Notice Law - N7 (Serious Impairment of Safety)

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

66 (1) A landlord may give a tenant notice of termination of the tenancy if,

(a) an act or omission of the tenant, another occupant of the rental unit or a person permitted in the residential complex by the tenant seriously impairs or has seriously impaired the safety of any person; and

(b) the act or omission occurs in the residential complex.

(2) A notice of termination under this section shall provide a termination date not earlier than the 10th day after the notice is given and shall set out the grounds for termination.

Furr v. Courtland Mews Cooperative Housing Inc., 2020 ONSC 1175 (CanLII)

[16] The appellant maintains that the Vice-Chair, although citing the language of s. 94.2(1), did not apply the test as interpreted by the Board in other cases. The Vice-Chair’s formulation did not, he argues, include the necessary elements of seriousness and gravity and did not address the question of whether there was evidence of an “intention” to act on any verbal threats.

[17] I do not agree with this argument. The Vice-Chair’s formulation of the test falls well within the range of the jurisprudence cited. In 2276761 Ontario Inc. v. Overall, 2018 ONSC 3264, the Divisional Court made it clear that serious impairment of safety includes both actual impairment and a real risk of impairment. In other cases, the Board has held that it is not necessary that anyone has actually been hurt or injured and that a serious impairment of safety may include:

(i) the potential for an outcome that has the risk of a substantial negative effect on a person’s well-being;

(ii) a foreseeable act or omission that could result in or may result in a serious impairment to safety; and

(iii) extremely loud and intense arguments could easily result in violence and would be a safety hazard.

[18] There was no error of law in the Vice-Chair’s formulation of the applicable legal test. The appellant’s real complaint is with the Vic-Chair’s application of this test to the facts. This, however, subject to the next ground of appeal, is not a question of law but a question of mixed fact and law and is, therefore, not subject to appeal under the RTA.

2276761 Ontario Inc. v. Overall, 2018 ONSC 3264 (CanLII)

The Tenants’ Main Ground of Appeal

[11] The tenants argue that the board erred in relying on the fact that their cats were not vaccinated as a ground for eviction where (a) lack of vaccination of the cats was not listed as a ground relied upon in the landlord’s N-7 Notice; and (b) there was no fair notice that vaccination was in issue.

[12] An N-7 notice process is reserved for requests for eviction under serious cases like a breach of s. 66 (1) (a) of the statute. That subsection allows for the eviction of a tenant whose conduct “seriously impairs or has seriously impaired the safety of any person.” The notice period is short and the statute does not allow for a cure period. Case law has reserved resort to s. 66 and the N-7 process therefore to cases involving “weighty, grave, or momentous conduct” involving the actual impairment of safety or a real risk of impairment of safety. LTB File No. NOL-08606-12 (9 July 2012; Stevens) 2012 CanLII 46749 at para 15.

[14] The law is clear that only a ground of eviction set out in a notice given under the statute may form the basis of an eviction order. It is an error of law to evict a tenant on a ground that is not set out in the notice document. Oshawa Housing Authority v. Maule, 1979 CarswellOnt 2708 (Div. Ct.) at para. 6; DU Chapter House Ltd. v [Tenant], (3 December 1998; Ittlemen), File No. TSL-03969 (ORHT) [CRO No. HOU-D-00691] at para. 7.

[30] Under s. 76 of the statute, there could not be an eviction unless the animals’ past behaviour interfered with tenants’ enjoyment, the animals caused allergies, or were inherently dangerous. In LTB File No. TSL-56891-14 (21 September 2015; Carey), 2015 CanLII 77275 the board held that a tenant’s hoarding that resulted in a fire hazard notice amounted to a risk of serious harm to others. That strikes me as an analogous situation. But, the board also found that the infestation of cockroaches that had arisen due to the tenant’s hoarding was not a sufficient basis to evict absent evidence of someone being allergic to cockroaches. Here, the tenants argue that, like cockroaches, cats are not inherently dangerous. However, these are feral cats kept in extremely large numbers. The law requires all cats under a person’s care or custody to be immunized to protect the safety of people and other animals from a serious disease that is a recognized public health hazard. The board found that these facts met the statutory standard.

[33] Under the deferential standard to the interpretation by the board of its home statute, in my view, within the range of outcomes that was open to the board, one option was a finding that the tenants’ behaviour in keeping unvaccinated feral cats in unlawfully large numbers in the circumstances proven before the board posed a serious risk to the safety of others that met the tests for eviction. That is what the board found. In my opinion, it made no error of law in doing so.

TEL-02720-19 (Re), 2019 CanLII 89718 (ON LTB)

1. The Landlord served the Tenant with a notice of termination pursuant to section 61 of the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006 (the 'Act') claiming an illegal act by the Tenant because of a stabbing.

2. The Landlord’s evidence is a news article from the company which states a male was arrested due to a stabbing outside of a home on the same street as the Tenant’s rental unit. The Landlord’s representative states the rental unit had police tape around it; however, provided no further evidence to substantiate the Landlord’s claim.

3. Given the vague description of the stabbing with no evidence to say that any of the parties involved had anything to do with the Tenant or that it actually was on the residential complex, I find the Landlord’s evidence to be insufficient.

4. As a result, the Landlord’s application with respect to illegal act is dismissed.