One Toronto resident claims that his landlord is threatening eviction after an unfortunate incident involving a late-night food order and some scrappy raccoons.

There are few joys simpler and more pure, in my opinion anyway, than diving into a late-night McDonald's Quarter Pounder after one's share of adult beverages, but for Toronto resident Carl Warren, a recent night out is resulting in a major headache, and I'm not talking about the hangover.

Returning from a night out in the city last weekend, Carl had a hankering for a good-old-fashioned McDonald's meal, and quickly took to his meal delivery app of choice to place an order. 

Before the cheeseburgers could be delivered, though, Carl had dozed off, leaving the fast food feast unclaimed outside of his Rosedale apartment building, that is, until a crew of hungry raccoons got to it, gorging on their fair share of the meal and leaving the rest strewn across the entry of the building.

Carl tells blogTO that the morning after the debacle, his landlord promptly contacted him and asked for a $30 clean-up fee to deal with the scene.

Three days later, Carl still hadn't gotten around to paying the fee, and was shocked to find a resulting eviction notice that had been delivered to his unit.

In the notice, the landlord claims that Carl had "willingly or negligently damaged the rental unit or residential complex," stating that he has seven days to pay the $30 clean-up fee or else he'll be sent packing.

Page one of the eviction notice. Photo by Carl Warren.

"Of course, I think tenants should make every effort to be tidy and collect their food packages," Carl tells blogTO, "but I think it is a bit heavy-handed to threaten to make a tenant homeless for doing so."

Carl, who has lived in the same unit for the past 11 years, says that, while this isn't the first time his landlord has contacted him about garbage or food-related issues, there have only been a total of four incidents (which were documented in the notice) over the course of more than a decade, which, to him, made the threat of eviction seem like somewhat of an overstep.

The four previous incidents are documented in the notice. Photo by Carl Warren.

"Normally eviction is reserved for serious matters like unpaid rent, dramatic and wilful destruction of property and illegal activity," he says. "I think it’s a bit quirky and humorous that someone is being threatened with eviction over an uneaten Big Mac."

Should the fee go unpaid within the seven-day time period, Carl's landlord will then be able to appeal to Ontario's Landlord and Tenant Board to petition for Carl's eviction, which could cause him to incur even further charges.

Carl has paid the fee, though, noting that it isn't the money, but rather "the principal" of "using the eviction hammer to deal with an administrative issue," that he takes issue with here.

He also believes that the situation might just go deeper than a couple of cheeseburgers, he tells blogTO.

"In this particular case, I believe the landlord is trying to intimidate me so that I will move out so he can dramatically increase the rent," he says, though blogTO has not been able to independently verify this claim.

At the time of publication, Carl's landlord had not responded to blogTO's request for comment on the conflict.

Despite the drama, in a city where nightmarish rental horror stories seem to be the status quo, Carl's story seems relatively benign — more of a funny story to tell over dinner than a serious threat, but Carl says it staggered him nonetheless.

And, hey, at least the raccoons got a good meal out of it!