As for Quebec, as long as the tenant has given his written (or verbal) intention to vacate the premises by a certain date, the landlord is within the law to put a sign to be able to rent the property, even while the tenant is still living there. Also, there isn`t a written law that states how much time the landlord has to give the tenant in order to show the appartment, and they can legally just ring and claim they want to show the appartment. However, most landlords (if you have been a good tenant) will be gracious and give you 24h before showing the appartment to potential tenants.

We applied for an assignment due to ongoing issues with our rental unit. We are also being heard at the Rental Tribunal as part of the issues in the home. The other day the owner put the house up for sale. That is obviously going to make assigning the home that much more difficult for us......any direction on how we should proceed with this?

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I live in a low-rise apartment building in ontario which is run by a property management company. when i gave notice one month ago to move at the end of may, i was told that they would be replacing my cupboards even though it wasn't necessary. i was unable to find out for sure that i had the right to refuse to let them do the renovation and in the end let them since i was told it would only take one day. when i came home that day, the people from the cabinet company had left the door unlocked. i phoned the after-hours line for the property management company and the person in charge of maintenance was very rude, said it wasn't them who had left it open, and got angry because i had woken her up (it was 9pm). since there only appeared to be clean-up left, i told her she was not welcome to let anyone come back the next day to do any more work unless i was home and she agreed with this, saying that she would phone them in the morning and let them know not to come. this morning with no notice, the workers came back because the kitchen sink hadn't been finished. i had to go to work and had no way to keep him out of my unit, so i asked him why the door had been left unlocked and he told me that the building maintenance person had opened the door for them and left and he didn't have a key to lock it again. i ended up providing him with a key because it was the only way to be sure that the door would be locked when he was finished and i had to get to work. sorry about the lengthy explanation, but here's my question: is there anything i can do about this? luckily nothing was stolen, but as far as i'm concerned it was the property management's responsibility to make sure that my unit was secure after work was finished, and i was specifically told that they would not be entering my unit today. i'm not looking for any kind of compensation, but i believe that if they see no consequences for this they will continue to do these things to other tenants, including myself. can i file a complaint with the landlord and tenant board for this? should i be getting a police report (which i'll admit is a little drastic)? what can i do about this!?

You are angry and upset and I do not blame you. You have every right to be. The potential was that anyone could have just walked into your suite after the worker had left and then ransacked your place. You are right. It was the property management's responsibility to make sure your place was secure after one of their contractors was finished with the work. This is not rocket science. Who else is suppose to lock up after you have gone to work? This was not forgetfulness. It was stupidity in my opinion. Rest assured had something been stolen you could have gone after the management company for compensation. But since nothing was stolen, there is no point in filing a complaint with the police. What would be the point? They would just say, " Uh, nothing was stolen, duh, what exactly is your complaint and what do you want us to do?" Filing a complaint with the landlord would be a waste of time and filing one with the tenants' board is generally only done if you are seeking compensation. You would be wasting their time and yours. See if the management company is listed with the Better Business Bureau for your locale and if so file a complaint with them. Even though the contractor showed up next day [despite the person you spoke with agreeing that he cannot come unless you are home] I would not have given him your personal key. I don't agree that there was nothing you could have done to keep the contractor out. You could have simply refused him entry until you discussed it with management. At that point it would have been unlawful entry. Landlords have a right to enter a premise to make repairs etc, but they must give proper notice if it is not an emergency. In some jurisdictions the tenant can request to be home but not in all. In your case I believe you had good reason to make such a request and since the person you spoke with agreed to this then you would have been on solid ground in refusing the contractor entry since you would not be home. What was he suppose to do with the key after he locked up? Was he suppose to return it to the manager? If so, then all he had to do was ask the manager to lock up your suite. If you gave him an extra suite key to your place then you may as well have left the place unlocked because now someone that you don't even know has access to all of your worldly possessions. I would have contacted the management company before letting him in and told them it was agreed that no one could come in unless you were home or make it crystal clear that you do not want what happened previously to happen again. The answer the contractor gave you about not having a key to lock up the place was a stupid answer and shows that he could care less whether your place was secure or not. All he had to do was tell the manager [maintenance person?] that he was done and that the place needed to be locked up. If this were to happen to me and the management company ignored my request that I wanted to be home, I would invest $30 and change the lock and give the new set of keys to the landlord upon leaving. It only takes 5 minutes to change a lock. It is true that it is a breach of the Tenancy Act but if the matter ever went to arbitration (where tenancy/landlord issues are resolved) I think the arbitrator would be sympathetic to you. As angry and as upset as you understandably are I think the best you can do is to send a well worded email to the management company telling them that no further entries are to be allowed until after you move out or you will change the lock on your door. In the meantime know the Ontario Tenancy Act inside and out... [http://www.ontariotenants.ca/law/act.phtml] Good luck. I understand your frustration.

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Our condo mgmt company is in the process of conducting inspections etc and has informed us they are changing all our locks so they can have a master key to all the units. their goal being if they want to get in and inspect (electric,fire alarms, whatever) and we are not home to let them in that they can just walk in on their own. this doesn't seem right to me. we also have a dog who is home alone during the day, so there is added concern. whenever there is a notice of inspection we have told them when we can be home for the inspection, but the impression we are getting is a master key will be made anyway and they may enter our unit with or without our knowledge. we live in ontario, canada...anyone know the condo owners rights in this matter? to clarify, i am the condo unit owner, not a tenant. there is no lease. we, the condo board, hired the management company to concern themselves with common element maintenance and emergency issues.

Condo associations are self governing. If the bylaws allow for such an agreement to be made, then they can do this. When you own a condo you own in common with the other owners so your sole rights are different than if you owned the property by yourself. Your rights are to go to the condo meetings and get involved in the governing process. There you might better understand the goals of the master key and the limitations of its' use. And, if they still rub you the wrong way you have the option to get elected to the board and initiate a change to your liking. It is all up to you.