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A human rights tribunal has awarded an Edmonton woman $10,000 after her landlord raised her rent by $1,000 a month in apparent retaliation for noise complaints she made against other tenants.
“This was not a case of the respondent trying to pay his mortgage, it was a case of him getting rid of the complainant,” reads the Jan. 11 ruling from Alberta Human Rights Commission member Sandra Badejo.
“The respondent had a duty to inquire about how the complainant’s disabilities impacted her ability to withstand the noise from the upstairs suite before it took steps to effectively terminate the complainant’s tenancy.”
The landlord cited her difficulty getting along with others and a “long established routine of unsubstantiated noise complaints.”
He claimed he was unaware of any connection between the woman’s noise complaints and her disabilities, and also that the rent increase was not a factor in raising her rent, arguments that Badejo rejected.
“The respondent did not conduct any real investigation to determine how to help the complainant,” she wrote in awarding the tenant the $10,000 for injuries to dignity.
“The respondent discounted and dismissed the complainant’s complaints of excessive noise.”
Noise prevented sleep
The woman testified how the noise left her unable to sleep. She claimed she coped by taking extra medication, sleeping with a pillow over her head to block out the noise, and leaving the basement suite to sleep elsewhere on a few weekends.
The ruling outlines how she made four noise complaints between September of 2017 and January of 2018, including one that required police to break up an altercation between the couple renting the upstairs suite.
After making a complaint, she requested a rent abatement from the landlord due to the excessive noise, but was instead met hours later with a rent increase notice outlining how her rent was going up from $800 a month to $1,800 a month.
“The circumstances of the rent increase, being on the same day and as a direct response to the complainant … creates a direct link between the noise complaints and the rent increase,” the ruling reads.
The woman presented the landlord with a doctor’s note detailing how she needed regular sleep to deal with her medical conditions.
Badejo wrote the landlord was required to inquire about how to accommodate her disability, and that his failure to do so was “fatal” to his defence.
“Instead, the respondent was dismissive about the complainant’s noise complaint. The respondent made assumptions based on his preconceived notion of ‘ability’ and ignored the complainant’s complaints,” she wrote.
“The respondent did not conduct any real investigation to determine how to help the complainant.”
Source: EdmontonJournal
