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Difference between revisions of "Entering a Tenancy"
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===Guide dogs=== | ===Guide dogs=== | ||
If you have an assistance animal covered by the Guide Animal Act your landlord has to accept it. You must not be charged a pet deposit for an animal covered by the [[Guide Animal Act]]. | If you have an assistance animal covered by the Guide Animal Act your landlord has to accept it. You must not be charged a pet deposit for an animal covered by the [[Guide Animal Act]]. | ||
== Leases (fixed-term tenancies) == | |||
You may agree to rent a place for a certain length of time, like six months or one year. This is called a lease, or a fixed term tenancy agreement. Leases are often good for landlords, but not always good for tenants. However, a lease can protect you from eviction in some cases (like if the landlord wants to move into your suite or sell it). | |||
Don’t sign a lease unless you are sure you want to live in the place. You can’t break a lease because you didn't do a careful enough inspection of the suite before you moved in, and decide after moving in that you don't like it. | |||
There may be parts of the lease that allow the landlord to break the lease and force you to move. This helps the landlord, but does not help you at all. Read the lease very carefully. | |||
===Breaking a lease=== | |||
If you need to break a lease, be aware that you may have to pay rent until your landlord rents the place out to someone else or until the term of your lease is over. This is what a lease means whether it is stated explicitly in the agreement or not. Many leases say that you have to pay a certain amount of money in order to get out of the lease. The amount charged to you cannot be charged as a penalty, but instead is meant to cover the landlord’s cost of re-renting the place. This amount is called “liquidated damages”. A landlord cannot say that you will lose your damage deposit if you break your lease unless it is a reasonable estimate of | |||
what it will cost the landlord to re-rent the place. | |||
