Sexual Harassment by Landlord

TSL-76886-16-AM (Re), 2016 CanLII 100312 (ON LTB)

14. At the hearing the Tenant testified that the Landlord had made sexual advances toward her and that after the Tenant rebuffed the Landlord, the Landlord started sending eviction notices. At the hearing the Tenant submitted copies of text exchanges between the Tenant and the Landlord. The only sexually explicit text that was sent during the tenancy was sent on March 9, 2016. In this text the Landlord suggests that the parties resolve their dispute with “vigorous sex.” The Tenant did not submit any texts with sexual content that were sent later than March 9, 2016.

15. Although several of the other text messages are quite racy, they were sent in the fall of 2015 which is well before the tenancy began and so they are not material to this application.

16. At the hearing the Tenant submitted a copy of a letter from her lawyer to the Landlord, dated July 21, 2016. In this letter the Tenant’s lawyer warns the Landlord to stop sexually harassing the Tenant.

20. The sexually explicit texts establish that the Landlord was interested, at one time, in pursuing a sexual relationship with the Tenant but these texts do not establish any more than that. None of the Landlord’s sexually explicit texts appear to have any connection with the notice of termination and all but one of these texts was sent before the tenancy began.

23. For the foregoing reasons, I am satisfied, on a balance of probabilities, that the Landlord intends, in good faith, to possess the rental unit for the purpose of residential occupation.

24. I have considered all of the disclosed circumstances in accordance with subsection 83(2) of the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006 (the 'Act'), and find that it would not be unfair to postpone the eviction until January 31, 2017 pursuant to subsection 83(1)(b) of the Act. The Tenant testified that she has very low income and very little resources.

TET-73196-16 (Re), 2017 CanLII 49021 (ON LTB)

19. First, the Tenant provided the Board with a series of text messages from FM which are somewhat sexually suggestive and mildly inappropriate. However, the Tenant consistently responds to these messages with laughter, with emojis that are “laughing so hard they are crying” and with short form text language such as “lmao”.

20. While there is no definition of “harassment” in the Act, it is generally held that “harassment” is a course of conduct that a reasonable person knows or ought to know would be unwelcome.

21. Based on the content of the text messages, I am satisfied that there was no way for FM to know that his comments were unwelcome by the Tenant. In fact, the Tenant appears to have encouraged the behaviour and, as a result, I am not satisfied that the Landlord has breached the Act and this portion of the Tenant’s application must be dismissed.