Couple asked to leave Toronto condo because they're not married
A couple renting a condo in downtown Toronto say they have been told by the condo’s management they need to get married — or get out of their unit.
The dispute seems to stem from the condo’s interpretation of a rule restricting the occupants to “single families” — apparently designed to keep out short term rentals or disruptive tenants — but has been taken too far, said one of the renters, Michael Cowan.
“How can they define what a family is to someone?” Cowan told CTV News Toronto in an interview. “It doesn’t make sense.”
The dispute has some observers wondering how widely these rules have been applied and how many of Ontario's two million condo residents they could affect. The province’s opposition NDP is also calling for changes to condo regulators.
Cowan, who is in his thirties, said he moved into the condo at Wellesley and Bay streets in the spring of 2020, loving its central location.
This October, he decided to invite his partner of about six months to live with him. He moved in, signed paperwork with the landlord, but when it came to updating the condo board about who was living in the unit, they suddenly had a problem: the condo was asking for a marriage certificate.
“[Management] said we needed proof of marital status, which we do not have because we’ve only been together for a shorter period of time,” Cowan said. He said since the conversation, the condo has deactivated his partner’s key fob.
That action seems to stem from a condo rule, where Metropolitan Toronto Standard Condominium Corporation No. 972 defines itself as “single family,” which “shall mean a social unit consisting of parent(s) and their children, whether natural or adopted, and includes other relatives if living with the primary group.”
Cowan’s landlord, Seema Opal, also tried to mediate, but she says condo management was firm.
“The requirement for a marriage certificate just blows me away,” Opal said. “Family status shouldn’t be grounds for discrimination. And I feel that living next to the Village, my condo board and property manager are discriminating against individuals who don’t fit into a certain mould.”
It’s not clear exactly why the rule exists — condo management didn’t get back to CTV News Toronto on Tuesday.
Condo lawyer Shawn Pulver, who is not connected to the case, says the root of the rule is likely to find a way to ensure that disruptive tenants or short term rentals aren’t allowed.
He says the backlash against some short-term rentals could mean that there are many similar rules affecting more than two million people who live in Ontario condos.
“Condos are concerned that there are people in units that shouldn’t be there. It doesn’t mean the concerns are well founded or that they are not subject to challenge,” Pulver said.
NDP MPP Jessica Bell said disputes like this should be fielded by the Condo Appeal Tribunal, but it doesn’t have the jurisdiction, leaving residents heading to court -- or simply giving up.
Bell, who held a round table on condo issues earlier this week with other NDP MPPs, said she heard many residents complain about issues in their condominiums that aren’t being addressed in the current regulations.
She said she hoped that hearings slated to start this week to review findings by Ontario’s Auditor-General of weaknesses in condo oversight may also help address the problem.
“It’s ridiculous that people in 2021 have to prove that they’re married,” Bell said. “There should be a way for a resident to seek recourse, and appeal to a regulator to change the rules.”
Another option, said Opal, may be to just widen the definition of the rule to include couples like her renters.
“They could expand the definition to include two people in a loving relationship,” Opal said.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Western University researchers unlock potential 'cure' for ALS
New research out of London, Ont.'s Western University is shedding light on a potential cure for ALS, in which the targeting of the interaction between two proteins can halt or fully reverse the disease's progression.
Police release 3D images of young child found in an Ontario river two years ago
Police have released a three-dimensional image of a young child whose remains were discovered in the Grand River in Dunnville, Ont. almost two years ago.
Collapsed Baltimore bridge span comes down with a boom after crews set off chain of explosives
Crews conducted a controlled demolition Monday to break down the largest remaining span of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore.
What Michael Cohen said on the stand in Trump hush money case
The star prosecution witness in Donald Trump's hush money trial took the stand Monday with testimony that could help shape the outcome of the first criminal case against an American president.
Kamala Harris drops F-bomb during White House live-stream
U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris used a profanity on Monday while offering advice to young Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders about how to break through barriers.
A child killer legally changed his name in B.C. The province is trying to stop that from happening again
The BC NDP have tabled legislation aimed at stopping people who have committed certain heinous acts from changing their names.
Mortgage companies could intensify the next recession, U.S. officials warn
U.S. officials worry the next recession could be intensified by a cascading series of failures in the mortgage industry caused by crashing home prices, frozen financial markets and soaring delinquencies.
Security video caught admitted serial killer disposing of bodies in Winnipeg garbage bins
Security video caught admitted serial killer Jeremy Skibicki on multiple late-night outings, disposing of body parts in nearby garbage bins and dumpsters in the middle of the night.
Behind the barricades: How protesters spend their first days in a new encampment
Students in Montreal describe life in a newly erected encampment in Montreal as a whirlwind of preparations, from facing rain and a potential police crackdown to setting up a space for the exchange of ideas.