Change the Residential Tenancies Act

An open letter the Government of Ontario

I am writing to request changes be made to section 210 of the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006 (the “RTA“). Pursuant to recent events it has become evident that trouble tenants are able to abuse the current system and not pay rent for months on end. As a small landlord this is very concerning to me considering the financial cost and length of time to evict a tenant.

I would ask that you review D’Amico v. Hitti, 2012 ONSC 4467 (CanLII), Honourable Justice Mathlow’s recommendations and act on one of the following two suggestions.

“There is a growing practice by unscrupulous residential tenants to manipulate the law improperly and often dishonestly to enable them to remain in their rented premises for long periods of time without having to pay rent to their landlords. lt is a practice that imposes an unfair hardship on landlords and reflects badly on the civil justice system in Ontario. lt calls for the government, the Landlord and Tenant Board, and this Court to respond.” [Emphasis added]

The abuses described above can easily be rectified by:

Requiring parties to obtain leave of the Divisional Court to appeal decisions made under the RTA that require the payment of rent and/or that evict a person for non-payment of rent (“Rental Arrears Decision“). This would provide a mechanism to weed out those tenants who are seeking to abuse the system from legitimate appellants.

Alternatively, as a condition of being able to appeal a Rental Arrears Decision, tenants could be required to pay their outstanding rent and prospective rent into Court pending the disposition of the appeal.

Thank you very much and I look forward to your support with small landlords of Ontario.

To all of my readers please sign this petition to help make changes and stop and abuse.