Questions asked before most first calls

Not always. Many problems can be settled directly with the tenant, and we encourage that. When it has to go to the Board, one small clerical error on a notice or application can cause a costly delay, or mean starting over.

The office is in Mississauga, and we act for clients across Ontario.

Because every matter is different. How many tenants there are, how much is owed, whether the tenant disputes it and whether there is a hearing all change the work involved. So each step is quoted once we know your facts, and you get the fee before any work starts. The first 15-minute call is complimentary.

Not for the Landlord and Tenant Board. You can act for yourself there, or be represented by a lawyer or paralegal licensed by the Law Society of Ontario. Some unlicensed people the Law Society exempts, such as an unpaid family member, can also represent you. Under the Law Society’s By-Law 4, a licensed paralegal may advise you, prepare documents, negotiate, and represent you before a tribunal such as the Board, or in the Small Claims Court. The by-law does not list the Divisional Court, which hears appeals of Board orders on a question of law. The Law Society has stated that paralegals are not authorized to represent parties there.

It is a 15-minute call to hear what is happening, check that we can act for you and tell you which steps your matter involves. It does not make us your lawyer, and it is not legal advice on your situation. If you want to go through your documents and dates in detail, book the 45-minute full consultation, which costs $150.

The Board decides what type of hearing to hold. If it schedules a virtual hearing, your Notice of Hearing includes a Zoom link and a telephone number, so keep it somewhere you can find it on the day. Check the date and time, and test your connection before the hearing. If you have trouble joining, the Board’s Zoom technical support can help: email LTBHearingSupport@ontario.ca, or call 416-212-9064 (toll-free 866-769-7865). Tribunals Ontario’s video and phone proceedings page has tips for getting ready.

Individual services, such as a notice, an application or a hearing, are priced separately. Set retainers are available for full matters. You are told the fee before any work starts.

Yes, at several points. Before you file the L1, paying the arrears plus any rent that has since come due voids the N4. After you file, paying the arrears, any new rent and your application fee before the order is issued ends the application. Once an order is made, paying the amount it states before it becomes enforceable voids it. After that, until the order is enforced, a tenant who pays in full may ask the Board to set it aside, but only once in a tenancy.

The termination date on the N4 must be at least 7 days after the notice is given, not counting the day you give it. If you mail the notice, add five days. You can file the L1 from the day after the termination date, as long as the tenant has not paid the full amount owing and is still in possession of the unit. Different deadlines apply to an N4 given before September 21, 2026.

Yes. Unless you and your tenant agree otherwise, accepting arrears after giving a notice does not waive the notice or create a new tenancy. A partial payment also does not void the N4. That takes the full arrears plus any rent that has come due by the date of payment. If you have already filed the L1, list the payment on the L1/L9 Information Update. The Board deducts payments made after filing from the amount it orders.

Usually, yes. An N12 needs one month’s rent. An N13 needs one or three months’ rent, depending on the size of the building. You can instead offer another unit the tenant accepts. Payment is due by the termination date. An own-use N12 given on or after September 21, 2026 needs no compensation if the termination date is at least 120 days after the notice is given. A purchaser N12 always needs it. If the Board refuses your application, it can order the tenant to pay the compensation back.

The former tenant can apply to the Board within one year of moving out, saying the notice was given in bad faith. For an own-use N12, bad faith is presumed if no one the Act lists has moved in within 60 days after the termination date, or after the tenant left if that was later. You can bring evidence to prove otherwise. The Board can order general compensation of up to 12 months’ rent, the tenant’s higher rent for a year, moving and storage costs, and a fine.

Yes, if your N13 is for repairs or renovations and the tenant tells you in writing, before moving out, that they want to return. The rent can be no more than you could lawfully have charged had the tenancy continued. You must tell the tenant in writing the estimated ready date, any change to it and when the unit is ready, and allow at least 60 days to return. The tenant must tell you in writing of any change of address. There is no right to return after a demolition.

Yes, if it is the first N5. The notice is void if, within seven days after receiving it, the tenant ends the conduct, reduces the number of occupants, or repairs or pays for the damage, or makes arrangements you accept. You cannot apply on a voided notice. If new conduct happens more than seven days but less than six months after the first N5, a second N5 can follow, even if the first was voided. A second N5, an N6 and an N7 have no correction period.

No. The Act lets the Board end a tenancy based on an N6 for an illegal act whether or not anyone has been convicted of an offence. The LTB’s guideline adds that an eviction can be ordered even if no charge was laid, and that a charge on its own is not proof. The Board decides on a balance of probabilities, so you still need evidence of the illegal act or business, and you must prove it at the hearing.

Yes. On the L2 you can claim the cost to repair or replace the damaged property. You have to claim both the eviction and the money on the application, and explain how you worked out the cost. Photos, invoices and estimates must go to the tenant and the Board at least seven days before the hearing. If the tenant has already moved out, the claim goes on an L10 instead, filed no later than one year after they left.

You must file no later than one year after the tenant moved out. The LTB’s form puts it as no more than 365 days after the day they left. The tenant must also have moved out on or after September 1, 2021. The L10 asks for the move-out date, and once the year has passed, the L10 cannot be filed.

The Act sets the period. If the tenant left with no notice, rent is owing up to the earliest termination date a proper tenant’s notice could have set, counted from the day you knew, or ought to have known, that they had left. If they gave notice that did not follow the Act, the same rule applies from that notice. If you re-rent sooner, the claim ends when the new tenant is entitled to move in. The Board also looks at whether you took steps to minimize your losses.

You can leave the current address blank on the L10, but you must still serve the application and Notice of Hearing at least 30 days before the hearing, and not at the old unit. Service can be in person, by mail or courier where the former tenant now lives, or by email if they agreed in writing during the tenancy and you can prove they received it. If none of these work, you can ask the Board for alternative service at least 40 days before the hearing.

It depends on the route. For an order issued on or after July 1, 2026, a Request to Review an Order is due within 15 days of issue. Older orders have 30 days. A late request needs a Request to Extend Deadline explaining the delay. A Divisional Court appeal must be brought within 30 days after you are given the order, and only on a question of law. A tenant’s motion to set aside an L3 or L4 order made without a hearing is due within 10 days.

Not automatically. At the preliminary review, a Board member decides whether to stay the order while the review is decided. The member can attach conditions, such as the tenant paying some or all of the arrears into the Board or to you. A stayed order cannot be enforced, and the party who asked for the stay must take it to the Court Enforcement Office. A Divisional Court appeal is different. It stays the order automatically, unless the court or the Board lifts the stay at a party’s request.

An appeal to the Divisional Court is only on a question of law, such as the member wrongly interpreting or applying the Residential Tenancies Act. A disagreement about the facts may fit a Request to Review an Order instead, since an error of fact can be a serious error. But the Board gives the original member’s findings of fact considerable deference. A review is not a chance to present a better case, and a request that only says the order is wrong is usually dismissed early.

No. An eviction order can only be enforced by the Court Enforcement Office of the Superior Court of Justice, also called the Sheriff’s office. You file a copy of the order with that office, and the Sheriff carries out the eviction. The Residential Tenancies Act lets you recover possession only if the tenant has left or a Board eviction order has authorized it. Changing the locks without giving the tenant replacement keys, or unlawfully recovering possession, is an offence (sections 24, 39, 233 and 234).

For 72 hours after the Sheriff enforces the order, you must not sell, keep or dispose of the tenant’s property. During that time it must be available for the tenant to collect at a location close to the unit, between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. After that you may sell, keep or dispose of it, and you are not liable if you followed the Act. You and the tenant can agree to different terms. Not making the property available is an offence (RTA ss. 41 and 234).

Yes. An eviction order expires six months after the day it takes effect if it has not been filed with the Sheriff for the area where the unit is. Once it expires, you cannot apply for another eviction order on the same issue. The six months do not run while the order is stayed, such as by a review request or an appeal. Once filed, the order remains enforceable for one year from the date it takes effect, and a court can be asked to extend that period.

The hearing can go ahead without you, and the Board can decide the application on the evidence it has. If the Board sets a case management hearing and you miss it without exceptional circumstances, you may be taken to accept all the facts and allegations in the application. A request to move a date normally needs every party’s consent and must reach the Board at least 5 business days before. Evidence you did not give the tenant and the Board on time may be refused.

Usually one year. A T2 or T6 must be filed within one year of the conduct. For an ongoing repair problem, the LTB counts from the repair, and an abatement can reach back a year before filing. A T1 must be filed within one year of the money being collected or kept, and rent charged for over a year without a challenge is deemed lawful. A T5 must be filed within one year of moving out, or later for a right-to-return claim. The Board cannot extend these deadlines.

Only in set cases. On a maintenance application, the tenant can ask the Board’s permission to pay future rent into the Board until the application is resolved. A request made before the hearing is decided without hearing from you. If the Board allows it, those payments are not a default in rent. The money is paid out under the final order, or as a mediated settlement directs. The half-arrears payment a tenant makes to raise issues at your L1 hearing goes to you, not to the Board.

Not while your tenant still lives there. A roommate or other occupant living with your tenant is not an unauthorized occupant, and it is not a sublet that needs your consent. They live there under your tenant’s tenancy, not one with you. If their conduct or the number of people causes problems, the Act lets you give your tenant notice for damage, interference or overcrowding. If your tenant moves out and the person stays, you can file an A2 within 60 days of finding out.

Not just by accepting it. You are entitled to compensation while an unauthorized occupant lives in the unit, and taking it does not create a tenancy unless you both agree otherwise. Whether regular rent payments make someone a tenant depends on the facts. You can choose to sign a new tenancy agreement with them. If you neither sign one nor file an A2 within 60 days of discovering the occupancy, the Act treats the person as an assignee you consented to, on the original terms.

For an assignment, yes. If you refuse outright, or do not reply within seven days, your tenant can give notice to end the tenancy within 30 days of asking. But if you are open to an assignment, or the request is to sublet, you cannot refuse a proposed person “arbitrarily or unreasonably”. The Board also considers the Human Rights Code. Within one year, your tenant can ask the Board to authorize the assignment or sublet, end the tenancy or order a rent abatement.

For most units, by no more than the guideline for the calendar year in which the increase takes effect. It is 2.1% for 2026 and 1.9% for 2027. An increase starting on January 1, 2027 uses the 2027 figure, even if you gave the notice in 2026. On a rent of $1,000, a 1.9% increase is $19.00. Newer units first occupied after November 15, 2018 may be exempt. Going above the guideline needs an N10 agreement with your tenant or a Board order on an L5.

Most of them do. The guideline does not apply if no part of the building was occupied for residential purposes on or before November 15, 2018, so the increase has no set limit. You must still give at least 90 days’ written notice, on the N2, and wait 12 months between increases. The exemption does not cover a tenancy agreement made on or before that date. If your tenant disputes it at the Board, you must prove the exemption applies, so keep records such as building and occupancy permits.

An increase given with fewer than 90 days’ written notice is void. You must give a new notice before you can take it, and the Board cannot shorten the 90 days. If your tenant pays a void increase for 12 months in a row and does not apply to the Board within a year of first being charged, it is treated as valid. If the notice asks for more than the guideline without an order or agreement, your tenant is treated as accepting only the increase the Act allows.

The LTB’s guidance says you can use the N11, Agreement to End the Tenancy. It also says an agreement can be oral, but it recommends a written one, signed by all the tenants. If the tenant does not move out, your L3 must include a copy of the written agreement and a signed declaration or sworn affidavit confirming it. The LTB refuses an L3 filed without them.

The LTB says the tenant can ask you to agree to a new arrangement letting the tenancy continue. If you do not agree and the tenant stays, you can file an L3. If the Board makes an eviction order without a hearing, the tenant has 10 days after it is issued to ask that it be set aside. The Board sets it aside if there was no agreement, or if that would not be unfair. Since September 21, 2026, it cannot consider changes in the tenant’s circumstances after the agreement.

No, in most cases. Under the Act, an agreement to end the tenancy is void if it is made when the tenancy agreement is entered into, or as a condition of entering into it. A tenant’s notice given at that time is void in the same way. There are exceptions for some housing for students of a post-secondary institution, and for some care home units that provide rehabilitative or therapeutic services.

Not while the stay applies. Delivering a notice of appeal stays the parts of a Board order that end the tenancy and evict, until the appeal is decided. Once a certificate of stay is filed with the sheriff, the sheriff does not enforce the order. You can ask the Divisional Court to lift the stay, through a case conference or a motion. The court can also direct the tenant to pay ongoing rent and arrears, and lift the stay if the tenant does not pay.

An appeal to the Divisional Court must start within 30 days after you are given the Board’s order, and only on a question of law. It stays the order unless the Board or the court orders otherwise. Judicial review asks the same court to find that the Board did not properly use its powers. It must start within 30 days after the decision, and does not stay the order unless the court orders it. The court may decline to hear it while an appeal or review is still available.

The Board can order up to the greater of $10,000 and the Small Claims Court limit, which has been $50,000 since October 1, 2025. If your claim is larger, you can bring it in court instead, and the court can use the Board’s powers. Above $50,000, the claim starts in the Superior Court of Justice with a statement of claim. If you file at the Board, everything above its limit is lost once the Board issues its order.

Only if the tenancy has ended by then. A sale does not end a tenancy, and the buyer becomes the tenant’s landlord on closing. The tenancy can end if the tenant agrees to leave, gives their own notice, or leaves after the seller gives a purchaser N12, which needs at least 60 days. If the tenant stays, the landlord needs an eviction order from the Board, and only the Sheriff can enforce it. The closing date does not change these rules.

The seller does. Once there is an agreement of purchase and sale, the seller, as landlord, gives the N12 on the buyer’s behalf. This is available only if the building has three or fewer residential units, or the home is a condominium unit. The seller also owes the tenant one month’s rent, or another unit the tenant accepts, by the termination date. That obligation does not pass to the buyer. If an application is needed, the person moving in signs the declaration filed with it.

The tenant does not have to leave just because the date has arrived. The landlord can apply to the Board on Form L2, no later than 30 days after the termination date, and the tenant can explain at a hearing why they disagree. An eviction order cannot take effect before the termination date. Only the Court Enforcement Office (the Sheriff) can enforce it. Neither the seller nor the buyer may remove the tenant or change the locks themselves.

For most tenancies, yes. Most leases entered into on or after April 30, 2018 must be on the government’s standard form, and since March 1, 2021 that is the version dated 2020/12. Care homes, mobile home and land lease sites, most social and supportive housing and co-operative housing are left out. If the form was required but not used, the tenant can demand it in writing. After 21 days without it, the tenant can withhold up to one month’s rent. The lease itself stays valid.

A rent deposit and a refundable key deposit. The rent deposit can be required only on or before the lease is entered into. It cannot be more than one month’s rent, or one rental period’s rent if that is less. It goes toward the rent for the last rental period, and the landlord pays yearly interest on it. A key deposit can cover keys, remote entry devices or cards, up to the expected direct cost of replacing them. A damage or pet deposit is not allowed.

No. The Act says neither a landlord nor a tenancy agreement shall require a tenant or prospective tenant to provide post-dated cheques, or to allow automatic debits, credit card charges or any other automatic payment for rent. A tenant can choose to pay that way, and the Board says the two of them can agree on it. If a cheque is returned for non-sufficient funds, the landlord can recover the bank’s NSF charges and an administration charge of no more than $20.

Not unless the regulation allows it. The Act says no landlord shall, directly or indirectly, collect or require from a tenant, prospective tenant or former tenant “a fee, premium, commission, bonus, penalty, key deposit or other like amount of money whether or not the money is refundable”. The same applies to a superintendent, property manager or other person acting on the landlord’s behalf. Exceptions include key and NSF charges. A tenant who paid an unlawful charge can apply to the Board within one year. Charging it is also an offence.