header header header header header
Housebasementsuite walkup hirise condos
Go To Laws for Landlords Publications and Podcasts
LRC's Public Legal Education Blog

Winner of the 2007 Alberta Consumer Champion Award of Distinction
acca
Funding from the Alberta Real Estate Foundation gratefully acknowledged. AREF

Home > Moving In > Just the Facts > The Tenant > When Premises not Available

Premises Not Available at the Beginning of Tenancy

 

A landlord makes a promise when he or she enters into a fixed term or periodic tenancy agreement, that the premises will be available for the tenant at the beginning of the tenancy. This promise becomes a term of the tenancy agreement whether or not it is even mentioned by the landlord or the tenant. If the premises are not ready for you to move into on the agreed date, you can simply state that you no longer wish to move into the premises and be part of the tenancy agreement. Alternatively you can take legal action against the landlord:

 

  • apply to the Court of Queen’s Bench for an order that the landlord live up to his obligation and make the premises available. In legal terms, this is called an Order for Specific Performance of the contract and can only be obtained from the Court of Queen’s Bench, not from Provincial Court;
  • pursue a claim for general damages arising as a result of the landlord breaching the agreement. General damages consist of money in a general sum to cover matters such as inconvenience or anxiety, or,
  • pursue a claim for special damages that arise as a result of the landlord’s action. To be successful in getting special damages you have to prove that the landlord could have reasonably known that this type of loss would arise.

 

As a tenant you would have to decide whether to reject the tenancy or get a court order to require the landlord to fulfill his obligations. Whichever of those two alternatives you choose, you can also pursue the claims for general and special damages.

If your landlord is not returning pre-paid rent to you and you think he may have committed an offence under the Residential Tenancies Act, you can file a complaint with Service Alberta. If the landlord is later convicted of an offence, the judge can order all or part of the prepaid rent to be returned to you. If the landlord still does not return the money, you can file the order in the Court of Queen's Bench and take enforcement proceedings against him.

May 2005



The Tenant:When Premises not AvailableSub-leaseAssignmentRoommatesOffencesTaking Possession