Landlord Rights in Ontario

For the new Landlord

If you are a new landlord, then you need to be aware that the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) manages all disputes between landlords and tenants. If you wish to evict a tenent then this must be handled properly via the LTB. The LTB is governed by stututory rules and is managed by Tribunals Ontario.

As a new Landlord you may need added advice. There is a lot of information available from local landlord support groups. on useful place to visit is the Landlord's Self-Help Centre. They are a specialty legal clinic providing education and summary advice for small-scale landlords. They are a non-profit specialty community legal clinic funded by Legal Aid Ontario, as with all legal aid services in Ontario, whether you can use their service will depend on your earnings.

Thare are a variety of things a new landlord needs to know. You can only collect rent for the current rental period. A rental deposit equal to one month’s rent (or rent for one rental period, whichever is less) must be used as the last month's rent, any other amount is illegal. Be aware that damage and pet deposits are illegal in Ontario. The Law states that you must maintain the property to meet all health, safety, and housing maintenance standards as defined by your local municipality.

Furthermore, you are not permitted to change locks, cut off utilities, or remove a tenant's belongings without an order. Evictions require a formal order from the LTB enforced by a court sheriff. Rent can only be raised once a year and must be limited to the guideline rent (for older properties). You can find the rules and rates for guideline rent increaes at the Ontario website.

Please be aware that some cities, like Thorold, require Landlords to obtain a license for residential rental properties.

This is such a beautify part of our province, yet Lanlords do face challenges of collecting rent, Tenant damages, maintenance, etc. This is where the Paralegals at Invictus can help.

Every city has homes to rent, this is where Invictus Legal can help you as the Landlord. we can assist with negotiations. we seek to resolve any tenancy problems you face.

Invictus has Landlord clients in Southwest Ontario. and is available to assist with all of your landlord legal assistance. Having on-line hearings means that the legal teams are not limited geographically.

Landlord Services

Invictus Legal has helped clients with a range of services, including:

• Evictions for non-payment of rent.
• Annual rental increases following legal guidelines.
• Above guideline increases to rent when specific conditions apply.
• Rent arrears agreements to bring tenants that are in arrears up to date and ensure they continue to pay rent on time and every month.
• Enforcement when Tenants fail to adhere to an agreement.
• Negotiated an exit strategy when the Landlord wishes to re-occupy the rental unit.
• Stoped tenants being a nuisance, disrupting others, or causing damage to the property.
• Evictions for illegal acts committed by tenants.
• Non payment of utility bills.
• When a landlord needs to change the use of the rental unit, e.g. from residential to commercial.
• Ensured the right legal steps were taken when landlords sell their investment property. Invictus works with realtors and conveyancing solicitors to ensure the right contract is formed.
• Ensure the right legal steps are taken for renovation, rebuilding and demolition of the property.

Defending Against a Tenant Application

The Act also allows Tenants to file applications against a landlord, when this occurs the landlord will receive either by email or though the postal system a notice of an application filed against you. The information you will receive from the LTB will include a PIN number. You may also receive a Notice of Hearing for an upcoming hearing date, when this happens understand how much time you have till the hearing or Adjudicative Case Conference.

The most common applications the Landlord will receive are:

• A Tenants Rights Application, or.
• An application relating to maintenance problems in the rental Unit.

The Tenants Rights application can cover a number of areas, including:

• Illegal entry to the rental unit, where the proper 24 hours notice is not given.
• Harrassment of the tenant or their guests.
• improper deductions, that can include witholding deposits without justification.
• Serious repairs of maintenance issues that affect the health, safety, or privacy of the Tenant.
• Removing a parking space.

Maintenance applications (T6) can be wide ranging, which is one reason you should ensure that your rental units are in a good state of repair.

Some such applications arise because the Landlord has issues an N4 or N5. Then the cause of the tenent's issues are the black molk that never existed before. Whole the law stops landlords from retaliating when a landlord makes a complaint, this rule does not seem to applyt to tenants.

Review the Notice of Hearing 

You should prapare well in advance of the hearing, and you should consider representation by a firm like Invictus Legal LLP in praparation for that hearing. If you have representation you should engage them at the earliest opportunity. If you arrive at the LTB hearing without representation then it can disadvantage you as the Landlord. While their are many paralegal firms available to assist the landlord, options like legal aid are not generally available for landlords. You can discuss your problem with the Landlord Self Help Centre, their mandate is to provide support to Ontario’s small landlord community, but they do not provide representation.

Gather your evidence against the Tenant, you will get an opportunity to give your viewpoint at the hearing. You will have the opportunity to share your evidence to the Board, the evidence is your oportunity to demonstrate your side of the story. Just because the tenant made a complaint doesn't mean they are right or will be believed at the hearing. The hearing relies on solid evidence, which includes documents, video, pictures, text messages and other material.

Download and understand the allegations the tenant has made. Think about whether an alternative solution is possible. Get some legal advice about the best response to make. Sometime the bast result means making a payment to the tenant. Just because you make a payment does not mean you are admiting you did anything wrong.

Ball v. Metro Capital

The case of Ball v Metro Capital 2002  is a Divisional Court ruling that set the legal standard for eviction notices. Notices like the N5, N6, N7 and others must be specific. Allegations must include dates, times, and a detailed description of the alleged behavior, who performed the activity, to the best of your knowledge. Talk to others affected by the tenant's actions before issuing the notice, this is the time you should seek legal advice.

The principle allows the tenants to understand the case against them, and fix the issue within the seven day period provided.

For the N1 / N4 / N9 the rent amount, arrears period, termination date, and payment details must be stated accurately and cannot be misconstrued.

In N5 / N6 / N7 notices, allegations like interference, damage, or overcrowding must be fully explained. Where is the damage? how did it occur, to the best of your knowledge? These are the types of questions that the Tenant of the paralegal will ask in the LTB hearing. Further for allegations of illegal acts stating that strange people are hanging about the building on their own are not proof of drug dealing.

Ontario’s eviction system is notice-driven. In the notice a tenant must know, what conduct or ground is alleged, when it occurred, what statutory basis is being invoked, and what the tenant can do to cure, dispute, or prepare a defense.

Invictus Legal LLP offers landlord services in the Niagara Region.  We have dozens of repeat Landlords in the region where the firm is heaquartered. Special attention needs to be paid to Thorold, ask our team why.

Clients include landlords in Fort Erie, Niagara Falls, St Catharines, Welland, Port Colbourne, and Niagara on the Lake.

With the Landlord and Tenant Board we are able to represent landlords across Ontario, including Burlington, Oakville and Hamilton. Inviuctus assists with each of these cities.

It is your rental unit that you are protecting, Give us a call.

You own a home in Toronto or the central part of the GTA, then Invictus Legal LLP has paralegals who can assist.  Toronto, North York, Scarborough, and Markham are among the biggest housing markets. If you have rental unit their we can help.

how Invictus Legal can help you use N5, N6, N7 and L2 Applications to remove troublesome tenants

Landlord Notices made for Tenant Conduct

There a a lot os ways to use an L2, conduct based application. There are many ways this type of application can be used to evict a Tenant. Did you know that a Landlord can evict a tenant that is up to date on their rent? The reason this is possible is because of past tenent conduct.

Issuea like undue and excessive noise, cause damage in the rental unit, having loud parties that disturb the neighbourhood late into the night, each and every night. You do this by using N5, N6 or N7 notices. Use of such notices should not be taken lightly, the offence committed should be serious. So the music palyed till 11 minutes past 11 on the 13th of June, is not alone necessarily enough to evict a tenant for bad conduct.

The N5.

A single N5 notice where the tenant does not repeat the offence should not lead to the filing of an L2 with the LTB, because the tenant is always able to void the notice through corrective action.

An N5 should only be issues because of a serious issue, not for minor infractions of the rules. Serious issues include, substantial interference with the enjoyment or rights of others. The LTB adjudicator must consider whether the disturbance was eccessive of disruptive, such as slamming doors, loud music, actine in an agressive way to others. This can include smoking in areas where smoking is prohibited and others issues where the Tenant interfers with another person's lawful rights.

Key LTB Case Law in respect of N5 Substantial Interference

• Northview-Apartment-REIT v. Al-Mashhadani (2021): for an N5 served on the tenant where at the LTB hearing the landlord provided uncontested proof of ongoing, excessive noise that disrupted other residents in the building. The case showed that a documented pattern of complaints over time outweighs a tenant's claim of normal living sounds immediately after the N5 was served.

• Symphotech Consulting Inc. v. Tousignant (2021): The Board ruled that late-night disruptive behavior—such as intentional stomping, banging, and hammering on water pipes—actually constitutes substantial interference with the reasonable enjoyment of the residential complex.

The substantial interference test is a foundational threshold requirement in common law that has developed over time. it is relevant to both rental housing and problems within residential neighbourhoods.  It is "substantial" when it amounts to significantly more than a slight inconvenience, trifling annoyance , or petty grievance and is defined by the reasonable person standard, as defined in the English common law case, Vaughan v. Menlove (1837).

Property Damage and Overcrowding

Property damage is one reason for an N5 notice to be made. The damage caused may be solely within the rental unit, in the building or other damage around the rental complex.

Overcrowding the rental unit is another reason for eviction. the definition here is where the number of people living in the rental unit exceeds the maximum permitted by local health and safety or property standards. The tenants having a guest family over for the weekend is not sufficient. To succeed on a claim of overcrowding the issue must be long term.

With an N5 the Landlord should new file an L2 application once the 14th day has passed. They need to check whether the offence is recurring. The majority of such offences are made by mistake, perhaps a moment of anger and the Tenant does not re-offend.

Re-offending after an N5.

When a tenant re-offends within six monthe then Lhe landlord may issue a second N5 . With the first N5 the Tenant can take action to fix the problem, with the second N5, this option does not exist. Even if the tenant immediately ceases their behavior or repairs the damage caused having received the second notice, the notice remains valid, and the eviction process continues. Here the Landlord has a limited time to file the L2 application and go to a hearing at the Board to requests the Tenant's eviction.

Understand, the first N5 requires a minimum 20-day termination notice period, while the second N5 (the re-offence): Requires a minimum 14-day termination notice period. Then the L2 application must be served within 30 days of the date the notice is served.

Illegal Acts, the N6

The N6 notice is not voidable, and the Tenant is given a 10 day notice period

The N6 Notice: Protecting the Safety and Integrity of Your Rental Property

The N6 Notice has multiple uses, the most common being as a method to evict a tenant because of illegal use. It is a serious enforcement tool available to the Ontario Landlord. Its purpose is not simply to address a tenant's breach of the tenancy agreement, but looks at the circumstances which the tenant (or a member of their household) allegedly committed. Allegations of drug related crimes (trafficking, manufacturing, or possession is a common allegation. Illegal businesses is another allegation), this has also included allegations of sexual abuse - therefore impacting the safety of another tenant.

The important factor here that illegal acts do not have to be proven in the criminal court before the allegation is raised against a tenent, also, importantly, understand an application based on an N6 notice is not a criminal prosecution. The Tenant is not automatically guilty. The landlord does not have to wait for a criminal conviction before taking action.

Most people agree  committing dangerous or unlawful acts in or around the rental unit can jeopardize the safety, security, or legal rights of the landlord, other tenants, or neighbors and can in the most severe of circumstances be actionable. In the most severe of circumstances the police have powers to evict a tenant for illegal acts. In one instance a neighbour reported a strange smell to the police, who monitored the apartment to discover a drug lab and subsequently jailed and evicted the Tenant. Generally this requires a proveable criminal case. Not all N6 applications rise to that level of severity, also remember the LTB does not make judgement based on criminal burden, but based on civil rules.

The Landlord has a responsibility to other tenents, and surrounding neighbours. This is the reason to use this notice. Remember it is only the LTB that can authorise an eviction, and an allegation is not proof, the Tenant will have the opportunity to provide their side of the story.

Using a N6 because of Income Misrepresentation in RGI Housing

Ontario has several major public housing corporations managed across different cities and regions, whose aim is to provide affordable rental homes. These landlords provide public housing, for example the :

• Toronto Community Housing (TCHC).
• CityHousing Hamilton.
• Niaghara Regional Housing (NRH).
• Halton Community Housing Corporation.
• Peel Housing Corporation (Peel Living).
• London & Middlesex Community Housing. 
• Windsor Essex Community Housing Corporation.
• and others

Please be aware that for the non-profit sector networks like the Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association also list regional housing providers.

The reason for this application is when a tenant, intentionally misrepresents their household income in order to qualify or continue living in a subsidized rental unit. This is commonly referred to as geared-to-income (RGI) housing. Invictus Legal LLP's Landlord team is ideally placed to support your management of RGI or subsidized market rental housing.

The normal process for public housing when the resident earns above the level set for  rent geared to income properties is that the rent will be converted to market rent then the unit will be reassessed the following year, when an RGI may once again be granted.