Victoria Silman | Assistant News Editor
Featured Image: The Village is primarily populated with York students. | Fatema Ali
For many York students, the Village is their home for most—if not all—of their university life. Ads are posted throughout the community and through Kijiji to give students information about rooms for rent. However, students should be aware of what potential and current landlords are allowed and not allowed to dictate.
According to the Residential Tenancy Act, landlords are not legally entitled to include a: “no pet” policy; a “no guests” policy; and they are not allowed to discriminate against certain groups or identities when choosing potential tenants.
Students expressed concern for several violations of all these acts including Marissa Sputore, a fourth-year psychology student. She explains: “In my previous contract, I was only allowed three overnight guests per month.”
Part III of the Act clearly states: “The landlord cannot stop tenants from having guests, require the tenant to notify the landlord, or get the landlord’s permission before having guests.”
Other issues with Village housing arise from simply searching for rooms on Kijiji. Various descriptors for “females only,” “males only,” or “no pets” can be found in most ads, but students should understand that this is not legal. Discrimination against tenants and applicants falls under the Human Rights Code as a violation.
Clair Robinson, a fifth-year political science student, had experiences with locations that had these policies. “My previous residences did not allow pets. I lived in four different places, and the last one only allowed girls,” she says.
According to Part III of the Act: “A tenancy agreement cannot prohibit animals in the rental unit or in or around the residential building,” however tenants should understand that unruly or unsafe pets are valid reasons for landlords to evict tenants.
Instances of discrimination have not only revolved around whether applicants are male or female. Students have also reported advertisements for rooms specifying tenants from a specific ethnic identity. A recent Kijiji advertisement touts: “East-Indian Male preferred,” which many students have expressed is common within the Village.
According to Robinson, “there are a lot of posters in the Village strictly written in foreign languages to give preference to people who they want to live there.”
Other issues that arise in Village housing revolve around safety. According to an anonymous student, “sometimes there are too many people in the house, which is a violation of fire codes.”
Furthermore, Robinson has lived in residences that feel overpopulated. “The first place I lived in had 12 rooms, no living room, and it was four stories. That was my first year, so I didn’t know any better, but it was a lot of people,” she explains.
“They had bedrooms in the basement—mine had a window— but I know others didn’t,” she says, citing another code violation—all residential rooms must have a second entrance and exit—usually in the form of a window, in the event of a fire.
