Things have devolved with our landlord and we just want out!

Hello (again -.-)

I wanted to start off by saying everyone here has been wonderful and helpful. I would be lost without this group. It seems communications are only further breaking down and tensions are escalating with the landlord. At this point, we are preparing to file paperwork with the LTB but are a little lost because we’ve never had to do this before.

Some context on the situation:

- We moved into our current rental on September 1st. We viewed the house on the 16th while the current resident, the landlord, was packing up to leave. We liked the bones and the set up so we put in a conditional offer (conditions were laundry machine had to be installed and backyard done - it was a mess of weeds). Asked to view the house on the 25th (for some measurements because we couldn’t really view the house with the landlord’s things around) and the 28th (when everything was suppose to be done). They couldn’t give us confirmation for the 25th up until the afternoon of the 24th to which we just said “let’s just do the 28th to make everyone’s life easier”. Came on the 28th and nothing, other than the landlord had packed MOST of their things, was done. The new laundry machine was purchased and just needed setting up. Despite being told it would already be done, we gave the landlord some grace. We were still open to moving in. We had specific requirements and this place met them.

- On the 28th was the first time we were able to really view the place and a lot of issues were brought up. Reasonable issues IMO and completely doable. We brought it up to the realtor as they were acting as the landlord’s representative who is out of the country.

- The issues included: shared internet (that we were not told about before nor is it in the lease), lawn care & shoveling, a ring camera that the landlord has access to on our door, issues with the laundry machine leaking, outdoor plumbing issues, our porch being “a common area” (which is why the ring camera is allowed - also because this house is “like a condominium”), taking occupancy and their furniture and stuff wasn’t all cleared out. These are to name a few right now.

- The property is a house with 2 separate basement apartments (entrance to the side of the house). 1 is tenanted, the other the landlord is using for storage (this is what we were told by the realtor). We have since found out the the 2nd basement apartment is actually going to be where the landlord will be living. We found out yesterday.

- Any conversation with the landlord about our rights and what is legal has just fully devolved to the point we don’t feel comfortable staying and had caused a lot of issued. The landlord is saying “A tenant who only talks about laws and violation are the ones who mislead innocent landlords and demands things after moving in the house”. Apparently we should have done a “detailed inspection” prior to signing the lease to bring up and issues. Implying that they wouldn’t have signed with us had these issues been mentioned.

- She is offering we now “mutually” break the lease since we are all so unhappy. The issue is we have now moved in, paid for $1000+ in moving/movers’ fees and $200 to have internet installed for us. We stand to lose $1000’s more trying to move out asap, but it feels like we are being monitored at every moment especially with the thought of her moving in below us, looking out into the backyard we have exclusive use of.

What we want to know is if we decide to break the lease/move out earlier, could we still take her to the LTB for harassment or to recoup some of our money back? Would we have grounds for harassment? She is stating that we are harassing her. She has made it very clear that she does not care about what is legal (we brought up how audio recording on the ring camera is illegal per Ontario laws) or the RTA because this is her house.

Absolutely any insight would be appreciated here because we are so incredibly lost on how to proceed.

Thanks in advance!