Should son be allowed to swim?
Information for tenants and landlords
Q: I rent a townhouse in a large rental development in Ottawa. My landlord provides a swimming pool with lifeguards and my kids love to play at the pool. However a problem has arisen because the lifeguards have suspended my 9-year-old son, saying he cannot swim for the next two days because he was misbehaving in the pool. They warned me that when he comes back he will be “on probation”, and if they have to kick him out again, they will ban him from the pool for the rest of the summer. Do they and the landlord have the right to do that?
a: In operating a swimming pool for tenants and their children, landlords have to follow and enforce certain rules. There are some rules required by the Public Health department, such as rules against swimming with open sores, or children being toilet trained. There are also safety rules like no glass containers and no running on the pool side and rules about public decency, like wearing swim suits.
as well, there are safety and behavioural rules that the lifeguards will enforce, especially among children who use the pool. Things like no jumping on other kids (in the water or out), no diving in the shallow end (or at all), not splashing people who do not want to be splashed, and not interfering with lap lanes. Just like at a public pool, the lifeguards will usually begin by talking to the children who are misbehaving, and then progress to making them stand out of the pool (perhaps against a wall) for specific periods of time, like 5, 10 or 15 minutes, which the lifeguards time.
Most kids get the message and behave most of the time, so that they may spend some time on the wall instead of in the pool, but they settle down and are allowed back into the pool.
Presuming the lifeguards have followed the usual approach, it sounds like your son did not get message. pather than thinking about the legal rights involved, you would be better to talk to the lifeguards about what your son has been doing, and address the issue with him yourself. even better, go with your son or send a responsible adult with him, to supervise his behaviour for at least several days. ce aware that your child may be better behaved when you are there than when he is on his own.
In terms of the legal rights, your lease may give the landlord the right to make rules. Sometimes a set of rules is actually spelled out in the lease. even if the lease is silent on the question of rules, the right to make reasonable rules for the use of the swimming pool is implied. The landlord has an obligation to make sure all tenants and unit occupants do not suffer interference with their reasonable enjoyment of the facilities by other tenants or occupants, such as your son. as long as the rules are enforced in a reasonable and consistent way, the judgment of the lifeguards is unlikely to be found inappropriate.
The lifeguards need to pay the most attention to safety issues, but they are also correct to enforce rules for the use of the pool such as staying out of lap lanes and not splashing people who do not want to be splashed. pealistically, the odd accidental interference will happen and will be overlooked, but persistent interference with the enjoyment of others is a justifiable reason for the landlord to take action.