Renters consider leaving N.L. after no-fault eviction ‘upheaved’ their lives
CBC
After moving to St. John's from Peterborough, Ont. a couple built a comfortable life in a two-bedroom apartment with their cat. Two years later, they say a no-fault eviction forced them to start over.
It was the end of June when Memorial University graduate student Kerri Mozessohn received an email from a realtor saying the property they lived in was about to go up for sale.
Mozessohn and their partner Paige Jackson received word an investment buyer was interested in purchasing the house. The realtor assured them they’d be kept on as tenants.
“Then the next thing we heard, we got an eviction notice via email,” Jackson told CBC News.
She said it arrived on July 1.
Both from Ontario, the couple didn’t realize a tenant could be evicted without cause in this province. The situation, they said, sent them into a panic.
“We did absolutely nothing wrong and our entire life was completely upheaved,” said Mozessohn.
A no-fault eviction is when a tenant's rental agreement is terminated for reasons that aren't their fault. For example:
Ontario — where Mozessohn and Jackson are from — has special rules around no-fault evictions, where landlords must first apply for an eviction order from the Landlord and Tenant Board.
“Landlords must act in good faith when evicting a tenant for reasons that are not the tenant’s fault,” says Ontario’s rental rights webpage. “This means the landlord must have honest intentions to use the rental unit for the purpose stated on the eviction notice.”
The province may order compensation to be paid to tenants in situations where they are evicted in bad faith — like if the landlord says one thing on the eviction notice, but ends up doing something else with the property.
However, Newfoundland and Labrador has different rules, and it’s causing Mozessohn and Jackson to rethink their future.
While N.L. landlords are barred from terminating a rental agreement in retaliation to complaints from tenants, for example, landlords are not necessarily required to have a reason to evict as long as the proper notice is given, according to the province's Residential Tenancies Act. How much notice needs to be given depends on the type of lease in place.
Mozessohn and Jackson had a month-to-month lease, so they were given the required three months to move out. But they say that still doesn't make them feel safe.
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