Legal Updates

A tenant’s deception as to his identity is a cause for cancellation of a rental agreement by the landlord

October 3, 2019
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After signing a brief tenancy termsheet, the landlord discovered that the tenant had recorded an incorrect identity number in the agreement to conceal his criminal past in fraud offences and proceedings against him for the non-evacuation of a previously leased property, as well as the existing collection proceedings against him. When the tenant refused to provide additional guarantees, the landlord announced the cancellation of the agreement.
The Court ordered the eviction of the property by the tenant. A basic requirement is that a person seeking to enter a rental agreement will reveal his or her true identity, so that the lessor may make inquiries about the tenant. The delivery of disinformation, which prevents such inquiries, is contrary to the principle of good faith required from parties to an agreement and may be deemed grounds for cancellation of agreement due to fraud in the inducement. Here, the tenant misled the landlord about his identity and the landlord would not have entered into the agreement had he known the tenant's true identity and therefore it is fraud in the inducement that allows the landlord to cancel the agreement.