In part 1 of this series, we talked about the legislation governing landlords’ maintenance obligations — specifically Section 20 of the Residential Tenancies Act (RTA). It’s worth a deeper dive to really understand the intent and application of the legislation.
The most important part of Section 20 is that a landlord must keep a property “in a good state of repair and fit for habitation” and “complying with health, safety, housing and maintenance standards.” This covers things like leaky windows, leaky plumbing, and exposed insulation due to missing drywall — the landlord has a legal obligation to fix these in a reasonable amount of time. At GK3 Group we take these matters seriously and our staff work to resolve them as quickly as possible.
For maintenance requests that are purely cosmetic — replacing laminate flooring for a different colour, or repainting based on preference — Section 20 does not apply. You can always talk to your landlord about elective repairs like these, but there is no legal obligation.
There will be instances where the landlord and tenant don’t agree on what meets the definition set out in Section 20. In part 3, we’ll cover what steps you can take to figure out whether you have a valid case. Open and respectful communication between landlord and tenant should always be the first step — in our experience, formal recourse is generally not necessary.