Tenants fight back as landlords seeking own-use evictions rise 85% in Ontario

Chris Kostav and Shari Keyes may have targets on their backs. 

In a hot Toronto real estate market, both tenants are paying well below market rent for their units in a low-rise building in East York. 

And now their landlord wants them out. According to their eviction notices, the landlord plans to move family members into both apartments.  

"I think the only reason he wants me to leave is so he can charge higher rent," said Kostav, who is retired after working as an electrician and has lived in the studio unit for nearly 20 years. 

The landlord filed N12 eviction applications with Ontario's Landlord and Tenant Board for both tenants, otherwise known as an own-use eviction, saying he needs to move his daughter into one unit and his parents into the other. 

Neither Kostav or Keyes believe their landlord. They both obtained a lawyer and pushed back at the Landlord and Tenant Board. 

In an email to CBC, their landlord, Sofiene Bousselmi, denied the evictions are in bad faith and said that he does need to move his family members in.

In the midst of a national housing crisis, Kostav and Keyes have been caught in a battle between an increasing number of landlords who say they need to repossess their rental properties and an increasing number of tenants who are refusing to leave without a fight. 

For Kostav, the battle continues, with his next hearing at the Landlord and Tenant Board expected in early August. For Keyes, the Ontario Landlord and Tenant Board ruled earlier this month that the landlord had acted in bad faith with his eviction application for her unit, allowing her to stay in her unit for now.

For Keyes, 56, giving up her apartment would have meant her daughter and granddaughter would have most likely had to leave Toronto permanently or possibly end up homeless. 

"The rents everywhere are so high we knew we couldn't afford anything else. We had to fight because we've been worried about the possibility of homelessness this entire time," said Keyes.

As rents continue to reach new highs across the country — up 22 per cent in two years, with a one-bedroom apartment going for a national average of $1,929, according to data from Rentals.ca — some Ontario tenants who have received N12 eviction notices say there is nowhere else to go, and they are going to do what they can to stay put. 

The increase in own-use evictions seems to be happening elsewhere in the country. 

The B.C. government just launched an online portal to help combat bad-faith evictions by landlords saying they need their units.