‘We fart too much’: Toronto tenants claim they’re being evicted for flatulence
By: Emma Johnston-Wheeler - Toronto Today
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
‘We fart too much’: Toronto tenants claim they’re being evicted for flatulence
The stinky situation is now in the hands of the Landlord Tenant Board (LTB), with a decision pending
A Toronto couple is facing eviction by their live-in landlord after being accused of contaminating the air quality inside their shared home — apparently because they “fart too much.”
For months, the couple says their landlord expressed concern about negative readings from an air quality monitoring device, and repeatedly warned them that smoking inside the unit is not permitted.
But the couple insists the real culprit is their flatulence (or other bodily odours) — not cigarettes or vapes.
On June 29, the landlord served the tenants with an N12 eviction notice, claiming she intended to take over the entirety of the duplex to protect her health.
Tenants S.E Grummet and Sam Kruger, who perform together as queer comedy clown duo “Creepy Boys,” fought back. They took their case to the Landlord Tenant Board (LTB) on Oct. 29 and are now awaiting a written decision.
“We are being wrongfully evicted because we fart too much. Really,” the couple wrote on their GoFundMe page , requesting help to pay their legal bills. “This is not a joke. We wish we were joking.”
TorontoToday reached out to the landlord, Tania Anderson, and her legal representative for comment but did not receive a response.
The humour of their situation is not lost on the couple, but what swings in the balance is the first long-term residence they have occupied after years of travelling to perform theatre shows. They say a stable home and affordable rent has allowed them to continue to create art full-time.
That’s why they are grateful that Samuel Mason, a tenant lawyer at Parkdale Community Legal, agreed to take on their case.
“We didn’t really know if anybody would be willing to help us considering it's such a weird scenario,” Grummet told TorontoToday .
The scenario: 'Our landlord thinks our farts are smoke'
Grummet and Kruger rent the main and lower basement unit of a duplex near Dupont Street and Ossington Avenue. The landlord lives upstairs.
In December 2025, one year after they moved in, they say Anderson started expressing concern about negative readings from her new air quality monitoring device purchased from a company called Airthings. The couple claims she accused them of smoking in their unit.
In multiple emails to Anderson, shared with TorontoToday , the couple assured her that neither of them smoke cigarettes or vapes, and when Grummet does smoke cannabis approximately once a month, they do so outside the property.
Still, the couple agreed to install a second Airthings monitor inside their unit because they wanted to help the landlord identify the problem.
The Airthings View Plus , the model installed in the unit, measures for things such as radon, carbon dioxide, smoke, ash and odourless gases. It also detects volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which can be produced by anything from household cleaning products to human bodily functions.
Kruger said Anderson was particularly concerned with VOC spikes occurring intermittently throughout the day and overnight. “We also were concerned. I'd never heard of what a VOC was before,” he said.
“We were worried the house was poisoning us,” added Grummet.
Between Feb. 2 and 9, the couple said they stopped cooking on their gas stove for 48 hours, went 24 hours without hot water, during which they showered at their local gym, and 24 hours without electricity. They also stopped lighting candles in the apartment, opened windows whenever possible and added a ventilation system above the stove.
But they said no matter what they did, VOC spikes continued to appear on the air quality monitor throughout the day and each night. They lowered, however, when they weren’t home.
“I remember one day we had left the home all day and the number had been really low,” said Kruger, adding that he and Grummet went straight to bed without turning on any lights or appliances that night. Almost immediately, he said the VOC levels spiked.
“We felt like we’d hit the wall of being able to investigate this ourselves,” said Kruger.
On Feb. 9, the couple met with Anderson and asked her to hire an air quality specialist to assess the property. According to a recording of their conversation reviewed by TorontoToday , Anderson declined, citing concern over the cost. She also asked if the couple would pay for the specialist instead, should it be determined that the VOC spikes were their fault.
“That’s where we first thought this might be heading towards an eviction scenario,” said Kruger. “It felt like she had made up her mind that we were the source.”
Around the same time, Kruger said he also discovered an article on the Airthings website about the causes of VOC levels , which can include breath, sweat or other bodily gases.
“We often receive the question from users ‘Why do VOC levels increase in my bedroom at night?’ and the answer is likely that the VOC sensor is naturally reacting to the build-up of breath and results of other bodily functions in the room during the night,” the article states.
The couple was relieved and hoped Anderson would be too. They forwarded her the article.
However, in multiple email exchanges, the landlord continued to remind the couple that smoking of any kind is prohibited in the unit.
In an email sent on May 13, Anderson specifically claimed that a guest in her home had noticed an odour near the interior door of the couple’s apartment which was described as “a skunky smell which she recognized as weed/pot/cannabis smoke.”
“These details, especially the very high (spiking) VOC levels in your apartment, point to air quality issues that are being caused by you,” Anderson wrote.
“I remember thinking to myself: ‘How do I prove to this woman that I’m just farting?’” Kruger said.
Friends and family rally in support of tenants
As Grummet and Kruger’s LTB hearing approached — initially scheduled on Oct. 13 — they turned to their community for support. On Oct. 7, they launched a GoFundMe to raise money to pay for Mason’s services.
Grummet said they hit their fundraising goal of $2,800 in 24 hours. They’ve since raised $3,400. “It’s deeply, deeply touching,” said Kruger.
Since LTB hearings are open to the public, they also also invited friends and family to join them as observers. Grummet said their mom attended, as well as friends from the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia.
“They wanted to see the theatre that was us possibly getting evicted for our farts,” said Grummet.
Lawyer says landlord is skirting tenants’ rights
Mason told TorontoToday that he believes the landlord has attempted to avoid tenant protection measures by serving an N12 eviction notice in this case.
According to Tribunals Ontario , when an Ontario landlord believes their tenants have interfered with the enjoyment of their residence by disrupting their safety, peace, privacy or basic living conditions, they can serve them with an N5, a notice to end tenancy.
In these scenarios, the tenant has seven days to correct the problem in order to avoid being evicted, or else an LTB hearing will be held to determine if the tenant is truly at fault.
An N12, on the other hand, is utilized when a landlord or immediate family member intends to move into and live in their property for at least a year.
“That’s a much harder case for the tenants to defend against,” said Mason. The primary way to contest it is to prove that the landlord doesn’t have a genuine good-faith intention to occupy the unit.
At the Oct. 29 hearing, Kruger said the landlord presented a selection of week-by-week summaries from the Airthings monitors as evidence of her need to occupy her residence alone.
“The landlord was clear that this was because of what she was accusing the tenants of doing,” Mason said. “She takes issue with these tenants specifically and is trying to evict them on a no-fault basis.”
The LTB has reserved its decision, which means it can be released at anytime.
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Calling on NT members - HELP!!! I cannot open the images that are with this story. Perhaps if someone could copy them from the seeded source article and paste them to thier computer picture library, then copy them from their library and paste them to a comment here I should be able to copy and paste them in the article above.
Help has now been provided by JohnRussell. Thanks JR.
Sam Kruger (left) and S.E. Grummett (right) in costume as queer comedy clown duo ‘Creepy Boys’ Supplied: Bokeh Media
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Sam Kruger (left) and S.E. Grummet (right) in front of their home at 562 Concord Ave. in June, 2025. Supplied: Sam Kruger and S.E. Grummet
Thank you JR.
Seeing that they are succeeding with a GoFundMe application to allow them to continue farting, I'm begining to wonder if I should try to start one to support an errant Canadian expat in experiencing life in the magical land of Xanadu.
But always remember that a fart in need is a fart indeed.
A fart is just a something else asking for the right of way.
I think I fixed the article ...
Oh, I thouight John did the placing of the images into the article and the required posting photo. He did post the images in a comment. Since you corrected the article, much thanks to you as well.
The ring of truth is elusive.
Elusive, but still found.
Romeo, Romeo, wherefart thou, Romeo. (yet another literary misquotation). Actually, maybe it should be Romeo, Romeo, wherefore fart thou, Romeo. LOL