[ToewsFan]

hello,

I was wondering if anyone knew what to do in a situation I find myself in. I was renting a rooming house month-to-month as I have been trying to save money as of late. The problem is that in the third week of February when I had been living at the address for two months, a City of Calgary bylaw inspector came to the door, and asked to take a look around. It turns out that the lady who owns the house has no permit to rent the home, and rent me the room illegally.

Apparently, she is trying to circumvent fines by moving in the house herself with her husband, and at the beginning of March, announced that we had one month to leave. However, this is against the law, as the landlord needs to give the tenants 90 day written notice. She told me that her father had an extra room, but when I checked it out, it was somewhat of a dump, and politely refused. My main reason for refusing the room was later in the day, the father of the landlord tried to sell me a dresser for $50 that did not even belong to him. My roommate had told me he had lend it to the room, as he had nowhere to place it in his room.

From that point on, that landlord launched a campaign of harassment and intimidation, which included:

-constantly texting me, asking when I was moving out
-entering the premises without the 24 hour notice to tenants on half a dozen occasions, to leave notes on our doors threatening to withhold the damage deposit from us if we did not vacate the suite
-changing the locks on a roommate, even though she illegally entered his suite, and had no legal justification to do so
-refusing to provide receipts for March rent as requested
-refusing to install smoke alarms on all floors as requested
-leaving notices on my door that either stated that I was banned from the premises after March 31, or that she was going to charge $200/weekly if I continued to stay


On March 29, I came home to find the walls of the main floor completely knocked down. Apparently the international student living on the main floor had moved out the previous day, and was in the middle of exams. Th last thing he told us was that he could not stand the landlord, and needed peace of mind and is now staying with a friend. I am absolutely certain that they had no permit to do major renovations to th home, and even so, you cannot just tear apart the main floor without giving notice to tenants.

I swear that this whole situation feels like a Monty Python situation. I ended up moving out on the 31st, as I figured if they are going to demolish rooms and change locks on tenants, my room may suffer the same fate while at work. Besides, I was really getting stressed out about the situation, and was certain that staying there would probably not be that great for my mental health.

As of today, the Landlord has refused to return my damage deposit, and after a whole month of trying to get myself and the other tenants to leave by the 31 of March, informed me that I owe her April rent, which IMO is ridiculous. I called 311 and spoke to an agent, and they informed me there is a fairly serious investigation going on at the residence.

I was wondering how to proceed. It will cost me $75.00 to go to Landlord ans Tenants Dispute Resolution Service for a hearing, which will not take place until June. I'm not sure about civil court. I plan on asking for my damage deposit plus March rent (loss of peaceful enjoyment in a suite), and legal fees to file the dispute. If anyone is familiar with the bylaws, rental laws, or has been in this situation, any input would be greatly appreciated. Thank You.