The Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) has the exclusive authority to evict residential tenants in Ontario.

In Ontario, a landlord can only evict a residential tenant by order of the Landlord Tenant Board (“LTB”), a tribunal that operates like a court but is less formal.

 

The eviction process has two steps:

First Step: The landlord provides the tenant with a notice, which is available as a form on the LTB website. 

 

Second Step: Once the notice provisions have been satisfied, the landlord applies to the LTB for an eviction. Then, the LTB schedules a hearing and renders a decision. Provided the LTB issues an eviction order if the tenant does not leave on their own accord, the landlord applies to the courts to enforce the LTB order.

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This process is fraught with details which must be adhered to and daunting for a typical landlord. For instance, the notice period is different depending on the reason for the eviction. There are different requirements for the termination date. There is a specific way the number of days of the notice period is to be counted. The number of days deemed for delivery depends on the delivery method selected. Besides navigating all this, landlords' most troubling issue is the long wait for a hearing date. The wait for a hearing date for an eviction for non-payment of rent has been 6 to 9 months. Recently, with LTB’s concerted efforts to improve wait time, I have heard the wait is maybe 5 months. Assuming a notice period of 1 month, we are looking at 6 months before a hearing. If necessary, the wait for enforcement can be another 6 to 8 weeks. We are looking at 7 months to a year for eviction and enforcement for non-payment of rent.

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Our client owns a residential property that she bought some five years ago with a tenant who continued to reside in it. The parties did not renew their lease. Hence, the premises became on a month-to-month basis. Then, tenants stopped paying rent, and the landlord retained our law firm to evict her tenants.  When the hearing occurred, the tenant’s rent arrears amounted to over $10,000.

 

The tenant alleged:

• Rent increases were not properly done and, therefore, not effective,

• He did not receive a copy of the lease,

• Maintenance and repairs were not done.

The tenant did not dispute that he did not pay rent.

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We obtained a 9-page eviction order detailing the LTB’s analysis and decision on each of the issues raised. The tenants voluntarily vacated the premises once the eviction order was issued, so enforcement was unnecessary. We are now working with the landlord to enforce the payment provisions of the LTB order. In addition, the landlord is considering possible additional claims for damages to the premises.

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