I'll go back to the Residential Tenancies Act of Ontario and paste every act under Part 3 "The Landlords Responsibilities" and beside each responsibility I will give a fool proof example of how those responsibilities were somehow overlooked by this stories main character.....Dirty J.
Landlord’s responsibility to repair
20. (1) A landlord is responsible for providing and maintaining a residential complex, including the rental units in it, in a good state of repair and fit for habitation and for complying with health, safety, housing and maintenance standards. 2006, c. 17, s. 20 (1).
I'll start with the responsibility of maintaining and repair clause. I know I already touched on this one before but I believe it is an important one. For starters around 2 weeks after we had moved into the house a disaster of epic proportions rocked the house (and possibly the street). Attached to the back of the house is a main floor patio, and because our basement is above ground it happens to be on the second story of the house, point and case it is a 1 floor drop to the ground. Well if you couldn't tell where this was going from that description....IT COLLAPSED!!!!! That's right the patio fell 1 floor to the ground and so did a full size BBQ, 3 couches, 2 tables, and about 50 people. Turns out the patio was not even built up top code, the foundations (which looked like wooden planks) had completely rotted out, and best of all after having a contractor look at it, the patio was missing vital supports. Dirty J of course couldn't believe this to be possible considering the great TERRIBLE condition of the house. Repair time, which in this situation should have been started the next day, took about 3 months (keep in mind no one even came to look at the damage for about a month). This left us with no patio. There was a bug infestation in the basement and centipedes in the 1000's carpeted the floor. DIRTY J's GLORIOUS SOLUTION......Raid bug spray. Doesn't that stuff cost $7.99 at the local Wal Mart? I thought that was for killing a bug or two......but I guess when your dirty dirty J it works on thousands. Well actually it didn't and we had to wait for them to die then sweet up the corpses (not pretty).
The second large issue that falls under the category of repair and upkeep would be our lovely flood....wait make that 3 of them. Yup, turns out the trees in our backyard decided to grow their roots right into our sub pump (lucky me). Now let me sidetrack for a second to inform the readers that Dirty J is a man of mystery, a man of suspicion, but most of all he is a man who is almost near IMPOSSIBLE to contact. His phone is never on, when it is he doesn't answer, and when you leave a message, you guessed it, he doesn't call back......back to the story. So finally after many attempts to reach Dirty we get through only to be told he has forgotten his plumbers number and we need to call them. Turns out we have their number on a magnet on the fridge....how convenient. By this time there is about 8 inches of water covering the entire basement floor which is coming out of every sink with a steady flow. My roommates bedroom is completely flooded and we are out of patience. When the plumbers finally arrive they turn out to be great guys and help us fix the problem. Now I am well aware that roots growing in to the sub pump are not Dirty J's fault in any way (though I'm sure he somehow managed to make sure it happened), but it was not our fault either and as far as I can tell it IT THE LANDLORDS RESPONSIBILITY TO PROVIDE CLEAN UP so that the rental unit......and I quote the lines above" is in a good state of repair and fit for habitation and for complying with health, safety, housing and maintenance standards"
As you already guessed poor old Dirty J didn't quite have that one figured out either. After 2 days of continuous calling we finally get through only to be instructed to go to another one of his houses and pick up a shop vac (water vacuum) and perform the clean up ourselves. Now by this time stagnant water has been sitting in the basement for 2 days, it smells, mold is developing and the list goes on and on. Unless my eyes have failed me at the ripe old age of 20 I'm pretty sure that contradicts the whole " fit for habitation", or " complying with health" sections of the above clause. Last time i checked mold and stagnant water were kind of on the unhealthy side of things (just saying). Attached to this post are some great home videos of the flood to prove my point, also for your enjoyment, and entertainment. God Bless GREAT landlords.
Part IV on its way.
eZz
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