Moved into a new place two weeks ago in Toronto. Found it is infested with cockroaches, ants and earwigs and I want to

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Customer: Hi, moved into a new place two weeks ago in Toronto. Found it is infested with cockroaches, ants and earwigs and I want to move immediately as I have never dealt with any of these bugs in my life.
JA: Hi. What are the terms of the lease? Any issues related to maintenance or upkeep?
Customer: I moved in very fast, I under 3 days at the beginning of July. I really didn't read much about lease. Sure it's standard 12 month for the most part.
JA: Because laws vary from place to place, can you tell me what state the property is in?
Customer: Canada, ontario
JA: Is there anything else the Lawyer should know before I connect you? Rest assured that they'll be able to help you.
Customer: No
Answered by Debra in 5 days 1 year ago
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Debra
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Debra
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Debra
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174572 Satisfied customers

Jessica

Jessica

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Debra, Expert

Hello and Welcome to JustAnswer. My name is***** will be working on your question today and I am looking forward to our conversation.

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Debra, Expert

Please note that I am working from my computer and not actually texting. If you don’t answer back for a while I may not be online when you do but I will never desert you and will check back often. As well, as I am working from home it is possible that I will be interrupted but I will always return back as soon as I can.

Finally, although the site offers a call option I personally do not take calls but just work online. Some find this confusing as it looks like the offer is coming from me but that is just how the site presents the offer and it really isn’t coming from me. Some of the other experts do take calls and so you are very welcome to request a call on this post and an expert may take it. They will have the benefit of reading our exchange which should work out very well for everyone involved!

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Debra, Expert

I know your question is important to you and I will be giving it the time and attention it deserves.

I am sorry to hear of this difficult situation.

In Ontario that laws that protects tenants is the Residential Tenancies Act.
The Act provides that it's the Landlord's responsibility to keep the home in good repair. That includes keeping the home pest free.
You may not withhold rent but have other options available to you. Before you exercise these options you have to make your requests to the Landlord in writing.
After that one option is to call the government agency that enforces housing by-laws and regulations if you feel these are being breached.
You can call 311.
At the same time you can file a complaint with the Landlord Tenant Board.
Here is a link to the form you will need to do this:

http://www.sjto.gov.on.ca/ltb/forms/
Use T6

This sounds like an urgent matter so I suggest that you call the landlord and tenant board first thing tomorrow morning if you can't get through now and ask for an urgent hearing. Explain that the place is not fit for habitation.

It is not likely the case at the landlord and tenant Board would agree to have a lease that aside without your first trying to get this rectified. Here's a link to their contact information:

https://tribunalsontario.ca/ltb/contact/
You will note that on this form you can ask for a rent abatement, or to pay some of the rent to the Board until the repairs are done. You can also ask to do the repairs and get paid back or have the landlord do them.

Does that help as a starting point?

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Debra, Expert

If not let me know!

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Debra, Expert

Thank you for trusting us to help you here at JustAnswer.   If you need more clarification or have a follow-up question just reply and we can continue our dialogue. If you would like to ask me new questions please start a new post and if you do if you say “This is only for Debra” I will be sure to give your post top priority.

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