Roommates (Jurisdiction)

🥷 Caselaw.Ninja, Riverview Group Publishing 2025 ©
Date Retrieved:	2025-04-02
CLNP Page ID:	2444
Page Categories:	Jurisdiction
Citation:	Roommates (Jurisdiction), CLNP 2444, <https://rvt.link/ef>, retrieved on 2025-04-02
Editor:	MKent
Last Updated:	2025/03/17

Residential Tenancies Act, 2006, S.O. 2006, c. 17

“landlord” includes,

(a) the owner of a rental unit or any other person who permits occupancy of a rental unit, other than a tenant who occupies a rental unit in a residential complex and who permits another person to also occupy the unit or any part of the unit,

(b) the heirs, assigns, personal representatives and successors in title of a person referred to in clause (a), and

(c) a person, other than a tenant occupying a rental unit in a residential complex, who is entitled to possession of the residential complex and who attempts to enforce any of the rights of a landlord under a tenancy agreement or this Act, including the right to collect rent; (“locateur”)

"tenancy agreement” means a written, oral or implied agreement between a tenant and a landlord for occupancy of a rental unit and includes a licence to occupy a rental unit; (“convention de location”)

“tenant” includes a person who pays rent in return for the right to occupy a rental unit and includes the tenant’s heirs, assigns and personal representatives, but “tenant” does not include a person who has the right to occupy a rental unit by virtue of being,

(a) a co-owner of the residential complex in which the rental unit is located, or

(b) a shareholder of a corporation that owns the residential complex; (“locataire”)

(...)

Board

168 (1) The Ontario Rental Housing Tribunal is continued under the name Landlord and Tenant Board in English and Commission de la location immobilière in French. 2006, c. 17, s. 168 (1).

Board’s jurisdiction

(2) The Board has exclusive jurisdiction to determine all applications under this Act and with respect to all matters in which jurisdiction is conferred on it by this Act.

CEL-52122-15-RV (Re), 2016 CanLII 8773 (ON LTB)

24. The entire rear unit is the subject of the tenancy agreement between the Landlords and the Tenant. The Tenant rents the whole rear portion. Even though the Tenant chose to splits it into two units, this does not mean it has to be identified as two separate rental units. There is no dispute that the Landlords do not have a separate tenancy agreement with the Tenant’s roommate. The Tenant receives the rent for that portion of her unit.

TSL-63403-15-RV (Re), 2015 CanLII 90926 (ON LTB)

10. The Tenant testified there was luggage and boots in the locker she lost access to but it was her roommates and not the Landlord who interfered with her access to it. That part of her application is therefore dismissed because disputes between roommates are not with the Landlord and Tenant Board’s jurisdiction.

TSL-56599-14-IN2 (Re), 2015 CanLII 11469 (ON LTB)

12. That being said it is commonly accepted that not everyone who pays rent in return for the right to occupy is a residential tenant under the Act. The Act contains a number of exemptions in s. 5. More importantly, the tenant is only half of the equation. For the Act to apply to any tenancy agreement it is not sufficient for the tenant in question to meet this definition; the landlord in the relationship must also be a “landlord” under the Act.

13. The definition of “landlord” in s. 2(1) reads as follows:

“landlord” includes,

(a) the owner of a rental unit or any other person who permits occupancy of a rental unit, other than a tenant who occupies a rental unit in a residential complex and who permits another person to also occupy the unit or any part of the unit,

(b) the heirs, assigns, personal representatives and successors in title of a person referred to in clause (a), and

(c) a person, other than a tenant occupying a rental unit in a residential complex, who is entitled to possession of the residential complex and who attempts to enforce any of the rights of a landlord under a tenancy agreement or this Act, including the right to collect rent;

14. Paragraph (a) of this definition is why under-tenants, or roommates, are not covered by the Act. They pay rent in exchange for the right to occupy so they meet the definition of tenant; but the person they have the agreement with is a tenant occupying the rental unit and such a person cannot be a landlord under the Act because of the wording of paragraph (a).

15. Both paragraphs (a) and (c) of the definition of landlord explicitly exclude tenants who occupy a rental unit. So the first questions posed in the interim Board order of November 7, 2014, concerned whether or not the Interested Party was a tenant occupying the rental unit; in other words, can a tenant of a rental unit be a landlord of the same unit?

(...)

33. This brings me back to paragraph (c) of the definition of “landlord” under the Act. I believe what paragraph (c) means is that if the Interested Party is a tenant under the Act then it cannot also be a landlord with respect to the same rental unit. That is consistent with a plain reading of the definition.