Tenancy Law Residential Tenancies Act

Question: Discuss about the Tenancy Lawfor Residential Tenancies Act. Answer: Introduction Tenancy laws have been enacted in order to address the legal disputes which arise out of a tenancy agreement along with setting guidelines for landlords and tenants which they must consider before getting into an agreement. In Canada the legislation which governs tenancy agreements is the Residential Tenancies Act 2006. This paper identifies the risk involved while entering into a tenancy agreement along with the legal obligations and rights the parties to the agreement have towards each other. The paper defines the legal principles related to the scenario and then applies it to the fact to determine an appropriate conclusion. Legal Principles It is the responsibility of the landlord to ensure that they provide a favorable environment to the tenant to reside. The tenant must ensure that the property is not damaged to an extent which causes substantial problems to the tenants. The landlord are required to repair any such damage even if the tenant had knowledge about it at the time of getting into the agreement According to Section 20 (1) of the Residential Tenancies Act 2006. The landlords have the right to claim a security deposit from the employees however the amount of such deposit cannot legally exceed the rent of one month according to Section 106 (2) of the Residential Tenancies Act 2006. While getting into a tenancy agreement the landlord and tenant must both ensure that they have inspected the premises and prepared an inspection report. It is the duty of all tenants to ensure that they have gone through the tenant check list as provided in page 20 of the tenancy agreement. The inspection report is necessary for a party to prove that the damage to the property have not been caused by them. The inspection repot must include in writing the damages which exist in a property (LAW, 2015). Discussion and Conclusion In the provided scenario sally is the tenant who have entered into a tenancy agreement. Sally had the responsibility of inspecting the property and constituting an inspection report in writing so that she can use it in case of future tenancy disputes. In addition sally had the responsibility of reading the tenant checklist with respect to the tenancy before getting into the agreement. The tenanted apartment was discovered to be defective as the existing damages did not allow the property to heat up to a comfortable level even when the heater was working properly. The tenant in this case denied repairing the property which was his responsibility. In case sally had prepared an inspection report she could have forced the land lord to do repairs as it was not her fault. However the landlord is liable to make the repairs as he is obligated to do so under section 20(1) of the Act. The security deposit charged by the tenant is $2000 which is illegal according to section 106(1) of the act. The landlord was only entitled to a fee of $1000 as it was the amount accounting to one months rent. It can thus be concluded that the landlord have the duty to repair the apartment to make it comfortable and is liable to return the security deposit charged in excess of the legal amount. It has to be noted in this case that going through a tenancy agreement is necessary in order to avoid unnecessary problems. References LAW, C. (2015). Landlords Tenants Residential Tenancies Act 2006