The Ontario Landlord Tenant Board (LTB or Tribunal) has long had a reputation for being unfair and inefficient. Unfortunately, according to a new report from Ontario’s ombudsman, the LTB has gotten worse in many operational and service areas.
In the middle of a historic rental housing supply shortage, the LTB’s ineffectiveness is hurting tenants and landlords. It’s time for reform to the LTB that focuses on making the Tribunal more fast and fair for consumers.
The LTB is one of the busiest tribunals in Ontario, receiving over 80,000 applications annually. Applications that get made to the LTB have a big impact on the financial and general well-being of thousands of tenants and landlords every year. The Tribunal is a critical part of Ontario’s rental housing system, protecting both tenants and landlords while keeping cases out of the costly court system.
Ontario ombudsman finds LTB is ‘fundamentally failing’
In May 2023, the province’s ombudsman released a long-awaited investigation into the Tribunal that detailed a litany of structural, operational, and service-related problems. Specifically, the ombudsman’s report documented that the backlog of cases at the LTB has grown to 38,000, and it is taking an average of seven or eight months — sometimes up to two years — for a hearing to be scheduled.
So, what’s driving the backlog? Operational incompetence is one of the major reasons. According to its 2021/22 annual report, the Tribunal set a goal of having 80 per cent of eviction applications considered within 25 days. Shockingly, the Tribunal only meets this target for a fast hearing for landlords to evict problem tenants 0.2 per cent of the time, with the average hearing taking almost 75 days just to schedule. That is an abysmal record of service to the Tribunal’s customers.
The ombudsman’s report provides painful details about tenants and landlords who, because of the significant delays, were forced to deal with harassment, criminal behaviour and financial ruin. In many instances, landlords waited months, sometimes years, for a hearing only to have to restart the application process all over again because of errors in their paperwork.
While the Tribunal was significantly impacted by the pandemic, as well as delays in filling vacancies on the board, the size and scope of challenges demand larger reforms to ensure a system that’s fast and fair for tenants and landlords.
More resources are needed to process the historically large backlog
First, the Tribunal needs more resources to process the historically large backlogs. To their credit, the Ford government injected $6.5 million into the LTB to hire 40 new adjudicators and five additional staff earlier this year. Still, more is needed to fix poor operational processes, update technology and support the application backlog.
Make the LTB more independent and accountable
Second, the province should reform the bureaucracy that is Tribunals Ontario to make the LTB more independent and accountable. Tribunals Ontario is the government agency that manages 13 adjudicative tribunals, including the Assessment Review Board, the Licence Appeal Tribunal, and the LTB.
While the LTB accounts for nearly 80 per cent of the annual caseload for Tribunals Ontario, it must share staffing, resources, and board oversight with 12 other bodies. Unfortunately, the LTB is stuck in bureaucratic limbo with fuzzy lines of accountability and poor leadership. Only a more independent and nimble LTB can deliver tailored solutions and better service to tenants and landlords. Like real estate, condominiums and new home building, the LTB should have its own stand-alone agency with a dedicated board, senior leadership, and direct lines of oversight by government and the public.
Fast-track non-contested matters
Finally, the LTB should implement a triage system of managing applications with new processes to fast-track non-contested matters. If, for example, a tenant is not contesting an eviction notice, there is no reason why that application should have to stand in line and wait months for a hearing. This problem disproportionately impacts small mom-and-pop landlords who are dealing with problem tenants. These tenants exploit the system to their advantage and avoid paying rent while the landlord is left in limbo at the LTB.
“Ontario is in the middle of a housing affordability crisis, and we need all hands on deck to help families find safe and affordable homes. The LTB is critical to a well-functioning rental housing market.”
Ontario is in the middle of a housing affordability crisis, and we need all hands on deck to help families find safe and affordable homes. The LTB is critical to a well-functioning rental housing market, providing vital services to landlords and tenants. These services are designed, in part, to give investors in rental housing stock the confidence to get more affordable units built in Ontario. Making reforms to the LTB to make it more fast and fair will go a long way to getting more families into homes they can afford.
Matthew Thornton founded Real North Strategies in 2023 after working over 16 years at Queen’s Park and as a public relations executive at Canada’s largest provincial association. He is on a mission to build a better Canada by helping associations, not-for-profits, and organizations solve the biggest public policy challenges of our time by providing world-class advocacy and communication services. From multi-million-dollar campaigns to working with volunteer committees & boards, he has a track record of innovation, creativity, and success when it comes to public affairs, media relations and government relations. Matthew is a proud University of Western alumni, having graduated with an Ivey Business School Executive MBA (’22), Master of Arts (’07) and Bachelor of Arts Honors (’05). He also achieved the CAE designation from the Canadian Society of Association Executives in 2012.
The operation & structure of the LTB are only the first of several problems that need to be addressed. The government also needs to make it possible for those who have been awarded judgments to be able to garnish government payments in order to collect those judgements. As it stands now, landlords who are awarded back rent often cannot collect and tenants know they can get away without paying. This needs to change in order to introduce accountability into the system. Without this, more landlords will sell their properties and the stock of rental housing will decrease further.
I agree we work hard and get called slumlords just for working hard. I know landlords including myself that are on the brinks of bankruptcy, due to tenant living for free. Landlord pay mortgages to.
Totally agree with you.
Recently we went through the same situation. We had to take help from LTB to evict the tenant. When he left he did damage to my property and in addition he didn’t pay four months rent.
He didn’t bother to call or reply our emails or messages plus he told us no Matter what happens I am not paying you the four months rent.
Well said. I think lanlords have to do their own thing their own way to protect their investments. That may mean not going by the books with the delays and costs. Who can afford to pay someones debt/rent/expenses for months while waiting for what – the okay to kick someone who hasn’t paid out?
Check out LandlordCreditBureau.com
It is sad that some tenants know it takes a long time for a landlord to get eviction notice so they will intentionally take advantage. Who really pays for mental damage in this long waiting cases?Now renting market is shifting to get rent of a year in advance. This terrible system surprisingly keeps going on!?
My situation: two families live in a small house because tenant laughed at me saying it takes a year for me to get him leave, so there must be a law or penalty to prevent tenants intentionally ride on this waiting time.
I am a downtown Toronto tenant on ODSP. Our rooming house is constantly left to deal with a slumlord who knows she is accountable to nobody. She was aware of a major gas leak in the house and did nothing about it. She is aware of serious water damage resulting in electrical fires in the house and does nothing about it. She has blocked fire exits and taken away kitchen ‘privileges’ for poverty stricken tenants. She shames and humiliates elderly tenants so they won’t complain. She openly laughs at tenants threatening to approach the LTB. She recently told tenants she won’tbe taking our calls anymore. It is certainly not just landlords getting a raw deal in the current mess thatis downtown Toronto’s rental market. Accountability? Chance would be a fine thing.
The majority of landlords are good people work extremely hard to try build something they can leave to thier kids. You have a bad owner unfortunately.
Sorry. Why are you calling city of Toronto – asking for Ontario Housing Enforcement Unit. They can fine landlords thousands of dollars. Landlords don’t have that avenue.
The new and improved culture of dead beat tenants have latched onto the inefficiencies of the LTB like lamprays.
Successive ontario regimes looking for re election(their only true prerogative) afford more and more power to tenants thereby making residential income real estate a terrible and onerous place to invest one’s hard earned money thereby decreasing rental stock and driving rents sky high. I think that is the closing point of the author. Good article pass it on to your networks
With the cost of housing is worth the headaches to sink 650 000 into a house pay taxes and maintenance then have to deal with bad tenants hell no. Thier going be a shortage of rentals in the future perhaps this province will wake up.
Great Article!
It’s amazing how humans have a false sense of security sitting at home behind their computer screens. I pay out $2100/ month for rats, black mould and water in the “finished” basement. I was told “if it isn’t working out, you know what to do”. F*£€king right I do ! Half the rent for half a house the last 6 months. I was given a handwritten 2 weeks eviction notice and I told him that’s your first step…now file a Section 8. I offered to help fix the problems. In the meantime, I will secure a new home first and then shut down this POS through the Landlord Tenant Act and Health Board. This isn’t anything new with him…he just hasn’t ran into someone who he can’t bully.
Shelter is a basic human need and as something required for human beings to live a dignified life it shouldn’t be left to people seeking to profit to provide homes for our communities.
Every landlord is a slumlord in the end as they have no incentive to provide safe, affordable homes for vulnerable people, or even people who make middle income wages. All real estate investors care about is making profit from their investment which is a goal that conflicts with the need for people to house themselves in a safe, secure, adequate home that takes up no more than 30% of their income
Shelter is a basic human need, but not a basic human right. In order to find shelter certain parameters have to be met. One has to earn the money to pay the rent. A tenant also needs to ensure to keep the place clean and tidy. On the other hand a landlord needs to ensure the unit is safe and when things are broken (normal wear and tear or end of lifespan) then the landlord’s obligation is to fix what is broken.
Unfortunately, too many bad apples on both sides make the rental market a tough place to be in.
On one side the bad tenants ruin rental stock (landlord investments) and landlords are left to deal with the fallout (time, effort & money), so it is understandable, that some stop renting and just sell the homes after a bad experience. This leads to a smaller number of units available and higher prices.
On the other side I completely agree, that there are some bad landlords, who let their homes fall into disrepair and expect the tenants to keep on paying the money. That also needs to be adressed, as these so called slumlords give the rest of the landlords a bad name.
As mentioned before, the LTB’s job is to weed out the bad apples so that the rest of the market can function properly and both tenants and landlords can co-exist properly. In the end they need each other.
Do agree. The current reality is that lots resourceful landlords who are able to sub-lease their properties are currently hesitant to enter the rental market due to leasing environment. As a result, the rental market is becoming increasingly competitive with higher rentals and more stringent landlord requirements, ultimately causing quality tenants to pay for that.
I liken the LTB to a large human resource department with all adjudicators behaving like the power-hungry, control freak manager inherent within it.
Plus the RTA needs to be stripped of much of the delay tactics and allow for tougher penalties through civil and criminal court for the consistent miscreants on both sides. It’s an uncivilized thing when the police won’t act against a squatter or vandalism because they believe they are precluded from carrying out their jobs by tenancy laws that are solely about disputes between landlord and tenant.
A client of mine is a small to mid-sized landlord with about 40 doors, and currently he has outstanding rents in the neighbourhood of $100,000. The LTB is a joke as tenants are well aware of the length of time it takes to go through the process of obtaining a judgement and for eviction of non-paying tenants. This. is unfair to the landlord and seriously discourages anyone considering becoming a landlord from taking on such a financial risk. What needs to be done to act on all the deficiencies in the LTB? Great to make recommendations, but who is monitoring this and holding the leaders there accountable?
You’ll want to check out landlordcreditbureau.com
Why has nobody addressed one of the major root causes of the spike in contested case loads. Rental rates have almost doubled and greedy landlords are evicting tenants for a variety of bad faith reasons. Rollback the increases in rental rates and the bad faith evictions will drop thus decreasing the case backlog. Remember the LTB’s main function is to protect the tenant first and foremost which makes sense since we the people are paying their wages. The Real estate industry (rent/buy) is being manipulated. How large will the government allow this bubble to grow before it bursts? It’s starting to feel like this has been their plan all along and more proof of the foreign infiltration within our government for enabling it. Way to go puppets of the WEF for carrying out Agenda 2030 and getting us one step closer to owning nothing so we can be happy. Wake up Canada!
Schmoe! Spoken like a true tenant. Obviously one who feels entitled!
The LTB is not there to protect the tenant first and foremost. It there to protect both and penalize the the one found at fault or guilty of abuse or neglect.
Unfortunately the LTB has only been looking after the tenant who abuses and takes advantage of the system, leaving the landlord who has to pay a mortgage, property tax, utilities, maintenance, etc… to support an abusive deadbeat tenant.
So you feel the landlord has little right. If so where would you live, if a landlord didn’t invest in a place you could call home!
Yes landlord’s invest and should have a return on their investment. Otherwise why invest.
You, as it appears were either not fortunate enough to be able to purchase a place of your own, or maybe didn’t want to work as hard to achieve having your own place and be a landlord.
It’s funny, that those that don’t work hard to achieve something in life, feel entitled to what another worked hard to achieve.
So you think rents should be rolled back. Again, the landlord should support the cost of their investment, not off their rental income. They should maybe just get another job to insure you are comfortable. Wow! No entitlement there!
And yes. If one is a slumlord, this should be dealt with and penalized for their foolishness and abuse of a tenant.
In both cases landlord or tenant abusing the other or the system should be deal with swiftly and more efficiently.
Penalties should be awarded to the party at fault. Unfortunately it is the landlord most often who is usually left with a ton of debt and loss.
CORRECTION:
Penalties should be awarded to the party being abused and not at fault. Unfortunately it is the landlord most often who is usually left with a ton of debt and loss.
Just cause it says affordable housing on the sign $1600.00 per month is not affordable this is why the LTB is putting more people on the streets in every city and in every municipal jurisdiction. Our province’s our hurting long before convid enter our world.
Besides good tenants, a huge number of bad tenants are there taking advantages of lengthy process of LTB. They don’t pay rent, damage properties, threat landlords. Sometimes their friends also join with them. They pour grease in the sewer lines to create issues. They pour cement into the sewer line/floor drain while abandoning properties. And the leave without paying unpaid rent. It’s a free country indeed!
Accountability and consequence, for both the landlord and tenant is the only way this system works. Without a fast assessment of accountability, and a firm and increasingly harsh (repeat offenders) measure of financial consequence, there is chaos……which is what we have at present. Responsible and respectful landlords and tenants both suffer for the abusers of the system.
Schmoe! Spoken like a true tenant. Obviously one who feels entitled!
The LTB is not there to protect the tenant first and foremost. It there to protect both and penalize the the one found at fault or guilty of abuse or neglect.
Unfortunately the LTB has only been looking after the tenant who abuses and takes advantage of the system, leaving the landlord who has to pay a mortgage, property tax, utilities, maintenance, etc… to support an abusive deadbeat tenant.
So you feel the landlord has little right. If so where would you live, if a landlord didn’t invest in a place you could call home!
Yes landlord’s invest and should have a return on their investment. Otherwise why invest.
You, as it appears were either not fortunate enough to be able to purchase a place of your own, or maybe didn’t want to work as hard to achieve having your own place and be a landlord.
It’s funny, that those that don’t work hard to achieve something in life, feel entitled to what another worked hard to achieve.
So you think rents should be rolled back. Again, the landlord should support the cost of their investment, not off their rental income. They should maybe just get another job to insure you are comfortable. Wow! No entitlement there!
And yes. If one is a slumlord, this should be dealt with and penalized for their foolishness and abuse of a tenant.
In both cases landlord or tenant abusing the other or the system should be deal with swiftly and more efficiently.
Penalties should be awarded to the party being abused. Unfortunately it is the landlord most often who is usually left with a ton of debt and loss.
I have a tenant that is using my property as a garage dumpster and has not paid rent in 8 months. I filed in October and am still waiting to get him out. He knows that he can stay for Free until a court date so he will not leave. In the meantime I have to pay his bills. Something really has to change!
The backlog from the LTB and the inability to recoup losses in Ontario is one of the main reasons myself and others I know are looking to invest out of province. Other provinces like Calgary offer much better protections, faster resolutions, and no continuation of tenancy by default after end date (who decided a contract automatically continuing terms was a good idea! ), and rents that align better with purchase prices.
Over the years, i’ve seen great tenants and i’ve seen some of the worst, and to be honest i’m done with gambling in this province. People buy in the GTA, VGA and surrounding based on the notion of Toronto will always go up and provide the best return in appreciation and they look the other way when it comes to the potential for disaster…well unfortunately properties can go to the moon, but someone has to pay for the rocket fuel to get there and if the tenant doesn’t, the landlord has to.
You can buy a vacation property where people actually respect the place they are staying in and get some sort of assurance from the STR platform you use in the form of insurance and remuneration, as well as much higher potential income. LTR should be left to big corp building purpose built apartments. Let them deal with the problems and see how quickly government reform happens to strip the LTB, put a working process in place with the technology to resolve things in a month, not multiple years, and get people that actually know what they are doing to run it….and I don’t mean into the ground like it is currently.
For the average investor, it’s not worth gambling livelihoods anymore. STR. Vacation properties. Out of province, out of country investment. Until Ontario changes, we should change our focus and put our money elsewhere.
Great article that is fair to both landlords and tenants!
The LTB has long been a failure. Our gov’ts need to stop pandering to tenants who abuse the system. How does a landlord continue to pay the mortgage, taxes and upkeep when so many tenants have taken advantage of the well known fact that the LTB is so ineffective that they can quit paying rent and live free for up to 2 years? Many small landlords are losing everything due to these unacceptable delays as well as adjudicators who give tenants every opportunity to stay in the unit they refused to pay rent for. Why should any landlord suffer a 10 year repayment plan for an individual who quit paying rent for 2 years? These tenants need to be out in less than 60 days. The government is using landlords as social housing with no responsibility to pay for these 2 year debts for unpaid housing. Almost 50% of the applications at the LTB are for non payment of rent. What does that tell you? This is why one landlord after another are selling all their rentals when they are empty. There will be no mom and pop individual homes for rent and people will be forced to rent from the large corporations. I could go on and on, inflation rates so high, our expenses going through the roof and we are forced to accept 2.5% rent increases? I’m selling my unit, it isn’t worth the stress.