hey guys i just have a question

i got a new landlord just last month, and he said he was going to take down all of our doors with the door knob that has a keyhole (which is every single door) and replace them with doors with doorknobs that cannot be locked from the outside (only can be locked from the inside when you're in the room)

he said this was a fire hazard and he would be fine a sum of 50,000 dollars if the inspector sees we have locks on our individual doors

i'm not concerned about my stuff being stolen, i'm more concerned about the housemates' friends coming in and sleeping in your room and such

i live on paisley in westdale. it's a 7-people house

this is really freaking me out. any ideas of what i should do would really help, thanks

I'm not exactly sure, but I think there has to be locks on each of the individual bedrooms. If you were living in a house with complete strangers there is no way you would want to live there without being able to lock your door. The landlord would never get students staying at that house if there weren't individual locks

Wow, he's going to replace all the doors instead of just the doorknob? Crazy guy... I personally don't know what you can do, but you can visit MacOffCampus and see what they say.

My house has doors without locks on them...same thing that you're describing, where you can lock them from the inside but not the outside. I'm not sure about the rules & such (as someone suggested, ask the off-campus people in the basement of the student centre), but it's definitely not unheard of!

Seems like he is changing the agreement you signed already..

I actually thought that it was required by law that your rooms are lockable from the outside and unlockable inside. Definitely go talk to the OCRC.

Changing locks

24. A landlord shall not alter the locking system on a door giving entry to a rental unit or residential complex or cause the locking system to be altered during the tenant's occupancy of the rental unit without giving the tenant replacement keys. 2006, c. 17, s. 24.


http://www.ontariotenants.ca /law/act03.phtml#RTA24

thank you guys all for your suggestions. i just called the hamilton home inspector and he suggested me to move out ASAP because my landlord is too hard to deal with

thank you all

to matt: but he did mention our "house" is considered as a "family residencial area" and not a "rental area" because it is a house with seven people... :S:S ? so yeah :(

Originally Posted by dreamystar

to matt: but he did mention our "house" is considered as a "family residencial area" and not a "rental area" because it is a house with seven people... :S:S ? so yeah :(

It's still a rental if you have to rent rooms in the house.

Something about that just sounds really fishy =\

i dont think its much of a fire hazard to have locks on interior doors. Those things are hollow and made of woodchips most of the time. You could pretty much "fall" through them.

Maybe you can find some sort of law that states tenants must have lockable entry systems? something to convince your landlord otherwise.

Check section 2 of the Residential Tenancies Act (2006) interpretation of the word "rental unit", which includes in the definition of "rental unit" rooms in a rooming house. Section 24 of that same Act says the landlord is not to change/alter the locking system on a door giving entry to a rental unit. Put the two together and it seems that the landlord can't remove locks on the doors that go into your room.

There might be complications with this if you're a joint tenant (as joint tenants are legally or at least traditionally at common law entitled to unlimited access to all areas of their house, even if there is some informal arrangement as to whose room is whose). In any event, you should check with a lawyer or community legal worker at a legal clinic - it's free of charge. Also, Off-Campus office and also the Landlord and Tenant Board should not be giving you legal advice - they should be referring you to someone who is actually trained in this area of law.

Section 24 doesn't say he can't remove the locks. It says he can't change the locks without giving you new keys. The intent of this is presumably to ensure that a landlord cannot deny you entry to your rented premises.

an FYI - it's true that the building can be required to have the doors replaced due to fire hazard.. and in that case, the doors are not hollow as suggested above, but solid. ours were all just replaced this past year because of the wooden framework where i live making the possibility of fire spreading rapidly a hazard. admittedly, i'm not in a house, but should your house fall under the same definition, then it stands to reason that the same fire codes would apply.