Doug Ford Signaling Upcoming Landlord and Tenant Board Overhaul
Doug Ford recently revealed that he is in talks with his Attorney General* to overhaul the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) to assist small Ontario landlords with matters that can be easily resolved such as unpaid rents.
“What we’re trying to do is to expedite the process, and make sure we’d get it through the system as quickly as possible when someone’s not paying.”
-Doug Ford, Premier of Ontario
This will be welcomed by small landlords everywhere, which make up the majority of our own clients as property managers. While a property management firm provides extra peace of mind for landlords in the form of rigorous tenant screening and other measures, ultimately we cannot guard against job loss or similar circumstances that can lead to unpaid rents. We do recommend filing eviction notices at the first instance of unpaid rent, it can always be rescinded and will keep the problem from snowballing into a larger one.
Even tenants with good intentions end up benefiting from a system where they don’t see an LTB order for eviction for months to a year after the initial filing. Tenants with bad intentions will game the system, filing motions to appeal and so on that could see the process drag out for years without paying a dime of rent.
State of LTB contributing to housing supply crisis
Unsurprisingly, LTB delays and regulations which do not generally favour landlords have been discouraging property owners from becoming landlords. Issues with tenants, which should be resolved at the LTB, are also prompting some property owners to quit being landlords. Being burned by unpaid rents is the typical reason why a property may be taken off the market entirely.
The problem has gotten bad enough that a significant amount of property owners would rather pay the Vacant Home Tax levied by the City of Toronto than put that vacant unit on the rental market. If landlords are more comfortable renting, it stands to reason that the rental supply issue in Toronto, the GTA, and Ontario as a whole would be at least partially alleviated.
The LTB’s role as an extra-judicial way to resolve landlord and tenant disputes is necessary; if everything had to be settled in small claims or other courts, the costs to both landlords and tenants would be too much to bear for most. It would be nice to see the LTB overhauled so that notices of eviction due to unpaid rent would be immediately enacted once filed without a hearing, as long as proof of non-payment is solid. It would also be good to see the LTB order being enough to garnish wages for unpaid rents, rather than the landlord having to additionally go to small claims court to get an order to garnish wages based on the LTB ruling. This step unnecessarily ties up small claims court and further drags out an already lengthy process.
Small landlords everywhere are encouraged by this news, and hope that remedies happen in the near future. If you’re looking for a property manager to protect your investment, get in touch with us – we’re more affordable than you would think.
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