The Human Rights Tribunal in Ontario is heavily focused on upholding tenants rights and spends very little time addressing the many vulnerabilities of Landlords. 

There have been many cases where awful people like this woman have gotten away with murder resulting in massive losses for landlords and hundreds of wasted hours in court costing the municipality millions. However I’m not so sure why Landlords are so upset with this ruling that came out recently about a tenant who was refused because of her age. In fact the building she was trying to rent in had an official “we don’t rent to people under 18 policy”.  The Human Rights Tribunal ruled in favour of the Plantiff in this clear violation of the Residential Tenancies Act awarding a $10,000 settlement for the (now 18 year old) plaintiff. In fact, the Residential Tenancies Act forbids discrimination in any way.

The “No Pets” is the most common form of discrimination. To be able to legally discriminate against potential Tenants with pets, the Act clearly states that the Landlord must have proven allergies to pets and must be living onsite. This does not apply to off-site Landlords.

I fully believe that a Landlord should be able to disapprove an application if they feel uneasy or uncomfortable for any reason. After all, it is their investment and they should be able to sleep easy knowing their investment is protected. An applicant can look brilliant on paper but a nightmare in real life. The secret is to keep your mouth shut and move on to the next application (if you’re lucky enough to have multiple parties interested).

A Landlord doesn’t have to disclose why an applcaiton might be denied. Just keep your mouth shut and you won’t get in trouble. So let’s consider this $10K slap on the wrist as a Stupid Tax. You deserved it, Landlord. Hope you’ll learn to keep your mouth shut next time.

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