The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB) commissioned a report in November 2024 called “Breaking the Backlog – Restoring Fairness and Justice to Ontario’s Landlord and Tenant Board” and boy, is it a doozy.
We’re glad that TRREB is taking an active interest in this as the LTB is essential for maintaining balance and fairness in Ontario’s rental housing market, ensuring that both landlords and tenants can enforce their rights and obligations under the law. You have likely seen headlines and articles about horror stories on both the landlord and tenant side of the equation and we’ve worked with clients on both sides who have been treated unfairly. It all comes down to a system that isn’t working as intended, allowing bad faith players on both side to take advantage.
Let’s get into the situation and how to fix it.
First off, what exactly is this LTB you keep talking about?
The Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) is a tribunal in Ontario, that resolves disputes between residential landlords and tenants. It operates under the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006 (RTA) and plays a critical role in administering rental housing laws in the province. The LTB’s primary functions include:
- Dispute Resolution: Handling applications from landlords and tenants regarding issues such as rent arrears, eviction, property maintenance, and lease disagreements.
- Mediation and Hearings: Offering mediation services to help parties resolve disputes and conducting formal hearings when necessary.
- Orders and Decisions: Issuing binding rulings and orders based on the evidence and arguments presented during hearings.
The LTB is part of the Social Justice Tribunals Ontario (SJTO), which oversees several tribunals focused on social justice matters. It employs adjudicators, who are independent decision-makers, and support staff to process and resolve cases.
What’s the problem?
The LTB has faced significant challenges in recent years, including extensive backlogs due to lengthy delays. If you’re wondering how bad it actually could be, get ready.
As of February, 2024, the LTB had more than 53,000 unresolved cases. While the specific of the cases vary, remember that the whole focus of the LTB is issues like rent arrears, eviction, property maintenance and lease disagreements.
Think about that – over 53,000 cases where there is a tenant who stopped paying rent, or a landlord who evicted a tenant illegally, or mould in the bathroom or broken locks, or even simply some other type of disagreement between landlord and tenant.
If you ever read a case of a bad tenant or landlord and wondered how that could happen and then said there must be laws against that sort of thing, you’d be right. There are laws and rules and right now there are over 53,000 people waiting for their case to be heard.
Speaking of waiting, with 53,000 unresolved cases, it is taking a while to get a hearing. There is a pecking order of sorts when it comes to which cases get resolved the quickest, but “quick” is a relative term.
For example, the LTB says that urgent matters such as illegal lockouts and other high-priority requests get the fastest level of service, with about 5-6 weeks on average to have it scheduled. Even better news is that most decisions (which are called Order) are issued with 30 days or less. So, if you’re a tenant who has been illegally locked out of your rental unit, just sit tight for two to three months and you should be sorted.
Up until quite recently, the wait time for non-payment of rent issues was five months, plus of course the month or so before the Order would be issued. The website for the LTB now says that takes approximately three months, and if that’s true, it still means four months of a landlord not being paid rent before they receive an Order. Keep in mind that many landlords don’t go to the LTB to evict for non-payment of rent until the issue has become quite extreme. It is not uncommon for landlords to be owed at least two months rent before they start the process, so in many cases, it actually means that a landlord is owed 8 months of rent by the time the tenant is evicted.
Less urgent matters than illegal lockouts or non-payment of rent are now being scheduled with 5-7 months, plus of course the month to receive the Order from the LTB. No hot water in your unit? File an application to the LTB and two seasons later, it may be addressed. Lots of extra people living in the rental unit you own? File an application to the LTB, and within six months, you should get an answer. I’m sure the extra people won’t cause much wear and tear or complaints from the neighbours.
While it is landlord and tenant relationships at odds in these cases going before the LTB, 84% of applications to the LTB are from landlords, so the backlog and delays are dramatically impacting existing landlords as well as strongly discouraging investors from purchasing rental units in Ontario.
What’s causing this mess?
The TRREB “Breaking the Backlog” report identifies several key factors causing the backlog and delays at the LTB, so let’s review.
Understaffing: The LTB has just 70 full-time adjudicators, far below what is needed to handle the volume of cases effectively. Many of those adjudicators are new in their roles since 2023, so these aren’t seasoned experts who quickly and efficiently deal with complex cases. Put bluntly, inadequate staffing levels directly limit the number of cases that can be processed daily, causing, you guessed it, a backlog.
Increased Case Volume: A 23% increase in case filings over the past five years has overwhelmed the LTB’s capacity to keep up. Things weren’t great a number of years ago, but the combination of more cases and staffing that isn’t keeping pace has meant it got much worse, quickly.
Outdated Technology and Systems: The reliance on outdated, inefficient administrative processes and technologies creates bottlenecks in case management and resolution. For example, applications can be done via an online portal but also can be submitted via email, or mail or in person. Applications done via the online portal were entered into the system immediately, but emails, mailed in or in person submissions could take three months until they even enter the system! While online hearings may seem like a great way to address delays and increase efficiencies, it has amplified accessibility issues amongst vulnerable groups. Anyone living in poverty and lacking sufficient Wi-Fi or a private place have great challenges with online hearings.
To sum up, the current process for scheduling hearings, issuing decisions, and communicating with landlords and tenants is slow and lacks the flexibility to adapt to demand surges. These issues collectively exacerbate delays, creating extended wait times for hearings and decisions. The end result? The mess we’re in right now.
How on earth do we fix the LTB?
While the problems are significant, there are steps that can and should be done to fix the LTB. Some have already started but with the significant backlog and delays, we need it to be better, sooner.
The full report from TRREB goes into detail on recommendations, but here are the key steps.
Increase Staffing Levels: The LTB needs more adjudicators and support staff to process applications efficiently. Current understaffing significantly contributes to the backlog and delays in resolving disputes.
Modernize Systems and Processes: Upgrading outdated systems, implementing online services, and streamlining administrative procedures can reduce inefficiencies and enhance user experience.
Set Clear Timelines: Introducing mandatory timelines for hearing cases and issuing decisions would help reduce the unpredictability of wait times for landlords and tenants.
Provide Adequate Funding: Increased funding is necessary to support staffing, technological improvements, and other enhancements to ensure the LTB can meet demand.
Improve Accountability and Transparency: Ensuring that the LTB operates with greater oversight and regular public reporting on performance metrics can build trust and ensure ongoing improvements.
Doing the above things would be a great way to address the significant backlog of cases at the LTB while improving fairness and efficiency in Ontario’s rental housing sector.
While an article about the Landlord and Tenant Board may seem like a strange focus for a team of real estate agents, we care deeply about housing in Ontario. Within our team we represent both landlords and tenants and we’ve seen first-hand the challenges that the LTB is causing to both sides. We believe the majority of landlords and tenants are looking for a fair agreement on rental housing and it’s time that the LTB became the solution to problems in the rental market.
If you’re a landlord looking to rent out a property, or a tenant trying to find a home of your own, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us.
