Adjust Font Size

Forcing Tenants to Pay for Electricity (10 Walmer Rd.)

ACTO co-counselled with Downtown Legal Services, representing a group of almost 70 tenants in a landlord’s appeal of the Landlord and Tenant Board’s decision in a case about electricity sub-metering. The tenants organized and resisted when the landlord tried to impose smart sub-metering on them and make them pay for electricity which had been included in the rent.

The tenants argued that it was a unilateral change to the terms of their tenancy agreements and that the meetings, letters, cut-off notices and threats constituted harassment. They brought a tenant application asking that the landlord be ordered to stop.

The LTB agreed and one month later, the Ontario Energy Board issued a decision confirming that the smart sub-metering that had been done by landlords in thousands of units across Ontario was in most cases, in contravention of the Electricity Act.

The Divisional Court affirmed that the OEB Decision was binding on the landlord and refused to overturn the LTB’s finding of harassment. The Divisional Court dismissed the landlord’s appeal as being moot. The landlord did not appeal.