As part of a new series, the Star will be answering common questions from tenants. Here, we look at tenants’ rights when getting a roommate.

The question:

Can your landlord raise the rent if you get a new roommate? Living arrangements are often subject to change. Perhaps you’re living alone, but want to have your significant other move in. Or your income has changed and want roommates to share the cost of living.

On tenant rights Facebook groups, many posters have shared stories of landlords either requesting additional monthly payments when a new roommate moves in or forbidding such additions outright. Should tenants accept this?

The answer:

Karen Andrews, a staff lawyer at the Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario (ACTO), says raising the rent when a new roommate moves in or barring a tenant from getting a roommate is against the law.

“Many of the uninformed, amateur, kind of mom and pop (landlords) don’t know this,” she says. “It makes intuitive sense to them that if one more person moves in ... to charge more, but they can’t charge more.”

Harry Fine, a paralegal who has previously served on the Ontario Landlord and Tenant Board as an adjudicator, says if a tenant is served a notice of rent increase, the tenant would be “completely safe” paying the previously agreed upon amount according to the Residential Tenancies Act (RTA).

“The tenant is absolutely protected,” Fine says. “If a landlord says, ‘give me 50 bucks more’ or ‘give me 100 bucks more,’ all you have to do is say no.”

Andrews says there are “very narrow circumstances” under which landlords can raise rent for tenants already living on the premises. Landlords in Ontario can raise rent every 12 months with 90 days’ written notice, and only by as much as the provincial guideline allows, which for 2020 is 2.2 per cent.

Landlords may also submit a rent increase application to the Landlord and Tenant Board if they have made significant improvements to the property or if the tenant agrees to an increase in exchange for an improvement, she says.

However, there are occasional exceptions. Fine says if the tenant shares a bathroom or a kitchen with the landlord or a member of the landlord’s family, the RTA would not apply and the tenant would have to seek permission from the landlord to add a roommate.

A landlord could also evict on grounds of overcrowding, Andrews says.

The City of Toronto’s bylaws say the number of people living in a home cannot exceed one per every nine square metres of floor space. Bedrooms must also be at least six square metres for one person or four square metres for each person in a room shared by two or more people.

“It’s got to be pretty crowded in order for that to happen,” Fine says.

Also, “if you invited in a roommate who was a drug dealer or a party animal” the landlord could evict on grounds of interference with the reasonable enjoyment of the premises for other tenants or themselves.

Fine also says tenants aren’t allowed to charge rent to their new roommates and make a profit.

“There is a provision in the RTA that a tenant isn’t allowed to make money renting the place out to (multiple) people and charging more than what he or she is paying in rent,” Fine says.

Usually, tenants are also not required to notify their landlords if new roommates move in. But there are exceptions to this as well, such as in social housing, where rent is determined by the tenant’s income.

“If I’m hiding (someone) in the unit, I’m misrepresenting the income of the household,” Fine says.

Fine adds some condos have declarations that only let single families live there. Landlords who own units in these condos would need to know who’s moving in, in order to remain compliant with their condo policies.

But in the majority of cases tenants are fully within their rights to bring in roommates, with or without their landlord’s permission.

“I’ve had three calls this week from people who say their landlord won’t let them get another roommate,” Andrews says. “It happens a lot. Landlords are really attuned to the power they have.”

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Despite not needing a landlord’s permission to bring in new tenants, a tenant might give in to pushback from a landlord because they don’t know their rights or because they’re afraid of creating tension, she says.

“Any kind of demand for more rent … that’s unlawful is often the precursor to an eviction application that the tenant has to defend — and often loses,” she says.

“There isn’t a lot of affordable housing, there aren’t a lot of vacancies. (Tenants) don’t want to start fighting with their landlords, and many tenants just pay the increase.”

With files from Emma Sandri and Tom Yun

Rhianna Jackson-Kelso is a breaking news reporter, working out of the Star’s radio room in Toronto. Follow her on Twitter: @RhiannaJK