Greanya Legal Services

By Daniel Greanya

Bill 184, the Protecting Tenants and Strengthening Community Housing Act 2020 passed the Ontario Legislature and was given Royal Assent yesterday. It contains reforms to both community housing and other statutes, with Schedule 4 of the bill relating to residential tenancies. Let me outline some of the most important parts of the Act relating to residential tenancies. Some parts of this new Act are good and welcome, but other parts are bad law tha...

The COVID-19 Pandemic has proven to be a challenging time for all Ontarians. It has caused unprecedented disruption to people’s personal lives, and unprecedented economic disruption. As a part of this, many are out of work and unsure where their next paycheque is going to come from, and how they will feed their family.

In response to the challenges faced by families, the Government of Ontario has provided messages which can be misleading. Ontarians have been encou...

By Daniel Greanya

How to handle utilities is often a major issue between landlords and tenants. It also raises legal issues given the state of the law and how it has been applied. Historically it was customary for utility payments to be included in the rent, which means that tenants would pay the same rent regardless of how much utility costs were. More recently, some landlords have chosen to make tenants pay their own utilities. Landlords like this approach becau...

Limitation periods are one of the issues that I must review with new clients prior to taking any action on their file. While some clients are aware of what these are, and others have a vague idea from American television (references to the Statute of Limitations), most clients are unaware of what a limitation period is and how it impacts their case.

When it comes to legal matters, as time goes on, witnesses have fading memories, and evidence is no longer available. It may also not be...

By Daniel Greanya:

One area of law that my office represents people in is in the area of legal disputes related to residential real estate transactions (not the transactions themselves, only lawyers can do that). Usually these matters come to my attention only where the sale falls through for some reason or there is a dispute over the transaction or the property. Residential Real estate transactions are the most important transaction a family will make, and it is very important...

by Daniel Greanya

To most people a contract is a written paper signed by both parties with agreed terms on it. In reality only a small number of contracts fit this description. A contract refers to the terms agreed by at least two people where one party provides something in exchange for something else from the other party (an exchange, known as consideration). Contracts can take the form of a signed piece of paper, but they can also be orally made, they can be a l...

By Daniel Greanya

When purchasing or selling a home, it is very important to have the advice of qualified real estate and legal professionals. A home is the largest purchase that most families will make in their lifetime. A real estate transaction is a very serious endeavour, which is fraught with risk. Now I have to disclose that I am not a real estate lawyer, and I do not help people complete real estate transactions. I get involved as a part of my civil practic...

One issue that comes up frequently in my practice with small landlords is how to deal with a tenant where the landlord intends to sell the house to someone else. Small landlords often do not know what to do when they decide for whatever reason to stop being a landlord, or to sell a rental property. What complicates the issue is that often the tenant in the property has been problematic. Real estate agents and lawyers manage the transaction of selling a home and they are the experts in rela...

In my last post, I introduced the topic of unpaid debts, and addressed the first common justification provided for failure to pay. There are three other common reasons that I wish to address, including disputes over the quality of goods and services provided, disputes about the completion of the contract, and the reasonableness of an invoice.

A common area of dispute between a consumer and a goods/services provider is that of quality of the work or services prov...

Sexual harassment includes sexual jokes and innuendo, pictures or other materials, sexual advances, among other things. Sexual harassment falls into the categories covered by the Human Rights Code, and may involve discrimination based on sex, gender, and sometimes sexual orientation.

All employees have the right to be free of sexual harassment. Sexual harassment poisions the workplace environment, destroys workplace morale, offends the dignity of the person, and makes a...