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JEmmily Posts: 2
Posted On: 6/1/2016
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My landlord's lawyer, informed my lawyer, that the landlord "may/will" require my apartment for his son's use in the near future, however, I have strong suspicions that this is a tactic to remove me, because I've been forcing him to make repairs to the building and to bring it up to code. To be clear, he has not issued an N12 yet.
Firstly, his son attends a college approximately an hour away. It will be his second year of a four year program, and last year he lived in residence there. At the end of the last school year, he made a social media post speaking of his eagerness to go back into the residence. At the moment, he's participating in co-op where he has temporary housing.
Second, the landlord owns two buildings next to one another, both with five or more rental units. I've lived in my unit since 2012, the longest in my building, and have had no complaints against me. Several other tenants have had several complaints against them, and one of them is planning on leaving within the time-frame when the landlord's son is going to move in, but this is not confirmed.
Third, the landlord never mentioned his son needing my unit before I started seeking legal action against him (I've contested a rent increase of 11.5% that he never sought approval for, I've filed a human rights tribunal complaint against him based on disability, and my lawyer has informed his lawyer of my many other grievances).
Forth, his son moving into my apartment would constitute a significant reduction in his standard of living. My unit is a very crummy bachelor in a poorly maintained building, but the landlord (and his son) live in a moderately high-end house on a triple (perhaps quadruple) lot. The living space in my apartment would also be far smaller than the residence would.
There are also further mitigating factors.
Firstly, and the trigger to me seeking improvements to the building, is my declining health. Over the past few years I've become progressively less mobile and asked for accommodations, like an assigned parking space (which he refused to give, and even complained about in his deposition to the tribunal), a handle bar on the main entrance (which he refused to install despite installing one on the commercial unit's entrance), and non-slip fixtures added to external stairs (which not only did he refuse to do, but is also procrastinating repairing them now that the township has deemed them unsafe). At the moment, I believe he his postponing the repair to the stair until such time that he can evict me, because he knows I'll force him to do it to code.
Second, as of three days ago, I found out that I might have MS. Coupled with an existing heart condition and other ailments, moving would constitute a terribly large burden on me which may severely exacerbate my condition, and may result in short term hospitalization.
At the moment, my lawyer has been using my tribunal complaint as leverage against the landlord, which he believes that I have a reasonable chance of winning. At first, I asked for no monetary compensation, I only requested that the parking space be made available and that the landlord be asked to take sensitivity training (which he has outright refused). He then pulled out of mediation, which my lawyer responded with the stipulation that if the case goes to trial, we'll be asking for $5,000 in damages. I've now asked my lawyer to raise my damages claim to the maximum if he does issue the "threatened" N12.
In addition to the many, many, MANY, repairs I've asked to be made to the building, the landlord's also refused to address the removal of services to the building, or the near constant unavailability of other services. These are being "discussed" between our lawyers, but again, I believe he's procrastinating until he can evict me.
My questions are:
Do I have any means to block the N12. I have discussed fighting into Superior Court, but have been somewhat dissuaded to do so, because it might open me up to having to pay my landlord's legal fees.
My lawyer is a legal aid attorney and likely has a very high case load. My concern is that he may not physically have the time to devote to my case, nor an incentive to pursue it rigorously as he is paid by the province, and to my knowledge, is restricted from accepting another type of retainer. I'm wondering if seeking a private solicitor would be beneficial. I really do NOT care about any damages awarded to me, in fact, I don't want any money whatsoever, and would gladly sign over most, even all, of any award given to me, I just DO NOT want my landlord getting away with treating people as he has.
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