A quarter of the 600 or so new case files that Queen’s Legal Aid (QLA) opens in a typical year involve student clients, and a majority of them involve landlord-tenant-related disputes. “A lot of students across the university simply aren’t aware of their rights or obligations when they become tenants,” says QLA director Blair Crew.

And because QLA strives to take a pro-active approach to problem solving – stressing the idea that “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” as Crew explains – the clinic has launched an ambitious campaign that aims to educate and empower students on their tenant rights and responsibilities. 

“We’re employing a variety of platforms that are tailored to the different segments of the student population,” says Crew. “We know that first- and second-year students are a different audience than upper-year students. They have different needs that we’re hoping to meet.” 

With that in mind, QLA research outreach coordinator William Hebert-Vendramini, Law’21, is posting a series of “attention-grabbing” informational posters across the campus and around Kingston, as well as downloadable PDFs that outline the basic “dos and don’ts” of tenancy for first-time renters. The information presented will primarily be of interest to first-and-second year students who are planning to rent off-campus apartments or houses in the fall.

“Many undergrad students are first-time renters with very limited knowledge of what their rights actually are as tenants,” says Hebert-Vendramini. He recalls that he was in that same situation in his own undergraduate years. “It was only years later when I came to Queen’s Law and started to work at QLA that I discovered how much my landlord was taking advantage of me and his other tenants.”

Other posters, which Hebert-Vendramini is strategically placing around campus, are aimed at upper-year students and highlight the liabilities all students incur when they come to the end of a lease or when for other reasons they want to move. These are perennial concerns for students.

“The plan is for QLA to roll out our tenants’ rights informational program now and keep it going for the next two or three years to see how effective it is,” says Crew. “It’s important for us both to show that QLA is always there for students and to be proactive in dealing with issues before they become problems.”   

All information is available to the public on a Queen's Legal Aid web page at tenants.queenslaw.ca.

By Ken Cuthbertson, Law’83

The Queen’s Law Clinics gratefully acknowledge the support of Legal Aid Ontario, the Law Foundation of Ontario, Pro Bono Students Canada, the Class of Law’81, the United Way of KFL&A, and alumni and industry sponsors.