Breach of Rules or Statutory Conditions
If you breach the rules of the lease, including subletting or reassigning the lease without permission, or break the “Statutory Conditions” of the RTA you could be evicted with as little as 15 days’ notice.
Statutory Conditions refer to the cleanliness and livability of the unit. For a tenant to be evicted for violating Statutory Conditions the unit can’t just be messy, cluttered, or dirty, it needs to be uninhabitable. This is often used in situations of hoarding or severe neglect. For more information on Statutory Conditions, including the landlord’s responsibilities, see Whose Responsibility is ______ Anyways?
Forms
Form E: Notice to Quit – Breach of Statutory Conditions or Landlord’s Rules
Informs a tenant they have violated the Statutory Conditions, the rules set out in their lease, or illegally sublet/reassigned their unit and the landlord will seek an Eviction Order
Form J: Application to Director
Generalized request form for the Director of Residential Tenancies. In this case, for an Eviction Order.
Timeline
A Form E can be served at any point when the landlord sees a tenant violating the Statutory Conditions or rules of the lease. It must be served 15 days before the date the landlord wants the tenant to leave.
If an Eviction Order is granted, the tenant must move out on the date specified in the Order (unless they appeal to Small Claims, more on this in Disputes & Resolutions). This date is set by the Residential Tenancy Officer and can vary depending on their ruling or your situation.
Hearing Process
Tenants can challenge the Notice by filing a Form J. If they do, a Residential Tenancies Officer will set a hearing date that the landlord and tenant can both attend to argue their case.
If a tenant does not challenge the Notice or leave on the date specified, the landlord must file for an Eviction Order and serve the tenant a Form J to inform them of the hearing date.
Previous Legal Decisions
If a landlord learns a tenant has broken a rule in the lease, but continues to accept rent from that tenant, they forfeit the right to evict them because of that violation. (MacMullin v. D’Addario, 1988 CanLII 9604 NS SC)
Using aggressive language or body language - and calling the police for matters that are possibly a nuisance to the police or others - does not violate the conditions for good behaviour. (Asselstine v. Drake, 2015 NSSM 14)
Breaches of conditions that occurred years ago or have since been resolved cannot be used as grounds for an eviction. (Langen v. Universal Realty Group, 2022 NSSM 42)
Ordinary cleanliness means sweeping, vacuuming, mopping floors, and dealing with garbage appropriately. The minimum expectation for cleanliness when a tenant moves out is that the unit is returned to a level where someone else can begin living there. (Tagliapietra v. Cake, 2023 NSSM 33)
