Dealing with Harassment from your Landlord

Ingredients

Bullying, harassment and/or threats are never acceptable from your landlord. Harassment is not restricted to physical or verbal abuse. It can take  many different forms including (but not limited to) cutting off heat or electricity, knocking on the door or calling at unreasonable hours, sexual advances, theft, changing the locks etc. Threatening to do these things is also illegal.  If your landlord is making any physical, verbal, written or sexual threats against you, you should act immediately. The landlord may not discriminate against you on the grounds of race, gender, sexuality, religion or nationality.

Instructions:

NOTE: If any of the following makes you feel more risk, please consider your safety and comfort levels first.

  1. Call or visit someone you trust and tell them about your situation. Letting others know what you are facing can be helpful, you should not have to suffer alone! Having another person updated about your situation may help protect you as this person could act as a witness in future legal proceedings.
  2. Think about what you want to do. As emotionally draining and traumatic as these instances are you should do your best to consider what you need so that you can create an effective plan to address the unpleasant behavior. For example: do you want to take this person to court? Do you want this person to stop speaking with you in person?
  3. Try and document the harassment. Take notes about what is happening and carry a camera with you (such as a cellphone) in order to record instances of discriminatory behvaior. Even if you record just the audio of an incident, it helps to corroborate your experiences and can be used as evidence in later proceedings.
  4. For any situation posing immediate or eminent physical, emotional or psychological danger contact the police at 911 or visit your local police station.
  5. Write a demand letter to your landlord demanding they stop any harassment immediately. If you wish to resiliate your lease or receive moral damages due to your experience demand these things at the same time. If the Landlord does not respond appropriately you may want to file at the Régie du logement for a hearing.

FAQ