Hi,

Just had a question regarding renewal of a lease, our lease has been renewed several times on a long detailed form that looks very official (to me) but a friend who lives in the same building got a lease renewed on a handwritten sheet of white paper. Is this a legal document, it was written by the landlord and signed by them and my friend.

To make it more complicated, its not for the same apartment either, it basically says the lease for apt 1 is transferred to apt 3 and renewed until march 2008.

The reason they wanted me to try and find this info online is that the landlord collected a security deposit, which they just learned is illegal and want to demand it back but don't want to be told they don't have a legal lease.

A lease can be written on a napkin and still be legal. As long as it contains the basic information (landlord, tenant, apartment, term and rental amount) then it is a legal document.

Why would it be illegal for the landlord to collect a security deposit?

A lease is a contract between a tenant and landlord. A lease could be on a preprinted form used as a standard. Or it could be on a long form drawn up by an attorney. Or it could be as simple as a handwritten sheet of paper saying; You can rent this apt for $1000/month for 12 months. Any of them is perfectly legal if properly signed.

Not sure what is illegal about collecting a security deposit. If the person is changing apts, maybe a large security is needed.

No no, it's just that in Canada it's no longer legal to collect a security deposit, last months rent as a deposit when moving in or even a deposit for keys.

Should have mentionned this, but thank you, I shall inform them of this.

They may not be aware that the law in their area changed, but collecting a deposit should not make the entire lease void, only give them grounds to get that money back. Normally they way things are considered, if one part of a lease or contract is not valid becaue of a law, only that clause is effected, not the entire contract.