A person on Facebook Marketplace was allegedly looking for someone to rent their apartment in Barrie for $1,500 a month, so long as they were unvaccinated.
On October 23, user LNievas shared on r/Ontario a screenshot of a listing he saw on Facebook, and it specified it was an unvaccinated rental — "no exceptions."
"I think it's been taken down," Lucas, the Reddit user, shared with Narcity via Reddit DMs. Narcity also attempted to look for the listing, but couldn't find it anymore.
"I didn't reach out to the people who posted it, although I did consider it," Lucas said and added that he wanted to avoid any confrontation since he already deals with it enough at his jobs as a supervisor and server at Starbucks and Kelsey's.
Narcity spoke with Janet Deline, spokesperson for Tribunals Ontario (which oversees the province's Landlord and Tenant Board), who explained that the Residential Tenancies Act (RTA), 2006 doesn't address COVID-19 testing or the vaccination of tenants or landlords. The RTA also doesn't address the criteria landlords use in making their decision to enter a tenancy agreement with a prospective tenant.
"Further, the RTA does not apply if the parties have not entered into a tenancy agreement, except for the very limited circumstance where a landlord has collected a rent deposit from a prospective tenant but does not permit the prospective tenant to move into the rental unit," Deline shared with Narcity via email.
She also mentioned that the province's Human Rights Code and other provincial regulations have provisions that deal with the right to equal treatment when it comes to residential accommodation and permissible business practices for choosing prospective tenants.
"Anyone who believes that their rights under the Code have been violated may file an application with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario," Deline added.
The thread has been upvoted over 1,400 times and has 683 comments on it. "Lol I don't even know how you can prove you're unvaccinated," asked someone in the top-voted comment. The responses suggested showing the landlord one's Facebook profile and checking whether the potential tenant had "shared the Plandemic video on Facebook."
"Is this specific to the covid vaccine or are they rejected [sic] anyone who's ever had a vaccine in their life?" Reddit user catashtrophe84 wondered.
from ontario
While many users poked fun and noted how much of a steal this rental supposedly was, Lucas shared that the responses have been mixed.
"A majority of the comments are [from] people who think it's crazy or funny but there are comments that agree with the people who posted the listing," he added. "Some even called me a hypocrite, saying that I wouldn't post it or make a big deal about it if they rented to only vaccinated people."
This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.