Do I have Grounds for Breaking my Rental Lease in Alberta?My boyfriend and I moved into a place November 1st and signed a one year lease. Shortly after moving in, we realized that our unit constantly smelled like cigarette smoke. When we asked the landlords what was going on, they admitted the tenants in the basement smoke (chain smokers) in their unit and they have allowed it. My boyfriend and I are both non smokers and I, myself, am especially struggling with this. We have brought it up with the landlords and they have stated that they cannot tell the people in the basement to stop smoking nor should we expect them to because they have lived there for a year before us. They did speak with the people in the basement and have asked them to open a window while smoking but it has not helped.
I have personally purchased small filters for each of the vents and have placed Bounce Sheets on the filters to combat the smell (it lasted about 3 days). We have also purchased 2 air purifiers totaling over $ 800 (the landlords paid half of one - a total of $ 250). This helps a little, but not much as we are unable to have both air purifiers constantly running on full power due to the noise.
I have had the landlords come to the house to smell it and they claim that they can't smell anything and they never had a problem with it before because the previous tenants before us never complained.
I have asthma and am allergic to cigarette smoke not to mention EVERYTHING I own stinks of smoke (including my clothes - and I will admit, I am very self conscious about this). Recently, I have been able to smell marijuana a few times.
Prior to moving in, neither my boyfriend or I realized that there were even smokers in the building. The day of the walk through I asked my boyfriend (I was at work) to ask the Landlord if the people in the basement smoked and he was never given a straight answer. It was only until after we had handed over the already signed lease agreement (on the day we were getting our keys to move in) that we were told that it is, in fact, the people in the basement and was not the people who lived in our unit prior.
I told the landlords that I would no longer bring up the issue because I felt that we had done everything we could and the landlords were being compliant but they also made me feel like I was constantly complaining and that I was bothering them. However, after living here for 2.5 months, I have reached my breaking point.
Are you able to answer the following questions for me?:
In this situation, what are our rights and responsibilities as tenants?
What are our landlords rights and responsibilities?
Do we have grounds to break our lease under the Residential Tenant Act or the Health and Safety Act? (I work in the medical field and know how dangerous second hand smoke is let alone second hand smoke with asthma and allergies)
If we are unable to break our lease, is there anything we can do?
Thank you so much for your time! :o)
Mrs. h2
you will have to call your appt asscosication in your town or call a realtor maybe she can give you the number or atleast the name
meerkat
Being a non-smoker myself and allergic to cigarette smoke I completely understand your predicament.
Unfortunately there are no laws in Alberta [yet] that forbid a tenant to smoke in his own apartment. However, at issue is your right to a safe and healthy environment. Your landlord has a legal obligation to provide this.
The cigarette smoke that is infiltrating your apartment is obviously getting in through somewhere. This may be through the electrical wall sockets, through the walls under the sinks in the kitchen and bathroom where the plumbing comes out of the wall. If you have hot water heating it will come up through the holes where the pipes come out. I say this from personal experience.
Go to the following link where you will find what the minimum housing criteria are:
http://www.health.alberta.ca/documents/Standards-Housing-Minimum.pdf
The primary intent of the Minimum Housing and Health Standards is to establish minimum conditions which are essential to good health and which make housing premises safe, sanitary and fit for human habitation. The key word here is "habitation" which means a room that is intended to be used for
sleeping, living, cooking or eating purposes but does not include a lobby, hallway, closet, toilet
room, bathroom, corridor, laundry or storage space.
If you can establish that in your particular case remaining there poses a health risk to you rendering the premises unsafe for habitation then you will be on legal grounds to terminate the lease. I say terminate as opposed to breaking your lease. Breaking a lease results in penalties. Terminating a lease is legal and without penalties.
Unless your landlord is able to "seal" every hole where the smoke is coming through [not impossible but difficult] then I'm not sure he is going to be able to do much for you except offer you other accommodations in the building or agree to terminate the lease.
Do the following:
1. Read the link above and familiarize yourself with its contents
2. Ask the landlord what he can do to seal off your suite [this includes the entry door so smoke from the hallway doesn't seep in]
3. Ask him to release you from the lease without penalty if he cannot solve the problem. He has the option of doing this. If he does you are home free
4. If he refuses to release you then file a complaint with the Residential Tenancy Dispute Resolution Service http://www.servicealberta.gov.ab.ca/869.cfm
If you file a formal complaint you will be advised on what the process is. After both sides present their arguments, a ruling will be made. Seriously consider going to arbitration on the grounds that you are having to live in an unhealthy environment and have done everything to mitigate the problem by investing hundreds of dollars of your own money. And remember that the smoking pot is illegal and a violation of the residential tenancy agreement [unless for medicinal purposes]. The landlord can and should be evicting the tenant for doing this if you have brought it to his attention. This would also be further grounds for terminating the lease since the landlord is not enforcing the terms and conditions of the lease for the mutual benefit of all concerned. You have reasonable grounds to complain about these issues. If the landlord is making you feel like you are bothering him and always complaining don't allow him to lay this guilt trip on you. This is his problem and you have every legal right to expect him to deal with it. You are paying good hard earned money.
As an aside, there are two comments that you have made that weaken your position significantly in my opinion:
"Prior to moving in, neither my boyfriend or I realized that there were even smokers in the building."
"we were told that it is, in fact, the people in the basement and was not the people who lived in our unit prior."
On the one hand you are saying that you and your boyfriend did not even realize that there were smokers in the building. In the next sentence it was clarified for you that in fact it was the people below you who were the smokers and not the previous tenants who lived in your suite. Why would the landlord have to assure you that it was not the previous tenants unless your boyfriend had some sort of suspicion because he could smell cigarette smoke during the walk through and was wondering if it was the previous tenants?
I do not know if you have carpets in your place but if the cigarette is as bad as you say [and I'm not doubting it] one would assume that there would be significant odor during the walk through. Just something to think about. :)
Orignal From: Do I have Grounds for Breaking my Rental Lease in Alberta?
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