Landlord drops eviction threat

A Parkdale tenant, who was served with a stack of eviction notices, is breathing a sigh of relief after his landlord withdrew its request for an eviction hearing before the Landlord and Tenant Board.

Blair Madeley received seven N5 notices of eviction alleging he had damaged his Jameson Avenue apartment and had failed to document properly the installation of a new fridge in his unit through a city program.

N5s are notices that allow landlords to apply to the Landlord and Tenant Board for an eviction hearing based on one of three criteria: property damage; interference with another’s enjoyment of the property and housing more people than regulations permit within the tenant’s unit.

But when he showed up for his eviction hearing on Thursday morning, the landlord’s representative Howard Levenson requested the two sides meet with a mediator and they came to terms.

“It’s a good win,” Madeley said, although it doesn’t guarantee his landlord won’t apply for another eviction hearing in the future.

Madeley said he will sign a document stating that the newer fridge is the landlord’s property and would remain with the apartment.

The 31-year-old bouncer and University of Toronto student received five of the seven notices between May and October. The allegations that he damaged his $1,200-a-month, onebedroom apartment ranged from stating he mounted cameras on the balcony and put stickers on his door to alleging that he intimidated his landlord and failed to break up cardboard boxes properly for recycling.

In Toronto’s low-vacancy, high-rent market, tenant advocates say N5 notices of eviction are increasingly being used to apply for eviction orders so landlords can raise the rent beyond provincial guidelines. The notices can be served to tenants if the landlord says they have damaged the property, behaved in a way that interferes with someone else’s enjoyment of the building, or for housing more than the number of people allowed under the province’s housing, health and safety standards in the rental unit.

Blair Madeley said landlord’s withdrawal of eviction notice was “a good win.”