My husband and I have rented a 3 bedroom apartment in Ontario, Canada; our lease is up May 1st. It is now the middle of March and about a month ago, she dropped an envelope in our mail slot. It was an increase in rent and also if we wanted to stay for another year, to sign the papers attached. My husband and I signed them. In the meantime, we were accepted to a retirement community in another Province. I told her about it and said it probably would be mid summer early fall and do they accept month to month rentals? She said yes, and I said great, we'll do that instead of staying another year. She said we couldn't because we signed the documentation. She said when the time comes she'll help us to find someone to sublet the apartment. When I told my husband, he was so upset. We've been good tenants, never missed a payment; always gave her the check a few days earlier than it was due. Also, I am in a wheelchair; I can not get into the bathroom or any of the bedrooms. There are two doorways to the kitchen, I can only get through one. If my husband is not with me, I can't leave the apartment on my own as there are no "real" ramps for the handicapped. We have two ceiling lights that have not been working since day one (May 1st of last year.) We would change the bulbs ourself, but the ceilings are about nine or ten feet high. Our dishwasher had "stale water" in it for about 3 days before it was fixed. We've had mice in the apartment. The floor tiles were popping up and it took months for them to put in new parquet flooring and they are plain wood, not finished. We didn't have screens on any of our windows for months. Our fridge broke down twice, where we had to throw away all of our meat products that had thawed out and other milk products, etc. that were in the fridge. Since we still have two more months (since we signed the form); can we not have this document null and void and continue living there month to month? I'm going in for surgery next month and really don't need all of this added stress, not to mention the extra months rent we would have to pay, and we really don't have the extra to pay out. Please help. Thank you! JM Also, should she have told us that we had a choice of renting month to month and/or sign a lease?
I don't think she had an obligation to tell you that you could remain on as a month to month tenant.But if you can prove that she said you had to sign if yo wanted to stay then you may be able to get out of the lease.The law is that after the lease expires the tenancy automatically continues as a month-to-month tenancy.Otherwise I would suggest trying to find a tenant to take over yourself.If you want to discuss this with someone you can call the Landlord Tenant Board.Here is a link to their contact information:http://www.ltb.gov.on.ca/en/About_Us/STEL02_111278.htmlI hope that helps as a starting point.