原文作者给安大略省租赁委员会的状子
WITHOUT PREJUDICE
Tenant’s Explanation
Submitted to the Landlord and Tenant Board
Along with the T6 Application Form
on the First of October 2014
1. Currently working at xxx, I relocated from Vancouver, BC, to C, ON, on September 7, 2014.
2. In August 2014, I began searching on craigslist.org for a room in a house to rent. I found the advertisement for 12345 xxxxxx, ON, N2T xxx, posted by the landlord, ABC, who claims that he does not live at the above referenced premises, though he owns it.
3. From the first contact till the last, there were 81 emails exchanged between ABC and myself, as well as a colleague of mine in C, Ms. Zhu, who would deliver my personal belongings to the place before my arrival. The communication between the landlord and myself was uneasy, given the 81 emails within a month or so, mostly because the lease agreement he had provided was full of flaws against the tenant and because he was evasive about my questions regarding key(s) delivery and other details that I, as a tenant, was entitled to know. I decided to proceed with the tenancy, however, only because of the good location of the premises.
4. Since the first contact, ABC has never given me any phone number by which I could reach him though I asked for it multiple times in emails, nor has used his personal email address in all correspondence with me except for Interac e-transfers. It was the Waterloo Region Police that helped me obtain his phone number after I called 911. Besides, ABC was very slow in responding to my emails. However, he responded to my monetary e-transfers very promptly.
5. Before I arrived in C, I had paid ABC the first and last month rent, which was CAD$1,080, through Interac e-transfer. I now wish to ask all money back.
6. Since I would arrive in C at 2:00 a.m. on the morning of September 7, 2014, I had asked ABC to courier me the keys at my own cost, but he refused to do so, as has been indicated in his impatient email of a word or two. As a matter of fact, ABC did not give me the keys to the property in question and to my room, even though he defended that he had left one in the mailbox and somewhere “in between the air conditioner and the fence outside of the building.”
7. I arrived at the premises in question around 2:00 a.m. on the morning of September 7, 2014, and did not find keys at the spots that ABC had told me about in one email. It was surprising to me that the door of the building was open, and the lights were all on. The living room and kitchen were extremely filthy and chaotic.
8. The room assigned to me, according to the lease agreement, was dark without a light. Besides, the room door was wide open with my bags and boxes open, my Sony speaker, pillow and some clothing missing. My colleague, Ms. Zhu, had delivered those belongings to the landlord a few days before.
9. According to the lease agreement, ABC should have provided basic furniture in the room including a bed. There was no bed in the room, not even a mattress. I was not able to sleep the entire night.
10. Without ABC’s phone number, I could only send him an email addressing my situation and concerns. He did not respond, until I had to phone him about 10 hours later with the number the police had obtained for me.
11. Around 4 a.m. in the early morning, I heard more than one man coming into the building and then up to the second floor, talking loud to the woman living in the next-door room for almost half an hour. I was extremely worried about the safety issues in the building.
12. I called the police around 8:30 a.m. One policeman came around 11:00 a.m., inquired about all details, looked around the house, and made notes. He also spoke with another tenant there, Paul Zhang. He assured me that the landlord was not a scam, but “just a bad landlord.” He then gave me the phone number of the Landlord and Tenant Board, suggesting I call for help as soon as possible.
13. I phoned ABC with the number the police had obtained for me. ABC did not even apologize for the situation, but sounded very defensive. He said that he would “resolve” the problems, by directing me to different places of which I was unaware. He refused to show up, nor gave me a specific time or date of the “resolution.”
14. Whereas I did not have keys to the room and to the building, I was stuck in the room all day and was unable to go anywhere, not to even buy food. I was extremely tired and hungry after the 5-hour Vancouver-Toronto flight and 2-hour airport transit trip from Toronto to C, followed by the unfortunate situation at the said premises. I became very sick, suffering a terrible cold, a high fever, fatigue as well as diarrhea. With the help of local friends, I moved away to stay with a family on the evening of September 7, paying $50/day till I found a new place.
15. On the same night, I sent ABC an email to terminate the lease agreement. I have not completely recovered from the illness as of today. Besides, the cell phone bill that I received 2 days after September 7 showed $175, generated by the calls that I had to make due to the above situation. Last but not least, I am not only physically ill, but also psychologically exhausted and traumatized, after those 81 emails, arduous communication and one after another frustration.
16. As of September 10, ABC’s tenant, Paul Zhang, informed me that he called the Police and reported another theft in the property. On September 23, he informed me that there had been prostitution going on in the property as well. Although these allegations were not directly relevant to my case, they proved my termination of the lease agreement and moving away a right decision.
Witnesses include the following:
Ms. XXX
Mr. XXX
Ms. XXX
Mr. XXX
C Region Police
Conclusion:
As a tenant, I signed the lease agreement and paid the first and last month rent in a timely manner in good faith. ABC’s failure to fulfill his responsibilities as the landlord has been devastating, as well as has caused the extra expenses I have incurred. He did not comply with the lease agreement that he had signed, refused to resolve problems in any real sense, and allowed the room door wide open with my valuable belongings unattended in it before I moved in. He sounds defensive and argumentative, and so I have determined to terminate the agreement and to submit this application to the Landlord and Tenant Board.
The landlord did not comply with the terms of the agreement, provide keys, correct deficiencies, maintain the premises in a good state of repair fit for habitation and in compliance with health, safety, housing and maintenance standards as well as my right to be free from interference with the reasonable enjoyment of the premises.
I have sought legal aid with regard to this matter. See s.20-23 of the Residential tenancies Act, 2006 (“RTA”) set out below:
“Landlord’s responsibility to repair
20. (1) A landlord is responsible for providing and maintaining a residential complex, including the rental units in it, in a good state of repair and fit for habitation and for complying with health, safety, housing and maintenance standards. 2006, c. 17, s. 20 (1).
Same
(2) Subsection (1) applies even if the tenant was aware of a state of non-repair or a contravention of a standard before entering into the tenancy agreement. 2006, c. 17, s. 20 (2).
Landlord’s responsibility re services
21. (1) A landlord shall not at any time during a tenant’s occupancy of a rental unit and before the day on which an order evicting the tenant is executed, withhold the reasonable supply of any vital service, care service or food that it is the landlord’s obligation to supply under the tenancy agreement or deliberately interfere with the reasonable supply of any vital service, care service or food. 2006, c. 17, s. 21 (1).
Non-payment
(2) For the purposes of subsection (1), a landlord shall be deemed to have withheld the reasonable supply of a vital service, care service or food if the landlord is obligated to pay another person for the vital service, care service or food, the landlord fails to pay the required amount and, as a result of the non-payment, the other person withholds the reasonable supply of the vital service, care service or food. 2006, c. 17, s. 21 (2).
Landlord not to interfere with reasonable enjoyment
22. A landlord shall not at any time during a tenant’s occupancy of a rental unit and before the day on which an order evicting the tenant is executed substantially interfere with the reasonable enjoyment of the rental unit or the residential complex in which it is located for all usual purposes by a tenant or members of his or her household. 2006, c. 17, s. 22.
Landlord not to harass, etc.
23. A landlord shall not harass, obstruct, coerce, threaten or interfere with a tenant. 2006, c. 17, s. 23…”
I’m a human being who values human rights. This unprecedented traumatic experience is one that has violated my basic rights, as the property that the landlord provided was a hazardous place and unfit for human habitation. I hereby ask the Landlord and Tenant Board to look into this application, and to provide a prompt resolution.
