Ontario Eviction Process Explained: The Three Legal Ways to Evict a Tenant

Introduction and Overview

Hey everybody, and welcome to this week’s episode for Ontario landlords. We’re going to talk about evictions — when, how, why, and the misunderstandings around the process. Evictions aren’t a fun topic; it’s not something any landlord wants to deal with. Avoiding it starts with properly placing a tenant, which is more than just calling the references they provide — there’s due diligence you must do, and there are systems, tools, and people who can help with that process. Evictions aren’t easy, and once a tenant is in, they’re very hard to get out.

To talk through that process today, we’re bringing back one of our favourite guests, paralegal Robert Di Lisi from Stonegate Legal Services.

Common Eviction Misconceptions

Most landlords don’t want to be in an eviction situation, but if they are, there are ways to understand it or try to avoid it. Let’s start with the misunderstandings — landlords often ask things like: “I just bought the house, can I evict the tenant?” “They’re making a mess on the front lawn, can I evict them?”

People think they can arbitrarily just evict someone. What you need to realize is that there’s a process — this is Canada.

The Three Legal Ways to Evict

You can’t just tell a tenant “leave or I’ll call the police.” Police have nothing to do with this — if you call police about a tenant not paying rent, they’ll tell you it’s out of their jurisdiction and that you need to go through the Landlord and Tenant Board. You give a notice to the tenant, file an application to get to the board, and you’re looking at roughly six to eight months to get to the board, another 30 to 60 days to get the order, and then three to six weeks, depending on where you are in the city, for the sheriff to actually enforce it.

There are only three ways a tenancy ends. Number one is when the tenant gives notice, usually the N9. Number two is a mutual agreement, the N11. Number three is a court order. With the N9 and N11, you can file for an ex parte order for the eviction, but most landlords watching this, if it’s for non-payment of rent, have to wait for the court system, and the sheriff is the one who carries out the eviction. The sheriff is the court-appointed officer for the court — not police.

The Sheriff’s Role in Evictions

If a tenant gives notice with an N9 or N11 but doesn’t move out by the date they agreed to, the landlord applies to the board for an ex parte order. For example: if today is October 24th and they say they’ll move out by the end of November, and they don’t, that ex parte order can then be filed with the sheriff — so instead of waiting to get a fresh order, the landlord gets it right away because it’s already on mutual agreement or notice. The eviction still has to happen through the sheriff. If you call the sheriff directly and say your tenant isn’t paying rent and needs to be evicted, they’ll say they can’t do anything without a court order from the Landlord and Tenant Board confirming the tenant owes money.

Once that process starts, it usually takes about three to six weeks depending on where you are in the city — up to eight weeks in Toronto. The sheriff will post something on the door letting the tenant know they’re coming in a couple of weeks, giving them the opportunity to leave on their own. If they don’t, the sheriff shows up and goes through the process.

Post-Eviction Security Measures

When the sheriff shows up, it’s not a police car — it’s a white car marked “Ontario” on the side. Usually it’s two people, in uniform, who look like police but the car says “Ontario” or “provincial services.” They knock on the door, and if the tenant is there, they identify themselves and give the tenant 15 to 20 minutes to gather their things before they must leave. A lot of tenants already know the sheriff is coming, since a notice gets posted on the door beforehand, so many have a bag ready. Some aren’t cooperative, so the sheriff sometimes has to talk them into getting ready.

Once the tenant is removed, it’s very important that the property is secured — the landlord should walk through to make sure all windows are locked, and should change the locks (front door, back door, garage door) because there have been cases of tenants coming back and trying to break in. If that happens, police can be called to charge them with trespassing or have them removed, though in practice some police departments are reluctant to get involved because it’s outside their jurisdiction — officers with body cameras don’t want to risk their job over what they see as a landlord-tenant matter. That’s why it’s important to call the sheriff back out again, or have police remove the person, if a tenant tries to return. Change all the locks and don’t cut corners — tenants sometimes do come back.

Valid Reasons for Eviction

The most common reason for eviction is non-payment of rent. The second most common is an N12 — moving into the property yourself, or a buyer moving in — where the board issues an order that the tenant has to leave. Garbage on the front lawn or similar behaviour issues fall under an N5, a behavioural application, which doesn’t always result in an eviction since it’s behavioural and every case is judged on its own facts. Generally the top four notice types are the N4 (non-payment), N8 (persistent late payment), N12 (personal use), and N5 (behavioural).

Multi-Family Property Evictions

If the issue is behaviour between tenants in a duplex or multifamily property, that’s also handled through an N5 — and it’s still roughly six to eight months to get to the board, after which the adjudicator decides. It’s not usually an immediate eviction; more often it’s a warning that the tenant has to behave, and if they don’t, it could turn into an eviction depending on how the order is written. This puts a lot of responsibility on the landlord, who is trying to do their duty but can struggle to get a problem tenant removed.

Many new landlords don’t know all the ins and outs of what they can and can’t do — they may believe a tenant can be evicted just for not treating the property well, when in fact things like yard maintenance are often a landlord responsibility. These situations are highly fact-specific, which is why anyone needing help should reach out to a paralegal who specializes in landlord-tenant matters, such as Stonegate Legal Services. Robert Di Lisi himself has been a landlord for over 20 years and handled over 200 evictions in the province last year.

Evictions are difficult because, ultimately, this is someone’s home — the tenant has to be doing something serious for the board to order them out.

Renovation and Demolition Evictions

For a renovation or demolition eviction, an N13 notice is used, and it’s still a process that goes through the board — the landlord needs permits, plans, and everything required, and it’s the board that determines whether the N13 is proper. If the board deems it valid, they’ll issue an eviction order, then it still goes to the sheriff the same as any other eviction.

Di Lisi describes a client who sold their property to a builder doing a joint venture to demolish and build a multi-family building; they went through the process properly with all the plans in place, but the tenant didn’t leave by the proper date, so they ended up filing an N11 and going through the process to get the tenant out.

Importance of Proper Tenant Screening

Tenants have a lot of control and power in these situations, which is why proper tenant placement matters so much — doing full due diligence up front. It’s better to accept a month or two of vacancy at the start than six to ten months of problems at the end. New landlords should take their time; the first applicant isn’t always the best tenant, and documents can be forged. Landlords should run license numbers and double-check information, or hire someone — like a property manager — who does this every day, and shouldn’t be shy about asking a lot of questions during screening.

Final Tips and Conclusions

A property management company often has the skills to screen and manage this better than an individual landlord because they do it every day, but the key is thoroughly qualifying the tenant regardless of who does it. Thanks so much for your time today, Rob — we appreciate you, as always. Landlords, we’ll talk to you soon. Bye for now.