Tenant Not Responsible For Prospective Rent If Landlord Terminates Tenancy Before Lease Expires
Every tenant knows, or should know, that if s/he moves out of a rental unit prior to the expiry of a lease s/he is responsible to pay the rent until the lease expires. The landlord is supposed to rent out the unit as soon as possible but is under no obligation to rent that unit before renting other vacant units in the same building. What happens though, if a landlord terminates the tenancy prior to the end of a lease. Is the tenant still responsible to pay rent until the end of the lease.
The short answer is "no". The answer to the question remains "no" even if the landlord gives the tenant a choice of either modifying disruptive behaviour, such as noise infractions, or vacating. A recent case illustrates.
In the case, several neighbours of the tenant complained that he was making noise and disturbing their enjoyment of their units. The landlord served notice giving the tenant the choice of either modifying his behaviour or vacating the unit. The tenant elected to leave. After that, the landlord sued for damages wanting repayment of a free rent coupon, three months rent which would have been due under the lease, hydro charges and costs of cleaning and advertising the unit.
Both the trial level and appellate judges dismissed the claim on the basis that the landlord had taken the initial step to terminate the tenancy. The Residential Tenancies Act sets up a regime whereby the landlord can give the tenant the choice of staying or vacating the unit. If the tenant chooses to vacate, the tenancy terminates on the day the landlord gives the tenant notice. No prospective rent is due.
The Lesson: Landlords should give some thought to the timing of any notice so as to minimize the losses that can occur from a unit being empty. A landlord should also consider whether a tenant is intentionally engaging in disruptive behaviour in hopes of receiving notice and being allowed to terminate a lease early. Such conduct would call for a different remedy rather than notice to terminate the tenancy.
Stamm Investments Limited v Hobbs, 2016 ONSC 6223 https://www.canlii.org/en/on/onscdc/doc/2016/2016onsc6223/2016onsc6223.pdf
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