Tenant exposed to nude sunbathers should address concerns to landlord

Q: I rent my home in a garden home condominium complex. My landlord owns my unit and the two units beside it. Everything was going fine until he recently rented the unit next to me to a new couple. The new tenants sunbathe in their backyard completely naked. I can see everything, and I don’t like it. What is the law on nude sunbathing ? Is there anything I can do?

A: The Criminal Code provides, “Every one who, without lawful excuse, is nude and exposed to public view while on private property, whether or not the property is his own, is guilty of an offence.” A case decided in Saskatchewan establishes that the section is not meant to criminalize the act of swimming nude just because the person swimming has misjudged the privacy of the beach. That suggests that one key issue is how private the backyard is.

If you were to call the Ottawa Police Service they would probably check how easy or difficult it is to see your neighbours’ backyard out of your windows, and how easy it is to see into the neighbours’ backyard from outside the yard. If your neighbours are just visible from your unit, then a practical solution might be to erect a privacy screen to block your view of their backyard.

Assuming it is easy to see into the backyard from outside the yard, then your neighbours should not be doing what they are doing. Suppose the police have a discussion with your neighbours, but the neighbours do not change how they sunbathe. Whether the police would lay a charge would depend on the extent to which you and others are being offended, and in particular whether there are children in the adjoining properties or children regularly passing outside the backyard.

Whether or not you involve the police, your landlord can take certain steps. In a blatant case, the landlord can give your neighbours a notice of termination for illegal act. If the exposure is not as extreme, your landlord might use a notice of termination for substantially disturbing the reasonable enjoyment of other tenants.

Presumably you and others would be satisfied if the neighbours put on swim suits to sunbathe. The notices of termination are given to get the neighbours to wake up to the fact that they need to change their sunbathing practices. Just like the police, the Landlord and Tenant Board would consider how exposed the backyard is. The judgment call has to be made on whether your sunbathing neighbours have the right to enjoy their backyard as they wish, or their desire to get a full body tan has to yield so that you are not adversely affected.

You best course of action is to address your objections to your landlord. He should check your view to validate your objection, and then talk to your neighbours. Your landlord would be well advised to check the condo rules to see if they help him. If not, then he could seek a rule change over the fall and winter. If the sunbathing resumes next spring, then your landlord can apply to the Landlord and Tenant Board unless an amicable solution can be found.