Northrup v Kanakaratnam

Landlord wins · Guelph · 2025-06-30

Adjudicator

Dawn Carr

Dispute

Illegal Rent Deposit

Landlord

E.K.

Tenant

M.J.R.N.

What happened

A tenant, who was part of a six-person joint tenancy, filed an application for the return of his rent deposit. The tenant's designated room was under construction and not ready at the start of the tenancy, so he never moved in. The other five tenants did occupy the unit. The application was dismissed because the Landlord had provided vacant possession of the unit to the tenant group as a whole, fulfilling their obligation under the joint lease.

The ruling

The Tenant's application, which claimed the Landlord illegally collected or retained money, is dismissed. The Board found that because the tenancy was a joint one and the Landlord provided vacant possession of the rental unit to the tenant group, the Landlord was not required to repay the rent deposit to the individual tenant whose room was not ready.