Source
r/legaladvicecanada•
veswdev

[ON] Neighbor continously harassing me

Ottawa, ON

I live in an apartment complex, my neighbor smokes all day and plays loud music all day. I've reported him numerous times to the city bylaw, security and property management. The man refuses to answer his door, and when he does he usually yells and screams and threatens to kill anyone who knocks on his door.

Today my property manager went to him and told him to turn his music down or off, he promptly told her to go to hell, and said he's going to kill my wife and I for reporting him. This is not the first threat he's waged against my family and I (1yo son, puppy, wife and i). Property managers argues with him for about 10 minutes and he shuts door in her face, she refuses to interact with him anymore. He has tried calling the police on my family because our son was crying due to teething.

We no longer feel safe and cannot rely on our property manager to do anything to assist us.

I'm at a loss what the next steps will be?

Tl;dr: neighbor is threatening to kill us yet again, he's harassing us, he's called police on us for our son crying due to teething. We no longer feel safe in our apartment due to his aggressive nature and threats to kill us.

Posted Jan 2, 2019, 4:31 PM UTC

39
neoengel•

he promptly told her to go to hell, and said he's going to kill my wife and I for reporting him.

Call the police, utter threat to cause death

https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-46/section-264.1.html

23
FrenchAffair•

Call the police regarding his threats against you and your family.

Document all the instances that his behaviour has impacted you and your family. Keep as detailed records as you can, including your correspondence with your landlord/PM and their failure to adequately address the situation.

Then you're going to file a T2 application against your landlord with the LTB.

http://www.sjto.gov.on.ca/documents/ltb/Tenant%20Applications%20&%20Instructions/T2.pdf

Your neghbiour is interfering with your reasonable enjoyment of the unit. You can't evict your neghibour, but since your landlord isn't properly dealing with the issue, you can take them to the LTB and hopefully that will motivate them to take appropriate action.

13
JMJimmy•

Request he be brought up on charges for uttering threats or GTFO. The recourse should be the LTB but you're unlikely to get results there.

6
KWienz•

This is untrue. The LTB will absolutely provide damages against a landlord for failing to evict a tenant who is interfering with the quiet enjoyment of other tenants.

3
JMJimmy•

I just finished a massive multi-tenant suit at the LTB - they are a captured agency. Even the on site legal staff give you advice to angle your case for an appeal because they know a review judge is likely the only way tenants will see justice. That's not to say tenants can't win, it's just stacked against them if there isn't a strong precedent like Wrona or Montgomery.

4
KWienz•

Maybe every single LTB member is biased against tenants.

Or maybe your case just wasn't as strong as you think it was.

2
JMJimmy•

Our case was incredibly strong, the mediator even said "this is impressive" when going through what I'd built. Then when the landlord's attorneys stepped out she started commenting on how they were discussing the issue, before any hearing had taken place/evidence presented and were on the landlord's side of the main issue. Then we started case management and she starts discussing the quantum, striking out items generally worth about 3-5% reductions like they weren't worth anything and acted like we weren't even there. It was a "how little can we whittle your liability down" session, knowing the LL would have to pay something.

After that performance we settled for a large lump sum (~3k) and 10% rent reduction - the consent order somehow neglected to include the latter % so we lost 1.2% as it got calculated like the lump sum. They also neglected to tell us the LL had filed an AGI which negates 50% of the settlement to pay for the capex that caused or remedied the issues.

It's a joke of an institution.

1
KWienz•

While the easiest route is likely go to the LTB against your landlord in the hopes that they evict the tenant, one other (though complex) option is to sue your neighbour in superior court for common law nuisance and seek an injunction that he stop playing loud music at certain times and smoking in his unit. If he violates the injunction he can be held in contempt of court and jailed.

That process is hard to do without a lawyer.

If you just want some money to make up for the nuisance you could alternatively sue him in Small Claims Court for damages in nuisance.

3
robstoon•

screams and threatens to kill anyone who knocks on his door.

Yeah, that's a crime. Call the police.

2