For this assignment, youll be examining the role of contracts as it relates to rental housing in Ontario. Rental housing in Ontario is governed by the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006. Pay attention to the following details as the basis for your independent analysis and review in order to offer recommendations for resolution.

Case Study Nicole Byer (19) and her best friend Sasheer Zamata (18) were both accepted to Canadore Colleges Honours Bachelor of Science in Nursing program and would start their program in September 2022. Nicole and Sasheer, both from Toronto, looked through Facebook Marketplace to try and find somewhere off-campus to live for the duration of their program. They knew it would be expensive to rent just the two of them, on top of the costs of tuition, so after several failed exchanges on prospective places to live, they reached out to an ad for a 4-bedroom house rental that indicated two other females were already living there as tenants. The rent was set at $600 per room, and the utilities would be split among the tenants. The ad mentioned no pets were allowed and they were seeking to fill the two vacant rooms immediately.

The owner of the house and landlord, James Smith, lives in Vancouver. His cousin, Frank Smith, a local realtor, agreed to do him a favour and act as his property manager meaning, Frank would effectively be the liaison between all tenants and the landlord. Frank received a significant number of requests for the unit and decided he would conduct some preliminary screening to narrow down the potential tenants. He asked all interested parties to indicate why they were interested, whether they had pets, how they planned to pay rent, and when they were hoping to move in. Nicole and Sasheer each provided Frank the information requested and also indicated that their program started the last week of August, so they were hoping to move in around August 20th and not have to pay for the full month of rent each.

The pair scheduled in a time to see the rental unit. Upon arrival at the house, they met Frank and took a tour of the unit. They noticed that no other tenants appeared to live there, and things seemed in disarray. Frank, sensing their hesitation, mentioned that he would hire a cleaner to go through the unit before any new tenants moved in, and that there were several other interested parties in renting the unit and encouraged them to complete a Form 410 Rental Application so that the landlord could make a decision as to whom would be selected. They both completed the rental applications and submitted them electronically to Frank. A week had gone by before Frank confirmed over e-mail that they were the selected tenants for an August 1 move in date and that they would be the principal occupants. They were asked to provide first and last months rent for a total of $2400 per month, as well as postdated cheques for a total of 12 months. He assured them that he had two new tenants lined up who would pay their rent to Sasheer and Nicole directly, and that this was just a formality per the landlords request. They were asked to sign a standard lease agreement for one year as the primary tenants, which confirmed the monthly rental rate of $2400 and that the tenants were responsible for all utilities (hydro, gas, water). Nicole and Sasheer complied and were given a set of keys to the house.

The pair decided to move into the house on Saturday, August 20th and when they got to the house, they saw Franks car was in the driveway. When they entered the house, Frank was busy installing a ceiling fan in the bedroom Nicole was planning to stay in. He said it would be a few hours before he was finished and that he has been so busy with other listings that he could not complete all the repairs in time. Sasheer mentioned that the place seemed still in the same condition as it was when they came for the showing, to which he replied that its the tenants responsibility to ensure the place is clean. They asked what the status was with the other female tenants, and he brushed them off saying they could request to sublet two of the bedrooms to other students in their program and it was their responsibility to do so. Although they were getting frustrated with Franks responses, after he finished up with the ceiling fan, they were glad once he left and figured they would try and sort this out over the coming weeks. The pair went to work cleaning the house, unpacking, and settling in. Nicole took the largest room and Sasheer took the one adjacent, leaving two smaller empty rooms. Sasheer noticed that one of the empty rooms didnt have a window.

The next Monday, the pair went to campus for their first week of classes. They asked around if anyone in their program was looking to live off-campus and found two students, Sarah Parker (17) and Kristin Davis (19), who were also in their program and very eager to move out of the Colleges residence. Nicole shared that it would be $700 a month per person and that each person is expected to contribute $200 a month towards utilities. Sarah and Kristin agreed to these terms and packed out their belongings of residence and moved in the next day where Nicole gave them each a copy of the key to the house. Nicole and Sasheer were excited that they found other people to share the costs of renting the house, particularly with others in their program, and now they could focus on their studies. Nicole noticed there was a cat that often came to the door so she would leave food and water outside the front steps.

A few months went by with relatively no problem and the four of them got along fairly well. Sarah met Matt Broderick (20), a local to North Bay, from the Strength and Sport Conditioning program. The two spent almost all of their time outside of class together and would often stay over in Sarahs room. This started to create some conflict in the house. Regardless, the rental unit quickly became known as the off-campus party house where Matt would invite his friends from high school to the house to host outdoor bonfires, have music playing, and even had beer kegs on tap. Some of the neighbours started calling the police to address the noise. Whenever the police would arrive, the party would come to an abrupt end and all guests would leave.

As the weather became cooler, Nicole invited the stray cat to live inside the house. She set up a litter box in the laundry room and the cat had full access inside the house. One Saturday night, the temperature plummeted to -30C (and the cat was curled up in Kristins bed). They realized that there was no heat coming from the furnace. Sasheer reached out to Frank to let him know, but they couldnt reach him. They set up electric space heaters all around the house to try and keep warm during the cold spell. On Monday, they were finally able to reach Frank and he said he would be by the house that afternoon to check things out. Sasheer mentioned they would all be in class, and he said that he would just let himself in.

Once Frank arrived, he immediately could smell of cat in the unit and noticed all the electric heaters were running. He could see that there were more than just Nicole and Sasheer living there and immediately was frustrated. He called Nicole and left a scathing voicemail about other people living in the unit. He went to check on the furnace and tinkered around with it himself, convinced he could fix the issue himself, and in his head blamed the tenants for breaking it in the first place. The furnace sounded like it powered on, so he unplugged the electric heaters. He was so frustrated that he decided that his tenants were unruly, lied about pets, and caused damage to appliances, and changed the locks on the house while the tenants were out of the house. Furthermore, in his anger he decided it was his purview to evict the tenants and completed an N7: Notice to End your Tenancy for Causing Serious Problems in the Rental Unit or Residential Complex. Sasheer, Nicole, Sarah (and Matt), and Kristin came back after a long day of classes and realized their keys no longer unlocked the front door of the house.

Format: Although there is no minimum or maximum number of pages for this written assignment, the general format should be as follows: 1. Introduction: Provide a summary overview of the critical case details and what the reader can expect throughout the document. 2. Case Findings: Provide the relevant facts and details as they pertain tenancy agreements. 3. Recommendations: Articulate who you feel is at fault and liable based on what is described in the case details. Discuss what the possible solutions are to resolve the challenges faced for each party, referencing the rights and responsibilities of tenants and landlords as detailed in the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006. 4. Conclusion: Provide the reader with a summary of key points from your analysis and proposed solutions. 5. References: Using APA citations, ensure all external references are cited appropriately.