Toronto Renters Forum

Our legal rep suggested we all do that.

I am so glad to hear that you have legal representation.
Please keep us posted on your progress.

Here's a link to the Toronto Star article...

"Why a city rule means this former 17-unit Forest Hill apartment building can’t be used as an apartment building"

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2021/12/06/why-a-city-rule-means-this-former-17-unit-forest-hill-apartment-building-cant-be-used-as-an-apartment-building.html

Your landlord has the legal right to know who they are renting their space to (i.e., YOU), but they have no right to know who your guests are so long as those guests do not cause problems (damage, noise, break the law, etc.).


Firther, they cannot discriminate against you because of your marital status or family status, so whether you have a girlfriend or not is none of their business:   http://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/human-rights-tenants-brochure


Your landlord also cannot charge you more rent if your girlfriend visits, or even is she moves in – this Toronto Star article provides some accurate information (from a former Landlord and Tenant Board adjudicator, and ACTO (tenants’ rights) lawyer).


Your landlord also cannot stop you from having guests:

https://stepstojustice.ca/questions/housing-law/can-my-landlord-stop-me-having-guests

Further, for regular rentals (not social housing) there is nothing specified in the law anywhere that limits how long a guest may visit you.


You, and also your girlfriend, also cannot be compelled to sign a new lease if she moves in, but doesn’t sublet.  This NOW magazine article provides clarity on this from another ATCO lawyer.

Also, note the quote from Geordie Dent of the FMTA (a terrific Toronto-area tenant-rights advocate):

Some residents may find themselves living with short-term roommates who don’t plan on adding themselves to the lease. Even then, there isn’t always a requirement to provide your landlord with information about those occupants, according to Geordie Dent, FMTA’s executive director.

“As long as you’re not violating overcrowding bylaws, you’re legally allowed to have as many people as you want in your apartment,” Dent says.

But if you decide to sublet some or all of your place to your girlfriend, then you must get permission from the landlord (and the landlord is allowed to do their “due diligence” in terms of seeing the new tenant’s ID and running a credit check).  In this case, your girlfriend can be used to sign a lease.

http://www.acto.ca/~actoca/assets/files/docs/TipSheet_Assignment%26Subletting_0107.pdf

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/questions-renters-landlords-1.4751954


So, so long as your girlfriend is only visiting or living there and not subletting (i.e., YOU are responsible for paying the rent, not her), then she does not have to provide her name or ID to the landlord.

My understanding is that landlords are free to regulate smoking in the public areas of their building, such as the lobby, and laundry room, etc.

There is also a City of Toronto bylaw that forbids smoking within 9 meters of any entrance to the building:

   https://www.toronto.ca/community-people/health-wellness-care/health-inspections-monitoring/smoking-legislation-enforcement/municipal-smoking-bylaws/mc-chapter-709-smoking/

To ban smoking in individual units requires them to have made that stipulation in your lease, otherwise they can't.

However, they do have a duty to enforce the "reasonable enjoyment of the premisses" provisions within the RTA.  So if you smoke, and if that smoking interferes with the reasonable enjoyment of your neighbours (smoke getting into other apartments through the ventilation system?), or if the smoking presents a health concern for their employees (second hand smoke getting into the hallways?), then they might have grounds to file a complaint at the LTB.

In practical terms, what I believe this all means is that you can continue to smoke in your unit.  If someone complains to your landlord, then they would have to warn you before it would be reasonable to file a complaint at the LTB – so in other words, you will receive a warning if your smoking bothers your neighbours.  If your smoking is a problem, then you could look into getting an air-filter, or exhaling your smoke out an open window, etc., to mitigate the complaints.

Also (and I don't know whether this applies to your situation), you have a right to take whatever medical treatments you require, so if you happen to be smoking medical marijuana, then they can't really do anything to stop you.

You need to give your landlord 60 days notice.