‘This is an unvaccinated house’: Ontario landlord files eviction notice over tenant’s vaccinated guests

After being displaced by the tornado that touched down in Barrie last month, Brenda Devitt, 49, was forced to find a new place to call home.

Now, after moving to a new apartment less than two weeks ago, Devitt has been told by her landlord she'll need to move again - saying she broke the rules by bringing vaccinated guests into the home.

Devitt's apartment is in the basement of a house where the landlord, Geraldine Fry, lives upstairs. Devitt shares a kitchen and bathroom with another tenant, who also lives in the basement.

As politicians discuss vaccine passports - which have been adopted in places such as Denmark, China and Mexico - and talk of a fourth wave in our future, landlords and tenants may find themselves the latest relationship to navigate conversations over vaccine status.

On Monday, Devitt was served an N7 by her landlord, with a termination date of Aug. 21. This form is a notice to end a tenancy because of serious problems in the rental unit.

This is an unvaccinated house and contrary to landlords' expressed wishes, you are having vaccinated visitors on a daily basis," the N7 reads.

Although Devitt said she and her landlord had discussions about guests and the home being unvaccinated, she still believed she was allowed to have vaccinated visitors over during the day.

It's crazy," Devitt said. She's just gone way overboard in her privileges."

The N7, as seen by the Star, also detailed problems with Devitt smoking indoors and cleanliness.

However, Fry told the Star that Devitt signed a house rule agreement when she moved in. One of the rules said she couldn't smoke indoors.

Devitt denied smoking inside the home.

Fry also said she had conversations with Devitt where agreements were made about guests and the house being unvaccinated, with a witness present.

Fry said she refunded Devitt a month's worth of rent. She added her other tenant, who she does not want to risk losing, was also disrupted by Devitt's actions.

If a landlord tries to evict a tenant based on their COVID-19 vaccination status, the landlord-tenant board would not grant an eviction, according to Jonathan Kleiman, Toronto business and small claims court lawyer.

Even if someone isn't vaccinated, they shouldn't be denied housing, he said.

If you allow people to not be able to be rented to or be evicted if they don't get a vaccination, you're basically condemning them to homelessness, which I think is very difficult politically."

Both Kleiman and Toronto-based lawyer Caryma Sa'd said that discriminating against a tenant based on whether or not they were vaccinated could be a human rights issue.

With no hard and fast" rules regarding landlords and the COVID-19 vaccine at this point, both tenants and their landlords may be put in awkward situations, according to Sa'd.

In a scenario like we have where vaccinations have become highly politicized, it creates practical problems for landlords who want to keep their buildings safe and don't want to infringe on rights," she said. There will also be tenants who will be put between a rock and a hard place."

While there are privacy implications in requesting and storing medical information, vaccine passports for apartments are also not inconceivable, according to Sa'd.

It wouldn't shock me if that started to become a feature," she said. There is this overriding objective that is keeping people safe, and if we accept the premise that there is a pandemic and that vaccines help mitigate the effects of the pandemic - either through transmission or lessening symptoms and protecting people better - then that seems like a very legitimate policy objective and requiring proof of vaccination would be a logical step toward that."

Condominiums could more easily implement vaccine passports, compared to apartment buildings or individual landlords. Hypothetically speaking, it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility" for a condo board to pass a rule where those entering the building must show their vaccination status, according to Sa'd.

In other types of tenancy scenarios, it would be more difficult for landlords to impose these rules as tenants could claim they interfere with their reasonable enjoyment of the unit.

For this to even be imaginable, Sa'd said provincial legislation would need to be created that specifically contemplates the Residential Tenancies Act."

If a tenant is sharing a bathroom or kitchen with their landlord, or where a unit is otherwise exempt from the Residential Tenancies Act, a landlord would have a lot more leeway for setting vaccination rules and they also don't need to follow a specific process for evictions, according to Sa'd.

Devitt said she has decided to leave the apartment and look for a new home once again, rather than fight the N7 notice.

Hopefully my new place won't be so anti-vaccine," she said.

Irelyne Lavery is a Toronto-based staff reporter for the Star. Reach her via email: ilavery@thestar.ca