Landlords obligated to protect tenants from racial slurs by other tenants
Q: I am a landlord renting both floors of a duplex to two different tenants just outside of Ottawa. Each of them has the space to park two vehicles. The two tenants are not getting along. Some months ago the they had an argument. At the end of it, Tenant A addressed Tenant B with a racial slur. Tenant B called the police and an officer talked to Tenant A. Tenant B did not ask me to take any action about the racial slur.
The latest dispute is about Tenant A’s truck. Tenant A owns an old, run down truck, which looks bad and spews exhaust. Tenant B is unhappy about the truck. Recently Tenant B complained that when he turns on his air conditioner the exhaust from the truck is drawn into the unit. I asked Tenant A to move the truck or park it in the other direction, but he told me to take a hike. What should I do?
A: The most serious problem in this situation is the racial slur. Most people believe that racism is to be condemned in the strongest terms. Landlords have an obligation to protect tenants from racial slurs or harassment from other tenants. It would have been appropriate for you to give Tenant A a notice of termination for the racial slur when it was made.
However, on a practical basis rather too much time has gone by to give a notice for the racial slur alone, and Tenant B addressed the racial slur with the call to the police. They probably warned Tenant A not to repeat his behaviour and some of the possible consequences if he did.
Turning to the current problem of the truck, the request that it be parked in the opposite direction is probably a reasonable request. Residential tenants have a duty not to interfere with the reasonable enjoyment of the premises by other tenants.
Sometimes one tenant is breaking the landlord’s rules or doing something which is clearly inappropriate at any time (like the racial slur). Sometimes one tenant is doing something that is innocent in itself, like parking a vehicle in a particular direction, but it causes another tenant a problem. Then the landlord needs to assess whether the tenant with the complaint has a legitimate beef, and figure out if there is a way to prevent the interference which causes little trouble to the second tenant.
Then the landlord can act to seek to prevent the interference, with a request to the second tenant, as you have done here. If the interference is non-trivial, then the landlord can give a notice of termination. The goal is to have the second tenant stop the behaviour. In this case, you want Tenant A to stop interfering with Tenant B by the way the exhaust is emitted from the truck.
Your best course of action is probably to verify the impact on Tenant B (if you have not already done so). Then you may want to make Tenant A know you are serious. If your past request was verbal, you could make another request in writing. If you already gave a request in writing, then give a notice of termination. If Tenant A will not solve the exhaust problem, then your next step would be an application to terminate his tenancy. Either the letter or the notice can also refer to the racial slur, and note that all racial insults must be avoided.