When Good Tenants Go Bad: Inside Ontario's Landlord and Tenant Board Crisis

Olivia Chow’s War on Landlords

All right, folks, here we are with another episode of Landlord Conversation, your month-in-review of what you need to know, what’s going on here in the month of August. I’m joined as always by Kayla Andrade from Front Lobby, as well as Ontario Landlord Watch, and Mr. Rob Di Lisi from Stonegate Legal Services, and myself, Kevin Breitner with CRESI Property Management and RE/MAX Hallmark. We all specialize in helping landlords, and we want to make sure you guys are up to date on what’s going on in the landlord and tenant world, so you can best protect yourself and stay on top of the ball.

The big news I guess we’ll start with is that Mayor Olivia Chow says she’s going to fix properties and then bill the landlord. Kind of funny how she’s going after landlords like that — if you Google or go on YouTube right now and search “worst landlord in Canada,” it’s going to be Toronto Community Housing.

I think it was almost a strategy — if you look at what happened recently with landlord licensing, which has caught on like a viral trend on TikTok, it’s landlord licensing, or renovation licensing, where you have to pay travel costs for landlords trying to renovate their properties. Now she’s going into other landlords’ properties, looking at issues — I don’t deny there are issues — but let’s also talk about what the rent is on that particular property, because that could clue you into why the landlord’s being neglectful. At the same time, she’s going to come into that property, get it fixed, and bill the landlord, probably adding it to their property taxes. It just seems like an attack on the investors who are investing in Toronto.

Then you wonder why our elected officials are asking why we’re short on housing starts across the province. This is why — municipal policies from elected officials that are creating a smoke-and-mirrors effect to make it look like they’re doing something for the tenant population.

The Good vs Bad Landlord Dilemma

I guess the only comment I can make is that in a way, I do agree with part of it — there are some bad landlords out there. Under the Residential Tenancies Act, Section 20, it’s the landlord’s responsibility to upkeep and repair. But to arbitrarily decide to go hire whoever to do the work and then bill the landlord — I don’t agree with that. There are good landlords and bad landlords, and yes, for the bad ones, this might be a good thing.

But what about the good landlords, where rents are too low and they don’t have the money or the bureaucratic patience to go through the eviction process to get a problem tenant out so they can fix the issue? This is where we have a process, a provincial government that runs tenant town halls in Toronto — educating tenants on their rights, teaching them how to deal with maintenance issues. How come tenants get a different route than landlords when they have a problem, or a tenant is damaging the property?

I’ve seen landlords whose tenants damaged their property to the point where property standards came in and still ordered the landlord to fix what was broken, while the tenants who broke it were still living there. It’s like, well, they’re going to break that window again — why do I have to fix it? Because you have to, or you’ll be fined, or they’ll come and do it, and anyone doing work for the government — especially around housing — always gets charged a lot more than a landlord calling their own contractor. So if the landlord can’t call that contractor themselves, there’s a reason — often finances.

They’re always painting landlords as rich and greedy, using a broad brush for everyone — it doesn’t matter if you own one unit or a thousand, you’re “the big rich landlord.” One reason I hear at the tribunal a lot is that it comes down to position of power. The landlord has the power — they’re doing this for financial reasons, the tenant is doing it for housing reasons, so the landlord is in the position of power to maintain the property.

I agree with you 110%. There are some tenants who damage the property on purpose, and even if the landlord applies to the board with an N5, N6, or N7, you’re still looking at four, six, even eight months to be heard, and usually it’s a slap on the wrist — you don’t even get the eviction anyway.

Section 82: When Tenants Stop Paying Over Maintenance

We had an instance where tenants stopped paying rent because of a bug issue, but they wouldn’t let the landlord in to spray, because they needed to vacate the unit for five hours and the mother was elderly and couldn’t leave that long. They could never arrange a time. They denied entry but kept complaining, and kept saying they wouldn’t pay rent because it wasn’t getting fixed — while not letting it actually get fixed. This went on for months, with the landlord stuck in the middle.

That leads into what we were going to talk about — Section 82 issues. The tenant can tell the board the reason they haven’t paid rent is a maintenance concern under Section 82. This is why landlords must document everything — the date, the time, emails, text messages — because if the tenant says you didn’t do your duty under Section 20, you need to show you mitigated the damage and tried to enter the property on a given date, and that entry was denied, so any complaints the tenant makes, you already have a rebuttal.

I always tell our landlords, when dealing with a difficult tenant who knows the loopholes, it’s proper etiquette to file paperwork and do your 24-hour maintenance inspection notice at the property, hopefully with the tenant present, so you can ask if there are any maintenance issues — putting all of that on record as evidence. That way, if the tenant tries to bring something up before or at the hearing to delay the process, you’re not caught off guard.

It’s supposed to be filled out and brought to the landlord’s attention. However — remember, we’re talking about position of power — if it goes to the board, some adjudicators will hear the matter and tell the tenant they’re going to stand down and let the tenant apply for their own application to have the matter heard. That’s a delay tactic.

That’s the big issue — one adjudicator will rule one way and another will rule differently on the same issue, because they don’t have a definitive line for how to rule. They get to make their own personal judgment calls.

LTB Adjudicators: The Human Factor

This is a tribunal, not a court, so the person hearing the matter is an adjudicator, not a judge. They’re supposed to follow the law, but they do let their emotions get involved. On top of that, some adjudicators are former tenants themselves, or come from social justice tribunals — so their past work experience can play on their heartstrings, and tenants know it. If you’re at a hearing, it’s worth Googling the adjudicator’s name beforehand. It sucks when you don’t have a way to check their bio and background.

The adjudicator you draw makes a huge difference. And it’s not a court, it’s a tribunal — but they’ve tried to make it operate like a court, and that’s why things have gotten messy. It was supposed to be quick, fast, and efficient, and not bog down the court system — but as people have been saying for years, it’s become what feels like a kangaroo court system.

I remember when it used to take two months to get to the board. It doesn’t do that anymore — we’re at about two and a half months technically right now, but they’re now opening hearing days with, “We have 40 cases in front of us, we’ll prioritize the non-contested ones, then go to the more complicated matters at the end, and if we run out of time, we’ll have to get you back on another date.” That’s an inefficiency — because everyone is sitting there waiting, and then they run out of time.

And this is where the government’s stats — telling us they got the average down from 12 months to two and a half months — don’t account for the cases that get adjourned and have to be rescheduled. It’s like when the government offers someone on a housing wait-list $350 to take their name off the list — was that person actually helped, or just bought off? Same thing applies to adjournments at the Landlord and Tenant Board. Education is key here, for both landlords and tenants to be fully prepared for a hearing — and if you’re not, you need legal representation to help speed up the process.

Case Delays: The Real Timeline Nobody Talks About

We’re back to the length of the process and how delays really only affect the landlord, not the tenant — I won’t say ever, but the majority of the time, delays benefit the tenant, who gets to stay longer while not paying. It’s the landlord who keeps having to cover the bill while the government tells them things are improving.

There are notices that can be challenged — an N12 or N13 — to get a stay and prolong the process. It’s Section 83, and it’s attached to the L1 or L9 update sheet for non-payment of rent. It’s normal information the tenant is supposed to provide: how much rent was charged, how much they paid, whether they’re still in the unit. The landlord has to fill this out and get it to the board five days before the hearing, and also provide a copy to the tenant. What happens if a copy isn’t provided to the tenant — does that adjourn the hearing?

On that form, it legitimately says that if the tenant lost their job but got a new one and is willing to repay soon, or someone agreed to loan the tenant money for the arrears — a friend or social services — or the tenant has a disability or chronic illness that would make finding a new rental more difficult, those are all reasons that can delay the process. We have landlords losing their properties now, and I think we’re going to hear more about mortgage and property tax defaults soon — it’s already starting to come out of areas like St. Catharines. There are a lot of homeowners suffering, but why are landlords being treated as the safety net for tenants when there are government programs meant to help tenants in hardship?

Under Bill 10, landlords are essentially becoming an OSHA worker and a police officer. I hope it doesn’t get royal assent, but the thing is, it already has — it’s now just a matter of the fine wording. Big landlords are concerned about this too.

My understanding is they’re trying to put more responsibility onto the landlord — maintenance is already a landlord responsibility, so I don’t understand how this helps. On rental increases, I believe a landlord should be able to raise the rent to whatever the market value is when a tenant moves out — I know there’s talk of tying the new rent to the previous tenant’s rent, which I disagree with. And if they’re going to do that, what about property taxes, which keep going up? What’s going to encourage a landlord to stay a landlord?

Bill 10 & Bill 51: What’s Coming for Landlords

They’re not staying — they’re leaving. That leads into Bill 51, which is going through a second reading. It’s trying to expand tenant rights and let tenants challenge rent.

Tenants would be able to apply to the Landlord and Tenant Board to confirm the maximum lawful rent they should be paying; if overcharged, landlords must rebate the difference. It would create a public rent registry, and landlords would have to file rent statements whenever a lease is signed or rent changes, and couldn’t increase rent until they’ve filed. Tenants and prospective tenants would be able to see a unit’s rental history. It also includes mandatory legal representation for tenants — automatically qualifying them for legal aid at the board if facing above-guideline rent increase applications, with no eligibility test or financial contribution required.

And that’s the thing — where are our elected officials coming to bat for landlords? Bill 51 would also strengthen landlords’ maintenance obligations — clarifying that landlords can be found in breach even if they claim they made an effort, if the property still isn’t up to standard. So now landlords are making an effort, but not on the government’s timeframe, and they get hung out to dry anyway. Who would want to invest in this province?

I’ve been advocating for 15 years, and it feels like we get a few small wins here and there, but if I can offer landlords tools to protect themselves through this system while also encouraging outside investors to stay away from this province, I know I’m making the job harder for elected officials, because people look to them to fix these problems. If the government isn’t going to fix it, and nonprofits are struggling, and private landlords are staying away, we’ve got a big problem coming — and I think the worst is yet to come. People are talking about fleeing the country, selling their properties, and investing elsewhere — the U.S., out west to Alberta, out east to New Brunswick — because things are better there, even though there’s so much opportunity and need here.

The problem with government rent-assistance programs is that tenants can say, “Don’t direct my housing funds to my landlord, direct it to me” — and then someone with poor money habits may spend it elsewhere instead of on housing. If you’re getting money to help with housing, it should go toward housing.

The Exodus: Why Landlords Are Fleeing Ontario

That money needs to go to the landlord — and often it’s not even the full rent amount, so the tenant still has to come up with the rest. There’s also not enough funding available to everyone who needs assistance, though there are emergency rent-relief programs that can help. But the tenancy still has to be viable — if these programs bail someone out with $10,000 between municipal and regional funds, and they go back to not paying rent and end up evicted anyway, that money could have been better spent. Meanwhile, taxpayers are paying for encampment cleanups and for people in hospitals because of the homeless population — this is a mismanagement of the housing crisis, and we have to ask how the same people who created this problem are going to fix it.

If you’re watching this, put your comments in — do you agree with what we’re saying? What topics do you want us to talk about next? A lot of elected officials probably think the way we think, but they can’t say anything because it would impact them at the next election, and their party. Mayor Chow is very much about the tenants because of where her voter base is in Toronto — she’s not stupid, and she’s lived in government housing herself.

You have to call out the mind games being played by elected officials and let people know. I want to be able to name who’s running Bill 51 so people understand who these people are, because their names should be in the public discussion in a good way, not just a bad way. People are going to see a lot of front-runners for the 2026 municipal election with support from the provincial level — do your homework, connect with the people running now, because politics and housing are closely tied together, whether people like discussing politics or not.

Back in 2018, a study found about a third of Canadians were renting; I’m sure that number is closer to 40% today, and I bet it keeps growing. Everyone needs a roof over their head, whether they own or rent — this has to get addressed, or the housing problem will keep getting worse. The government has to fix these problems for small private landlords, because they’re not like the big conglomerates with hundred-unit apartment buildings who can absorb a few units in arrears. It’s the single-family-home landlords who get hit hardest when good tenants go bad — a good tenant for a long time can have life suddenly change, and the situation flips, with the landlord getting the short end of the stick because everything in the process favours the tenant.

Tenant Screening: Rob’s “Donald Trump” Rule

The definition of insanity is doing the exact same thing and expecting different results. Every politician promises the sun and the moon, thinks they’ll change the system, but the system ends up changing them. I’ve always positioned myself as the loud mouth on the back end — you don’t have to know everything about every topic, but you can be an involved community member. My goal has always been to educate people on how to get involved, including that they can speak with their MPP.

There’s so much more we have to do for landlord education, because it’s still a good industry to be in — we have great tenants out there too. Even after a recent eviction of a good tenant gone bad, you can still feel for how the economy is impacting tenants, and in turn the landlord, because we’re all going through these changes together, driven by the broader economy.

When a tenant starts getting into trouble with bills, the easiest one to avoid is the landlord — Visa and MasterCard are harder to avoid, so those get paid first, and the buck gets passed to the landlord, who takes the biggest hit. We tell landlords all the time: don’t just take a credit check the tenant hands you — it can be photoshopped. Talk to your tenants, get your application, and line it up against a credit check you pull yourself.

There are sites where landlords can upload eviction orders on tenants they’ve evicted, but not everyone knows about these sites, birth dates aren’t always attached, and by the time an order gets uploaded, that tenant has often already found their next victim. We need all landlords across Canada reporting tenants’ monthly payment history to Front Lobby — that’s the only way to hold bad tenants accountable and reward the good ones who always pay, even through COVID, and help them build toward becoming homeowners themselves. The majority of tenants are good and pay on time — negativity just travels the fastest.

What percentage of tenants do you think are good, Rob? I’d say about 80% for me — I only see the bad cases through the office, but my personal properties have good tenants. When people call our office, it’s always the worst-case scenario, so we see the worst of the worst, but I’d say the majority of tenants are not bad. What would you say is the number one mistake landlords make?

Not qualifying properly — using their heart instead of their brain. A lot of times I hear, “I let the person in because I felt bad for them,” or “they said they’d be homeless.” I had one on Monday where the sheriff came to enforce an eviction order, and the landlord let the tenant back in because they felt bad. Now the tenant is a tenant again, because the sheriff won’t come back to re-evict — the whole process has to restart.

We’re the ones seen as greedy and heartless, but we get burned because of our heart. We’re Canadian, we’re housing providers, we’re good people who see someone going through hard times and want to help them get back on their feet. I tell landlords: you have to pretend you work for a demanding boss — would you let this person into the property if a mistake would get you fired? Because if you make the wrong call, that’s what’s going to happen to your investment.

That’s the problem — people don’t treat this like a business, they treat it like a hobby, going with their gut instead of the numbers. I do look at credit checks, but I want the full report, pulled myself, because those tenant-provided ones are photoshopped to death. A lot of landlords don’t even look at anything — they just want the vacancy filled as quickly as possible.

The Emotion Trap That Costs Landlords Thousands

I tell people all the time: a month of vacancy at the beginning is way better than six to ten months of trouble at the end. We’ve talked about this on a lot of different episodes — vetting your tenant properly, because once they’re in, it’s hard to get them out, and it takes time. We have to do our due diligence at the beginning to get a great tenant, even knowing that sometimes a good tenant can still turn into a bad one down the road — usually from a poorly managed situation, sometimes from something uncontrollable like a job loss.

Having someone in the middle — a property manager — to handle tenant communications keeps those conversations professional and factual, with no emotion, which is where both sides usually start going at each other. It’s important to take your emotions out of it and put your business cap on. There was a time when landlords could let their heart run the business, but our government has pushed private housing providers to run this like a business and not take chances, because of the delays and the rights given to tenants without equivalent protections for landlords.

You’re going to have very few landlords stick around, and the ones who do are going to be strict on tenant screening and rules — no letting small issues like a trampoline or fire pit slide, because it escalates, and by the time your emotions flip, you’re paying a property manager to be the middleman and going to the Landlord and Tenant Board, which feels like Russian roulette depending on which adjudicator you draw. You’re guaranteed a hearing date — you’re just not guaranteed to be heard.

Going back to utilities included in rent when extra people are renting rooms in a property — if that brings in extra income, why can’t the landlord be compensated through the utilities? They did allow charging extra for air conditioning, with the requirement to provide information about the unit and confirm proper installation. It comes down to fairness for everybody — not charging extra because there’s a child in the household, but if it’s another adult moving in, especially given rising rents and the economy, we’re seeing families congregate together in units and properties, which pushes private landlords to look for whatever loopholes they can find to regain some control. Costs keep rising across the board — mortgages, taxes, insurance, utilities, maintenance — so landlords have to run this like a business. Shelter is a human right that government provides; housing beyond that is a responsibility, and you can’t expect the private sector to provide it for free.

Section 83: Why Children Complicate Evictions

I’ve been quiet too long, guys — I appreciate the opportunity to be here and share this with my following, and I appreciate everyone’s support, not just for landlord advocacy but personally as well. This is a moment for me to say thank you for your prayers, and I still need them.

We’re just trying to make sure landlords out there are getting the right information and guidance so they can make informed decisions for their specific situation. You have to talk about the inefficiencies of the system — we have a dispute resolution officer, a mediator, an adjudicator, and everyone sending out forms — and we have to make sure the process is providing justice to both landlords and tenants, not just protecting tenants because it’s easier for municipalities to avoid dealing with the effects of an eviction. Taxpayers are paying approximately $3,000 a month to house one person in an emergency shelter, and that’s without even touching immigration and asylum seekers — we have a huge problem, and we need people with boots on the ground in the industry.

Rob, you’ve been at the Landlord and Tenant Board — you know it inside and out, the loopholes, what to expect from professional tenants who are desperate and will do whatever they can to avoid a shelter or the street. We feel for them, and that’s part of why I became an advocate — to highlight where things are going wrong and how to create fairness for both good tenants and good landlords, and proper support for people going through hard times.

We’re not heartless — it’s about fairness, about levelling the playing field. Tenants get free legal help through the paralegal system, while landlords can be owed $30,000 or more and have to pay for representation themselves. If tenants get representation, landlords should too — we’re not getting paid, and neither are they, but landlords still have to pay. Even the $186 filing fee landlords pay just to get in the door — who’s responsible for that? The tenant is, but the board won’t issue an eviction if the tenant has paid all the rent except that $186.

Section 78 — I’ve seen it time and again — landlords work out a payment plan with the tenant in front of the tribunal after trying and failing to do it outside the tribunal, with an enforcement condition that rent has to be paid on time and in full going forward. What happens? Tenants miss their payment plan and their regular rent, so the landlord files an L4 application to get an order without another hearing, but the tenant can still ask for a new hearing and get another payment plan. How is our Landlord and Tenant Board not even fully enforcing Section 78?

Even when the sheriff gives notice of an eviction, the tenant can call the board, request a stay, and get a merits hearing on why it was stayed — and the tenant can complain and delay again. Most of the time, not always, the stay gets lifted and the eviction proceeds, but the tenant has bought another month or two in the unit. I don’t have an answer for why that keeps happening — it just is what it is. We’re still questioning why the process takes as long as it does, and generates as much paperwork as it does, compared to somewhere like Newfoundland, where the process is a page or two.

It’s something that needs to be enforced properly, and tenants and landlords both need clarity, or we keep going back and forth at the Landlord and Tenant Board, wasting taxpayer dollars on adjudicators, dispute resolution officers, mediators, and legal aid representation for tenants. We’re seeing a lot of resources wasted because the rules aren’t black and white and everyone gets the benefit of the doubt. If you stop paying for a hotel room, what happens?

Housing vs Shelter: The Uncomfortable Truth

You get asked to leave, or the police get called — but that’s under different legislation. I want to be a hotel — nightly rates! Have you ever seen a seven-day notice instead of fourteen, depending on whether you’re billing monthly or weekly? I’ve never personally seen weekly billing, because most people use a realtor, and with a realtor you typically get a one-year lease.

The realtor gets a commission of half of one month’s rent, so if they’re the one bringing the client, they’ll push for the one-year term, because it’s a guaranteed year they won’t need to be brought back for — though if the tenant chooses to vacate, they’ll still have to chase them down again. New construction is the one case where you have to do a one-year lease to get the HST rebate back from the builder, since it’s not the buyer’s primary residence — that can be $20,000 to $30,000, so they need that year-long lease in place. With month-to-month, the landlord has a bit more protection, since they don’t have to wait out a full year if something’s going wrong — no tenure lock-in. But typically we do one-year leases, and it’s standard across the industry that a property manager or leasing agent charges one month’s rent as commission, split between both sides if there are two agents involved.

Rob, why do you like doing month-to-month, and what control does it give you? Well, on a one-year lease, you can’t give an N8 for persistent late payment until the fixed term ends — it has to be month-to-month.

Month-to-Month vs Annual Leases: Expert Strategies

Same with an N12 — even though I don’t own single-family homes anymore, and wouldn’t do an N12 on my properties, you still have to wait until the end of the term. And on the N12’s second page, fourth paragraph, it actually tells tenants they don’t have to move out anyway if the landlord has to apply to the board — you’re looking at four to six months to get to the board, two more months to get the order. Depending on where you are, downtown Toronto is seeing up to eight weeks just for enforcement of an eviction. That’s a recent article I’ve been pushing — the forms themselves tell tenants they don’t have to move out if they still owe money. Like, no — pay the money or move out.

That’s where I’ll disagree a bit, because there are a lot of fraudulent N12s and fraudulent N4s, and that’s why tenants have the right to be heard in this country. If an N4 was given to a tenant and they didn’t actually receive it, they have the right to a hearing and an order. But if the tenant is aware of the notice through the portal — because they have to put their email in — that keeps everyone in the loop of what’s been filed and helps avoid fraudulent applications. It also gives tenants the chance to say “I paid” or offer a payment plan. Right now everyone automatically gets a hearing for non-payment of rent — it’s the number one application at the Landlord and Tenant Board, and adjudicators making six figures are dealing with disputes over amounts that, frankly, shouldn’t need a full hearing.

Are we doing another investor meetup, Kevin? Yes, we have a couple more investor summits coming in the fall — one on the east side of Toronto, either September 25th or October 15th, dates to be released. Thanks so much for joining us today. Rob, anything to finish off with?

I’d like to remind everybody I’ll be on X, formerly Twitter, the first Thursday of every month — it’s a casual, unfiltered call-in housing show where you can dial in anonymously under a different name and listen in, and we talk about a lot of these same topics, where you can speak freely without your name attached, because a lot of people in this space — firefighters, police officers, teachers, people in the political field — feel like they can’t speak up against the system tied to their employer. It’s been a great opportunity to have these conversations.

Thanks for chiming in — if you like educational content for landlords, we have a YouTube channel, Instagram, and Facebook. Follow us at Stonegate Legal Services, and everything we give away is free. We’re not as loud about advocacy as Kayla, but we try to help landlords become better landlords. If I ever go missing, guys — well, I guess that wraps it up for today.

Thanks so much, everybody — this was the August edition of what landlords need to know. Now you know. Thanks for joining us, and we’ll talk to you soon. Bye for now. Thanks, guys.