Hey guys, I'm renting out a place for the first time in my life and I'm not sure what I can and cannot ask my landlord. When I looked at the place and signed the lease, I didn't notice that my room didn't have a lock and key to the door, I kind of just assumed that it had it :(. I've heard before that a landlords can't put in locks if they don't have a certain insurance <-- I'm not sure if this is true or not. All my other housemates have locks on their doors, it's just me. My room is in the basement and it has the box to the fuse or something like that. Can I ask them to put in a lock? Also the carpet flooring isn't complete - they have a mat covering it. Can I ask them to finish that as well? Btw although it sounds bad, other than the lock and carpet, the place is really nice .

In terms of the lock, many landlords don't like having locks on the doors because if there's a fire or anything and they need to get in, the door would have to get broken down. It's annoying to fix and can be more expensive, depending whether or not it's insured. Also this might sound highly unlikely, but it happened to a friend of mine, where they had a house fire and had to break down the bedroom door to get one of the people out. Soooo it's not impossible. Having said that, I think you have the right to a lock on your door - you may or may not have to pay for it, though, depending on the type of lease. It's not required that your room has one if it's a group lease. If it's an individual lease, then (I think) there should be a lock on the door.

Why do you want a lock to the fuse box? If someone blows a fuse they have to wait for someone with the key to reset it?

You can certainly ask them to finish the carpeting, but they don't have to say yes. If it was like that when you rented it, and it's not unsafe or broken or anything, then I don't see why they'd have to. It's the same as if you'd rented an unfinished basement. You couldn't just turn around after you've rented it and 'force' them to finish it.

You should visit the off-campus housing place. They can answer your questions much better.

Thanks. I don't want a lock for the fuse box but the fuse box is in my room. So I thought maybe that could be a reason for why there's no lock.

This covers all legal responsibilities: http://www.ontariotenants.ca /law/act.phtml. You're welcome to request something extra to your landlord, but they may not be legally required to.

If you have any questions, contact Jennifer at the Off-campus Resource centre. She's super helpful and you can book an appointment with her and go through anything you're not sure about! There's also a few resources on the site itself that are worth checking out!

http://macoffcampus.mcmaster .ca/oc...ic/contact.htm