A landlord is in jail tonight for protecting his wife from the continued harassment and lewd behaviour of an occupant of their home, and then the Fire Trucks arrived...
This couple approached me about a month ago. They have a whack of rooms rented out, and they share a kitchen and bathroom with the other residents. They have a occupancy agreement that states that the occupant shares kitchen and bathroom with the owner.
We originally made an application to see if the Act applied so the owner would be 100% safe against any reprisal by the occupant, but the behaviour of the occupant continued to decline. His room shares a wall with the owners bedroom and he frequently has different ladies over in a non-PG-13 manner. He has on several occasions exposed himself to the landlord's wife.
Yesterday, the occupant was served with a no trespass notice, and his belongings were moved and stored off site. I called 31 Division Toronto Police Station and they told me to call the non-emergency line for officers to attend to keep the peace. The Police never attended, never even answered the phone. This is now typical and the last 3-4 times I've called the police line for officers to come and keep the peace, I have not waited long enough to reach anyone. We finished with the lock change, and eventually left without ever getting a hold of the Police after 3 hours and 37 minutes on hold.
This morning the occupant broke in, broke the door to their former room, and called 911. we also called 911.
I was definitely undercaffeinated for the events that were to follow.
One Police Officer who was in charge, had already decided this was a landlord/tenant situation, in spite of being informed multiple time, that it wasn't the case. There were 3 officers on the scene, and the came into the residence, allowed the former occupant to come into his former room, and told the owner that they had to allow the occupant back in, which they refused to do.
When they owner had repeatedly complained to them that the resident was exposing himself, the Toronto Police did nothing, when there were multiple complaints about loud music and disturbances Toronto Police did nothing, but when the owner refused to tolerate this terrible behaviour and allow this occupant to harass and terrify his wife, they were both arrested on the spot for Mischief, taken to the station.
The owner's wife was released hours later, but she had to agree to not live in her own house, for what can be months and months, she honestly didn't even have her reading glasses, and didn't even understand what she agreed to. The alternative was to spend the night in jail and wait for a bail hearing.
Her husband is in jail tonight, as he was not willing to agree to not live in his own house.
As for the occupant, he left the house, and went somewhere else, his stuff is in storage.
I'll update on the situation, this is definite Police over reach, for some reason, they interfered in a civil matter, arrested the owners, and then they called the Fire Department. So when I got back to the house after leaving the Police Station, there was a giant fire truck there and the house was flooded with Fire Department personnel.
Then the Fire Department continued with a list of things that need to be done, mostly with the wiring, and a furnace room door, and fire rated doors, and they will send another inspector... it's unknown how this work will be performed, if the owners aren't allowed to attend the property.
This situation is definitely going to need an update... stay posted.
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