Changes to Ontario’s Residential Tenancies Act came into effect this week, affecting several areas of rental law, including landlord’s own-use evictions, renovictions, rent arrears and the powers of the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB).
Some of the changes introduce stronger protections or greater clarity for tenants. Others raise serious concerns about whether tenants will have a fair opportunity to defend their housing.
Here’s what you need to know.
Landlord’s Own Use Evictions
If your landlord wants to evict you in order to move in themselves, and they give you at least 120 days’ notice, they no longer need to provide you with 1 month of rent in compensation. However, if they give between 60 and 120 days’ notice, they still need to compensate you. Less than 60 days’ notice, or a notice for a day other than the day you normally pay rent, isn’t allowed.
If you do move out because the landlord says they want to move in, and the landlord doesn’t move in after 2 months, the Landlord and Tenant Board may be more likely to find they evicted you in bad faith.
Renovictions
If you have been evicted so the landlord can do renovations, landlords now need to provide you with information on when you should be able to return and provide you with at least 60 days to return once renovations are complete. You now have 2 years to file an application against your landlord (or 6 months after the renovation is complete) if they do not allow you to return.
Arrears
If you are behind on rent, and your landlord serves you with a N4 notice to end your tenancy because of rent arrears, you now only have 7 days to pay the landlord what is owed before the landlord can file an application at the LTB. If there is a LTB hearing about your arrears, and you want to explain that you withheld rent because the landlord was not living up to their responsibilities, you will now have to pay half of what the landlord claimed in their L1 application and notify the landlord and the LTB 7 days before your hearing.
Other changes
The RTA has been changed to specify that persistently late rent is rent that’s paid over 7 days late 3 times in a 6-month period. The LTB’s discretion to delay the enforcement of an eviction order, or set aside an eviction order, has been limited.
While CCHR supports the added clarity brough to Renovictions, the changes to how arrears of rent are treated will lead to greater confusion and unjust evictions.
Over the coming weeks, CCHR will continue to unpack these changes, what they mean for tenants, and how they may affect tenants’ ability to exercise their rights.