What is a Care Home?
A care home is rented accommodation that provides care services. Such services include nursing care, prescription drug supervision, an emergency response system, transportation, incontinence care and assistance with daily activities (e.g., eating, bathing, dressing, and personal hygiene).
If you live in a care home, you have the same rights as other tenants under the Residential Tenancies Act (RTA) to live in a safe, well-maintained home. Hospitals and long-term care homes (e.g. nursing homes) run by municipalities or Indian Band Councils do not qualify as care homes (however, elderly adults in such homes can take advantage of the home care Bill of Rights set out in the Long Term Care Act).
Care Home Information Packages
Before you sign a tenancy agreement, your landlord must provide you with a Care Home Information Package (CHIP). This should include information such as:
- How to make a complaint
- Whether there is an emergency response system
- The types of rental units and the cost
- The types of care services available and their cost
- Optional services available and their cost
- The minimum number of staff that must be in the home at all times
- Staff qualifications
Tenancy Agreements
As a tenant in a care home, you are also entitled to a written tenancy agreement which outlines your rent, the cost of meals and care services, your right to consult an outside party about the agreement and your right to cancel the agreement by written notice to the landlord within five days.
You may end your tenancy agreement at any time with 30 days’ notice to your landlord. You may also cancel meals and services before your tenancy ends by giving 10 days’ notice to your landlord.
Eviction Based on Care Needs
As a care home tenant, you may be evicted due to change in your condition or needs. The Tenants Board must hold a hearing when your landlord must provide you with thirty days of notice of the hearing.
To make a decision in favor of your landlord, he or she must prove to the Board that:
- Your needs cannot be met by the landlord’s care services, even when combined with other services available in your community; and
- Appropriate alternative accommodations are available.
Your landlord cannot therefore evict you unless you can move into the alternative accommodation on the same day that you move out of your current home.
If you do not wish to move, you must provide written notice to the Board expressing this wish. The Board is also required to offer mediation to you and your landlord.
