Hi, there is a problem that has happened with my landlord. I do not know if this is illegal or legal for her to do so, but my roomates find it very unfair.
According to her lease, it mentions to let her know if we are staying or not in the house some time before January ends. So, I had told her in December that i will be staying, my other roomate had told her as well and given in a deposit cheque for May and another one had signed the lease. The initial problem was that there was only 4 of us to rent out the rooms, but she needed 6 people. But, we have found 6 tenants now. However, the landlord found a seperate group of 6 people already and is forcing us out. But, initially we already had an agreement with the landlord to stay for the following year of 2013-2014. She wants us to sign a lease termination letter now. I am really confused about this whole situation, any input of this would be appreciated thanks.

First, you do NOT need to let her know that early whether or not you will be staying, no matter what it says in the lease.

Second, you can NOT be kicked out because the landlord found other tenants (as long as the tenants aren't the landlord's immediate family). The rules differ slightly depending if it's a group lease or if it's individual. If it's individual, then whether or not the other tenants decide to stay or leave does not affect you. If it's a group lease, then the four of you can still sign, but if you couldn't find anyone, you would be responsible for paying for the two empty rooms. Either way, she can't force you out. I'd recommend going to the off-campus housing office in the basement of the student centre, they'll hopefully be able to help you out.

Edit: You don't even need to sign another lease if you want to stay. You can do absolutely nothing and the terms of your first lease still exist, it just moves over to a month-to-month rather than a fixed-term lease.

Thanks for the input
I feel like what she is doing is very unfair
She is basically kicking us out because she found 6 people but then we now have 6 people too, so i do not see the reason behind why she cannot just keep the current tenants and the other 3 that we have found? :/

I feel like this is not allowed. You basically had a verbal contract with the landlord saying that you would be signing on for another term. She cannot disregard that now that she has found other people. As for what to do in this situation, that's really not my area of expertise. But I would do something ASAP to be on the safe side. Good luck!

I actually just went through almost this exact situation. I went to talk to the people at off-campus housing and they were really helpful with telling me my rights and how to protect myself and my housemates. Basically, as starfish said, she cannot force you out just because she found other students. If she keeps insisting on you signing a lease there is a form online that you can fill out and submit. I believe it is a coercion/harassment for and she will basically be warned to stop trying to bully you into either signing a lease or leaving unfairly. Whatever you do, do NOT sign the lease termination letter! I highly encourage you to go talk to the off campus housing people, they will be a big help.

i think you really should do what Stephanie suggested. Show your landlord that you know your rights! talk to off-campus housing and fill out the harassment form. i don't like how landlords think they can use the students -.-

thank you so much for all of your help!
Yes, I hate how landlords think they can take advantage of the students because this really is not fair.

Originally Posted by Jennnnn

thank you so much for all of your help!
Yes, I hate how landlords think they can take advantage of the students because this really is not fair.

It's not fair, but it's also your responsibility to know your rights...it goes both ways.
They shouldn't be doing illegal stuff in the first place, but they do because they can get away with it. The only way you can protect yourself is by knowing and exercising your rights. There's a ton of good stuff online, written in normal english (ie not legalese), and the off-campus housing people are really great.

Sometimes other people surprise you, too. I lived in a place for two years, then moved to a different house. The last day living in the first house, I found out how much of a jackass my landlord was when he screwed us out of ~$50 each. Well, the way he did the math it was ~$250 each, but he "decided to be nice" and knocked it down. He did that because he knew $50 isn't worth complaining over. Anyways, I was super pissed at him, because he had outright lied to me, and was charging us for the utilities paid by people in a separate apartment in the house (who we had absolutely no contact with, the two apartments were rented out separately). So, needless to say, it didn't end on a good note.

Then, several months after I had moved out, I got a letter from the CRA requesting proof that I had paid rent. Turns out that he gave the other people I was living with letters stating how much they had paid, but not me, and when I contacted him to ask, he completely ignored me and failed to respond (phone, email, etc). He can't outright say no because that's illegal, so he settled for pretending he had no idea I had contacted him.

So I went to the bank to get copies of the deposited cheques, and it turns out those are $12 each, and I needed 12 of them. When I explained to the teller why I needed them, she was really outraged on my behalf and charged me $12 for all 12 of them. It's still $12 I shouldn't have had to pay, but it was really nice of her to do that.

A few months later, one of my former housemates ran into the landlord and he was like "oh...tell her I'll give her a receipt". The CRA gave me about 4 weeks, and I had told him that in my numerous emails...again, he just couldn't outright refuse, so he said he'd do it when he knew it was too late.

tl;dr, know and exercise your rights so you can protect yourself from people trying to take advantage of you.

Thanks for your help!