Seasonal Trailers May be Covered Under RTA in Ontario

Section 5 of the Residential Tenancies Act exempts most trailers from the Act. However, if you have put an addition or sunroom on your trailer to might be covered under the Act. Section 5 exempts the transient, travelling, camping public from the Act.

If your park also has year-round residents, then the park is open all year. If you have a permanent/semi permanent addition you are probably covered. It doesn’t matter if you pay monthly or by the year. What is important to look at is your receipt. If you are being charged HST then you are most likely exempt under section 5 of the Act.

Many people have two homes. Just because your primary residence is in one location and you rent an apartment to stay in during the week for work should that mean the apartment is not covered under the Act? If you’re a Snowbird and go south every winter does that mean you shouldn’t be afforded protection under the Act?

If you are allowed access to your site all year, don’t pay HST, and have an addition, chances are you are covered. Especially if your trailer remains on your rented lot all year. The landlord cannot rent that site out to anyone one else when you are not there, therefore that site is not meant for the travelling public and exempt under section 5.

At a recent eviction hearing I attended the tenant tried to say that they weren’t covered because there was not insulation in the addition. How many century home and old farm houses have little or no insulation in them? Yet people live in these houses year round.

If you do have a traler on leased land it would be worth your time and effort to see if you are covered under the Act and afforded the protections the Act offers.