FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Toronto, ON – July 17th 2026 – On March 14th 2022, Suzanne Arguelles received an N12: Notice to End Your Tenancy because her landlords, Ann and her son John Miller, said they required the rental unit for Ann Miller’s child. Suzanne, who was dealing with serious health issues at the time, asked for more time to find suitable housing. After two months without success, her landlords restarted the eviction process again by serving a second N12 notice on June 29, 2022.
Following the second notice, on July 19, 2022, only John Miller filed the L2 Eviction Application with the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB). Before the hearing of the eviction, Ann Miller passed away.
At the LTB hearing, the Board amended the application to name the Estate of Ann Miller as the proper party to pursue the eviction after learning of Ann Miller’s death, even though no estate representative had been appointed. It also became apparent that the estate had not been settled, meaning no legal proceedings had occurred to transfer ownership or control of the rental property following Ann Miller’s death.
The hearing also revealed a procedural defect in John Miller’s application. He had failed to file all of the N12 notices that had been served on Suzanne, a requirement under the Residential Tenancies Act.
On June 5, 2023, the LTB allowed the landlord’s application. Suzanne appealed the decision to the Divisional Court, where ACTO represented her, but the Court upheld the eviction order. ACTO then appealed the decision to the Court of Appeal for Ontario.
The Court of Appeal for Ontario found that the eviction application was invalid because it failed to include all N12 notices as required by the legislation. It was also wrong in law that John Miller could pursue the eviction application for “own use” when it was not his daughter that intended to occupy the unit, but Ann Miller’s daughter and Ann Miller was deceased.
The Court’s decision delivers a correct and just outcome. One of the important issues in this case was the impact of estate law on landlord and tenant issues. Estates are not legal actors in and of themselves, and they require personal representatives, administrators, or trustees to act for them.
Quotes
In a high-volume tribunal that evicts tenants every day, the Court has been clear that “administrative efficiency can never serve to undermine the fundamental purposes of remedial legislative provisions” or “override substantive principles of common law and statutory law”. This is a very important statement from one of the most important courts in the country, affirming the importance of following proper eviction procedures when tenants, many of whom are unrepresented and vulnerable face eviction, says Karen Andrews, Staff Lawyer at ACTO who represented the tenant on the appeal case.
For more information, including interviews with legal representative, please contact:
Ukeme Ebong
Communications and Public Affairs Specialist, (ACTO)