On October 28, 2022, SOLO Ontario conducted an historic townhall between elected representatives and decision makers to make constructive propositions on addressing Ontario’s housing crisis and Ontario Landlord Tenant Board (LTB) delays. The two-hour event started with more than 400 landlords and 18 MPPs registered to attend the Zoom meeting.
SOLO board member Varun Sriskanda hosted the event where he highlighted the current state of the LTB and how the tribunal has been getting press for all the wrong reasons. How long a landlord, facing current delays, might have to wait to see a hearing.
This all zeroed in on the LTB and why it doesn’t work in its current state. The Residential Tenancies Act (RTA) overwhelmingly favours the tenant to the unfair detriment of landlords. Delays at the LTB make it impossible to access justice. As Varun says, “Landlords are leaving the business and moving to more landlord-friendly places like the US or Alberta.”
Some of the clear and concrete solutions SOLO offered in the event were:
- Hire more adjudicators that are qualified and experienced in handling a variety of housing-related issues.
- Conduct in-person hearings and virtual hearings simultaneously.
- Cross check incoming tenant names on L1 applications for repeat offenders. When found, send these hearings to the front of the line.
- Maintain an LTB registry of decisions available online for access by the public shortly after it is made.
- Take into account high-risk tenant conduct such as hoarding, refusing inspections and threats of violence as sufficient evidence for an early hearing
During the event, four different landlords laid out their stories of struggles with tenants and a system that would not provide relief in a reasonable timeframe. Each of the landlords offered passionate pleas for the government to fix the LTB.
Landlord Carol Axent told her story of a deadbeat tenant who refuses to leave her unit, associates with criminals and fasces and apathetic police service. All this and the tenant continue to live rent-free while LTB delays worsen. Carol’s misery is evident when she says, “what kind of country do we live in that allows this?”
Landlord Subhra Dutta shared his story of a tenant who’s racked up $18,000.00 in rent arrears and began hoarding and making illegal alterations to his home. Subhra made a desperate plea to MPPs “Why is the government dumping rogue tenants on the landlord?”
Member for Mississauga—Streetsville Nina Tangri spoke of her work of trying to get more people in place at the LTB. She offered a link where we people can apply to work for the government. She mentions that they are “filling the spots as fast as possible.” going on to say that they “have added a very large number of people to the LTB.”
Member for Provincial Parliament from Toronto Centre, Kristyn Wong-Tam who is the official opposition critic for the Attorney General spoke at the event. She emphasized that she’s “never seen the mess we have in Ontario with the Landlord and Tenant Tribunal. It is an understatement to say that it’s broken.” Tam made it clear that the LTB “Needs a massive overhaul.”
Interestingly, Tam mentions that the Ford government has “not been appointing adjudicators since 2018.” If this is the case, how is the LTB expected to clear the current backlog?
She goes on the say, “To be quite honest, everybody is unhappy with the LTB.”
And that “there’s no reason why you [landlords] should be left without a clear access to justice in a timely fashion.”
Member for Ottawa—Vanier Lucille Collard took the floor to press the need for the return of in-person hearings. She’s gone on record saying the government needs to “conduct an inquiry and assess the report on the justice delivery of the LTB – I think the system is broken and it needs to be fixed.”
Member for Scarborough—Guildwood, Mitzie Hunter spoke in the meeting about how it pains her to hear that small landlords continue removing housing supply from the market. She thanked the landlords who shared their difficult stories in the townhall. Mitzie spoke of how to get involved by participating in committees. She provided a direct link to access those services.
Mitzie continued, “Like Lucille, I will continue to press the government to do something about it [LTB delays].”
Later in the townhall, SOLO took comments and questions from landlords in attendance.
All told, this successful townhall brought groups together in constructive ways in an effort to get action. For the hundreds of members and those MPPs in attendance, there were concrete solutions offered on how to clear the LTB backlog and improve the housing crisis. All that’s needed is political will to get the job done. As landlords, we will continue to fight to #FixTheLTB
Stay tuned for more on this townhall and next steps for SOLO Ontario. We are fighting every day for small landlords.
