Question:
The Tenant pays rent to a corporation the registered owner of a house.
Can the person who bought the house under the name of the corporation give the tenant notice with the intention of taking over the house for their own personal use at the expiration of the term of the tenancy?
Answer:
This matter was decided by the Ontario Court of Appeal several years ago. It has always been controversial.
Termination by a corporation is to be decided on a case by case basis.
A personal, closely held, one shareholder or family corporation gets a “by” on this. An ordinary investment corporation would not.
The Court of Appeal in Slapsys (1406393 Ontario Inc.) and Abrams (2010) decided that a Landlord purporting to terminate the tenancy and who was the sole shareholder of the corporation which owned the property, was entitled to recover possession for personal use.
Prior to this case, corporate owners did not have the rights to personal use.
In YCC 639 and Lee (Divisional Court 2013), the Court permitted a condominium to evict upon expiration of the lease so it could reoccupy the unit for its own use by providing it to its superintendent.
Basically, the Courts have been fairly generous on this point and the Landlord and Tenant Board now follows suit.
Brian Madigan LL.B., Broker
Comments 8
Brian, is this still good law? I am a Law PC and want to ask a tenant to leave so my son can move in. The current tenants are month to month. The Act simply says a corp can’t evict.
Thanks
Paul
Author
It depends whether there is an “investment” corporation or a “personal” corporation. Who are the owners? Is the property being held in trust for the owner shareholder? If that were thye case, then it would appear the the Ontario Court of Appeal Case still prevails.
Certainly, any investment property would not have any family or relatives.
Hi! We own a corporation that holds two properties. One property has 4 units and the other 5 units. In the 4 unit property, we’ve had a long term tenant who has been renting month to month. Our son is graduating this summer and wants to move into that unit. This property is out of town. Can we evict the tenant with an N12-owners use, even though it’s in a company name. The only shareholders are my husband and I. Thanks!
Author
The answer, of course, depends upon whether or not you fall within the exemption.
You may require a lawyer to assist you with this matter before the LTB.
There are also many Paralegals who could help.
If you don’t know anyone, then send me an email and I will give you some names.
Corporate landlords and shareholders of a corporation
On September 1, 2017 the RTA was amended to provide that section 48 only applies to rental units that are owned in whole or in part by landlords who are individuals. A corporate landlord cannot serve a notice under section 48 or obtain an eviction order under this section. Earlier decisions permitting some corporations to serve this type of notice are no longer valid.
Do you have any updated tribunals of sole owner corporations who have been able to evict past 2017 for personal use?
Author
This article pre-dated the changes to the RTA in 2017.
Hi Brian,
Could you provide more detail on this? I am the sole owner of a corporation and have a LTB tribunal hearing but looking to get some information on the “exception rule”. No lawyer or paralegal and I have called many are willing to help as they just see corporation and say its a lost cause.
Author
This article was written BEFORE the law changed.
Have a look at the up to date changes in the RTA.