The 27th May, 2022 Solo landlords protests brought so many painful testimonies on what the impacts the LTB delays are having on them. Here are the voices of the small landlords in Ontario in this video below courtesy of Prime Asia transcribed by Solo volunteer Manpreet Singh Tandon.
Subhra Dutta:
Came here to protest against the landlord and tenant board in-efficiency and the rampage is going on at the moment by the professional tenants. Doug Ford has empowered them to stay rent free in our accommodation. I have approached the MPP, Landlord and Tenant Board, the Ombudsman’s office and the Minister of Municipal Housing. Nothing has worked. I requested for expedited hearing. At my age 64 it is extremely difficult to live with this stress. The landlord and tenant board has to improve their process. I have also listened to different MPP talking about how “the system is working fine”, what is working fine? It cannot be a law when certain people are exploited for the benefit of tenants. We invested our hard-earned money in this small housing for the benefit of the lower income group. There is no support from the government and these professional tenants know about the delay and they also know about the extremely discriminating law and they are exploiting it to full. Unless there is something done immediately, small investors like me will not only go broke and we will be in the streets like me. They are on the street due to unfair treatment. We are looking for equal law for both tenants and landlords. How come they are allowed to stay in our accommodation free while the landlord and tenant board only claim they’re improving the system, if they’re improving the system and are not answerable to anybody how come they’re improving the system. I have actually explored the possibility of class action lawsuit against them but no lawyer will come forward saying that they are immune from any sort of judicial action, how come? Discriminatory and corrupt practice practice only, it encourages corrupt practices. As you can see those tenants have assumed that it is their right to damage the property, to rip the landlord of their health and wealth. Now this is absolutely unfair and this needs to be fixed. I have already lost 17,000 dollars from the previous 2 tenants and with the current tenant not paying for the last 4 months it is already $10,000 over and it is still counting.
2nd Participant:
Just wondering, am I still in a developed country like Canada because as a landlord I lost out on $32,000, just because of LTB delays, and they don’t respond and say “application in process”. How do I pay the taxes? Why should I pay? There is no justice for the landlord and the tenants are refusing to pay the taxes and Doug Ford comes out to the TV and says that you don’t have to pay the rent, why do you say that I don’t understand. We are begging as a landlord for fixing the LTB, that’s all we need. We don’t need any free money from the government, all we need is Justice by following the SLA’s process.
Manpreet Singh:
We are all here together, as currently there is no timely justice in Ontario for landlords. Savings and investments of landlords are going in vain. People are using their savings to pay rent of their own tenants, only demand is timely justice in 30 days in or out. LTB has to step up to help people.
Mary Breton:
I have been a landlord for approximately 15 years. I have noticed how the standard of service has certainly deteriorated, I feel there is a bias against landlords in this province. I know that it’s very difficult to get your case forward at the Tribunal. I hear daily from small landlords who are suffering financially, emotionally, and physically due to issues with tenants, whose savings have been exhausted and who can’t get a ruling from the tenant board. They have tenants living in their property who are really squatters who are exploiting them or really squatters who are not paying the rent or damaging their property or doing both and they can’t get resolution to their issues.
5th Participant:
I am here because the LTB is working very slowly, just to hear an application it’s six to eight months and even after the hearing they take another 2 to 3 months to get an order and another 3 to 4 weeks for the Sheriff to come at the door. Meanwhile the tenant is living for free, destroying our property and making us suffer. This is my pension, I am without my pension. Please try to work with us and try to change the LTB functionality.
Ahmed:
My situation is also like my brothers. My tenant moved on June 15th 2021 and after paying two months she stopped paying for no reason. It’s almost 8 months now. I applied with LTB and they took five months to give me the ticket number, the case number and I got the case number in March and today is May 27th and it’s still I haven’t got anything from the LTB. So I don’t know what is going on. That’s why we are here, at least hopefully they listen to us.
