Can my landlord randomly decide I cannot use my deck despite it NOT being a rule in my lease

edit: I meant to put title as :Can my landlord randomly decide I cannot talk on my deck despite it NOT being a rule in my lease. My bad, was typing but not focussing when I made the title. Also sorry for the long post.

So I have unfortunately recently been caught in the crossfires of a situation between me my neighbour, and my landlord.

The long version with all information-

I have lived in my apartment for 3 years and moved in when they were first built. We signed a lease under a different rental company we'll call "Rental company Y". Rental company Y then got replaced by "Rental company X" due to rental company Y's landlords breaking into people houses to steal. These apartments have had a million issues from junkies beating each other in the hallways with bats, to parkade break-ins. I could honestly write a book on the crazy events that have taken place here but it's not that relevant, basically, these places suck. However throughout all of that I have never once complained to my landlords because I believed it was easier to keep the peace and they have a history of not taking matter seriously. My sister- who lives in a different house under the same rental company X got bedbugs and they had to go to the tenancy board to get them to do something to put it in perspective.

So I recently made a post a few days back on this subreddit about the legality of posting videos online as I had a confrontation with the neighbour this story revolves around as I caught him on camera screaming at me and then threatening to both sue me, and call the cops on me for talking on my deck. (view my profile for that post)

The noise policy for all tenants is written exact in the lease:

• Do not make or allow disturbing noises in the unit or building by yourself, family or guests.

• Quiet time is from 11:00pm to 7:00am. This is a time that most people sleep. Noise must be reduced so it will not disturb other persons.

• All musical instruments, televisions sets, stereos, radios, computer gaming, karaoke, etc., are to be at a volume which will not disturb others.

• Your activities and conduct, including guests and children in the unit and property must be reasonable at all times and not disturb or annoy other persons.

• No lounging, loitering or loud talking that is disturbing to others in the common areas is allowed at anytime.

unfortunatley I work nights so I get home at 10-midnight. I never once expected special treatment because of this and I am extremely mindful of my use of the deck and volume after those hours. Since I've lived here I've followed every rule to a tee with no complaints (that we're aware of) But around a year ago neighbour who we'll call "John" moved in. Unfortunately John is known by mutual friends and is NOT a good person. Ever since John moved in every single time I've gone on my deck John has screamed at the top of his lungs at me and called me every name in the book. A few weeks back I opened my door and put cardboard cereal boxes on my chair and started flattening them and he came out and said quote: "CAN YOU GET THE F*CK OFF YOUR F*CKING YOU RE*ARD? ARE YOU DENSE OR SOMETHING? HELLO??". This is the average experience I have with this person unfortunately, However I refused to ever react or acknowledge him because then I can say I didn't engage so there's no way I could provoke him.

I truly genuinely have tried my hardest to stay as quiet as possible. I even went as far as getting those giant foam slippers to wear specifically outside so my footsteps couldn't be heard, However this wasn't enough for John and he still screamed if I accidentally bumped a chair or something. One single small sound and he'd be out on the deck screaming at me. He does this because he sleeps with his window wide open and doesn't have like a fan or white noise machine or anything.

So now for the problem. This situation all came to a head on Tuesday night when I used a rag and wiped down my patio furniture after all the pollen stopped falling. In no world is wiping patio furniture loud enough to go through someone's closed window and keep them awake. John then came out and started screaming his normal vulgarity's. I then swept around 6 AM and I swept super slowly and did the smallest strokes so it wasn't audible. I got my husband to go in the room and make sure with a closed window you could not hear the sweeping, you could not. Didn't stop John from coming out and screaming at the top of his lungs though, so I finished my quick sweep while ignoring him like I typically do and then I come out around 6:30 AM to show a video to my girls and I'm legitamatley like a step away from whispering. I got my husband to record ~1 foot away from Johns window as I filmed my video to show I was NOT being loud and his microphone picked up so little sound from me that you couldn't even make out what I was saying in the video. A car went down the street nearby at some point and completely drown out what I was saying as well. So I got both Johns over-the-top aggressive behaviour on camera as well as proof I am NOT being loud at all, period.

TLDR of that ^^: Quiet hours for my apartment are 11PM-7AM and it is required noise is supposed to be REDUCED. Neighbour considers any noise period to be excessive and comes on the deck and screams at people who make noise. We caught John on camera screaming at us like a mad man as well as a second POV closer to neighbours window proving were not being loud as evidence to backup our claim.

Now onto the landlords.

Finally capturing Johns aggressive behaviour on camera gave me the confidence to finally speak with my landlords about his behaviour in hopes they would request him closing his window to keep outside sounds out while he's sleeping. We send a whole email stating all the times John has been aggressive and threatening in the past, We mentioned how the small fountain we bought recently was heavily complimented by John and how John stated that the fontain was lovely to hear and fall asleep to and it's not fair how he's okay with some noise but not others, we talked about how it shouldn't be OUR responsibility to make sure no sound gets into Johns house when he clearly refuses to take responsibility for his sleep and life and take measures to limit the sound that enters his home and living space and how he just expects the world to revolve around him, how he's smashed walls so hard before stuff has FALLEN OFF OUR WALLS, and how we no longer feel safe or comfortable around someone who acts so hostile and aggressive towards us. All of this was said in a lot more professional polite words (emails can be posted if requested) But in the end the landlords entirely ignored 90% of what was stated in the emails. The landlords decided to entirely take Johns side only "Talking to him and requesting he doesn't scream but instead relays all complaints to them specifically." The landlord also implied that I clean my deck on a daily occurrence but I've cleaned my deck twice in the entire time I've lived in this apartment. That's it. The landlord focused 100% on the cleaning aspect. We sent a secondary email clarifying we accept their decision and we will no longer clean on the deck and we will keep the volume to a minimum but we want to send the evidence we have just to keep ourselves safe from any lies that John may say to them (he's lied before to the landlords). We asked to make an appointment to talk to them in person to address our concerns and review the video evidence and they flat out denied speaking any further about the problem stating "There's nothing left to discuss" despite the fact our concerns were never discussed. Apparently John has proof of US being loud, which is honestly fair, I had my sister over a few weeks ago and we stayed out till the wee hours of the night chatting and I'm 99% sure that was his proof, However I acknowledge that and apologized. So the landlord was fully willing to discuss with John and review Johns evidence and case but not ours.

But for the title of this post- My landlords have decided we can no longer talk on our deck at all period. The lease we signed we agreed to which stated noise must be REDUCED. Reduced, By definition does not mean soundless. I NEVER would have signed a lease that says I can't talk on my own deck I pay for. John also complains if I put recycling in the bin, If I have to take my AC out of the window at night because of a storm, If I water my plants, Anything and everything so even if I DON'T talk it won't change anything. My landlords have still decided I cannot talk on my deck and I now have to quote: Keep all my conversations inside. This rule only applies to us because "Our deck is so close to Johns window". Is my landlord allowed to just pull this rule out of thin air and enforce it on us and us alone? This feels super shady.

My biggest fear now is how can we protect ourselves from wrongful accusations? Multiple other tenants use their decks at all hours, NOT just us. We have ordered a security camera with a microphone for now to have evidence of our deck activities and have proof but if our landlord is going to refuse to discuss anything with us or address our concerns how can we be sure were protected from wrongful eviction? What good can the camera even do if we ask to once again prove we're not doing anything wrong and the landlords brush us off and pin the whole blame on me again? John is clearly unstable and will also refuse to close his window, compromise, or discuss so how can I be sure that the girls who sit on their deck till midnight talking every night won't be pinned on me? I really don't want to go to the tenantcy board as up until this point I actually truly liked my landlord but breaking the lease to make rules only applied to me isn't something I'm going to sit here and just accept.

This has overall left a very sour taste in my mouth and I will try and move out asap but with Canadas current market that's sadly easier said then done. For now I'm just going to avoid the deck as a whole until the camera arrives.