Apartment repairs require notice of entry much of the time
Q: My landlord tells me they do not have to give me any notice (let alone 24 hours’ notice) to come into my home to carry out repairs. In other places that I have rented, the landlord always provided 24 hours’ notice for a repair or maintenance. Is this not correct? Also, I have no way of knowing if a repair person has been in to my apartment or not. They do not leave a note to say that they have been in, and if the item or area has been repaired.
A: The Ontario Residential Tenancies Act deals differently with two types of repairs. For emergencies, a landlord can enter without giving notice beforehand. Emergencies would include such things as water coming through a tenant’s ceiling, a furnace that has gone off during cold weather or other matters that need to be attended to immediately.
However, to enter a tenant’s apartment for non-emergency repairs, landlords need to provide 24-hour written notice that specifies the time of entry (within a few hours), and states the reason for entry (namely to do the particular repair). Alternately, a landlord or their staff people can enter without written notice if the tenant consents to the entry. Allowing a repair person or a superintendent in when they ask to come in can get your repair done faster, and some tenants will agree for that reason.
Your landlord should not tell you they have the right to enter without notice for all repairs. Even if you agreed, the consent would be tainted by the misinformation.
You would like a note that a particular repair has been done. Sometimes it is obvious, such as if a leaking tap has stopped leaking or a running toilet has stopped running. Other times it is not obvious that a particular repair has been done. Some landlords do leave a note behind. That can be helpful since it lets a tenant know the situation and alerts the tenant to call in again if the repair has not been successful. However, leaving a note is not required.
It is also worth noting that some tenants want to be present when the landlord will enter to perform repairs. Sometimes that is not a good idea, such as if an apartment is to be fumigated with chemicals to kill bugs, or while electrical work is being done. For most repairs, if a tenant wants to and can arrange to be at the apartment, they are allowed to do that. But the landlord does not have to delay or reschedule a repair to accommodate a tenant’s wish to be present.
Once a tenant receives a proper written notice of entry, the tenant is obliged to permit entry during the time block the landlord has specified. A tenant also needs to remove any animals that would interfere with the work or cause the repair person a problem. This could be a dog who might threaten to bite the repair person. Or for bedbug or other pest control work, it could be any animal since the animal might be hurt by the chemicals used.
Provided a tenant is cooperative in other ways, some landlords try to work with their tenants to agree on a time for entry, however they are not obliged to do that. They have their own constraints such as the time block a repair person has given them, or the timing and location of other work they need to do each day.