How to Resolve Tenant Disputes with Other Tenants
Are your tenants having problems with other tenants?
Even if the problem seems unrelated to you as the landlord, the Landlord and Tenant Board states that landlords are obligated to provide “quiet enjoyment and take reasonable action to address another tenant's conduct that disturbs the complaining tenant”.
Ignoring disputes can lead to tenants reporting them to the Landlord and Tenant Board, adding further stress to the situation and potentially leading to you being held legally and financially responsible for not fulfilling your responsibilities as a landlord.
Keep reading to learn how to avoid this and manage tenant disputes as smoothly and effectively as possible.
What does “quiet enjoyment” mean?
The term quiet enjoyment is vague and open to interpretation, but it generally refers to a tenant’s right to:
- Privacy
- Be free from unreasonable disturbances (e.g. ongoing loud noise, second-hand smoke, intimidation, and harassment)
- Exclusive use of the unit they are renting and use of common areas (there are some circumstances under which the landlord can enter the unit)
Below are the steps to take if your tenant is infringing on another tenant’s right to quiet enjoyment.
Resolving tenant disputes in 3 steps
1. Hear from both parties
Start by hearing from the tenant being affected and write down their story, and collect any evidence they have. Then, inform the tenant causing the dispute that there has been a dispute raised against them, and record their side of the story.
During this stage, you can also calmly explain how the problem can be solved, and what the consequences may be if they choose to continue causing the problem.
2. Mediate a meeting between the tenants (if necessary)
If after listening to both sides you agree there is a valid problem, and it doesn’t get resolved after an acceptable period of time, you can schedule a meeting between the involved tenants.
During this meeting, encourage both sides to explain their situations and come to a solution together. As the landlord, you can act as an objective third party, only writing down notes from the meeting and interjecting when necessary.
If you don’t feel qualified to do this, you can also involve a lawyer or professional mediator.
3. Take appropriate action
If your tenants still can’t come to a solution, it’s time to step in as the landlord and take appropriate action.
This will vary depending on the problem in question, but appropriate actions might be taken such as putting landlord-signed notes in common areas of your units (“Please avoid leaving garbage around”, “No loud music after a certain time”, etc.), serving a warning of eviction, an actual eviction notice, legal action, or even police involvement.
For these more serious actions, it’s important to have as much documentation as possible detailing how you’ve tried to provide a fair warning and resolve the issue leading up to that point.
Or, if there are changes you can make to your unit that can help the situation, you might want to consider those before going to a potentially more stressful (and costly) eviction or legal process. For example, if noise between units is the issue, making your walls and floors more soundproof might be the best course of action.
When is eviction the right call?
If the problem is legal cause for eviction, you can file an N5 form for the interfering tenant, which is a notice to end a person’s tenancy for interfering with others, damage, or overcrowding.
If you live in the same building as your interfering tenant, and the building has less than three rental units, an N7 form can be used instead. It is a quicker process than the N5.
After filing an N5, if this is the first time the tenant has had an N5 form filed against them, they have seven days to correct the problem (upon receiving the notice). If they correct the problem within the seven-day timeframe, an N5 form is considered void.
Otherwise, you can file an L2 form with the Landlord and Tenant Board, which is an application to evict the tenant.
Learn more about the L2 and other forms that landlords most commonly use.
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The blog posts on this website are for the purpose of general introductory information. They can’t serve as an opinion or professional advice. Speak to a professional before making decisions related to your circumstances.
