my landlord of the situation. I have a written letter by the tenant and text messages showing clear admission to the excessive noise. The landlord then spoke to the tenant directly. It was quiet for about 3 weeks and now has started again. They are putting a noise notice on the tenants door today. But at this point i’m unsure i want to deal with this anymore.
Am I able to break my lease? or can they evict this tenant? how long does the eviction process take normally after a noise notice has been delivered?
Hi Stef,
You have a couple options, you can break your lease and if you communicate and work with your landlord they may help you transition out easily, or they may attempt to get you to forfeit your security deposit and try to add on additional costs.
Or you could wait out the situation and see how quickly or effectively the landlords deal with the problem. It may take one more complaint to get them to a situation where they could evict the tenant successfully, depending on how they have documented and prepared so far, and if that’s the case it could take a few weeks to potentially the end of the month if they started the process right away and know what they are doing.
A single noise complaint may not be enough to warrant an eviction, two may and three would definitely be enough, but ultimately it comes down to how experienced the landlord is with the eviction process. If they are in over their head, it could result in not getting an eviction, dragging the process out and you finding out in a couple months it’s not worth the hassle and leaving on them.
Bill
Hi Bill,
New to the site – looking to find some answers regarding our basement tenants smoking. We just recently moved into the main floor of a duplex and were told by our landlord upon move in that there is strictly no smoking and no parties and that same went for the other places as well. While doing our initial walk through we mentioned to the landlord that the smell of smoke in the place was almost overwhelming in both our entrance way (shared entrance with basement tenants) as well in all the rooms due to it coming up through our vents and the landlord just told us he didn’t smell anything… Well we are now 3 weeks into our term and the smell of smoke has just gotten worst and worst, I’ve even wiped down our walls and floors to try and get rid of some of the smell – it is quite obvious that the basement tenants do smoke in their place and we have to deal with it upstairs! We have told the landlord quite a few times that the smell of smoke is just too overwhelming and he just doesn’t seem to believe us. In this situation, what can we do to resolve this issue with our landlord ignoring our concerns with the smoking??
Hi Ally,
I’d let the landlord know that you need to break the lease due to a misrepresentation of the property. You leased it based on it being non-smoking, but it’s obviously not.
So if they can’t get the situation corrected, you will need to break the lease and due tot he misrepresentation, he has no recourse.
He either has to step up and make it non-smoking, or he just carries on making it smoking and letting you out of the lease.
Make sense?
Bill
Hey bill,
New to the site, I have a quick question about noise issues. Two people and myself live on the main floor of an old duplex with a unit in the basement. Some new people moved into the basement and have been complaining to the landlord that we are too loud. Our so called “loudness” is due to our walking and talking. This caused our land lord to make some lease amendments which state we have to limit noise after 11, and try to limit loud bangs in general. We signed this, and now we are still getting complaints from the people in the basement because we are too loud after 11, which most times we are just talking or walking in our unit, no tv, no music, just simply walking and talking. I am just curious can this be grounds for eviction? We are literally just living in our unit, and it’s too loud. It is a bit ridiculous and driving us crazy. I want to tell them to mind their own business, and leave us alone, but I want to remain civil and not get evicted. Any thoughts on this situation?
Hey Brad,
First off, I really dislike these situations. You never know who is really at fault, whether some people are hyper sensitive or some people are blissfully unaware of their noise levels.
Worse it could be an issue that could have been avoided with either extra insulation between the levels or when landlords use cheap solutions for laying laminate versus the more expensive insulating underlay. So many variables and rarely a simple fix.
My first question for you would be whether there were ever any issues previously with the prior tenants or has this just popped up with the new individuals? If not this would be your first line of defence if for any reason an eviction popped up. If they never had an issue it may be just an incompatibility with each other and it’s possible this may never resolve itself.
The prior tenants may have been night owls and these individuals may be morning people, that won’t self correct.
Bottom line, unless you’re getting noise complaints from the neighbours it might be rather tricky for the landlord to evict you or the other individuals upstairs for noise complaints without corresponding evidence. It will however lead to an uncomfortable living environment if you simply can’t get along with the downstairs tenants due tot he proximity alone!
You may want to contact the landlord and if there wasn’t issues before this tenant explain that and see if there may be options for adding insulation to the floor/ceiling to reduce noise. If it’s a floating ceiling downstairs or there is ready access either blown insulation or manually installed insulation may help the situation. It might even be as easy as putting a new rug upstairs in the main traffic area to deaden footsteps and noise.
I wouldn’t suspect eviction would necessarily be the option at this point, but if something can be done to reach a happy middle ground it may make this work out better.
Bill
Hi Bob,
I have a question regarding a judgment that was awarded to me as I am the landlord. The tenant agreed to make regular payments and followed through until about two weeks ago. I’ve received a quarter of the money from them but now he’s not responding to me. I am still owed thousands of $. I know my next step is to file this with court but I heard it’s a long process.
My question is should I involve a lawyer? Should I wait for this person to respond to me. It’s been 2 weeks with no reply from them.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thank you
Marie
Pssst, it’s Bill…
Hey Marie,
If they’re still tenants and they missed the payment laid out in the Stay Order, now they are in breach of the order and you need to move to the next stage to get them out. Don’t wait.
They should have given you the steps at the hearing, but basically now you have to file that they are in default of the order and you need to file for possession of the property at which point you can get the bailiff in allowing you to change the locks.
You can hire a lawyer to do this at considerable cost, but making it hand’s free for yourself, or you can do it by going to the courthouse yourself. I’d recommend talking to a bailiff as well to get any other details they may require accomplished at the same time.
Bottom line, don’t wait as it may require you going through the eviction process again.
Bill
Hi Bill,
Don’t know where I got Bob from, my apologies 🙂
Just to clear this up. They are ex-renters. They have been gone for months. It was a painful task of getting my property ready again to re-rent. I gathered all my information and pictures and went after this couple. I was awarded judgment in January of this year. The ex-tenants agreed to the damages and ask me they could pay off the amount in payments to keep their names out of the collections. As of two weeks ago he will not respond to me and has stopped payments.
I’m just frustrated as I once again I offered compassion and they have decided to pull a fast one.
Hi Marie,
Unfortunately now that they are gone your job gets tougher if you’re trying to collect. Another lesson why you can’t let the outstanding money run up.
If you know where they work you can go back to court and go through a process to get their wages garnished. Unless they have a good job though, this doesn’t work too well. If they are in an industry that has high turnover, once they get $400 or $500 taken off a pay check they often quit and go get a new job which leaves you trying to track them down again.
You can try a collections company, but they’ll likely just try and harass them into paying which doesn’t work too well, or lastly you can sit on this and if they try and change how they live when they got to get financing on a new vehicle or heaven forbid a new home they will have to clean up any outstanding judgments first.
Bill
Hi bill I was just wondering on how it would work wen me and my bofriend rent his aunts house and we do not have a legal lease stating this that we rent there home from them nor do we get rent recepites. But my boyfriend has kicked me and my son out stating I have to go because I am trespassing as we do not have a lease here all the enmax (electricty) bills are paid through my bank accout for this place I pay part of the bills and part of the rent aswell . So my boyfriend says his aunt and the cops can make me leave today is that true . I will leave in the summer as my 12 yr old son goes to school in the area and I can not afford to move out right away with the cost of rent and damage deposit and a moving truck . From mom and son who need to know that we have some options thanks so much
Hi Holly,
You’re getting into a tricky area as you may not be necessarily covered by the Residential Tenancy Act as much as Family Law. Depending on how long you have lived together the rules may all change. you may need to consult a family lawyer to determine your options.
The trespassing angle probably wouldn’t hold up very well and if he tries to force it you could always call the police in for yourself and explain to them the situation. They’ll likely tell him he will have to go to court to get it decided.
Bill
Can I charge landlord for the place I am moving into for cleaning? I have signed a lease was excited, nice place. Just went to do another walk after the contents is out from landlord , previous tenants and its so dirty!. No exaggeration either! The ceiling has cob webs and walls haven’t been washed in ages , bathroom still had their dirty shower curtains . I haven’t brought my things into house yet . I have to clean first.
Hi Mey,
You may want to negotiate with the landlord about the cleaning and any costs involved. This can be a tricky situation when one tenant moves out and another moves right in. If the landlord followed the correct procedures and did walk throughs with both incoming and outgoing tenants he should be able to hold back some of the deposit of the departing tenants to cover cleaning.
If he did, he should be offering to pay you for this. If he didn’t or he’s hoping to pocket the money himself, you may be stuck cleaning it, but you only have to leave it in the same or similar condition to how it was when you moved in. That doesn’t help for now, but gives you some ideas.
Bill
Hello Bill,
Last fall is when I first started dealing with this issue: The counter in the kitchen (laminate) had started lifting up, it proceeded to constantly get water below (from leaky nearby tap and normal kitchen counter use) and is now wavy and damaging counter frame underneath. Later on, the landlord had gotten quotes to get this fixed and now wants to charge me around $3000-$4000 (my damage deposit is $1850). I am not 100% sure if this is really my fault because a)it’s quite an older kitchen and I feel like this would have happened regardless, b) the nearby tap leaks and has been addressed c) I do not feel as though the counter was purposely or carelessly damaged. The landlord has said that it IS my fault because of the way it has been used. At first the landlord agreed to pay about 40% of the costs to repair it, and I was okay with that because I truly thought it was my fault. If I do not pay, then they won’t have it repaired, I am stuck here for another year and during this time it could get worse and finally, I won’t get any damaged deposit back. If I do pay, then I am willing to take full responsibility and I will have learned my lesson. Please advise as to what should happen and who is responsible. Thank you for you time.
Hi Kimberly,
Unfortunately there is no exact answer for you. If it started lifting up, it should have been replaced right away or some sort of solution should have been looked into. Water can do some nasty things to counters and cabinets, but was the damage caused by the initial water, or ongoing water? That’s a debate all by itself.
Hopefully you have records of updating the landlord about the leak as you may need this if it ends up requiring a hearing to get your deposit back. The landlord may be using this as an opportunity to get some of their repairs done via your deposit, so you’ll need to prove a) they were notified of the initial leaking b) the initial leaking caused the initial damages and c) the repairs needed to be done to the counter anyway, any additional degradation was just wear and tear related to the initial issue.
If you can’t prove any of this the landlord may be able to come after you for additional expenses, but it may be a tough hill and they may just use your deposit to cover at least a portion of the repairs.
You should be aware the landlord doesn’t have to give you your deposit back when you move out. They have ten days after you move to refund your deposit or to provide what is left along with a statement of any deductions.
If you find the deductions are incorrect or you’ve hit a brick wall with the landlord you can go the the RTDRS to file an application to get what you feel back is fair, although then it would be in the hands of the hearing officer which depending on the evidence both parties provide may or may not help you!
Hope that helps answer some questions, although as I explained to start, there are a lot of variables here that can change how it plays out,
Bill
Hello,I am new to this site and need some info.We have been residing in the same residence for 7+ yrs,rent always paid on time,no complaints,nothing and are having issues with a neighboring building (not owned by ours).My son and another child were throwing pine cones at girls,the girls were throwing big rocks back at them which caused a rock to go through a window and cracked it and have admitted to this.The other manager of neighboring building is demanding payment from me for the window.I told him to contact the police and have this matter resolved,still waiting.Now he says he will contact the manager of my building and says he will get us evicted if we dont pay him.says we can have you thrown out in 14 days.Is this legal?No damage was caused by my child, and I even offered to pay 1/4 since 4 children were goofing off.He says,no he wants all the money from me.Can we be thrown out by our owners when the buildings are not even the same owners and we have never caused damage to anything in ours?pls help
Hi Shari,
I think at this point he is posturing. He can’t directly get you evicted for something like this although he can cause some potential friction between you and your landlord if he paints you as a bad tenant. Contact your landlord, explain the situation and make sure you keep him appraised of the situation and it will likely fade away.
Bill
Hi, I rent rooms in my home so I know my situation falls under the Innkeepers Act. I had a tenant come home intoxicated to her room with a man I didn’t know. Generally I am ok with visitors but not at 3am. Her bedroom door was open so I told the tenant her visitor couldn’t be there. She then became belligerent and told basically told me off. I ended up having the RCMP attend as she had woken up another tenant and we both had to work in the morning. The visitor left quietly without incident. The tenant was charged with criminal mischief and taken to RCMP station and held for 8 hours. Now that she has returned she seems to be under the impression that I cannot evict her without 3 months notice. I’ve always had verbal agreements with my tenants as I’ve never had issues until she came along. I know from now on this will have to change. This isn’t the first issue I’ve had with her being intoxicated and having uninvited guests. I realize I’ve been too lenient perhaps and its come back to bite me. The officer attending wasn’t that familiar with the Innkeeper Act as I suspected most aren’t. I’m just wondering how what steps to take to get her out as I don’t want her hanging around for 3 months and have my bills run up or get burned for rent. My other tenants really are model tenants and I would have to see them leave. I’m just curious about my options as I had to take a day off work and would rather not have to take off more than necessary. Thank you so much for your time
Hi Darcy,
I can understand your concerns about late night visitors, it’s a policy I recommend people address in their leases.
In your particular situation the tenant doesn’t fall under the Residential Tenancy Act, so that three months is inapplicable. I’d suggest giving her an ultimatum, be out by X day and she’ll get her deposit back if the room is in proper condition, and tell her if she’s not back by X day you will proceed to remove her goods, change the locks and then charge her daily for storage of her goods until they are picked up.
Also since you had to clean and prep her room the majority if not all of her deposit may be forfeit. You can follow up with her that if she feels this is unfair she can take you to court after the fact at her expense to determine if it was unfair.
Now depending on your scenario, this can blow back on you, but the majority of the tenants in this situation will take the safe route and pack up and leave before they find themselves locked out. If you have done something against the rules the courts could find against you and you may face a possible judgment, but in Canada these are actually reasonable unlike the US where people get damages, court costs and more.
Sometimes you just have to take a strong position and move forward.
Hope that helps,
Bill
Hi Bill,
I really would appreciate some help on this one. I have been given a 14 day eviction notice for Noise complaints. In the middle of December I did have the caretaker come down and ask me to keep it down, he was extremely rude, and I’m sure he had a right to be. On Saturday Feb. 07 he came down to my door at 11 05 PM (my friend looked at the time when he came to to the door). Prior to that 2 friends and I had been talking, and listening to music, but at a reasonable volume. Again, he was extremely rude. I apologized and told him that my friends were leaving, but I felt that we weren’t being aggressively loud. He became even more irate, accused me of banging on walls and my ceiling, something I have never done. I asked him if he realized that the boiler was creating something called steam knock, and the pipes were banging constantly and I asked him what suite he lived in and he screamed “that’s a threat, you can’t threaten me” and ran down the hall, screaming that he was “issuing a 24 hour eviction notice”. I simply wanted to give him a maintenance request. My friends witnessed the entire incident and were completely dumbfounded by this behaviour.
Unfortunately I did call the company he works for, and left an angry message telling them about vicarious liability and that they’re responsiblity for their employees behaviour. I did not hear from the caretaker until I came to my door on Feb.13 and a 14 day eviction notice was taped to my door for substantial breach for noise. In the interests of brevity and honesty, I left unfortunate messages for the organization he works for, finally reached them on Feb. 17, they were extremely rude as well and I was told that they had written notices from my neighbours about noise and that the caretaker has always been a professional and that I was extremely intoxicated on the date in question (which I was not). I have never been told about my neighbours complaints and I have never technically received a warning, I was just told to keep the noise down.
Also as a side note, I live directly across the street from a bar, which I have had noise problems with in the past, cars are constantly racing outside the building, roof construction has been going on with jack hammering and music at 8 AM, along with the pipes in the building knocking, so I am wondering if some of this noise could be blamed on me. Also I have not been given a buzzer code so that Saturday night my friend was yelling like an idiot, trying to find my suite (at 8 PM, so not late). Finally, a few months ago I had a homeless person directly outside my window late at night screaming and kicking my window, and I had to go deal with him (not sure where the caretaker was for this one), again something that was likely blamed on me.
I’m sorry for the length of the question, but I wanted to cover my bases here. So at most I have been made aware of 2 instances of Noise and am just wondering what you think my chances are for an appeal? Given that they apparently have written complaints from my neighbours (again I was not made aware of these) I am wondering if it is even worth it to file an appeal with RTDRS. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
PS>I am extremely afraid of losing my entire security deposit as I’ve read that the property company has done this to tenants for even the slightest of perceived damage.
Hi Derek,
Some of your actions in response may work against you. If you feel you are being evicted incorrectly then your option is to get this in front of a hearing officer or judge which either requires you to write them an objection letter stating why it isn’t entirely you and what the reasons for it may be.
Alternatively you can wait for the 14 day notice to end and then they will have to file at the RTDRS or courthouse to move forward. If you don’t object and start providing proof it wasn’t possibly you it could make defending yourself in a hearing harder, so the letter of objection may be your best bet.
Bill
Hello, Bill. I have a few questions regarding my roommate, though I do not feel comfortable posting it publicly. Is there a possibility you can e-mail me? I will pay a consulting fee if need be. Thanks.
Hi Jamie,
I have consulting options listed at the top of the AlbertaEviction.com site. I charge $50 for a 30 minute consultation, plus I have guides available that walk landlords through the eviction process using the RTDRS and guides that walk landlords through how to use both 14 and 24 hour eviction forms listed.
I don’t have anything that specifically addresses roommates scenarios as each situation is different, so people generally use the consultations to get answers.
I used to provide most of this for free, but over the years people have taken advantage of me and my time so badly I’ve had to remove my phone number from the site and also stagger when I reply to comments. This weekend alone I have had five people email and leave comments asking for help and this isn’t including the normal comments or emails I get.
It seems the more I give, the more people simply want for free and I’ve had to curtail it. Bottom line, if someone owns a $300,000 plus property, is dealing with losing rent of $500 or more per month or has a tenant driving them crazy that they don’t know what to do with, $50 for 30 minutes of my time is an acceptable trade off for the return they get. Perhaps I’m wrong, perhaps I should get off my soapbox, but at the end of the day this allows me to help the people who really do want help while balancing my time and my time with my family.
Bill
Hello Bill
Here is my question about eviction. I signed a one year lease agreement and just move here from a different province. I just started my leaese back in October and now because the economy is down I got laid off from work and unable to pay my rent. Therefore, I inquire to my landlord what are my options and they want me to pay 3 months worth of rent. I intentionally missed my payment so they can evict me and just pay for the months i did not pay.
Are there any options to get out of a fixed term without going through eviction?
And in the even that I get evicted and will gladly move, do I get my deposit back ?
Hi Arls,
Although not paying isn’t the best option it is an option. The downside though is you could find yourself evicted sooner rather than later and you may incur some additional costs and potentially a judgment on your credit report if there is an outstanding balance.
The landlord can’t force you to pay for the extra three months to break the lease, they can however charge you advertising costs and potentially one month’s rent depending on how hard it is to re-rent the space.
Your preferred course of action would have been to provide your landlord with a written notice of your intent to break the lease along with a time line and at that point to offer assistance in getting the place rented to the next tenant to mitigate any losses on your behalf or the landlords. This could have involved assisting with showings or making additional efforts to keep the place tidy.
Of course you don’t have to do the extra steps of assisting, but it does make it easier for the landlord to plead you were uncooperative and caused delays in getting the space re-rented leading to them retaining your deposit.
As for whether you get your deposit back it all depends on how you cooperate with the landlord and where the re-renting goes. Depending on the landlord the worst case is they retain the deposit and re-rent it in which case you need to take them to the RTDRS to recover your deposit.
Document everything along the way and show you are being cooperative and it makes the process much easier. Withholding rent would not indicate being cooperative so see what you can do to make amends with this.
Hope that helps,
Bill
Hello
I have a few questions about eviction ? I am just not sure how and where do i send my question or is there a number i can contact?
Hi Arls,
This is the place. As it mentions at the beginning of the comment section, I respond to comments in 24-72 hours. If someone is in urgent need of answers, I do offer a consulting service listed at the top of the page that I can usually respond in as little as an hour to 12 hours.
Your question is next in the queue and I will be responding shortly.
Bill
Hi Bill, first let me say this is some serious dedication to your trade! Of course, like the other posters here, i have come with a question regarding the legality of my landlords actions recently, cumulating in a 3 month eviction notice being served to me yesterday.
First, i will quote the eviction notice in its entirety. Dont worry, though… It’s not too long.
“Tenant Copy
3 Month End of Tenancy Notice
Address: basement suite, actual street address
Tenancy will end on March 31, 2015
Reasons:
1. Careless disposal of live cigarettes. (pictures)
2. Refusal to remove garbage from suite resulting in bug infestations through entire house. (pictures)
3. False accusations of heating vents not working.
4. Constant confrontational attitude towards landlord.
5. Burning candles and or other materials in suite which smell upstairs like there’s a fire in house, don’t know whether to phone fire department because of false alarm.
Any peace disturbing incidents in the next 3 months will result in a 14 day eviction notice.
signed, landlord”
Obviously I omitted my actual address and the landlords name for privacy’s sake. Both he and I live in the house, he in the main floor, and I rent the basement for my daughter and I.
What i want to know is, are these reasons legal for kicking me out? If I where to fight this notice, do you think that I could succeed? I’ve been trying to move from this apartment for the last 6 months, but this is Calgary… There are very few rental units in this city that are vacant, and having a teenager makes us undesirable tenants apparently so while i have been looking, I’ve been looking to move up since this place is a inspectors dream for tickets anyway, not laterally.
I could easily counter any of the issues that he has listed (they are simply not true). My cigarette butts go in a metal can outside. I do remove garbage, i just wont let him handle it (long story) so i take it to the bin on the corner, at the gas station where a family member works. I am curious to see what pictures he has, though. Any time that ive complained about air not coming out of my heat vents, it was because there was no air coming out of my heat vents. The generally resumed working by the time i returned to my unit from complaining though. I have confronted him on several issues, such as blocking my fire escape and removing light bulbs from the entrance/exit path to my unit (a short section of unfinished basement that is used for storage by the landlord that i must pass through to get outside). And im pretty sure there are no laws against using scented candles to make my home smell nice. As to the smell of fire, i cannot answer since I have never been asked about a possible source (that is a curiosity as well, I would assume that if a person was unsure about calling the fire department, they would at least knock on my door to see if there was a fire. I suspect this statement is just fluff to add weight to his other “issues” though).
Im pretty sure the last line about 14 day notice is just an open threat designed to allow him to say (and i suspect he will, around the middle of this month) that ive disturbed the peace and must move.
Anyway, any advice you have on this topic would be greatly appreciated!
Also, can your consultation service help create a brief for a hearing before the RTDRS? I’ve spent time (quite a bit, actually) going through the RTA and i have a pretty decent understanding but there may be angles i am not seeing, or my information may not even be correct (i rely on the internet, but who knows when the pages where updated!)
Thank you again for your time!
Signed,
Colin Bryant
Hi Colin,
Since it was a fixed term and the landlord didn’t renew, it’s defaulted to a month to month tenancy. That means he can’t simply evict you, he really requires some good reasons. Which he seems to be lacking…
I’d call his bluff and force him to take you to the RTDRS to evict you where it sounds like you can easily have his reasons thrown out. My consulting service would walk you through the basic process, advise on ways to protect yourself and the steps you need to take. I don’t help bad tenants get out of proper evictions and I don’t help bad landlords evict good tenants, (although if I did I bet I could make enough to retire this year sadly). I just try to advise people so they know the right steps or at least the steps that work!
Bill
P.S. I’ll just delete your second comment as I address the fixed term part here!
Wow! Thank you for your prompt reply! I suppose now I need to find out how to “call his bluff”. I really appreciate this info, and I think I will be contacting your consultants in fairly short order to get that ball rolling. This landlord has a long history already with calgary bylaw enforcement, and I think he only gets away with being a bad landlord because people either don’t know their rights or aren’t ambitious enough to stand up for them. I intend to change that trend. The calgary rental market is competitive enough without adding bad landlords to the mix.
Signed,
Colin Bryant
Hi Colin,
You can call his bluff by responding civilly and if you do it verbally also follow up in writing with an objection letter to the eviction notice along with reasons why. Whatever you respond with will be part of your evidence fi it does go to the RTDRS.
And you’re probably right, people get away with things when they aren’t knowledgeable about their options, unfortunately ti works both ways. Tenants take advantage of naive landlords and landlords take advantage of naive tenants. Standing up to either side is best for everyone, but it’s not always the easiest, to bravo to you!
Side note, I wouldn’t object right away, I’d wait for two of the three months notice to go by first and document every interaction/issue that pops up. If he slips in a 14 day eviction notice somewhere then start your objection letter.
Regards,
Bill
Hello Bill how are you doing ?My name i Paul, and i am also a law abiding and excellent tenant who pays on time , and also an ex veteran who served in Bosnia. I have a few questions that you could anser for me ,i would appreciate it .I reside in a duplex unit and after 7 months with a horrible troublesome tenant, constant harassment from him ,threats and dealing with police over this period, a drug seizure, smoking cigarettes and marijuana in the house , late night parties ,tirades of anger he was recently evicted , finally . Which the property management team whom manage the property told me its very hard to evict someone i figured my peaceful enjoyment was being totally affected , our quality of life was gone ,my fiance during this time frame also lost a baby .This tenant more then enough violated his terms of the lease warrantying easy eviction. Because at the end the tenant was even trying to break into our apt by picking the locks ,and ramming the door i requested steel doors to be put on the apt between the apts and both of the ext doors which are just hollow cored doors which can easily be kicked in .The property manager told us it wouldnt be likely that we would get the doors i requested, we not only not feel safe without the security of a steel door, the doors are not energy efficient at all there is a lot air leaking in which cause us to elevate the heat . I have mentioned 7 months ago on the in inspection the problems and with the intention of getting all the issues fixed to no avail nothing has been done . We have a leak also in our kitchen window from ice damming , and possibly poor shingles,that has leaked enough that the counter top is like malformed .There was a makeshift hasty job done on the same wall that one day i leaned on it my hand went through the wall i know there is mold there i can see it on the interior as well there are electrical issues where the doorbell was rung and got hot and fused itself so it kept ringing till i disconnected it the fence outside is so dilapitated thats its falling down . I have a 7 yr old daughter i wont allow to stay here, because of these issues .So after repeated attempts i was seeking an abatement of rent how do i go about that ?.And is there a way i can still force them to do what i requested ? The problem tenant is gone but he had rage issues and ADHD AND OTHER MENTAL ISSUES ,and now has conditions against him regarding us so much so that he could come back here to retaliate .Once i seek the abatement how much do i pay or is that decided judicially ?Also if i pay this abatement for the next 5 months till the end of the lease does that mean they wont renew the lease because of the abatement ? Thanks for your valuable output Bill your service is greatly appreciated , take care God bless.
Hi Paul,
It’s only hard to evict tenants if there is no evidence, with the paper trail it sounds like they must have created it would have been a fairly easy process for an experienced property manager. This may have simply been beyond them, but fortunately it sounds like the main problem is gone, whether it’s over may remain to be seen.
I believe you can apply for an abatement of rent via the Residential Tenancy Dispute Resolution Service, but from the sounds of it, you are much likely better off simply moving. The list of problems sounds extensive and even with an abatement of rent, it becomes even less likely you will get the repairs done. If the landlord is simply cash poor, taking more cash away won’t give them enough to do the fixes and may even lead to more problems.
If they aren’t cash poor, they may simply be cheap and may find opportunities to evict you or simply not renew any upcoming leases with you. any abatement decisions would be made by the hearing officer and they may decide there isn’t enough to validate it. As for the replacement of the door, that would be unlikely.
Hope that gives you some ideas to think about.
Bill
Hi Bill, I am working through the process, and your insights are very helpful ! Thanks for sharing !
A couple of questions,
I have two tenants sharing a townhouse of mine. Both are on the lease. Tenant “A” is the one I would like to evict and have started the process… Because they are both on the lease, RTDRS said that I had to name them both on the application. Is it enough if I just state in my ‘evidence’ that I am willing to work with Tenant “B” and keep him on under a new lease agreement once the dust has settled, or would it be in his best interest to put something in writing as to why he should / could stay on, that would be submitted to RTDRS.
As Tenant “B” works during the day, if he did write something to be submitted, could I drop it off on his behalf?
Second question… Since the application was made, and before the hearing on Dec 17, if there have been more utility payments owing, or other expenses incurred, can I amend the application as long as it is 24 hours prior to the hearing?
Thanks.
Lori
Hi Lori,
This may depend on more of why you are evicting the tenant. If tenant B is causing issues for the property and the other tenant it may be fine to include something about not wanting to evict tenant A and if there is an option to retain the one tenant you would consider it.
If however, it is just the two tenants not getting along, but you have an affinity for tenant A you may get the eviction thrown out for lack of an adequate reason.
As for amending the application, you have up to 24 hours prior to the hearing to amend it, but you also need to get the amendment to the tenants(s) being evicted so they can prepare any defence.
Bill
Hi Bill,
Thank you for your response. I just have a quick follow up re: tenants breaching a non-smoking clause. How does one prove a tenant is smoking within the suite if you do not physically reside in the building? Does numerous documented email complaints from fellow residents work? Do I need to enter the suite (with notice of course) and see if I can smell it or see it?
Thanks,
Janeen
Hi Janeen,
Proving tenants are smoking in a property can be a tough situation. Physical evidence, documented complaints and visual damage can be helpful, but it can come down to who the hearing officer or the judge believes if the tenant chooses to fight it.
If the tenant comes across as incredibly credible, polite and friendly and the landlord seems aggressive it can backfire fairly quickly. fortunately the majority of the time the tenants know they are in the wrong and don’t bother to show.
Bottom line, you will need evidence and the more the better.
Bill
Hi Bill,
I have a question for you. I have some tenants that moved in to the upper suite of my rental property beginning of August. Because the house has two suites, main floor and basement, I have the utilities sent to me in my name, then scan them and email them to my tenants with the amount that they owe (66% for the upper suite, and 33% for the lower). My tenants have paid their rent on time for each month so far, but when I emailed their first utility bill they didn’t acknowledge it or pay it. I then followed up with a phone call and left a message, which they also haven’t acknowledged. I’d now like to send the second bill, but I know they probably won’t pay or acknowledge it. When we talked about utilities when originally signing the lease I added to the lease in handwriting that they would be paying 2/3rds the utility bills and they and I both agreed on it and initialled it. I have found them to be very unpleasant to deal with on a number of other matters to both myself and to the downstairs tenants so I would like to evict them if possible for breach of lease. Is that an option? If not, what can I do?
Thanks Bill!
Kim
Hi Kim,
Send them a written dated letter informing them they have to have the utilities for the 1st month and this month to be paid to you by XX, give them a fair amount of time and either copy the relevant section of the lease they signed reminding them or just refer to it. Also let them know fi the payment isn’t made by XX date you will proceed with eviction.
Right now you are borderline on evicting them except for the non-payment. You will want to establish a history with them of non-compliance of the lease so follow up all calls with them with written documentation to create a paper trail making eviction easier if it continues.
Hopefully you have a fixed term lease in place which gives you the option of knowing they won’t be able to stay past the end of term. This at least gives you a deadline of having to deal with them and is explained in several of my posts on here, in my emails if you’re registered and in my lease packages which are available on this site.
Hope that helps,
Bill
Hi bill great site very informative thanks for all the information! I have a question hoping u can help. I rent an apartment in edmonton and 3 years ago I got a warning for marijuana smelling the hallways. I haven’t smoked inside since then I go onto the patio with the door closed. I got a notice the other day saying that people have been complaining about the smell again in the hallways and the patio. The thing is, the whole floor has smelled of marijuana as soon as I’m home from work, for a good month. I know my landlord has never seen my smoke on my patio. Can I be blamed for the hallway even though I know it wasn’t me? I feel like if I come clean about being on the patio, I will be blamed for both. I left my landlord a note to call me & I’m not sure how to go about this conversation. Thanks so much
Hi Mandy,
You’re in a tough situation. Now just because others are smoking marijuana in the building doesn’t mean it’s a get out of jail card for you, even though you’re trying to restrict where you smoke. On the other hand, if it’s not you causing the smell in the hallways then it’s unfair for you to take the blame for that.
Add in the landlord being aware you are a marijuana smoker and as the saying goes, where there’s smoke there’s fire.
Since the landlord already knows you smoke, you’re already in violation, you may just need to get on their good side and it may be too late for that. But better late than never. I’d think explaining your situation may be the best route without pointing blame at everyone else.
It’s no guarantee they believe you, and it’s no consolation to you if you’re honest and still get evicted, but at least you are being honest and hopefully helps you sleep better. They are already aware you smoke and an eviction is inevitable it seems otherwise.
Make sense?
Bill
Hi Bill,
I have been broken up with my girlfriend for a month and she refuses to leave my house. We were dating for one year. She does not have her name on the deed to the property nor on any bill that is paid for the residence. She does not pay rent, and we do not have a rental agreement. We don’t have any children.
What are my options for making her leave? Can I pursue an eviction via RTDRS? What if she damages my property?
Hi,
The big issue you may have is whether you fit under common law or not. If you do, it would take precedence over the Residential Tenancy Act or other Acts. You may need to consult with a family/divorce lawyer to confirm where you stand as there may be more at risk here than just evicting them.
Bill
Hi Bill,
I have a tenant in a six month fixed term lease and her boyfriend is living there with my consent but he is not on the lease. The building is non-smoking and I have had numerous complaints from other residents of the building of smoking in their suite when the boyfriend is home. It is stated in the lease that the building and suite are non-smoking and smoking on the premises is prohibited. I kindly informed them of this policy again. I just received another complaint from a resident that someone is smoking in the suite.
Would this breach justify serving an eviction notice or does it not meet the criteria?
Thank you kindly,
Janeen
Hi Janeen,
The onus is on you to prove they are smoking, if you can and it is against the rules of the lease, they have breached the lease and you can evict them and potentially withhold some of the security deposit if you need to repaint, or do extra to remove the smoke smell from the property.
At this point you can make the call whether to use an eviction notice or go directly to the RTDRS to have them evicted with a court order. If they don’t take your lease seriously, there is a good chance they may not take an eviction notice seriously either making going directly to an eviction hearing more favourable as a route to go.
If they don’t leave after the eviction notice time period has lapsed, then you have to go to a hearing anyway to get them removed.
Bill
Thanks Bill.
Follow up question- how does one prove a tenant is smoking if you’re not physically in the same building? Are numerous complaints from neighbouring tenants/owners enough? Should I go into the suite (with 24 hrs notice of course) and smell for smoke?
Thank you muchly,
Janeen
We let our roommates boyfriend move into the house and informed the landlord of the decision. At end end of August we received word from both of them that they would not be returning from BC back to Calgary. 1 week into September, our roommate paid her portion of the rent but still her boyfriend has not. We set up multiple dates and times for them to grab their belongings but they failed to show both times without any communication with us. We were left with no choice but to pack up their things separately into boxes and move their stuff out of their rooms so we could clean up since the landlord is doing a walk through with us this week. They showed up tonight threatening us saying we had no right to move their things. We really didn’t feel like we had a choice since they failed to show up twice, hadn’t paid rent and since the walk through is in 2 days. What do we do?
Hi Livia,
You tried numerous times to contact them and set up dates to remove their items, they failed to respond, failed to pay rent and failed to take any responsibility and then threatened you?
I’d probably suggest they grow up and take some responsibility for this, but barring them accepting that I wouldn’t worry about it. You’re not bound by the Residential Tenancy Act as you’re not the landlords their only recourse would be to take you to court which would most likely simply get thrown out unless you caused some kind of damage to their goods.
Bill
Hi there.
I have a question of behalf of my non-internet-savvy Aunt. She moved into an apartment and signed a 6-month lease. After being there for about a month, she had “fallen asleep” while cooking. The building fire alarms sounded and there was some smoke. No damage other than airing out required. While dealing with some PTSD issues, there are some current issues with alcohol abuse and had admittedly been drinking at the time. The following day she was issued a 24hr eviction notice for endangering others. She has left the premises within the time allotted. They are also saying that she is responsible for rent for the remainder of the lease or until a new tenant is found. Owning a rental property myself, I thought I was pretty familiar with the laws and this just doesn’t sound right. As there was no damage and no assault wouldn’t they be required to serve a 14day notice, not a 24h? And if they are evicting her for that reason, who is technically “ending the tenancy” in respect to her being responsible for rent until a new tenant is found?
Hi “Niece”,
There is definitely some issues here with endangering others. Did she have to leave in 24 hours , no, that would have meant the property managers would have been able to taken her to court to get a court ordered eviction. Would they have evicted her for public safety in 24 hours, potentially, unfortunately now that she is out it’s too late.
Regarding the rent, so while she did break the lease which lead to her eviction, she isn’t responsible for the duration of the lease, she would however be responsible for at least the rest of the month and potentially the next month. Generally though the onus is put back on the property managers/owners to get the unit re-rented as quickly as possible and if the unit was vacated in nearly the same condition as your aunt moved in, that shouldn’t be a problem.
If there was extensive cleanup, if repainting was required due to smoke damage or the ability to re-rent it quickly were impaired by your aunt’s actions or inactions when she vacated, they may be able to extend how long she is responsible for the rent.
With the current extremely high demand for rental space in Alberta though, anything beyond a few weeks (unless there was extensive work required) would be excessive and if your Aunt took them to court to challenge it she would most likely win.
Of course she would have to do this after the fact if they proceed with depositing any post dated checks or if they retain her security deposit.
Hope that provides some guidance,
Bill
Hi I was just wondering about my situation and looking for some answers. I had moved into a basement suite a couple months ago. I had gone to my landlords office to drop off post dated cheques for my rent withdrawal, the unit I was renting was going to be sold so I wads instructed to leave 2 post dated cheques and that I would be contacted to be informed of the new owners name so I could mail the rest of my lease terms post dated cheques in. The first months withdrawal hadn’t come out until the middle of the next month (first payment). I was out of province when the had try to contact me (phone was off, no caller ID for missed calls) and currently working out of town. Recently contacted (18th of the next month). Telling me I’m late on my rent and I need to go in and take them my cheques immediately. I find out the unit was sold sooner than expected. I find a 14-day eviction noticed taped to my outside door (4-plex) where all tenants of the building can see this notice, through a door to get to the shared laundry room. On the notice they demanded I pay a $10/day late fee ontop of my rent (18 days late). So my questions are, do they have any grounds to ask for a late fee over something I was made sure was covered? Do they have to serve the notice in another, less embarassing manner? As well I have emailed numerous times to have little issues with my places resolved like washers spewing water, the dryer hose keeps coming off and blowing hot, humid air mainly into my suite. With no responses what so ever.
Hi Carey,
I’m a little confused, they deposited the first check you dropped off late and then didn’t deposit the second one and have given you an eviction notice? Or did they use the two checks and now are giving you a notice?
This may be important later if they do try to evict you, so make sure you document and make this clear if it comes to a hearing. It would show you followed their rules and they simply didn’t update you or at least leave the appearance of not updating you.
As for the late fees, ignore them and simply pay the rent ASAP. Once you pay the rent the eviction notice (if it’s for non-payment) becomes null and void in Alberta. If they wish to try and get any late fees from you, they will have to pursue this in court or the RTDRS.
As for how they served notice it may be questionable, really they should have posted it on your unit door.
Finally regarding the little issues, you can go through the RTDRS or the courts forcing your landlord to make these repairs, but perhaps the new landlords will be more attentive if you can show you are paying the rent and this was an anomaly and not a trend. Barring that and the past problems, it may be easier to simply find a new place to live with less headaches!
Hope that helps,
Bill
Hello, I hope you can provide us with some advice. We have been in a fixed term lease with our landlord beginning July 15, 2013 and it ends tomorrow. We had a bit of a bumpy start but rent has been paid on time and sometimes early for the most part of the lease. In December the landlord presented us with receipts for uitlity costs that he incurred after we moved in, our lease states that utilities are not included in the rent and that is it. We signed up for our own utilities and pay them on our own, it appeared as if he did not call the companies to stop his service. He has given us a 14 day notice which we objected to as we cannot find anywhere in the RTA about utilities and a member at the RTDRS said utilities are not covered under the act. He also said that he was threatened with assault, in an email exchange and text we had said to him “we really want to find an amends to this issues and will fight for my family and by fight I mean make sure my family has a roof over our heads…” We have a hearing on July 23rd.
We have asked to speak to him face to face as text and email is impersonal and allow us to talk as we felt perhaps making arrangements on the this balance would be a good way to hopefully extend our lease to another year as we did get off to a rocky start and anytime we ask to meet with him we get messages like “pay the $” or “I’m not willing to discuss renewing a lease with this balance outstanding” so we felt he was “bait and hooking” us to pay the money without a chance for renewal. So we have been looking for a new place and in our area it has been a struggle we have had applications at over a dozen homes and the amount of homes in this area has been limited and every time we are told they have over 25 applications etc. so it has been tough. We finally have found a place but cannot move in until the 15th of August, if we do not move out tomorrow what should we do? Should we let him know as I really do not want a confrontation at the door, we have an 8 year old child and our priority is her and that is why it was so important for us not to have to move her schools and stay close to this area.
Our neighbors have told us that he has done this to the last few tenants who have lived here, that he is absent for most of the lease and then suddenly he is out of hand.
Anything you can suggest. Thanks
Hi Lynda,
First, if it’s a fixed term the landlord does not have to renew and technically you are supposed to be out today. The process though isn’t that simple.
He cannot come in today and change the locks on you, his next step is to file with the RTDRS or the courts to evict you as an overholding tenant. This will take two or three weeks due to the backlog, but eventually he will get you out, all legally.
You need to talk to him and explain by the time he goes to a hearing, files all the paperwork and gets an eviction it will likely only be a week maybe two until you can get into your new place. You will also need to pay for the next month in it’s entirety as you are going to be staying there and you may even want to provide all the new lease/paperwork for your next property so he knows you are serious.
He may wish to still proceed with the legal eviction, just to cover his butt and in case your move out falls through.
Also, if he seems to be very confrontational, feel free to have the police come by, they cannot do much, but they can protect the safety of your family and perhaps calm him down and let him know the process he has to go through.
If he does change the locks, you can also call the police to regain access to the property and then you will need to file with the RTDRS or the courts yourself as an illegal eviction against you.
So at this point you should be out today, it’s not the landlords fault you didn’t find a place at the end of your term, but you need to work with him and he really can’t get you out at this point for several more weeks and most likely you’d be granted until August 15th at this point anyway.
Hope that helps answer your question,
Bill
Hi Bill,
I had just served my tenant but I realized I made a silly mistake. I handed him the landlord copy instead of the tenant copy. I am pretty sure they are both the same but is this going to cause me any problems?
Hi SA,
They are the same, so you should be fine. I can’t guarantee ti won’t cause a problem, but it shouldn’t.
Bill
Thank you for your response, Bill!
Hi Bill
Just wondering if substantial breach would include tenants refusing to pay pet fees as initially agreed and then refusing to remove them. The lease specifies no pets without our written permission. They made a partial payment on pet fee after we posted a warning letter and promised the balance when they had money but nothing has been forthcoming. Only one of the original dogs is still there the other has been replaced with a larger, hairier dog and we were not notified. Tenants now claim they will be having this one put down so no fees will apply and shame on us for not being compassionate and allowing them some time with it. My guess is that will take about 4 months; the tenancy has 4 months left.
Rent has been paid late on 3 occasions- one for a bounced cheque in keeping with the lease they included a late fee with replacement cheque. On the other two they have not paid the late fees and I don’t think they intend to. The last two months rent were paid on time but when I ask for pet and late fees they repeatedly leave it off the cheque. They now suggest we take the pet fee and late fee from security deposit. I would consider this if I wasn’t already nervous that they will withhold the last month’s rent also. This would also mean there is no incentive for them to leave the property clean. I am tired of the run around and do not want to play these games any longer. I now know I should have taken a harder stand earlier but was optimistic they would pay. Do I have grounds for eviction or will I have to wait out the lease and take them to court to recover my loss? If eviction is an option would you give 14 day notice or go straight to RTDRS? The fixed tenancy has 4 months left. Thanks for any advice.
April
Hi April,
This seems to be a big problem lately as I have been fielding tons of comments and inquiries about what to do if tenants won’t pay the rest of the damage deposit, pet fess or other deposits after they have moved in and unfortunately, I don’t have great news.
It is imperative that everything is collected PRIOR to releasing keys to tenants.
Also, never ever take pet fees or rent out of security deposits. There is a reason it is there and that is to protect you later. Which it sounds like you already are well aware of. In this case, your best option will be to evict them for all the late payments.
If they paid this month late, or haven’t paid at all, I would proceed with an eviction on the grounds of continuous breach of the lease, this continuous breach being paying late as per the terms of the lease. If you simply evict for non-payment, under Alberta laws, if they pay up before the eviction date, the eviction is null and void. so don’t give them that option.
As for which method, if you’re serious, then either the RTDRS or the courts are the way to go. With an eviction notice, if they don’t leave by the end of an eviction period, then you still have to go to the courts or the RTDRS, but you have now given them an extra 16 days of potentially free rent.
It sounds like since they have already been giving you the run around, the eviction notice won’t scare them much and it will just give you more time to get frustrated.
Worst case, if for some reason the eviction fails, or the hearing officer puts them on a payment plan which allows them to stay, only if they pay on schedule, you will be rid of them in four months.
Hope that helps,
Bill
Thanks so much for your advice Bill. As they have paid the last two months on time I do not really have a case for that. Can I evict solely on the basis of refusal to either pay pet fees or remove pets and refusal to pay late fees? I have post dated cheques for next two months; am I able to return cheque to be reissued in correct amount? Just want to be sure I have a reasonable case before approaching RTDRS.
Hi April,
You have an option to go with the eviction for the pets. You may want to give them a 48 hour notice to have the pet removed, just for additional evidence, and then if it’s not removed move forward with the eviction.
The late fees will get thrown out and the pet fees will be a problem as they are to be collected prior to any pets, not after the fact.
B
Hi Bill,
I am a landlord and I am about to evict some tenants later today, with a bailiff. This is the first time that I have to go through this process; last time when I evicted tenants they complied with the RTDRS order and left on their own, but this time the tenants don’t want to leave.
You seem to know the eviction process in detail, if you have any advice for me regarding what to do in this situation, I would really appreciate it. I could use all the help I can get, I don’t want to do any mistakes.
I know that I have to do the move out inspection, and I have 10 days to give them the damage deposit back, but in this case there will be nothing left, as they owe me rent. I suppose I have to give them a statement of accounts showing the amounts owed. Can I ask them for an address where to mail them this statement?
I am also interested in any advice regarding how to proceed with any of their belongings that they might leave in the suite.
Thank you,
Q
Hi Q,
You definitely need to prepare a statement for them showing a breakdown of any holdbacks on the security deposit. Where to send it is always the challenge though as the evicted tenants aren’t always forthright about where they are moving.
You have two options, you can ask them for their forwarding address by explaining if there is any deposit remaining you will need to know where to send it or you can send it to their last known address. Which is your property. If they were knowledgeable enough to get mail forwarded they will receive it, if not, retain the letter to show proof that you did send it to the address you had.
As for their belongings, the basic rules state that if the value of the items is in excess of $2,000, you need to itemize and hold onto it for 30 days. After 30 days you can then auction the goods off to recover any shortfall owed to you and the remainder goes to the tenant. Realistically, anything of value they take leaving you just the junk.
If the items are worth less than $2,000 you can store them for 30 days and then dispose of them. To protect yourself, video tape everything, take photos and itemize the bigger items just in case they come back and say you threw out a $10,000 antique foot stool. Then when the video shows it was something that look like it came from a dumpster it won’t be much of an issue.
Hope that helps,
Bill
Thank you, Bill. Very good idea to send the statement to my property, at least I can show that I tried to reach them. They left only a small bed, some clothes, and some kids toys. They said it’s all garbage. Should I still keep it for a month?
Regarding the statement, what can I add to it, besides the rent they owe, cleaning expense, the $75 RTDRS filling fee? Can I add the bailiff expense too? In this case there are no more funds left from the damage deposit to cover this, but I would like to know for the future.
Thanks again for your fast and helpful response! Q
Hi Q,
Sorry for the slow response this time, I don’t get notifications of replies once a comment has been approved, I have to come back and check the comments!
If they deemed it’s garbage (ideally in an email or text for backup), then just get rid of it. The text or email is backup if they have a change of heart later. Also take pictures just in case.
You can apply everything in the judgment you received in the RTDRS hearing, so if the $75 was there, yes. The bailiff expense, you can’t though, you have to go back separately to try and get that and really it’s unlikely you’ll ever see it. As you mentioned by the time everything was said and done usually there is no money left and tenants in those types of situations never have the money to deal with old debts. It becomes a cost of doing business.
And once you’ve incurred that cost once or twice, hopefully it becomes a much clearer reminder about why you spend so much time with due diligence and screening before the next tenants get in!
Regards,
Bill
Thank you again, Bill, for your helpful response. You are right, the screening is very important; I’ve just found the Tenancy Bureau website, I don’t know how come I didn’t know about it sooner… I wish that all the landlords who have bad experiences with tenants share their experience on that site… It would be so helpful… And it’s free!
The tenants that I evicted already had a bad report there, from last year, for same issues. I did search their names on google when I processed their application, but nothing came up. When I found the Tenancy Bureau website and I searched the tenants name, both of them came up with a bad report. I added my report too… hopefully it will prevent a bad experience for a landlord in the future…
I don’t know if I can add the link to the website… in case it is acceptable, here it is:
http://www.tenancybureau.com/ca.php?Country=Canada
Hello
thank you so much for this great site. a lot of into to be looked at.
my family and i moved in to the main floor of a condo as of Dec 1 2013 (it was suppose to be 1 year lease but when we came to sign it he switched it to month to month which we agreed to because we needed to move) we have never been late on ren but we have been having troubles comming up with senate deposit. in lease it was to be paid in full by Jan 15 2014 but i lost my job and wasn’t able to have in full. we called landlord and said it wasn’t all going to be in on Jan 15 and to call us back to make a payment arrangment. he finally got back to us a month and half latter saying he has to talk to his lawyer first. then when he got back to us with he said only wants in full and he will not accept our payment plan of it all to be paid in full in 30 days. We said we would try but pent plan is the only way we can afford to pay rent and utilities while paying foe our child’s school and lunch fees. he said he only will except in full. we are still paying rent in time trying to by $1200 damage deposit on one income. he never got back to us for another month (we called every week to ask again for payment arrangements *he never retured our phone calls*) so after another month goes by he shows up at my door march 1 2014 with a 30 day termination of tenancy notice dated march 1 2014 for us to be out by march 31 2014 @ noon. the notice had spelling mistakes wrong lease day and it didn’t even tell us what we where getting evicted for just said violation of lease. i called landlord and tenant act and they told me to send an notice of objection and say our payment arrangement. i sent notice of. objection threw express mail and added to have signature. he never called or anything just shows up on April 1 2014 saying my rent check can’t be certified because the funds aren’t in there. My husband gets payied on April 4 but if the check is put in the bank my bank will pay it cause they know he gets payied 3 days latter. he said i gave him a bad check. i told him it can’t be certified. till Friday but it will clear by then and said he can call my husband after 5:30pm and talk to him. he just replyed with he will talk to his lawyer but we should consider our options a. when my husband talk to him on the phone he said we will have rent in full on Friday the 4th the landlord said ok he will be by to pick it up. we did offer to put it back in the back so he could just cash the check he said he doesn’t want to deal with our checks any more and only wants cway in hand from us and we said ok. the 4th came by and we called him to ask when he will be by to pick up rent he said he didn’t have a car to pick up could we drop it off we did sorry no we just sold our car to pay rent we offered again to put it in the bank an he can cash the check he again said he only wants cash so we said don’t forget your receipt book cause we will need one if we pay in cash. then he said he will call back when he can pick it up. we called everyother day to ask when he will pick up rent and he never answered or returned my calls..Then i get a letter from his lawyer on April 9 2014 dated April 9 2014 saying we have to show his lawyer a bank draft of rent and damage deposit ($2400) by April 14 2014 by noon. last i knew any notice to be given to tenant must be 14 days??? I called landlord and tenant act *again…. they said the notice is invalid cause its not a clear. 14 days and i should call the landlord and his lawyer to let them know. i called both and left messages. then never herd back from anyone. then all of a sudden i. have my landlord at the door (April 17 2014) with a court hearing. i just said thanks when he said iv been served and closed the door….i guess I’m lost at what i can do now…? What do i need to bring to court to prove I’m not a bad tenant who was never late on rent or never got complaints from the other residents….in his hearing notice it says he wants us out for non payment of rent damage deposit and always bein late on rent (which isn’t true the late rent part) and for being aggressive and threshing my landlord which haven’t been done. iv been very upset and almost crying most the time but i would never threaten anyone especial my landlord. it also says we haven’t given him or insurance coverage for if our fish tank ever breaks but when we first asked to rent the place he asked for insurance on his place our fish tank and we don’t have to pay damage deposit. but when we came to sign the lease that changed too he no longer wanted insurance but damage deposit…it says we haven proven that to him but he said he dint want it anymore… it also say ee have ignoredhis notices to terminate tenancy but we gave him notice of objection….he has never been by to puck up rent an has never called to even make arrangements to pick up we have rent and range for him right now but with the hearing I’m holding on to it till then. my hearing is for may 1 2014…. what do i need to prepare for the hearing and what i can have to cover my butt..I’m not a bad tenant josh the a landlord who wants to evict me for reasons unknow he never communicates with us at all…i don’t want to say he’s being a bad landlord but i can say he is not doing his job properly oh and he is also going after us for lawyer fees. fees that where racked up after i sent him my notice of objection….help me please we re a young family just trying to do our best with landlord who sees us as bad people or something…what do i need to do to prepare myself and what do i need to bring with me to prove my part of all this????
Thanks
annea
Hi Anna, long long long story.
From what you tell me here, it looks like his eviction will probably get tossed. He’s not following procedures, he’s not following up and he continually changes the rules. You challenge will be to document this all for the hearing in an easier to understand method than the comment you left here.
Break this out into a timeline with approximate dates and what occurred and any backup evidence (copies of notices, emails, the objection letter, texts etc) you have and then make sure you don’t miss the hearing. It is crucial you appear to defend yourself or it’s like admitting the landlord is right.
Hope that helps,
Bill
Thanks a lot Bill. i do have all this down on paper with dates (in better form) and copies of emails and notices. i kept copies of everything. sorry its all in one sum. i sent threw my phone…bad idea (dang auto correct) thanks again iv been stressing about all of this. I will most defiantly be at the hearing. thanks again and thanks for reading my long long long story
annea
Good thing I enjoy reading Anna 8′).
Just make sure you organize all your documents. It makes it easier for the judge or hearing officer and helps you look more professional.
Good luck,
Bill
Wow! Thanks Bill! The house is a duplex, landlord lives above our unit. We are not loud, and the only reason I think she wants us out is that previous to signing the lease she had said she wants to sell the place after our one year (lease ends december). Maybe she wants us out early. She gave us a 30 days notice, and I don’t believe the notice is even legal, she doesn’t specifcally go into how we broke the lease, just says we breached the application because we smoked outside. When looking up the law it says we only have 14 days to object, is this case different since it is a 30 day notice? I guess bad landlords also exist out there. We would move, but the market is so tough right now for tenants. She does call us a lot and will complain if we or our guests park in “her” parking spot even though it is public parking on the street. How hard is it to sue for rent abatement, as this notice and her pestering has really not allowed us to peacefully enjoy the premise. Thanks again Bill, is there anyway I can donate to you? I don’t really need the forms you provide, but appreciate the advice.
Hi Gary,
She may just be looking for a reason to get you out early as the market has heated up a lot through the spring season here.
We don’t have a 30 day eviction notice in Alberta, so obviously she hasn’t visited this site to find out the rules! 8′]
Since the notice isn’t valid, it does change the rules. At this point she’ll probably wait until somewhere around the 30th day to take some sort of action. I’d still discuss things with her, or try to, and then if any conversations are verbal follow it up with an email going over everything discussed to create your paper trail.
And as for bad landlords there are many! Percentage wise it is likely the same, the issue being there are far more tenants and far more tenant nightmare stories out there as far as sheer numbers go.
I wouldn’t worry about suing for rent abatement, as it probably won’t go anywhere and will just chew up your time, possibly get a warning for her. Big picture though, you will want to see what is out there.
Perhaps if you discuss things with her and can negotiate an agreement that you will leave as soon as possible (without setting a deadline), but need some flexibility with her as far as notice. This will allow you to leave quickly if necessary (if you find something that works, but have to make a fast decision).
As for donations, down the right side of the page I actually have a donations button. Feel free to use it!!!
Regards,
Bill
To clarify it was a entiled rental application not lease application.
Hi Bill,
Appreciate this website and all of the information. When I applied for my current lease, I signed a lease application agreeing that the residence was a non-smoking unit. However the lease does not mention anything about no-smoking. I am a respectful tenant and have never smoked inside, and keep smoking outside on the patio. The lease has a patio clause, but the only thing it mentions is that no laundry can be hung outside. I recently recieved an eviction notice for breaching the lease for smoking, but the lease does not mention it. My landlord has never given me a warning, and even complimented me for keeping the butts contained and clean. I don’t know what her motive is for evicting me, but I am going to submit an objection. Is her complaint valid. I have never had a problem with any of my past landlords. Really confused by this one. Cheers!
Hi Gary,
The onus is going to be on the landlord to prove you are smoking in the property and since the lease itself doesn’t contain any smoking provisions it kind of negates any kind of breach anyway.
At this point my concern would be why this has suddenly come up.
If she’s given you a notice, first perhaps ask her for more information about why she is wanting to evict you. Maybe there have been complaints from tenants above or below and she just hasn’t looked into them?
Barring getting anywhere with that you can definitely write an objection letter to the eviction, before the eviction date on the notice comes up. Once you’ve written the objection letter it voids the eviction notice, so I wouldn’t necessarily do this the first day, but rather try and gather some extra information from the landlord first, then move forward if necessary.
If it’s all a misunderstanding, get a written letter from the landlord stating the eviction notice is recanted just for your records. If it’s still on, be prepared to attend a hearing.
Their next step after you objecting to the eviction or not moving out by the eviction date is for them to file for a hearing with the RTDRS or the courts, to serve you with the application to appear and then to attend the hearing. On your end, you’ll want to document everything that is going on, document your attempts to try and work this out peaceably and then have all this documentation ready if you do have to attend a hearing. AND DON’T SKIP THE HEARING!!!
That last part is very important. Tenants (or landlords) who fail to appear at their hearings rarely end up happy, it’s your time to defend yourself if you are being wronged, so make sure you;re there.
Hope this helps,
Bill
I’ve some concerns we have regarding a roommate we want to evict. There were three of us who rented the property from the landlord initially but due to unforeseen circumstances one roommate had to move out (no problems, everything was amicable) – so we’ve been renting the room to people in the meantime until the lease finishes and we can move. Well, we’ve had some ill feelings about our current roommate and we recently asked him to leave. There are no written agreements for anything (we never assumed we’d have this much of an issue) – but where our concern started is this new person renting the room let slip that he had made a copy of our key and given it to someone who is not a resident. This was a problem for us and we worried for the safety of our belongings, so this coupled with an agitated discussion about the damage deposit left a sour taste in our mouth. We’ve yet to receive this copy of the key. What we did was, in lieu of him paying rent for March we told him he could keep it (to recover the return of his damage deposit) and told him we wanted him out at the end of the month. Now it was fine the first night but the next night he decided to be aggressive and yell, scream, etc. at us. This made our decision feel like it was the right one and to save a bit of face we’ve moved some of our expensive belongings out of the suite in the meantime. We’ve never had to deal with this situation before so we’re a bit over our heads, we are wondering if we can simply provide written notice to vacate by the 31st of this month and be done with it, or do we have to provide rent receipts, things of that nature to the individual. Our landlord said he believes we only have to provide 14 days notice, but I’m not sure where this situation falls or what we have to do. Any help would be appreciated.
Hi Mike,
If you’ve been reading through some of the comments you know my thoughts about a lack of a written lease.;'(
Having something written could have resolved a lot of the drama, so you’ll need to consider that a lesson learned from this, but you still have options, even without a lease.
You are fitting into the gray area of the system as well. You’re essentially subletting the room and as such are acting as the landlord which moves you under the Innkeeper’s Act. Again, without proper paperwork in place it can be gray and there are some steps you’re missing to fully fit under this, but it’s a good place to start.
Under the Innkeeper’s Act you can immediately evict someone who is causing a disturbance, however this comes with some caveats. The tenant can take you to court after the fact and you may face issues at that time. Depending on the scenario and how the judge deems it, it could range from a slap on the wrist to nothing to having to potentially pay to covers the tenants displacement.
Often times, depending on the scenario, the police won’t even be that effective in helping as it fits under Civil law which is addressed in the courts versus criminal law which the police force deal with. If the tenant is aggressive though they will definitely help out to help maintain the peace, although the extent to which they help can vary.
My suggestion to you at this point is to accelerate the removal of him, which may or may not cause more aggressiveness. Let him know due to the security risk of having an “unknown key” in the wild you will be changing the locks and he will be responsible for the costs associated with the new lock and the changing out of the old lock along with the new keys.
From there you can use that to negotiate his potential early departure. If he’s gone by X date and leaves peacefully, you guys will eat that cost. If he stays, not only will he eat the cost, but you will be evicting him under the Innkeeper’s Act and if he reacts aggressively at any time prior to that date you will accelerate the process and evict him on the spot.
If push comes to shove, you may have to call in the police and depending on the scenario and how it fits in their eyes they may simply assist you in removing the person, they may negotiate with the individual informing him that it’s in his best interest to vacate now and help persuade him, or they may simply oversee so no one gets hurt and to defuse the situation and refer you tot he courts to deal with this.
I’ve seen it go all three ways and the only variables are the tenants, the landlords and the responding officers. The landlord always seems to win when the tenants are nutjobs, the tenant tends to win when the landlord acts like a nutjob and if no one seems rationale or both seem perfectly fine the police tend to walk the line of pushing it to the courts as they have no clear path of who is actually following the rules and the laws.
Alternatively you could go directly to the courts (I would bypass a 14 day notice) and apply to have him removed for safety reasons etc and see where that takes you. Depending on the scenario this too could go several ways. If you’ve documented everything, have witnesses and can prove he is again, a nutjob with some serious safety issues concerning you and the other tenants, you will likely win.
If both of you come in as rationale with little evidence to back up either side, it gets tossed to the side as inconclusive. Meaning he gets to stay for a much much longer time!
So hopefully that gives you a few options ot mull over and think about,
Bill
Hello,
If I’m renting a place, and am the only person on the lease, how much time do I have to give my roommate to have him move out? Do I fall under the alberta innkeepers act even though I don’t own the property?
Thanks,
Melinda
I should also mention I have no written contract or anything with said person, it’s just been a verbal month to month ongoing thing.
Hi Melinda,
First you should really have a contract of some type in place. It can help protect you if things do go sideways and it helps establish the rules of the property.
If you are subletting and the roommate pays you, you may sneak in under the Innkeeper’s Act, if you both pay the rent, or the agreement is you both rent there, but you’re the only one on the lease, it gets a bit uglier as you’re not really acting as the landlord.
So depending on how you’ve set the rules, even if they are verbal, will decide where you may fit. You may also want to check your lease as most leases don’t allow subletting and this may be a conflict potentially allowing your landlord to evict you as well.
Bill
Hey Bill, looks like you know your stuff,
I’m just wondering if there is in fact a “3 strikes your out” rule concerning evictions?
Having problems with a tenants chronic late payments, even if they pay me the full amount of rent and arrears can I still evict them for substantial breach of the lease?
Also is it legal for me to show the place while they are in the midst of there 3rd eviction?
Or do I have to wait until the last day on the eviction notice?
I’m trying to show them that it’s the “real deal” and only full and complete payment can save them this time.
Any Info is greatly appreciated!
Hey Aaron,
Thanks, I have been doing this for a while so it is amazing what you learn. For Chronic late payers you cannot evict them for late payments, you have to evict them for continuous breach of the lease.
By law, and it is supposed to be on the eviction notice when it’s for late payment, if they pay the rent in full before the eviction date the notice is null and void. If however it is a continuous problem they are in breach of the leases payment provisions.
You might also want to check this article out, .
Hope that helps,
Bill
Thanks Bill!
What article did you suggest reading?
Many thanks,
Aaron
There was a link in the reply, it may not be highlighted, sorry.
Bill
I am a good tenant. I pay my rent in full on time, make no noise, leave no mess in common areas.
The person I sublet from who lives there with me wants me out do to personality conflicts. I object to my food I just perchaced being thrown out and and a sink and counter covered with dirty dishes for days on end, (right beside a new dishwasher)and my laudry goods being used up and not replaced nevermind being asked to use and my concern over a back door being left wide open all day repeatedly with the house unoccupied.
Surly under the Innkeepers Act there has to be grounds for evections presented to a magistrate of some kind and a way for the tenant to state their case.
I can appreciate landlords need to deal with problem tenants effectively but what rights do abiding tenants have, especially in winter?
My objections to being mistreated are hardly grounds for eviction inspite of the “offence” to the normal “tranquility”
Hi Paul,
Wow, wrote up a big reply and slipped on the mouse and wiped it all out. Ouch. anyway, big picture, the landlord will be able to evict you quickly under the Innkeeper’s Act and your only recourse is after the fact. You’ll have to go to court after you’ve been evicted to try and get back in or potentially compensated for the eviction, which you may or may not get.
Since there is obviously a personality conflict, it’s best to see what you can do to buy some more time while you find a new place. You really don’t want to stay there if it’s going to be uncomfortable anyway, so just see what you can do to potentially get another month or a few weeks to find someplace else.
Probably not the answer you were hoping for, but it’s the reality and depending on where you are at, vacancies are pretty tight, so the more time you have to look, the better.
Regards,
Bill
I have been evicted from my apartment and this has put me in a VERY difficult situation.
I signed a lease for my apartment in February 2010 after losing possession of my home and subsequently being evicted from there after a series of financial misfortunes in my life. Though money wasn’t an issue at the time, I was having difficulties finding a place to live because of poor credit and lack of “landlord references” (I had owned my home for 8 years). After an exhaustive search and being turned away by at least 40 different landlords and property management firms (even when 3 months paid in advance rent was offered in CASH at the time!), I approached some people whom I had known for many years. They were happy to rent to me and did so without requiring a credit check or even a pet deposit for that matter (in which they now charge other tenants).
Anyways, I moved into my new apartment and had almost no difficulties for most of the time I have lived here. My rent was ALWAYS paid on time and I had NEVER received any complaint for noise or other issues. But during this time, I put up with many things in order to stay here, including almost constant construction around me as this is an old building and many, if not most of the suites have been substantially renovated and repaired during my time here and frequent water shut off times as a result of this (once or twice per month minimum). I work nights so this stuff happens during the hours I have to or choose to sleep a lot of the time. And this was in addition to what you normally would expect when living in an apartment building, including occasional rogue tenants who used drugs or were loud or caused other issues here.
Anyway, by coincidence, shortly before the last suite other than mine was renovated on my side of the building, there suddenly was a problem with “cat odors” in the hallways. I have always had a cat in here and no one had ever complained before. A letter was given to everyone at the end of July and I took steps to be extra careful to ensure that it wouldn’t be coming from my place. Nothing was said for nearly two months and the renovations continued in surrounding suites and above mine (someone would move out or die, they would go in and renovate the suites then raise prices as almost all landlords have done here for a variety of reasons). After nearly two months, the caretaker had left me a message on my phone saying there were “concerns” about cat odors in the hallways and asked me to look into it. This is the first time anyone had ever approached me about anything like that in any way here. So, I again took steps to ensure that it wasn’t coming from here. I smell anything and everything in this building and perhaps someone did notice something and complained right away, it doesn’t take much sometimes, even noticing something when a door is opened etc. can trigger that. Two days late, the wife of the owner knocked on my door and told me there was a “horrible odor” coming from here and that they would need to inspect. Again, I couldn’t smell anything myself in the halls and nor could some other people who either live here or who visit frequently when I asked them about it, but I took the matter seriously. The next day, I called the owner’s wife to tell her about things that might have been the problem and that I would be removing them. She agreed to that and I had negotiated a final inspection date and time with her (it had changed several times during a few days but ended up being the original date and time on the written notice I had received). During this time, there was one heated exchange in the hall and she had threatened to evict me. I had left the stuff in my apartment until a certain time when I knew the garbage collectors would take it away versus throwing it out as soon as I had mentioned it to the landlady.
Here is where it get’s interesting. When it came time for the inspection, the landlady and her daughter came into my apartment. First off, they complained about the odors (I guess Pinesol and Vinigar was offensive to them as I was still cleaning in my apartment). They took a “black light” and any markings they saw on baseboards etc. were said to be possible “cat spray”. Spayed FEMALE cats DO NOT normally spray, however they may go outside of their litter boxes if they aren’t cleaned regularly or if they have health issues that may cause such (my older cat did before she died and I had replaced her with another cat after that, hence removing stuff that had been in my apartment for a long time that at least appeared to have cat odors on it). During the inspection, they also complained that the apartment was “filthy” because I hadn’t yet gotten to cleaning the kitchen and bathroom and later on, it was written in my notice that the place had “too much stuff in it” and “possible fire hazards and issues with winter heating because of furniture being placed in front of radiators (at least several inches though to avoid damage and possible fire hazards). Three days later, I was giving an eviction notice.
While I am NOT objecting totally to their observations, a stern warning and re-inspection would have sufficed. I had been one of their better tenants for nearly 4 years, never caused them any real problems and they ALWAYS have gotten their money from me, on time or early and without having to ask for it even once! I think their motivation was more to get access to this suite so they can renovate and get more money for it versus evicting me for being a “problem” tenant. They couldn’t see that I was trying to co-operate and correct the situation and would have continued to do so had I been given a chance.
But here is another issue: I got the notice on October 4 and it’s dated to expire on the 25th (a few more than 14 days in that notice). Most monthly tenancies either start or end on the 15th or the first of the month. Having to make a decision like that suddenly without financial resources on hand or access to them in a timely manner is stressful. I work at a job that doesn’t pay high wages and I am going through a bankruptcy right now (and these people know this too), plus I lack family resources or other things that most people seem to have (they know this as well). I’ve approached several community agencies for help this month and after much running around, playing telephone tag etc., I am told that I make just a little too much money so I am not eligible and before that, I was passed off from agency to agency to try and get help, like “try these guys first, do this and this and this and that then MAYBE WE can help you…if you still need it at that point”! Mean while, the clock ticks and having a holiday weekend right in the middle of the notice period doesn’t help.
Now, with all of this, I have secured an apartment with a damage deposit, will pay the rent when i can and hopefully the rest will work out for me to move into it…but I cannot get into it until the 1st of the month…but the notice says I have to be out by NOON on the 25th! My rent is PAID in full for this month though! Does that have any bearing on when I actually have to leave? Community housing here told me I would be an “overholding” tenant and my rights to stay here and have access to my belongs only would end AFTER the landlord obtains a court order and that is followed through with. I do not want to cause any more problems with my landlord. I just want to move into a new place and do it peacefully. But I would also have more respect for them if they had been more decent about things, perhaps giving me a warning like I had previously mentioned and a chance to “make it right” and keep it that way, or a little more notice. It is NOT my intention in any way shape or form to stay here any later than I need to to get into my new place.
If you are still reading this, How would you respond to this situation?
Robert
Hi Robert,
Quite a situation you’re in, but it’s not as dire as it appears. You have several options, so here they are. Since you have a new place November 1st, simply let the eviction notice come and go. They cannot do anything without a court order anyway and they cannot even file for a hearing until after the eviction date on the notice passes.
Once they file, they are required to give you three full business days to review the application for eviction before the hearing can even take place. With the timing of this month, that means the absolute earliest date they could have a hearing is the 31st and you would be moving out on the 1st.
I don’t know of any judge or hearing officer who wouldn’t grant you the extra day to leave, especially under these circumstances.
Option two would also be to let the eviction date pass, let them then file for an eviction and then have your day in court to dispute it. Depending on how much information you can provide as evidence, as you’ve laid it out for me, you would likely get the eviction over turned as their reason’s are pretty weak at this point.
Finally your last option would be to provide them written notice that you are objecting the eviction. This makes the notice null and void and they then have to go directly to the courts or the RTDRS. This might allow them to have a hearing before the end of the month and depending on the evidence they have, there would be a minor chance they could evict you for the end of this month, but most likely you would get additional time to leave, potentially a full extra month.
So bottom line, you have options still and don’t have to panic at this point. They are not allowed to change locks, block you from entering your property or seize any of your property without a valid court order. If they do any of this after the eviction date laid out, and without a court order allowing them to, they can be fined quite a significant amount. This is your leverage.
Hopefully this helps explain things a bit more and take some of the pressure off for you.
Regards,
Bill
Hi Bill
Thank you very much for your prompt reply and valuable information.
I had thought that at least letting my landlord know what is going on wit me when I can confirm things (A lease for my new apartment hasn’t been signed yet at this time as the perspective new landlord didn’t have the paperwork with him on the weekend but supposedly will this weekend), so everything is not “written in stone yet”. I am still hoping someone can help me with some additional resources this month to cover moving costs and other things. My bankruptcy situation prevents me from borrowing any money legally or selling things without properly declaring and remitting the proceeds if asked to from such.
When rules of corporations are applied, unfortunately, there is little or no compassion for people and their situations. I also think it’s pretty heartless when this comes from people who have known me quite well for 30 years and whom I would have otherwise called “friends”, but I guess almost everyone will throw you right under the bus when the situation calls for it. I believe I am now paying the lowest rent in my building for the living space that I have and when they can go in and splash some paint on the walls, replace some worn out 40 year old lino and make a few other cheap repairs then jack up the rent $200-$300 per unit per month in a still aging 100 plus year old building, that is a real money maker for them. It just further segments those on the lower ends of the income spectrum from accessing decent and affordable housing. If you make less than 20K per year, there seems to be all kinds of options for help but if you make 25K or a little more, there seems to be almost nothing, even in emergency situations as what I am finding. The criteria for the programs are updated periodically but they almost never meet the realities that many people face and there is also ever increasing demand for such services too.
Thanks again for all of your help. I just hope there won’t be too many problems for me during those final few days I need to be here before I can get into my new place.
Robert
Morning Robert,
Once you do get the new place finalized, it wouldn’t hurt to give them written notice that you have been looking for a new place and secured it for November 1st.If for some reason they do try to push forward with a hearing, this will just show you’ve worked with them.
If your unit falls through though, it may not hurt to then take a stand and fight the eviction. From what you’ve told me so far, they have a flimsy reason for eviction and would require some significant proof to get you evicted.
Hope everything works out!
Bill
Good Morning Bill
Thanks again for your reply and your assistance. I had intended on notifying them of my circumstance, if for no other reason, to justify my reasons for overstaying the eviction date. If it were at all reasonably possible, I would just leave by that date and be done with it (perhaps leaving the apartment in what ever state it may be at that time as well too). But it would make no sense to move my stuff into storage for as little as a few days then move it again even if I had the resources available to do so. At this point, I am assuming my new apartment will work out and I will either move on or just before the first, when ever I can actually get in.
But I would also assume that my obligations would remain the same for leaving the apartment, which would mean making sure everything is removed, cleaning the place up etc. This would also likely include paying additional rent if I were to stay longer then the first which would also mean keeping the utilities hooked up here and paying those accordingly too for that time. I would also assume if I didn’t, they might exercise their right to sue for those costs along with anything else they can justify in court….Or they might not even bother as being a corporation, they can write a lot of or all of those things off as a “loss”, including time suites remain unoccupied during renovations or periods of vacancy or perhaps when tenants have continued to live in them for any reason and rent wasn’t paid for such (but I am sure they would also have to document reasonable efforts to try and collect that unpaid rent from people). I am obviously not expecting my damage deposit back. They have verbally accused me of causing additional damage in here during their inspection, like ruining the 40 year old worn out lino in the bathroom which has a big stain on it from previous radiator leakage that was there when I moved in (documented on the inspection report) and likely was there for many years before that. I am sure every tenant who has lived in here under their ownership and maybe even previous ownership and management has been accused of ruining that cheap old piece of flooring! She also commented about a cheap quality vanity in the bathroom that they said was new when I moved in being ruined because it was dirty when they saw it. A rag and some water made it look new again so I can’t see them having to replace that now! I really don’t think anything I could have done at that point would have made them change their minds about evicting me anyways. I don’t plan on leaving my place filthy but I am sure any effort I do make to clean will be re-done and said not to be good enough so that will justify them keeping the deposit, as well as for any other minor damage they believe is above “normal wear and tear”. At least some of the surfaces in here will either be replaced or painted over during renovations anyways as soon as I move out.
My other question I do have is how much they would be allowed to bother me during my time here after the notice expires. Are they still required to give 24 hours written notice to do inspections or come in here for some other reason? The place will obviously be a mess like it is now, most of my stuff will be packed and I will be waiting for what ever moving arrangements I will have made by that time (hopefully, that can be worked out) and doing so in between working nights at my job. My whole situation would have been easier if I could have just stayed here for some more time and planned in advance for a move and maybe even have waited until next Spring when my bankruptcy should probably be discharge barring any snags or delays of any other sort in that process. But even if my perspective new apartment arrangement fails and I were to contest the eviction and win my right to stay here, I am sure they wouldn’t make it that easy for me. Perhaps they would demand another inspection, come in and take pictures this time or do what ever they could to make their case stronger then either give me another notice or go directly to court to have me removed. Money isn’t an issue for these people. They have lots, they buy up what ever they can and renovate/build/re-build to suit. Most people I know may treat themselves to a nice supper or even a meal in a fast food restaurant on payday or when ever they receive some other kind of bonus money of some sort while these people will buy more houses and apartment buildings at about the same frequency and do what ever they do with them to make themselves more money from their investments. I wouldn’t call them “slum lords” by any means because they do care about their properties and make repairs accordingly but they probably also wouldn’t themselves live in the tiny spaces they rent out to people nor pay as much out of meager incomes as people have to to live in such places either.
Thanks again. I am sure things will end up working out some how for me in the end. I just find this whole thing “disturbing” though, nothing like kicking someone hard when they are already down, especially when it’s someone they actually know and have known for a long time versus just some stranger off the street looking for a place to stay.
Robert
Hi Robert,
If you do stay longer and past the 1st, then you would indeed have to make additional payments either on a pro-rated basement or if you did have to make a hearing appearance it may result in the full month’s rent, payable in advance.
They may try to come after you for additional costs, but typically they will just retain a portion of your security deposit. If they do, the onus is back on you to go to a hearing to try and recoup anything you feel was unjust. As a special note, if you never went through a walk through inspection with them and signed it, they cannot keep any of your deposit for damages at this point. You do refer to an inspection report, so this likely won’t be an option.
None of the rules change after the eviction date, they still have to provide 24 hour notices and they have to be during acceptable times.Once or twice for preparing quotes or walking contractors through would be acceptable, every day for the last five days of the month would fall under unreasonable unless there were specific reasons the inspections had to be drawn out, none of which I can think of!
It’s definitely not an environment you want to stay in, so it is best to find a new place, hopefully the place you have arranged for works out and everything transitions smoothly, otherwise as you mention contesting it will likely give you more time, but even if you win, it’s not a place you want to stay.
Best of luck Robert,
Bill
Social services took her 4 years daughter from her and sent her to foster care. If she is not sane enough to look after her child, I think she is a danger to person and property around her. She is bringing strange men or addicts home, she has left candles burning while she is sleeping or away. And I have found her intoxicated in her place couple of times. Is her taking illegal drugs not a cause for 14 day notice (I gave notice on 15th August and it ends on 31st August)? I have witnesses who will tell what happened.
All you have to do is prove it and you are good to go. It gets kind of tricky at this point. If you proposed that she was a drunk addict and she shows up at the hearing looking prim and proper, who will the hearing officer believe?
The landlord who is discrediting the tenant, or the clean upstanding looking tenant? With witnesses it will be helpful, but it really comes down to showing enough proof/evidence of poor behaviour and repeated problems in situations like this.
Fairly or unfairly the burden of proof falls to the landlord. Tenants can often lie completely about everything and if there is not proof of a lie the hearing officer has to take the least disruptive route for the tenants. If the tenant gets caught in a lie, different story, or if they don’t show up, again a different story.
While this may make it harder for a landlord to deal with a problem tenant, it also prevents the unscrupulous landlord from simply making up stories to get rid of someone. So as landlords we have to take the good part of the rules with the bad and make it work. So document, document, document!
Regards,
Bill
Thanks for the reply Bill. I have another question regarding the eviction process. Say the Tenant doesn’t come in court and the court has given order to the Tenant to vacate the premises by this date. What if the tenant doesn’t vacate and doesn’t care to be present at the place on this date or days before that (she is on drugs and is missing for many days in row and then shows up for a day or two). I know I can call the enforcement officer to vacate the tenant but if she is not present and does not vacate by the order date, do I still call the law enforcement officer? Can I change the locks after that? What do I do with the stuff she leaves behind. My concern is that because of her drug habit, her family(grandma and sis) is no longer supporting her. She has no job, no friends( everyone has already tried helping her and are done) and no place to go with all her stuff (she has too much stuff), she will not vacate the place even after court order. What can I do with all her stuff? Do I need to store it?
Hi Neha,
If they don’t show up for the hearing and you’ve followed the proper procedures you’re typically granted a fairly quick eviction date. If they can’t be bothered to come defend themselves, the hearing officers tend to discount them a little bit, it’s human nature.
The important part for you is you may want to make sure you physically serve the papers for the hearing to her and hopefully with a witness. If she’s prone to disappearing, it’s not unheard of for them to come back months later and say they weren’t given proper notice. It’s unlikely, but what a pain it would be.
Once the eviction date set by the courts comes by, if her goods are still there, you need the bailiff to come legally enforce the eviction. You need to provide a 24 hour notice of inspection to verify she is gone, or your entry to see if she is gone could be deemed illegal. So if you are granted Oct 15th as the eviction date, somewhere around the 12th or 13th, post a notice that you will be coming in on the 15th at say 1:00 to verify she has vacated and the condition of the property.
As for her stuff if she hasn’t vacated, if it’s over $2,000 in value you need to inventory it and store it for 30 days after which you can auction it off to recover any outstanding moneys owed. Anything above what you are owed needs to go back to her. If it’s less than $2,000 you still need to inventory to CYA, then you are allowed to dispose of it.
If you found all this information helpful and would like even more info about the process of using the RTDRS and the steps you should follow step by step, I’d appreciate it if you pick up my
Guide to using the RTDRS
Regards,
Bill
Hi, I have given a 14 day notice to my basement tenant but I am sure she won’t leave and I am planning to goto RTDRS. She is a single mom but her daughter was taken by social services because she is taking drugs. In more than 1 instance I have found her intoxicated with other men in her place and had to call police once but police left coz they were ok. She is missing for days and then comes back. She smokes (verbal non-smoking agreement) lot of cigarettes and throw cigarette buds near the wooden patio which in my opinion is fire hazard. She has left candle burning in her place. I am worried for my safety (coz of people she is with currently) and my house safety (coz she is on drugs). I am documenting all the evnts. She has paid all her rent in time till this month but I am sure she wont next month as she has lost her job. My question is that if we go throught RTDRS to evict her, is this enough grounds? What if she doesn’t show up in the hearing? She is missing since days now…
Before her drug incidence we were very friendly and never locked doors. I left my house keys with her when I went on vacatiobn for a month. I called or texted her before entering her premises but never gave notices. Can she use this against us? we don’t have any lease.
Hi Neha,
With any eviction you need to provide an proper reason for the termination. Depending on what you are evicting for and that you have proof is always the determining factor. If there is no proof, or no valid reason, the hearing officers will default to the tenants side.
You’ve made this more challenging by not having a written lease and only having a verbal agreement regarding the smoking. If you can prove there is indeed a non-smoking policy in place you would be able to evict her for this breach. The safety of the property and your house is a tough call. With cigarette butts by the wooden patio it’s a long shot.
Depending on what reasons you used in your eviction notice it may not even be valid, again because you need a valid reason as described in the Residential Tenancy Act. Police visits and disappearing aren’t quite enough, although I would definitely document all of this for future reference as it may help show what is happening in this situation.
Since we’re almost at the end of the month, I would hang on at this point (again, not knowing the validity of the eviction notice). You can’t actually have an RTDRS hearing until after the eviction period has ended (when did you give her the notice and what day was she to be out?). In your case with the information you provided, you need to hope she can’t pay rent and then use that as one of the eviction points along with the other items like the smoking.
Other than that I simply don’t have enough info to know either way. In the future though, definitely make sure you have a written lease as it helps solve many of these issues.
Regards,
Bill
I moved into my townhouse 2 yrs ago, there are 6 tenants that smoke a lot of drugs and drink and I do not do these things, because I do not associate with these people they pick on me like you wouldn’t believe, fabricating stories of my son urinating in public, or damaging property, or swearing at tenants, this is all untrue and eventhough the landlord has no proof of anything that has been accused , they have evicted me, now I am a very strict mother and my son isn’t even allowed to play in the complex qand he cannot leave my yard, is there a way to fight this eviction? if so how? I am low income so I cannot afford a lawyer, what are my options I cannot afford to move, please help me asap.
Hi Jennifer,
Is this a shared accommodation or the other tenants are in other units in the townhouse? It’s slightly different depending on the scenario and I’m not quite sure from how you worded it, it sounds like they share the space with you, but I will assume they are in separate units. Correct me if I was wrong.
So has the landlord provided you with an eviction notice, or a court hearing date? If it’s an eviction notice you can fight the eviction by writing a notice of objection to the eviction. This does allow the landlord to then schedule a court hearing or an RTDRS hearing sooner, but objecting may be your best route to build up a solid defence.
The landlord still has to prove you breeched the lease, so depending on the reason for the eviction it may require different responses. Again assuming here, but I am guessing he is evicting you for causing disturbances? If so , he has to prove it and it can’t just be hearsay. You’ll have access to all of his evidence before it goes to a hearing so from there you can know more options.
Also, you do have the option of trying legal aid who can assist you for free typically if you are low income. Many of them may not understand the landlord tenant laws perfectly, but they can provide stern lawyerly letters to your landlord requesting he stop bothering you which may be enough.
With the information you have provided, that’s about all I can suggest for now. If you have more to add, like the exact living circumstances, whether you are on a fixed lease or month to month and what the eviction is actually for I may be able ot provide more answers.
Regards,
Bill
hello,
This is a great read and advice for both tenants and landlords. I am in some deep trouble and am hoping for some direction. My situation:
I have been renting an apartment in south edmonton by signing a one year lease. The lease was from July 1 2012 until June 30 2013. The place has been rented through a Property management company. The landlord is in BC. I had been asked to move out of the property at the end of the lease on June 27th 2013 via a phone call from the property management company. Just leaving me 2 days to find a place, pack an move. In my offence I was not anticipating to move because i have tried to communicate with the property management company since April 2013 as to what was happening at the end of the lease. I was told in May that after the end of the lease I would go on a month to month lease automatically but they also mentioned that if the landlord decided not to rent any longer than I would have to vacate the property. i also asked them for a timeline as to when would the landlord make his decision by. This question was asked to them on May 28th 2013. After May 28th there was no communication from the property management with the answer to my question. I called the property management and left a couple messages at the start of june expressing my concern about my question. Finally on June 27th they called me asked me to move.
When I ask about how much time I have to move out, their answer is at the end of the lease and to move as soon as possible.
Given my situation (I have a family with a 7 month old baby and summer being very busy to find a place) I have requested that they charge me rent for the month of July and I anticipate to move at the end July. I also mentioned that I am looking for a place to move and will move earlier if I can find something within my budget and liking. An email with my request was sent the same day I received the phone call to vacate and I have not heard anything from them yet.
I am seeking advice as to what I am doing is right. Is there a possibility that I can b stopped from entering my apartment and confiscate all my belongings by the property management company.
I have also found an apartment in the same building but I can only start renting that from August. Given this case can I stay until the end of July and move in august.
Also to give some more information about my tenancy, I have been a good tenant by paying rent on time. I have let the realtors who want to show the property to potentials buyers into my unit. I believe I have complied with the rules.
Hi Husain,
Sorry to hear about your situation. You are caught int he pitfall of a fixed term lease and the property managers handled it wrong (in my opinion anyway). They’ve left you in an impossible situation, but they are following the law and the rules. So technically you are over holding and can be evicted, that’s the bad part. The good part is if you’re moving into a new place in August you should be fine.
It sounds like you tried to find out what was up, were led to believe that you would be month to month after the term and then they changed their mind at the last minute. The process for them now will be to take you to either the courts or the RTDRS to prove you are over holding and staying beyond the term of the lease, which you are. The problem is they should have given you more notice even though technically they don’t have to and most hearing officers and/or judges would likely find in your favour, especially considering you will only be there another month.
To help prepare in case they do try taking you to a hearing, make sure you document all the conversations you can remember and the approximate dates. Also review your lease to see if it has a clause defaulting you to month to month. Many landlords use leases that state they are automatically month to month at the end of a lease. If that’s the case you are in an even better situation.
Finally, most judges or hearing officers will also give you extra time due to having kids involved. they don’t want to put families on the streets, especially when the evidence shows they tried to find out what was going on. You even co-operated with Realtors!
They cannot lock you out of your place, change the locks or bar your admission without a court order, so you should be absolutely fine. If something else comes up, or you have more questions let me know.
Hope this helped,
Bill
Thank you very much for your prompt reply Bill. I have been really tense and not slept for nights. This certainly helps.
Enjoy your Canada Day!
Hi there
I have a question about what to do with a tenant I have living in the basement (not a separate suite, she shares laundry and kitchen with myself, one of the owners, and three other roommates). I want her out as she’s been very disrespectful and disruptive and I need to know if I have to honor a 30 day notice period as I understand the Landlord Tenant Act does not apply since we share common living areas and I am an owner living in the home. I have given her 30 days notice, she feels she is owed 90. She also feels she has the right to keep me locked out of the basement (where the are two common area rooms). Can you advise if I can have her out sooner than 30 days? We do not have a lease in place as her lease with me expired 5 months ago and she’s been paying month to month. The lease at the time only required one month’s notice time for moving out following the initial period of the lease which was 6 months starting last August.
I’d really truly appreciate any help you can give me! I think I’m well within my rights AND being generous giving her 30 days notice but I want to confirm that. Thank you!!!
Hi Shaney,
By my understanding of the rules and the way your property is set up it sounds like you fall under the Innkeeper’s Act. As such your notice is drastically reduced, especially if she is locking you out of common areas. I would point out to her in the Residential Tenancy act where it where it doesn’t apply to you and then show her the Innkeeper’s Act.
If you plan on operating under the Innkeeper’s Act it should be posted somewhere in the property anyway and any agreements or leases your tenants sign should also point out that you fall under the Innkeeper’s Act. Just for future reference and to help resolve potential debates.
Let her know the 30 days notice stands and if there are any issues you will call the police. Whether the police assits you may be another matter as lately they aren’t as eager to enforce the Innkeeper’s Act, but they will deal with disturbances, so if it becomes confrontational they will help.
Hope this helps,
Bill
I have a question and don’t know who to turn to. But feel uncomfortable asking like this… Thanks
I’ve emailed you directly Haleema, I typically charge a $50 per half hour consulting fee for eviction questions, but if the question is easy or you’re in a tough spot, I have no problem answering it for free. So email me back and I’ll see what I can do to help you.
Regards,
Bill
Hi,
I need help on how to remove from the lease only one of my 2 tenants. Is that possible? If yes, how?
I have rented a basement suite to a new couple, it was their first time living together.
Unfortunately the relationship didn’t work out, they were fighting and arguing, disturbing my other tenants.
The lady seems to be the trouble maker; the guy broke up with her and told her to leave, as he was the one paying for the rent. She doesn’t want to break it off though, and keeps coming back. The guy asked me to remove her from the lease. I had several complains from the other tenants saying that she was making noise late at night.
Can I send her a 14 days notice for termination of lease agreement due to substantial breach?
Thank you,
Lucy
Hi Lucy,
You’ve got me a bit stumped on this one. I’m not sure if you can simply evict one tenant, but as i think about it I see no reason why not. Worst case you have to take her to court/RTDRS and they will sort it out, but I would suggest providing her with an eviction notice for breaching the lease and then listing disturbing the other tenants as the particular breach would suffice.
See where that takes it and if need be, then move to the next stage. Don’t forget to make sure you change the locks once she’s gone, just in case she is a real loose cannon!
Regards,
Bill
I see no reason why you can’t evict both… and then rerent to the one you want.
Having said that, I would be very hesitant about taking sides in matters such as this. It may be easier to just get rid of both and start over.
Hello, I have a very interesting situation on my hands that require professional advice. I own a trailer on rented land, in my land lease agreement it stated I could not sub lease my trailer. I decided to do it anyway to someone I knew, on a low key basis. There was never any lease agreement signed between me and the tenant because I did not want any paper evidence that I infact broke my land lease and allowed someone to rent my trailer. The person renting the trailer has not been paying the agreed upon amount of rent, and i need her out ASAP. Im going to give her written notice of 14 days due to non payment. If she does not leave quietly by the 14th day what can I do? without creating too much of a scene as I have put myself in a somewhat compromised situation. I should not have rented this trailer out the her knowing the conditions my land agreement. Please advise me, I appreciate any suggestions.
Hi Sheena,
You have a couple issues right now, first off not being allowed to sublet puts your position in jeopardy. If you don’t plan on living there, you may need to talk to the landlord, explain the situation and see if they can assist. Alternatively if you do plan on moving back in and think the landlord would understand, you could also talk to them.
The bad parts are it’s a trailer, so I am assuming you mean mobile home, or a regular trailer? These don’t fit under the regular landlord and tenant act and unfortunately I’m not very versed in the Mobile Home Site Tenancies Act that governs this. It is similar, yet different from the Residential Tenancy Act and I don’t have enough experience to guide you on it.
You can find it here, http://www.qp.alberta.ca/documents/Acts/M20.pdf if you’d like to go read up on it which may be a good start. If you’re going to continue to reside there or potentially sublet again, it may be very handy for you to understand the rules and what is involved.
The other issue you have is a lack of a signed agreement. This is incredibly important when it comes to renting out a premise and I often see landlords mess this up by either not using one, or using one that doesn’t protect them. In this case with a verbal agreement, while it’s still binding, proving what the rules are can be tough.
Alternatively you may want to try bargaining with the tenant, if you still have a security deposit, you could offer to make sure they receive all of it back if they are gone in the next five days and the property is left in presentable format. If it’s damaged or requires extensive work, they of course will lose some or all of it, but it beats having to go to court and potentially having a judgment agains them that could affect their credit for up to ten years. That last part is some of the incentive you should suggest to the tenant.
sorry I don’t have more to help you with,
Bill
A friend of a friend moved into one of the rooms in my condo, unfortunately it is not really working out. We did not sign a tenancy agreement, what are the rules (if any) around eviction?
Hi Robin,
If you’re the owner of the condo in this type of situation you would fall under the Innkeeper’s Act. You’re renting renting out a room to them and they are sharing your common space.
It’s fairly simple where you can just terminate and ask them to move on, however, it might cause some serious damage to the relationship with your friend. You might want to consider sitting down with them, explaining it simply isn’t working for you and you need your space back and setup a reasonable timeline for them to leave. Then just stick to your guns with the timeline!
If that fails to get you anywhere, then you can ramp it up by letting them know you’ve been nice and using the Innkeeper’s Act to evict them basically right away.
Hope that helps,
Bill
Hi Bill,
Do I have the right to evict a roommate whom I did not have verbal or written agreements in the beginning?I talk to this fellow about not having his boyfriend over after we have been harrassed by her former boyfriend whom she invited in our apartment a few times.she is having the boyfriend over without us knowing the guy is there because he sneak in either when we are asleep or not home.I already told the landlord about the issue and he had no problem about me evicting her out.however, I am concerned about the legality of that?will I get sue if I ask her to move out in a short notice thus returning her whole month rent?if she doesn’t leave and just ignore everything do I have the rights to remove her belongings from our apartment if she refuse to take them out? Can i call the police for help?this is probably my first and last roommate as I am not comfortable of creating a trouble for myself.
Please help me…I don’t know how to start and what to do as her presence in the apartment really bothers me, especially that I am going on a holiday soon.
Thank you.
Hi Pier,
If you don’t have a written agreement, it would default to normal rental rules.
I would start by having a conversation with them, explaining you are aware they are having overnight guests and that this is not acceptable. If it happens again you will evict them immediately and provide them a written notice at the same time.
If she is renting from you, this works, if she is on the lease with you, then the rules are different and you have to evict through other methods which may include having the landlord dissolve the current lease.
If she is subletting you would fall under the Innkeeper’s Act and the police could potentially help you, although they like to stay on the sidelines in situations that may be civil law versus criminal law and Landlord Tenant issues are generally civil. This will all depend again, on whether on who is on the lease.
Hope that gives you a start.
Regards,
Bill
Hi Bill,
I live in a rental property and have a neighbor who was served a 14 day eviction notice for failure to pay rent. They were also arrested for selling drugs out of there suite. They are trying to dispute the eviction. Please let me know how much longer we can expect them to be around? They are supposed to be out August 9th.
Thanks for lending an ear…from a concerned tenant.
Hi Ivan,
Every situation with an eviction is different, along with how the tenant reacts. If they are disputing the eviction, the next step for the landlord is some type of hearing. either via the RTDRS where available or the provincial courts. This usually takes between five and ten days depending on how busy they are and how much of a backlog is in front of them.
If the tenant is disputing the eviction, the eviction date is null and void and the landlord can apply immediately to the courts, but most landlords don’t know that, nor do most tenants who dispute.
Once they finally do get a hearing it will depend on many factors. Was the landlord prepared, did he break any rules or laws that will nullify or impair his/her case, are there special circumstances. For the tenant if he has young kids or can show some doubt as to whether the landlord provided all the necessary info he can also get more time or the eviction thrown completely out.
So bottom line, right now it’s too early to tell. If the landlord does everything properly, gets a hearing quickly and gets a court ordered eviction date it could be another week or two, if they have young kids, maybe another month, or if the tenant may decide to just leave on the 9th.
Realistically though I would think they will be there until the end of the month, it all depends on how much the landlord understands about the system at this point.
Hope that helps,
Bill
Thank God for you Bill!
I have a problem tenant who I need to get rid of. We have a fixed 1 year lease agreement that I had downloaded from rentfaster and it seemed to cover the basics.
My tenant has been late on rent several times, has not paid the damage deposit yet and refuses to, and also the contract clearly states NO PETS but she was brought her moms dog for a week to stay with her at the property. Aside from all of this, there is damage to the landscaping and the property now looks like the worst on the block.
I posted an eviction notice on her door yesterday stating the reasons as late rent, no damage deposit, no late fee payment and the breach of having a pet on site (which the neighbors complained about too).
This is starting to look like she will drag it out as long as possible. How can I get her out quickly?
Furthermore, I’d be happy to treat you for a coffee at Tim Hortons and pay your consultation fee if you could meet today!
Morning Haik,
Now that you have provided the eviction notice you are locked in for the next 14 days (eviction notices are not compulsory, they are optional and can often drag out evicting bad tenants). Although you can start preparing to go to the RTDRS or through the courts, nothing can really happen until after the eviction date is past.
I edited out your phone number, but I will give you a call a bit later this morning and I may be able to give you some quick answers for now. If you decide you want to talk more at that point to set up a plan to get her out if the eviction notice fails, we can set something up later.
Regards,
Bill
Hello,
I am not a Landlord looking to evict a tenant, I am however the primary tenant and I am looking to ask my roommate to move out. We have been living together for almost a year, and it is just not working out as planned. He does not clean, he constantly has people over (not just one or two, a full out party every night), he is loud and inconsiderate of my work schedules and my belongings.
He had not signed any written agreement for our living situation, nor is he on the lease or any of the bills. He has changed his mailing address to mine however.
I was just hoping someone could point me in the right direction for the appropriate way to ask him to leave, the appropriate amount of notice and any other pertinent information.
Thank you!
Kim
Hi Kim,
I think the first approach is to explain to the roommate that it isn’t working out and that he will have to move on. This is easiest if you aren’t too attached to the place and couple it with you are moving as well. If you are attached and don;t want to go through the hassle of moving yourself, best hope would be they understand and move on.
It’s always best to get the issues out in the open, but also make sure you stand firm as the roommate will likely promise to stop having people over, will promise to clean up etc. I’m not saying he won’t, but if his previous history is any indication, he likely won’t change, but it might buy him an extra month or two of staying there while making your life hell.
As per notice, you fit into some gray areas and could slide either way. Since he’s not actually on the lease, the landlord could give him 14 days to vacate. If you are subletting to him, you may fall under the Innkeeper’s Act as you are renting out a room in your residence to him. If the landlord doesn’t allow subletting, you could be in jeopardy of being evicted for breaching the lease. Big picture it all gets quite complicated and confusing, so first route would be to explain the situation to the roommate and simply ask them to move.
hope that helped without making it worse,
Bill
Can you recommend some eviction companies that we can contact in southern Alberta? From the sounds of what you’re saying, pursuing this ourselves will mean time from work, traveling and hotel expenses and no real guarantee of success.
I think finding/securing a professional company, while there is a cost associated, is going to be best in the long run.
thanks for your support
Hi Patricia,
If you are around Calgary area, you could try Foster and Co. You can reach Melissa there at 403-259-0029. they’ve helped me in the past and have been nice enough to let me interview them and ask questions of them for this site.
Regards,
Bill
We have isssue with our new tenant. Her Security Deposit Cheque bounced but she contacted us immediately, and provided the deposit and NSF charges. We have performed and documented the first walk through (pre-occupancy) and have documented some nail holes in the walls, scratches on the hard wood floor, scratches on walls etc. Nowhere on the walk through have we agreed to repairs to walls or floors.
The Tenant’s first rent cheque bounced on June 6th however they’ve made no attempt to rectify the past due rent. The Tenant has now informed us that once we have completed the list of repairs, had the windows and blinds professionally cleaned, the rent will be paid. We’ve consitently stated that we are not open to discussion regarding professional cleaning and wall repairs until the rent is paid. There are no cracks or breaks in the windows and the blinds were cleaned prior to the walk through. Neither were noted as concerns on the checklist. There are a couple of small holes in thwe walls with dry wall anchors installed but no repairs, nor any completion schedule, were agreed to on the checklist. We’re concerned that if we give in to this list of demands to get the rent that we are going to see a new list of demands each month and the rent will be held hostage until and unless they are met. At this point we just want to move on and find Tenant(s) that we can work with.
Are we better to use the 14 day eviction notice, open a file with the RTDRS or should we do both?
Is there an available database of problem tenants? Really don’t want to relive this circumstance if possible.
thanks
Hi Patricia,
I’m betting they are from a different province and not from Alberta, either that or they think they can take advantage of you as they are not allowed to withhold rent for this in Alberta.
If they signed off on the walk through as is, that’s how it is and that’s how you should expect it to be when they leave. You didn’t fix any of the minor issues and they were acknowledged by both parties and they don’t have to repair them before they leave. But they still have to pay the rent.
If I were you, I would consider two options. One give them a signed letter stating they must pay you rent by tomorrow in full or you will proceed to evict them. If they pay great you can start over and carry on, plus you have a letter you can show they were previously late. If they don’t proceed directly to the RTDRS and file to evict them.
Option two would be to simply go directly to the RTDRS and proceed with the eviction. I would completely skip a 14 day eviction notice as it just gives them more time to live rent free.
Regards,
Bill
How are we legally obligated to provide the notice of eviction, or letter? Is an attachment to an email sufficient or do we need to have the letter or notice hand delivered? What about Registered Mail? We want to ensure we have proof the notification was delivered.
Thank you for your prompt response and assistance.
Hi Patricia,
You are not obligated to provide an eviction notice or a letter. They are more of a nicety than anything. If you are going to go with an eviction notice though I would recommend either hand delivering it or posting it across all the entrances to the property.
Regards,
Bill
Sorry I’m not sure I understand. If we are not obligated to send an eviction notice to our tennant, who notifies the tennant of the eviction? If I understand correctly we would file a notice of eviction with RTDRS to start the process but how is the tennant notified? We’re not in the same city as our tennant which makes posting notices on the property difficult. Which RTDRS do we need to make application in? Where we are or where the tennant is?
Sorry for the number of questions but we want to make certain we are doing this right.
thank you again
Hi Patricia,
What you file at the RTDRS is an application for an eviction, this is different than an eviction notice. Once you’ve filed the application, you will receive a hearing date and then you have to serve the paperwork you filed to the tenant.
There are some very specific rules about serving this to the tenant. You’ll need to make a minimum of three attempts to serve it in person.
You’ll actually have to do the application in the area that the property is located in.
Depending on your time, you have a couple options. Filing yourself at the RTDRS and going through the process will cost you $75, plus the time involved. If you have to commute to the city for the hearing, make multiple trips to serve the tenant and possibly incur hotel and other overnight charges it might be worthwhile paying an eviction company to perform the eviction and the hearing for you.
Using an eviction service company will cost around $800 and up to start for a typical eviction, so it is definitely more, but you have to evaluate what it will cost you in lost time, potential missed work and costs to travel.
If you do plan on pursuing this yourself I would recommend you pick up my complete guide to evicting tenants through the RTDRS. It will explain all the steps and make this quite a bit easier for you. You can find more about it here, Evictions Using The RTDRS
Hope that helped explain it a bit better and cleared up some of the confusion.
Bill
Question.
Renting out the basement in one of my homes & told the tenant no smoking and we gave him a really good monthly price.
Have it in the lease papers as well ( month to month lease )
But now there are 2 other people living there with him & smoking.
I am concerned as its been 3 weeks and the tenants who live upstairs have a child.
How fast can I get this guy out, who clearly breached his side of the lease with the no smoking clause?
Since he didn’t inform me of others living with him, is that grounds of breach as well?
Please inform.
In need of help, as the tenants upstairs are really great & do not want to lose them due to this guys lack of respect.
Hi Davinder,
First you have to prove he is smoking and that would be grounds for eviction. Second if additional people are living there and your lease states it is just him and you have to approve additional renters he is also in breach yet again.
You can try a couple of different tacts at this point, you can point blank ask him to leave and hope he leaves by the end of the month. The downside of this is he can tell you he is leaving and if he doesn’t you are behind a few days and still have to go through the eviction process by going through the RTDRS or the courts.
You could try serving him an eviction notice on both grounds, but again, if he doesn’t leave, you will then be 16 days behind and still have to proceed through the RTDRS or the courts
Finally, you could proceed directly to the RTDRS or courts and file which would give you a hearing date and a hard eviction date the quickest.
I’d also advise the upstairs tenants of what you are doing and that you are in the process of evicting the lower tenant(s). By keeping them in the loop they won’t suddenly surprise you by telling you they are leaving.
Regards,
Bill
Hi Bill. Lots of great info here!
We recently served a 14 day notice to tenants who are more than a month behind in rent. They insist that they need to legally have longer and that we need to return their security deposit and the money they gave us a week or so ago (equal to a month’s rent, but credited to back rent which they agreed to)
We had tried to be nice and come to a agreement with them without going this route, but they wouldn’t work with us on that. They just kept saying they’d ‘try’ and that they ‘hoped to’ have next months rent on time.We had even offered to accept less then what was owed if they would be out in the 14 days. Now they’re wanting to charge us if we don’t return the monies mentioned by the eviction date.
I phoned service alberta and went through what i had tried to do to resolve the issue and what steps i was to take now, but am wondering if there’s anything else i should do right away?
Hi R,
Thanks for the comments! You caught me sitting in front of my email so here’s your quick response.
Legally a 14 day eviction notice is 14 days plus the day it is served and a day on the back end where they are to be out by noon typically. So as long as you allowed the 16 days total and their wasn’t a stat holiday buried in the middle you are fine. If there was it adds an extra day and it may actually nullify the eviction notice, which is a good thing.
If they owe you money, you don’t have to return any of it and you have up to ten days after they move out to provide them a statement regarding heir security deposit and any refund owing them.
Basically it sounds like they are bluffing you right now, but without any legality behind them. Just to remind you, I am not a lawyer, I’ve just been through this a lot, so if you require legal advice, you need to talk to a lawyer. From my experience though, you don;t have any worries.
Without having the entire back story here, I think they are just trying to get their money back so they can move on, the problem being if you did give it to them (and according to everything I know, you are not obligated to return anything!), you will never see any of it. On the other hand if you don’t give them any, they won’t have the funds to move on.
Since you have a 14 day eviction notice in play right now, you will need to wait for it to expire before you can move forward. Once you get closer to the eviction date set in the notice you can proceed to prepare to file at the RTDS or the court system depending on which route you plan on going through, but you won;t be able to have a hearing until approximately five days or longer after the eviction date.
You need three full business days for the tenants to deal with the eviction application you serve them, so that discounts the first day after the eviction which would be deemed the notice day and an extra day in case you cannot meet with them the first day.
So breaking it down, my advice at this time would be to start getting ready to go to a hearing, but hope they leave by the eviction date. Whatever you do, don’t refund them any money right now if they still owe you and don’t return the security deposit until after you have done the move out inspection with them. At that point you can determine how much they should get back.
Hope that helps!
Bill
Hi Bill, I sure appreciate this blog and all your advice! Two weeks ago we issued a 14 day eviction notice to our tenants for smoking and for acquiring a dog. The lease specified that both were not allowed. They agreed to move out but asked if they could have to the end of the month. To be amenable, I agreed assuming that the smoking would at least be done outside as they said it would. My tenants upstairs have informed me that the downstairs tenant contintues to smoke inside constantly. They are very frustrated as they can constantly smell smoke. Also, the last time I was there I noticed the smoke detector had been removed!!! Had I not verbally agreed to an extention to the 14 day eviction notice they would have to be out tomorrow. Based on my upstairs tenants complaints of constant smoke, and the removal of the smoke detector, can I still enforce the eviction as of tomorrow? Is not the removal of the smoke detector a serious offence? I look forward to your advice.
Thanks you!
Kim
Hi Kim,
Just wanted to confirm, you gave them until the end of this month April? Or the end of May?
The real issue landlords run into with scenarios like this is if they don’t stick to their guns and enforce their eviction dates the courts can look back and say perhaps the eviction wasn’t serious. By giving them extra time, which was the compassionate thing to do, it can often backfire and give them an opportunity to extend their timeline and cost you lost income.
Bottom line, if they weren’t able to follow your initial rules and have been evicted for it, there is no reason for them to follow them now as they have already been evicted. By giving them extra time, you have just muddied the waters.
The removal of the smoke detector is a serious offence as well, but doesn’t allow you to expedite the issue. Basically the rules say they cannot do that, but if they do too bad. If they do it repeatedly you can then evict if you have clauses in your lease abou making the property unsafe as this would fit in that spectrum.
As to what to do now, it will depend on whether it is indeed just a few extra days that they get or unti the end of May. If it’s April, I would give them one additional letter immediately explaining that by continuing to smoke in the premises they are jeopardizing receiving a portion of their security deposit or potentially all of it. I would also break out how you gave them additional time to help them out and in return for you helping them out they have repaid you by continuing to break the terms of the lease, affect the other tenants and cause smoke damage to the property. I would then remind them they have to be out by noon on the first and break down their responsibilities to clean the property up.
If you have given them an extra month, I would recommend they accelerate their plans and leave as quickly as possible due to continued breach of the original lease after they were given an extension. By agreeing to extend the eviction, you may have voided the original eviction. I don’t know the specific rules for this, but from what I have seen and heard, by extending them extra time, it often backfires on a landlord.
Worst case, if they don’t agree to leave immediately, I would skip any more notices and proceed directly to the courts or the RTDRS. The reason you provided them written notices of everything is you have added to your arsenal of evidence that you tried to work with them and they continued to breach the lease. This will paint you in a more favourable situation than if you just do this verbally and it falls into a he said she said battle.
hope that helps and points you in the right direction.
Regards,
Bill
Hey,
I recently issued a notice to one of my tenants to clean his appartment due to health and fire hazards. He has until the 29th before a inspection is performed, after the review I may need to evict him. How much notice do I need to give him and at what point is he no longer responsible for rent? If there is considerable damage worth more than the security deposit, is there anything I can do to reclaim costs and resources for repairs?
Thanks,
Ken
Hi Ken,
You’re fitting into a gray area here Ken. If you’re talking the extreme end where the tenant is a packrat and well onto his (or her) way to auditioning for the TV series Hoarders then you have a real issue. If they are just slobs, you may not be covered.
Part of it will be wording in your lease and that is where the grounds for eviction come into play. Your lease likely has some clause about not endangering others and depending on the level of mess in the property this may come into play.
You’ll just need to have evidence that supports this, so you will need to take pictures when you are there. You may also need to provide proof that you warned the tenant, although verbal notice about upkeep is legal, it;s far better if you provided written notice as well.
As for timelines, it depends on which route you take to evict.
If you provide a 14 day notice, the tenant has the notice period plus the day you served the notice and the day at the end to move out to vacate. So that would be 16 days, if they aren’t vacated at that point, you then have to go to either court or the RTDRS, or you can commonly skip the 14 day notice and proceed directly to court or the RTDRS and bypass those initial 16 days.
Since it sounds like you are talking serious issues that affect the health, welfare and safety of others in the building, I would suggest going directly to court/RTDRS. This would be the quickest route.
Depending on the situation and urgency either of these routes can accelerate the process as need be and will help resolve it the quickest. Without seeing the evidence it’t hard to determine a specific timeline, but it could vary from a few days to the end of the following month. If it was a longer period, there would likely be stipulations about the condition fo the property.
If damages exceed the cost of the security deposit, you’re in trouble. Depending on how much it is, it may be worth just letting it go. You can take them to small claims court or go through the RTDRS to get a judgment against them for the outstanding amount, but then you still have to try and collect. That’s the hard part, you can try collections, you can try garnisheeing their wages or you can wait for them to need to clean up their credit (the judgment shows up on their credit history), but typically tenants in this situation don’t have a lot of money and as they say, it’s hard to get blood out of a stone.
Hope that helps answer your questions,
Bill
Hi, I really appreciate this site. There has been a lot of really helpful information on it. I wish I would have found it a couple years earlier to help me through some tough situations.
I am a landlord and I rent a house that has a main floor suite and a basement suite. I have really good tenants upstairs on the main floor and just started renting to new tenants in the basement suite on April 1st. Since these tenants have moved in they have:
1. Been three days late with their first rent payment. (I gave no eviction notive for this.)
2. Acquired a large dog even though it is stated on the first page of the lease that there are no pets allowed.
3. Been smoking on the deck and inside the suite even though it is stated on the first page of the lease that there is no smoking allowed, AND I specifically asked them about before accepting them as tenants, and they said they didn’t smoke.
4. Have filled the back deck with random junk(no other place to store it I assume) making it impossible for the upstairs family to use the deck, which is shared/common space between the tenants.
I have found out about the dog, the junk, and the smoking through the upstairs tenants who are very upset about all this and now threatening to move out. They have a small child and are now afraid to use the backyard because of the large dog in the yard and the dog poop on the ground (obviously don’t want their little one playing in it or picking it up).
I have already spoken to them about the dog, and they say they are just looking after it for two weeks and promised they would keep it on a leash and not let it wander the backyard unattended, not let it poop in the backyard etc. They have breeched all of that and now my upstairs tenants, who are awesome tenants, want to leave because of these guys.
Can I give them a 14 day eviction notice? Are there other options I should pursue?
Thanks for you time,
Kim
Hi Kim,
Well I’m glad you found us as well! If you haven’t registered on the site yet take a moment to do so and I’ll send you some extra information about the eviction process as well as a bunch of helpful tips for you.
From everything you have talked about in your comment I don’t see any option for you but too evict. I’d skip the eviction notice at this point and let them know if they get rid of the dog by Monday, quit smoking in the property, clean up their junk and clean up all dog droppings in the back yard they can stay until the end of the month, but they have to be out. Do this with a written notice to them so there is no confusion.
I could be wrong about this, but I think they are trying to take advantage of you and it may cost you the tenants you currently have. If you let them take control it could well leave you with two vacant units as your good tenants will leave and you will end up evicting these ones anyway.
If they cannot meet the original terms of the lease by Monday (or Tuesday since you likely cannot get the letter to them today anymore), you will proceed directly to the RTDRS to file for an eviction. If you don’t take a stand now, they will likely believe they can get away with anything and that isn’t good for you, isn’t good for your current tenants and it’s not good for your property.
The first couple of months with new tenants and how you deal with them are instrumental with how the rest of the relationship will proceed, so don’t lose control!
Regards,
Bill
Quick question, I’m a renter, and my landlord handed me a 14 day eviction notice on these basis
Acquired a pet with permission(cat)
Failed to pay pet deposit before acquiring a pet(cat)
There is no lease agreement, I’m on a month to month agreement. Truthfuly I’ve Been late for rent 3 times in the past 14 months(but rent was always paid within a couple days of the first as well as NSF charges)
Is a pet deposit and permission thing a valid reason for a 14-day eviction?
Hey Daren,
If you made an attempt to pay the pet deposit after it was approved and after you picked up the pet, I would suggest it might be negotiable with the landlord. Technically you may have broke the agreement about the pet deposit and it may be grounds for an eviction, but you could likely fight it and it may get thrown out if you have shown effort to make sure everything else was done proper.
Like attempting to pay after the fact. When it comes to minor breeches where a reasonable solution may be made (payment of the pet deposit for instance) the hearing officers at the RTDRS tend to lean towards peaceful solutions rather than evictions. The big questions for you at this point is whether a) the landlord is using this as a method to simply get you out or b) whether the relationship has soured to the point that you really don’t want to stay on at this property.
Now that you have a pet this can create additional challenges for you, so if you have found a landlord who has agreed to accept pets, you might want to see how you can mend that fence and hopefully it is all just a misunderstanding.
Regards,
Bill
I first want to thank you for what you have done. It is amazing how difficult it was for me to find information on being landlord in Alberta and I didn’t really think about how uninformed I really was until 2 deadbeat tenants in a row. I have learned a lot from you and now having successfully evicted tenants I would like to share my story…
I had my first bad tenants from April 2011 to August 2011, they owed me a month’s rent and in the end they had a midnight move and I haven’t heard from them again. They left the house a disaster, full of filth, 16 bags of garbage and dog feces all over the house. Luckily there was no damage and it just needed a good old fashioned cleaning and dump run.
At this point I was getting short on cash and was able to fill the property quickly. I did do all the applicable background checks but the one thing I didn’t do was follow my gut. So this is how I ended up through a long 6 months of hell.
They moved in September and signed a year lease; they paid first month’s rent and damage deposit in cash and gave me post-dated chqs for the remainder. October they had trouble paying their rent and got assistance from the Red Cross and In from the Cold but I didn’t receive rent until Oct 23. Nov their chq defaulted and I did not receive rent until the 15th. December their chq defaulted and I gave them an eviction notice to be out by Dec 23 (harsh but necessary) and their guilt trip really didn’t faze me, but as it was a family I would have let them stay until after Christmas. In the end they paid me on the 23. I also found out they adopted a puppy without my permission. January they said they would pay me in cash, which ended up being 1 day late. February their chq defaulted and I served them with an eviction notice, they took the notice and received free Legal Aid who wrote me a letter which was full of bogus claims. This meant that the eviction was in dispute and I made an application to RTDRS. Who did not get us in for a hearing until MARCH 6!
The outcome of the hearing was a Court Order to have them put on a payment schedule (which I was not impressed about) and on March 15 they were to pay me February’s rent and now March’s rent and on March 30 they were to have removed the dog. On March 13 I received a called from Alberta Works – Housing saying they were willing to pay $1000 of the $2200 owed to me and asked if it would put a stop to the court order, which I replied no only full payment would put a stop to the order.
When March 15 came around, I went to the house and they handed me a chq for the full $2200 (which shocked me) but they also handed me an Ex-Parte Order. This included an affidavit stating I refused payment and demanded them out of the house on March 15. This was clearly not the case because he handed me the chq at the SAME TIME he handed me the Ex-Parte Order. The Ex-Parte Order included a date to be at the court house for a hearing but not a time. I was extremely frustrated and confused as I knew this was just a ploy to buy them time, as this put a hold on the original order until the hearing. I went to the court house to figure out what to do and in the end I had to create an affidavit, serve them with it and file an affidavit of serve. I also had to be at the court house on March 20. The morning of March 20th their chq for $2200 defaulted, I went to the court house and filed ANOTHER affidavit with this information so I could use it in court, they did not show up to the hearing and the outcome was to have the original Order back in place. So I served them with a 48hour Notice of Default and they were long gone by 5pm last night.
So in the end they owed me $2200 and they decided to leave the house in a state of disaster, so far I have filled one trailer full of furniture, there was garbage all over the house, dog and cat pee, and it was FILTHY. I still have the stench stuck in my nose. But in the end there was not a lot of damage just another good old fashioned weekend of cleaning and dump runs.
This was one of the most stressful things of my life and I had to miss a total of two days of work and countless hours to create my original application to RTDRS. Here’s a recap of my time:
8 hours to create the RTDRS claim $75
1 hour round trip to RTDRS to file it
1 hour to find a company to serve the tenants with the papers (as I thought it might be a good scare tactic…NOPE) $80
2 hours at RTDRS for the hearing
1.5 hour at the court to file the Court Order (I waited in the wrong line up for 45 mins)
1 hour to serve the tenants with a copy of the order (even though they received one after the hearing)
1 hour to file and affidavit of serve
2 hours at the court house talking to the Law Information Centre because of the Ex-Parte Order
2 hours spend creating a rebuttal affidavit to the Ex-Parte Order
1 hour at the court house to file the affidavit
1 hour to serve the tenants with the affidavit
1 hour at the court house to file and affidavit of service
1 hour the morning of the hearing to file another affidavit because their chq defaulted
4 hours at the court house for the hearing (as you sit and wait in a line for your case to be heard…total Judge Judy style)
1 hour to serve the tenants with the 48 hour Notice of Default
ALL WEEKEND TO CLEAN UP THE MESS THEY LEFT
In the end I am owed $2275. $2200 in arrears in $75 for filing the RTDRS, $300 in total for NSF charges from my bank.
I have the property up for sale and am hoping to sell it. If not, I will be a landlord once again and I hope my experience and all the information on this site help me prevent another situation like this.
Good luck to all you landlords out there!!
Jessina
Thanks for your story Jessina,
That sounds like quite the ordeal. It is amazing what soem people will do and what kind of turmoil they can cause for landlords. This is why it’s so important to screen tenants (and to go with your gut, but not your gut alone!) before they ever get in. It’s worth all the extra wait and time spent to ensure you get the right people.
Well good luck with your sale and if it turns out you end up returning to being a landlord you can go into it knowing you are much better prepared.
Thanks,
Bill
Help! Our tenant breached the rental agreement; his dog did irreparable damage to the bedroom carpet, ripped off the trim around the door. As the house is wall to wall carpet it will cost $3000 to replace the flooring and he won’t pay for half. There are damages to the walls and yard full of you know what. There are two dogs instead of one and they bark at the neighbour non-stop. We served 14 day eviction notice, it’s been a week. When asked if he will honour it he would not answer. Questions: does this sound like grounds for eviction in the first place and if so can we apply with rtdrs before eviction deadline?
Hi Sandra,
The damage to the property is definitely cause for eviction, especially if he is not agreeing to pay for the repair. At this point though you have to wait until the eviction date in the notice passes before you can have a hearing date at the RTDRS or in court. You can apply a few days before the eviction date, but your hearing will have to be roughly four or five days after the eviction date.
The extra time is required as you have to first confirm he indeed has not left and then he receives three full days to review your application before the hearing date.
Bill
Hi, I need some help. We have a lease contract with our tenant. We stated in the contract that there is a fully furnished room for rent and a renovated bathroom. We have not been able to complete the bathroom because of non payment of rent. The renter has been here since Oct 2011. We have in our lease contract that there is shared space, ie: kitchen and living room in basement and laundry room. So the RTA does not apply right? Only the lease contract applies right? How do we go about eviction with this? We have a verbal agreement between myself and the tenant to have payment of $350 to be paid on the 17th of Feb but have not had any payment or contact until I contacted the tenant on Feb 29/12. Which there has been no response yet from the tenant. There has been no rent received. The tenant as of March 1st 2012 is late with rent for two months. Rent is due on the 1st and 15th stated in our contract. The tenant has not paid for the 15th of Jan and the full month of Feb. Also now the 1st of March is unpaid.
In our contract we have it stating there would be two chances before eviction and that eviction would be immediate. So now that the tenant has not paid rent for the past two months and has not made any steps to communicate to us about the late rent, can we evict immediately?
Hi Paul,
If you have shared living space RTA doesn’t apply. You fall under the Innkeeper’s Act and if the terms in the lease are governed by the Innkeeper’s Act the Innkeeper’s Act takes precedence. Bottom line, you can evict him tonight if he doesn’t pay.
I would suggest he provide you with the funds by this evening or you can have the police escort him off the property. If he would like to fight this eviction under the Innkeeper’s Act he can take you to court after the fact, unlike the Residential Tenancy Act where you have to go to court to get him evicted.
Regards,
Bill
I have a very similar situation as Ruth and have some questions. Tenants owed $2400 according to the RTDRs judgment. I still have their cheques and I think I know where they work (unless they changed job already).
1. Should I keep trying to certify their cheques or try to get their wages garnisheed? Or can I do both at the same time?
2. How complicated is the process for getting their wages garnisheed?
3. How much time after RTDRs judgment I have to get their wages garnisheed?
Thank you.
Hi Sergey,
I would try both if you are serious about getting the money and have the time. There are a few other comments on the site about getting checks certified and explain some of the tactics you can use.
The process for garnishing isn’t that hard, although like anything court related there are specific steps.The issue is that it’s only valid for the job they have right now, if they change jobs you have to go through the process again, more time and more energy involved.
If it looks like they are not going to pay, you could go after them right away. The longer you wait, the more time they have to switch jobs or potentially disappear.
Bill
The other thing you can do, if you have the cheques, is wait until payday-ish and garnish the bank accounts. You can only take a portion of their paycheque. You can take their entire bank account.
having the cheques tells you exactly which account to garnish.
Just to add to that, if you go directly to the bank the check is made out from you can ask them to certify the check. If there isn’t enough funds to cover the check in the account they won’t allow you to certify it. This will cost you a few dollars to certify, but could be the difference between getting your money and not.
Thanks for the info Angella!
Bill
I have evicted my tenants using the rtdrs and am wondering how i can go about getting all my money owed,they trashed the place and are behind by 2 months.I was told i could go to queen bench and file a writ if they dont pay so does that mean i can garnish their wages or there is another way to get my money.They took all their furniture so cant hold anything.Thank you
Hi Ruth,
Collecting after the fact can be quite an ordeal. If you used the RTDRs and received a judgment for the money owed you, this judgment shows up on their credit history and may provide an opportunity to collect from them later when they go to try and get credit. Your other option, if you know where they work, is to go to the courthouse and take your current judgment with you to get their wages garnisheed.
If you don’t know where they work, or if their jobs are disposable, you may only collect a couple hundred dollars or less before they quit and move onto a new job. My personal guideline is that if it’s less than around $2,500 it’s not worth my time to try and collect. On the other hand, if I let them run up outstanding debts to me, it’s my fault and I consider it a learning lesson that I won’t repeat!
Regards,
Bill
There is nothing that precludes you from opening an RTDRS case while still attempting to collect your money in this manner. The bank cannot tell you why the cheques are not certifiable. My guess is there is no money there. Check with your bank first to make sure the cheques have to bounce first. If not, you can simply give them to the bank. I’ve never tried on a not bounced cheque.
Angella is likely quite correct. If there isn’t enough money in the account you cannot get it certified. You’ll need to deposit it, wait for the xxx amount of days to get it back and then see if you can get any funds out of there. Another suggestion is to try and get it certified first thing on the 15th/16th, or 30th/31st/1st of the month. Often these are paydays for many people and if you can slip in and get the money before it gets spent elsewhere they will certify it at the tenants bank.
Some companies pay at midnight on the Thursday as well, so you could try a Friday morning..
Regards,
Bill
The 5-7th 20-22 are also good days as some companies pay hourly, cut off on the mid/end of month and pay 5-7 days later.
Another, much cheaper, method you can use is to deposit the cheques. If they bounce you can then send them to your bank and, for a fee, they will check daily to see if the money is there. As soon as it is, they scoop it. I’ve used this method successfully in the past (I work in accounting).
Thank you for suggestion Angella. I went to the tenant’s bank yesterday and tried to certify these cheques. Unfortunately bank refuses to do this. Bank didn’t tell me exact reason but it seems like tenant’s account has been locked. Do you think I can still use your method and deposit these cheques in my bank? May I use your method together with opening a case in RTDRS? And what if tenants simply close that bank account?
I went to my bank and they said that they cannot check bounced back cheques, especially if it is 2 different banks. They don’t have such a service. Unfortunately the only option is to certify these cheques first, before deposition.
You might want to try calling the bank and see if they call it something else, as Angella mentioned the banks used to do this, but perhaps they have cut back on this service due to their declining profits (yes that was dripping sarcasm). they didn’t check bounced back cheques so much as resubmit them again (for a fee) to see if they would go through at a later date.
Bill
Hello,
I have a few questions. I was very busy and forgot to deposit a cheque last month. Tenants didn’t pay me yet for this month as well. On Jan 2-nd they gave me a notice that they will be moving out on Feb 1-st. So now I don’t have payments for 2 month.
Should I give them an eviction notice and/or go to RTDRS?
Dose the RTDRS helps to recover money if tenants will move out without paying me?
Thank you for your help.
Hi Sergey,
Big lesson here, checks need to go in right away! If you have the check(s) get the in right away. Do not let them try and apply the security deposit as the month’s rent. This will be a gut call for you, if you think they will pay you, you can try the eviction notice, if you think there is a chance they won’t, then proceed directly to the RTDRS.
The RTDRS can give you a judgment, but that won’t necessarily let you collect. From there you can proceed with garnishing their wages if you know where they work. Also, the judgment will show on their credit history, so sometimes years down the road they may need to improve their credit and discover that requires paying you off first.
Regards,
Bill
Thank you for your answers and suggestion Bill. I am going to do the unit inspection today and probably will go to RTDRS on Monday. I am considering buying your Eviction Guide if I will decide to go to RTDRS. Do you have an explanation in your guide about damage (what is a serious damage and what is not) so I may give them 24hrs notice? For non-payment I can give only 14 days notice, is it correct?
Hi Sergey,
I don’t break down what serious damage is in the guide, I just explain the entire process of going through the RTDRS and what best practices are to ensure you win. Serious damage can vary in the mind of whoever is the hearing officer, holes in the wall may not be enough, but all the windows being broken would. Of course you would need evidence of this and if it wasn’t serious enough for the hearing officer it could be detrimental for the case and seriously impact how they deal with the eviction.
For a single non-payment you are probably best off giving a 14 day eviction notice, if it is a trend and repeated offense, skip the eviction notice and go directly to the RTDRS. Then you would file for continuous breach of the lease. If it is a single non-payment, and if I remember in your case, and they seem to not be planning to pay you at all, then definitely also file at the RTDRS so you at least can get soem type of judgment if you want to try and get the money later.
If the tenants move out, and you try and get a judgment later it can be much harder as you often do not know where they have moved.
Regards,
Bill
Bill, you said: “For a single non-payment you are probably best off giving a 14 day eviction notice…” and you also said: ”If the tenants move out, and you try and get a judgment later it can be much harder…”
Is it OK for a single non-payment (but for 2 month) to go directly to the RTDRS without eviction notice? In my case tenants already give me a notice that they will move out at the end of the month. It seems like they just want to move out without paying for the last 2 month. I want to have RTDRS hearing before they will move out. And also to evict them earlier so I can prepare unit for the next tenants.
Hi Sergey,
Yes you can go directly to the RTDRS, but filing costs you $75, this is minimal considering what you lose if you miss a month’s rent, but if you think they will pay, then a 14 day eviction notice may be the pressure you need to get paid. If you think the notice just gives them more time to not pay and they have no intent to pay, then skip the 14 day notice and file immediately.
Does that clarify it a bit more?
Bill
Do have one question… any idea how many late pays comprise “cumulative effect” in Alberta to permit you to not be required to retract eviction if it is paid? I know in BC it’s three, but there is nowhere I can find an actual number in Alberta.
Hi Angella,
There is no hard and fast rule, but three would be indicative of a problem. If instead they paid 14 days late two months in a row, you would likely also have a very strong case, probably stronger than one day late for three months. It’s bets to send a follow up letter after each instance that you can then use as further evidence that you warned them and they still breached, so obviously they didn’t take the lease seriously.
Regards,
Bill
Bill
That’s about what I thought… thanks. Yup… I can prove a definite pattern. Rent has not been on time once (she moved in Oct. 1)… unfortunately she usually has it in hand when I show up with the eviction… along with a lame excuse (Grandma in the hospital, sick and didn’t know what day it was) all after the simple first plan of avoidance. Not sure if I expect her to overhold, just move, or do the passive aggressive thing and pay on the 17th. I committed the cardinal rule of trying to help somebody, but will not do so to my detriment. I’m only nice til you push me.
Just make sure to document all of this to make the pattern very apparent. It seems whenever we break our “rules” and either try and help someone or try and be nice, as landlords it often comes back and bites us. I’ve had it work out a few times, but more often than not it becomes an expensive lesson.
Bill
And my tenant is gone!
Gave her her third and final eviction notice on May 2. She, of course, fought it… told me I could not legally evict her.
Filed at RTDRS on May 4. (Court date May 18). Multiple lies from her… caught her in two with incontrovertible proof… including a CD recording of the last walk through at her place that she wasn’t smart enough to listen to before handing in her witnesses lies. LOL.
Long story short… she does have until the end of the month. She did have to pay rent for the month. If she is not gone, I will have a bailiff lock her out and will move her stuff to storage, pay the first month’s rent out of the damage, return the rest and the key and information to her. She can then recover her belongings at her leisure.
Already have close to 20 inquiries on the property.
For the other landlords… never, ever, ever, let a late pay go without an eviction. The second of every month, whether you actually intend to evict or not, post an eviction. If they pay, you can take it back. When you get tired of the late pays, you can enforce them leaving.
Congrats Angella!!
Sorry for the delayed response, I’ve been away and busy trying to keep up. It sounds like you were well prepared for your hearing which is the best tactic you can take. Understanding how the process works and documenting everything (nice touch with the recording of the walk through) ensures that your eviction can go through with the least headaches.
Also great reminder from you about letting late payments slip through. It’s far easier to cancel the eviction versus losing two weeks before starting one.
Regards,
Bill
Also… when you do evict for the final time… make sure you get photos of the condition of the home at that time. Makes it easier to prove intent for criminal charges later…
yeah… didn’t really have a choice. Her notice of objection was loaded with lies about conversations. Figured the easiest way to deal with that was have recordings in the future. I didn’t expect her to give me the evidence of her lies in black and white… I think she thought there were simply pics on the CD.
Side note: A lot of people are under the impression you have to notify all parties to a conversation that it’s being recorded. Section 183/184 of the criminal code clearly state that you do not… and the admissibility of such evidence in court is well documented.
I have a tenant who is in substantial breach of his lease agreement in my basement suite. He has multiple late rents (documented with receipts), smoked marijuana in a non-smoking house, numerous noise complaints, and always has his smoke detector unplugged when I’ve entered the premises. I now have a police file started to document the disturbances that arise from smoking marijuana (the police have actually arrested him). There are a few more points, but I will stop there! In the lease agreement I have a clause that states “3 or more late rent payments will result in a 7 day eviction notice”. I am fairly certain that if I issue the notice he will leave. Can I legally enforce that clause? In the off-chance that he would refuse to vacate, I would turn to the RTDRS, and would obviously need to ensure that I’ve conducted everything properly.
Thank you so much for your time and response!
Hi Rochelle,
You definitely have grounds for evicting, although the 7 day notice in your lease isn’t actually applicable as the Residential Tenancy Act’s 14 days’s takes precedence, unless you go directly to the RTDRS. I know a bit confusing. Bottom line, the 7 day notice won;t be enforceable.
If you think he will leave with the notice, then you can try bluffing with the seven day notice. If he calls your bluff and tells you that a 14 day notice is required, I would then go directly to the RTDRS and file and you should get a hearing within a week or two. Since the 7 day notice isn’t actually valid, it only puts you back 7 days versus the 14 (actually 16) if you go with the valid notice. Make sense?
Bill
Thank you so much Bill. I will be filing with RDTRS tomorrow morning. In the meantime, we have a verbal agreement consenting the tenant may store things in the detached garage. This is a joint storage space and I am very concerned for the other property inside the garage. Can I revoke storage privelages? If so, do I have the right to change the locks? (On the garage only- not the dwelling.) If so, how much notice must I give for this to take place?
Again, thank you so much for your time and response!
Hello Bill.
You seem to be a great resource and very knowledgeable with dealing with tenant and Thank you for taking time and talking to me.
Kind Regards
Kishore
Thanks Kishore,
It was good talking with you and I am looking forward to hearing how everything works out for you.
Regards,
Bill
Hi
I am trying to get rid of my tenants. They have not paid the rent and I had provided then 1 month and 14 day notice respectively. There are also damages to the property. I would like to contact the RDRS to get the eviction process initiated and how can i recoup the damages. Can you provide details and contact info?
Appreciate your response.
Hi Kishore,
It definitely sounds like you want to have these tenants move on, depending on how serious the damage is you may be able to use a 24 hour eviction notice, although if you are currently applying at the RTDRS you are already on the right track.
I’m not sure what kind of details and info you are looking for, are you looking for a detailed plan on how to fill everything out and go through the RTDRS? If so I have the guide that is available on this site that will help you, it can be found here, Landlords Guide to Evictions in Alberta. It goes into the details about what you need to fill out, what you should be including and what you can expect to happen along the way.
Let me know if that was what you needed,
Thanks,
Bill
Hey I’m trying to find a way to get rid of a rude obnoxious roommate how can I do it legally?
Hi Tristan,
This can be tough without knowing the details of any contracts the two of you agreed upon or what the landlord’s lease contains. If the roommate is subletting from you or is listed on the lease can also be a difference maker. So, if the roommate is not on the lease and it’s only you, they may be in breach of the lease and you can ask them to leave, but the landlord may be required to submit a notice to vacate to them.
Next best route is to buy the out. Basically pay them to leave if you really want to stay in the property.
Finally, if you are both on the lease and they are so obnoxious you would rather move than stay contact your landlord and let them know you need to terminate the lease. there may be some penalties involved, but it will allow you to end the problem.
Regards,
Bill
hi there,
i have a few questions and concerns. my boyfriend and i moved in to our basement suite approx May 5-6 2011. when we first viewed the suite, our landlord told us there was no working stove, although a hotplate and convection microwave, and that she would have an electrician come to look at getting the stove to work and also some lighting problems. since then nothing has been done. about two weeks ago, my boyfriend was moving our bedroom around. picking up the bed, he noticed a fairly large amount of water underneath it (our bed just sits on the floor). in our computer room next to our room, i noticed water aswell. when i notified her she came down and took a look then rudely replied ” well where is your tenants insurance? ” in which i had signed up for just days earlier. while she was looking at the water she told us that her father was coming to stay with her and that he would take a look at everything and fix the lighting. since then, this has not been done.
secondly, my mother and sister have been staying with me since their new place is being cleaned. they came to stay with me on june 17. i notified my landlord of them staying here possibly two weeks and she replied in a written note that it was no problem. maybe two or three days later ( at the time they had not been here over two weeks ) she gave me an eviction notice stating that i had not paid the rent, that my mother and sister were to leave and to pay the utilities in full. as for the untilites, she rents two rooms upstairs which are occupied so they are split 5 ways. myself, my boyfriend, my landlord and the two other tenants. for the month of june we were not given a copy of the bills and were told to each pay 79 dollars. 365.00 for one month. one of the tenants is only here two weeks at a time, and i find that she is also barely home so i was a little confused to see the bills this high. my boyfriend and i also work so we are home in the evenings to eat dinner and go to bed. my mother works days, and my sister is also at school. we are very concious about turning lights of and unplugging things.
to get to the whole point, i am on a six months lease. along with the water, lighting problems and no stove, there is also mold growing under sinks, the toilet etc. my boyfriend are paying $800 for barely nothing. is it possible to break the lease without my landlord taking us to court to pay for the remaining months of the lease? would all the problems my boyfriend and i have encountered in the 3 months of living here be enough to break the lease since she has not done anything to resolve these issues? any other information would be greatly appreciated as well.
thanks,
brandi
Hi Brandi,
There are a few good lessons from this and you covered a lot of ground, so I’ll try to answer as much as possible. I’ll try to start in order as per your comment.
If the lease stated there was to be a working stove, the landlord is responsible for providing such, along with working lighting! You can take the landlord to the RTDRS for this, but from the rest of your message, I don’t think you really want to hang around there anyway. If you did take it to a hearing, you likely wouldn’t receive financial compensation, but you never know.
As a tenant, you should have renter’s insurance, in fact every landlord should recommend this to their tenants when they move in, it’s not very expensive and well worth it if things get damaged. It’s one of the steps we go through when signing the lease. However, this insurance helps protect your items and belongings, but the landlord is directly responsible for making sure the property is safe for the tenants, if the water is left un-managed, it can lead to mould problems and other water issues, so they should have addressed that right away.
Good job of notifying the landlord and getting written approval, this can protect you from issues later. This works both ways for landlords and tenants. Regarding the eviction notice, the big question is, did you pay? If you were holding back the rent due to the work not being done, you cannot do this. A tenant cannot withhold rent for work not being done, again you can go to the RTDRS and get awarded a payment back to you from the landlord. If the 14 day notice hasn’t expired, if you pay it in full the eviction notice is null and void.
If you are past the 14 days (really 16 days as the day you receive it doesn’t count and you have until noon the day after) and haven’t left, the next stage for the landlord is to take you to court or to the RTDRS. From the sounds of it, you might be best served to attend the RTDRS so you can dispute the eviction and dispute the utilities. Now depending on the lease you signed and what it says you are supposed to pay you may not win here, but you may get this discounted for not having full access to the facilities (the stove) that should have been there. Again depending on what your lease states was to be provided.. Also she will have to provide the statements proving that is what is owed.
I don’t think you will have a problem getting the lease nullified as she served you with the eviction notice anyway. I also wouldn’t be concerned with her trying to collect the final three months rent. The RTDRS is a great service and works both ways, it helps landlord evicts problem tenants, but at the same time it can also protect tenants from negligent landlords. You may want to talk to the landlord, suggest she take the eviction to the RTDRS or you also have the option of filing for a hearing yourself to break the lease and to deal with the landlord.
Hope that helps point you in the right direction!
Bill
Personally, I would contact the Health board. This is unsafe and unsanitary and, likely, an illegal unit. The Health board, if they deem it unsafe and/or illegal, can require you to move… at which point you are out of the lease and the landlord is required to pay back all your damage.
Dragging in the Health Board can create a whole new set of issues as well. If it was flooded and it’s not dealt with right away and correctly it cas cause an even larger repair bill. You may want to check with your insurance company as well to see how you are covered.
Bill
Indeed, it can. But this is a tenant looking to get out of a slum basement suite… at least that’s how I read it. In which case, the health board can be quite effective.
In this case it was the landlord trying to repair the suite for the tenant who didn’t want people in their space, or at least that’s how I understood it. The health board can work wonders for tenants living in poor conditions, but can also be a nightmare for landlords if the tenants are just using the system.
Bill
Who can i email with questions!! I am having a hell of a time!
Hi Dexton,
You can ask questions away right here.
Bill
I had a flood in my rental basement – the basement was torn up and cleaned. The tenant missed a day of work and spent some time cleaning which i compensated her for. The reuild needs to be done and she won’t work with me to let the crews in and out of the house. I’ve decided to put the rebuild off and give her a few month get out – when she is gone i’ll get them in to do the rebuild. I’d like to see the eviction process mentioned above. Thanks! If there is anything I need to know please drop me anote if yuo have time. 403-991-5103 Jason Todd
Hi Jason,
Sorry to hear about the flood. Any specific reason the tenant will provide for not allowing workers in? If you can possibly address their concerns it may make all the difference. Sometimes it’s just a miscommunication or a concern they have to be there to allow people in and out. Then again, sometimes they are just difficult, but you never know until you ask!
If you are leasing on a fixed term basis (which I highly recommend versus month to month!) and she doesn’t mind the basement not being rebuilt you may want to consider leaving it as is until the lease is up and simply not renew. Then you can go in, complete the renovations and possibly even increase the rent a bit if this doesn’t occur until spring or later of 2011. Expectations are for demand to increase by then with the lower unemployment and the increased need for labour on many of the upcoming projects.
If you are evicting under the grounds of major renovations being required, you are supposed to provide one full years notice anyway, unless it falls under a health risk type situation and then the rules can vary case by case. This is why having six month or year long terms can work out much better for a landlord when things do not work and then simply renewing them for another term if things work well.
You can get a your own copy of the eviction process by just filling in the form off to the right of this page! Hopefully it helps you clarify some options.
As I understand the residential tenancies act in Alberta, she doesn’t have a choice. You tell her when you are coming in to make the repairs and, so long as it is in the prescribed times by the act, you can enter as you have notified her. Other than you, perhaps, having to be there as well, I can’t see an issue here.
Hi Angella,
By the book, you are correct, but if the tenants aren’t cooperative it can make the process even tougher. You can provide them with 24 hour notice of repairs and unless there are extenuating circumstances they should be allowing you in.
Just be sure to document everything and take photos of the work before it gets started so you have evidence in case they come back later and try to say the work was unnecessary and you disrupted their situation.
Bill
Hi Bill,
I have a tenant on 2y fix term lease and want her out when the lease is over.
Do I have to give her a notice or not ?
Bob
Hi Bob,
I guess the question for you is what if you don’t give them notice, do you think they will leave on their own?
According to the word of the law landlords aren’t required to provide notice to terminate a fixed term lease. The reality is if the tenant isn’t given notice the tenant won’t be prepared to leave and if it ends up going to an eviction hearing the tenants are often given additional time which could range from a couple weeks to a couple months to vacate, especially if there is no history of breaches, problems or issues with the tenants.
Especially if the rental market is tight.
You’re better off giving them at least 30 days notice or much more if possible to ensure they have adequate time to find a new place, if you really want them out you can also offer them an early exit from the lease or other incentives to help them along faster.
Some landlords are fearful the tenant won’t pay the last month’s rent if given early notice and this is an evictable offence. If they don’t pay by the second you need to immediately file for an eviction to get a court order to get paid before they are out. I’ve talked about the ramifications of not doing this in multiple other comments on the site.
Bill