Judge sides with Ottawa Community Housing over tenant snow-clearing duties
CTV
Ontario's top court has dismissed a case brought by an Ottawa mother and son after a dispute over snow-clearing duties under their lease agreement with the Ottawa Community Housing Corporation (OCH).
Ontario's top court has dismissed a case brought by an Ottawa mother and son after a dispute over snow-clearing duties under their lease agreement with the Ottawa Community Housing Corporation (OCH).
OCH denied liability in the legal action involving Daniel Crete, who claims he was injured in March 2017 after falling on ice on the front step of a row house that he and his mother, Marguerite Crete, were renting.
The Cretes alleged the corporation was responsible for winter maintenance at their leased property, including the clearing of ice and snow at the front step. OCH claimed the Cretes, as the tenants of the property and signatories of the lease, were responsible for snow and ice clearing, citing a provision added to their lease that assigned the winter cleaning duties to the tenants in the area that Daniel fell.
Marguerite Crete and her late husband had been leasing the property since 1988, but argued in her initial case before the Ontario Superior Court of Justice last year, that the provision was inconsistent with Ontario's Residential Tenancies Act (RTA), and should be voided.
The corporation countersued against the family for contribution and indemnity for any amount it is ordered to pay.
Justice Heather Williams ruled last year the provision in the lease was not inconsistent provisions in the Residential Tenancies Act (RTA) and held that the provision in the lease required the family to handle winter maintenance in the area where Daniel fell.
Williams stated in her ruling that a section of the RTA which requires landlords to maintain a property in "good repair," did not extend to snow and ice removal. The judge applied another section, which requires tenants to maintain cleanliness, including snow removal, for the exterior common areas regularly used by the tenant.
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