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Eviction Process

After much pressure from tenants, community organizations and community legal clinics across Ontario, the Residential Tenancies Act (RTA) brought an end to the “default” eviction process created under the Tenant Protection Act. Under the old Act, a tenant had to request a hearing in writing within five calendar days or risk a “default”, i.e. automatic, order from the housing tribunal to evict.

Under the new Act, the RTA, most landlord applications to evict are automatically scheduled for a hearing at the Landlord and Tenant Board. If you are a tenant, you must make every effort to attend your hearing, otherwise you will most likely have to pay a $50 fee to request another hearing date.

See the Community Legal Education Ontario (CLEO) publication, What Tenants Need to Know About the Law for more about the eviction process.

A landlord must serve the tenant with a Notice of Termination, and then apply to the Landlord and Tenant Board to evict the tenant. The landlord must then serve the tenant with a copy of the Notice of Hearing and other documents.

A tenant cannot be evicted unless the landlord obtains an Eviction Order from the Landlord and Tenant Board, even if the landlord & tenant had previously agreed to terminate the tenancy.

Only the Sheriff can enforce an eviction order. A landlord cannot put the tenants out and change the locks by himself or with the police. It is an offence under the RTA to illegally evict a tenant. See the Ministry of Municipal Affairs & Housing website for a list of illegal evictions and other offences under the RTA.

Background

ACTO and the Legal Clinics’ Housing Issues Committee (LCHIC) submitted a detailed complaint to the Ontario Ombudsman in June 2002. We asked him to initiate an investigation – on his own motion and using “Fairness Standards” developed by the Ombudsman - into the statutory regime and procedural practices governing the resolution of disputes between landlords and tenants by ORHT in three key areas:

the eviction process;
the process for tenants wrongfully locked out by the landlord, and
the rules for above-guideline increases for utilities costs.

ACTO held a media conference with Caring Alliance, an organization working with homeless persons, to publicize the treatment of tenants at the Ontario Rental Housing Tribunal and the submission to the Ombudsman.

In January 2004, the Ombudsman met with Minister of Municipal Affairs John Gerretsen as a follow-up to his November 2003 letter in which he expressed concerns to the Minister about the eviction process at the Ontario Rental Housing Tribunal. He wrote:

"Eviction should not be allowed to become a mechanical exercise devoid of human consideration."

In his 2003-2004 Annual Report, the Ombudsman re-iterated his concerns with the eviction process at ORHT and wrote: "While the TPA 1997 may have effected greater administrative efficiencies than the Landlord and Tenant Act, I am concerned that this may have been at the expense of fair process."