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Restricting Holiday Decorations: Requires Justifiable Reasons Absent of Interference With Enjoyment Rights
Question: Can landlords restrict tenants from installing seasonal decorations?
Answer: Yes, while landlords must generally allow tenants to install seasonal decorations, they can restrict them if the decorations pose safety hazards or cause damage to the property, as outlined in the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006. This law balances a tenant's right to reasonable enjoyment with the landlord's need to manage safety and liability risks.
Understanding the Limited Reasons to Restrict Installation of Seasonal Decorations Including Safety or Damage Concerns
In Ontario, landlords are generally required to permit installation of religious decorations and holiday displays by a tenant; however, if the decorations or displays create safety hazards with liability risks or cause damage to the rental premises, then the landlord may forbid the decorations or displays or may impose reasonable measures that eliminate the safety hazards and prevent the damage.
The Law
The relevant law, being the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006, S.O. 2006, Chapter 17, lacks explicit mandates relating to seasonal decorations or religious holiday displays, including Christmas lights, among other things, however, the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006, does contain mandates applicable to safety hazards and damage concerns as well as mandates applicable to rights of reasonable enjoyment.
The Residential Tenancies Act, 2006, at section 34, states that tenants may be liable for undue damage that is caused to the rental premise. Furthermore, section 62 states that tenants may be evicted for willfully or negligently damaging the rented premises. Additionally, section 64 states that a tenant may be evicted for substantially interfering with a right, a privilege, or an interest, of the landlord, including conduct that creates safety hazards that pose significant liability risk to the landlord. These sections explicitly state:
Tenant’s responsibility for repair of damage
34 The tenant is responsible for the repair of undue damage to the rental unit or residential complex caused by the wilful or negligent conduct of the tenant, another occupant of the rental unit or a person permitted in the residential complex by the tenant.
Termination for cause, damage
62 (1) A landlord may give a tenant notice of termination of the tenancy if the tenant, another occupant of the rental unit or a person whom the tenant permits in the residential complex wilfully or negligently causes undue damage to the rental unit or the residential complex.
Termination for cause, reasonable enjoyment
64 (1) A landlord may give a tenant notice of termination of the tenancy if the conduct of the tenant, another occupant of the rental unit or a person permitted in the residential complex by the tenant is such that it substantially interferes with the reasonable enjoyment of the residential complex for all usual purposes by the landlord or another tenant or substantially interferes with another lawful right, privilege or interest of the landlord or another tenant.
With all the above said regarding tenant behaviour relating to holiday decorations, it must also be noted that, per section 22 of the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006, a landlord is forbidden from unreasonably interfering with the rights to reasonable enjoyment of the rental unit by the tenant. Specifically, section 22 states:
Landlord not to interfere with reasonable enjoyment
22 A landlord shall not at any time during a tenant’s occupancy of a rental unit and before the day on which an order evicting the tenant is executed substantially interfere with the reasonable enjoyment of the rental unit or the residential complex in which it is located for all usual purposes by a tenant or members of his or her household.
As detailed per the law shown above, although tenants may be forbidden from creating safety hazards that may cause injuries and correspondingly impose liability risk upon a landlord as well as forbidden from causing undue damage to the rental premises as property of the landlord, the landlord is also forbidden from interfering in the reasonable enjoyment rights of tenants. As such, the law requires that the rights that protect the landlord from unreasonable risks must be balanced with the rights that reasonably permit tenants to install decorations.
Summary Comment
A landlord must permit a tenant to enjoy the rental unit, including allowing installation of holiday decorations such as lighting displays, among other things, so long as the tenant avoids creating safety hazards and refrains from damaging the rental premises.