Toronto Performers Challenge Landlord’s Eviction Notice

Toronto performers S.E. Grummett and Sam Kruger are challenging an eviction notice at Ontario’s Landlord and Tenant Board, alleging their landlord’s concerns about air-quality readings are being used to retaliate against them for asserting tenant rights. The board’s decision was still pending after a hearing, according to the couple’s account and reporting on the case.

The landlord served the couple with an N12 notice seeking the property for personal use. Grummett and Kruger, who perform as the comedy and theatre duo Creepy Boys, say the notice followed a dispute over volatile organic compounds detected by an air-quality monitor in the landlord’s upstairs unit. The apartments share ventilation, and the landlord has a lung condition, the couple said.

The tenants deny smoking inside their apartment and say they tried to identify what was causing the readings. They suspect the monitor may be reacting to bodily functions, including flatulence, rather than smoke. They have cited information from the monitor’s manufacturer and advice they say they received from a public-health specialist. The reports do not include independent testing of the readings.