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Eliminating Fees at the LTB for Low-Income Tenants

Do I have to pay money to file an application at the Landlord and Tenant Board?

At the Landlord and Tenant Board tenants have to pay fees to file some applications. For instance, if your apartment is in disrepair and your landlord is refusing to fix it, you have to pay $45 to ask the Landlord and Tenant Board to order the landlord to do his job.

What are fee waivers?

Low income people do not have to pay fees in Ontario courts. They don't have to pay fees in several landlord and tenant tribunals across Canada. This special permission given to low-income people is called a “fee waiver”. But Ontario’s Landlord and Tenant Board has refused to allow fee waivers.

Why should we have fee waivers?

Everyone should have access to justice. Requiring payment before you can have your case heard creates a barrier to justice for people who cannot pay the fee. The failure to allow for fee waivers in cases about vital housing rights appears to interfere with rights granted to everyone under the Ontario Human Rights Code and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

What has ACTO done?

For several years we have pressed this issue with the Landlord and Tenant Board, the Ministry of Housing and the Attorney General. An amendment to the Residential Tenancies Act (RTA) that would authorize the Landlord and Tenant Board to waive or defer fees it charges to low-income Ontarians has now been included in Bill 14, Non-profit Housing Co-operatives Statute Law Amendment Act, 2013. If Bill 14 passes, access to justice will be improved for tenants with limited financial means.