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RTA - Standardized Leases. Shannon v Selim
In Shannon v Selim (Div Court, 2024) the Ontario Divisional Court dismissed a tenant's RTA appeal, this of an LTB eviction order, here where the tenant apparently originally argued that RTA s.12 ['Tenancy agreement'] and s.12.1 ['Tenancy agreement in respect of tenancy of a prescribed class'] (standardized leases) operating as a defence:[5] Neither s. 12 nor 12.1 of the Residential Tenancies Act applies in this case.
[6] Applying the regular rules of statutory interpretation, the ordinary words of s. 12 require landlords to provide a copy of the lease to tenants at the outset of the tenancy. Once the lease was provided by the initial landlord in 2016, as Ms. Shannon concedes it was, the purpose of section 12 was met. Nothing in the section, or the overall protective purpose of the statute, allows an interpretation that requires each succeeding owner to repeat the task.
[7] Section 12.1 of the statute also does not apply to this tenancy. The tenancy commenced before the prescribed date of April 30, 2018. Subsection 12.1 (3) makes the entire section inapplicable to leases entered into before the date prescribed in the applicable regulation. Under s. 2 of the regulation entitled Tenancy Agreements for Tenancies of a Prescribed Class, O Reg 9/18, the date prescribed is April 30, 2018. Nothing in s. 12.1 (4) makes the remainder of the section applicable to leases excluded from s. 12.1 by s. 12.1 (3).
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