It’s been a long, weary road to resolution for landlords and tenants caught in the evictions backlog that was exacerbated in 2020 when the pandemic forced the Landlord Tenant Board (LTB) into a five-month hiatus. Though online hearings have since resumed via the Tribunals Ontario Portal, technical difficulties, prolonged waits, and complaints of biases abound.
“Our paralegals are frustrated with the process, so I expect landlords are too,” says Joe Hoffer, a lawyer and partner with Cohen Highley LLP. “I think of the opening of Dickens’ novel Bleak House where the inscription outside the courthouse door reads, “Suffer any wrong that can be done you rather than come here!” because the delays, the cost, and the dysfunction result in daily miscarriages of justice for both landlords and tenants.”
Hoffer isn’t alone in his exasperation with the LTB, where problems have persisted for years. In fact, the sluggish pace of proceedings became the subject of an investigation by Ontario Ombudsman Paul Dubé before the State of Emergency was declared. According to his 2019-2020 annual report, Tribunals Ontario ranked fourth for most prevalent topic of complaint — and tellingly, 74 per cent of the 1,051 complaints about the Tribunal were specifically related to the LTB.
In the two years prior to COVID, the LTB received approximately 80,000 applications per year, 90 per cent of which were filed by landlords seeking to end a tenancy or collect money owed. In 2020, that number dropped to about 48,000 applications due to the five-month LTB closure. As many feared, this created a surge in cases once the eviction moratorium lifted, and despite efforts to chip away at that backlog via online hearings and mediation, the board continues to struggle.
Acknowledging this is a real problem, the Ontario government recently earmarked $19 million over three years to help the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT) and the Landlord and Tenant Board reduce their respective backlogs. The Province says the funding is intended to help both tribunals appoint new adjudicators, have resources on hand for mediation, improve IT platforms, and resolve disputes faster.
Though it’s still early on, Hoffer says he has yet to see any evidence of improved efficiencies at the LTB — and, if anything, matters for landlords seem to have gotten worse.
“Board members are facing a deluge of applications, and apparently they have no time assigned to writing orders because it can take months to receive them,” he reports. “In many cases following a hearing, we’ve found that the board member’s appointment may have expired, or that the board member resigned prior to issuing orders, and we then receive directions that we have to come back and have another hearing. You can imagine how well that goes over for the parties who thought they finally had their day in court, only to have to go back and start over.”
Adding more to the list of grievances, Hoffer says landlord applications for arrears have been held up since December due to a dysfunctional computer system. Meanwhile, tenant applications have been processed in a matter of weeks. In short, he says, “I cannot recall a time over the past 35 years of my practice when the adjudicative system for landlord and tenant matters has been as dysfunctional as it is now.“
The good news is, according to an operational update posted May 5 to the Tribunals Ontario website, users who experienced technical issues filing their “Applications to End a Tenancy” and “Evict a Tenant or Collect Money” (L2 applications) through the portal will not be required to start the process over again.
“Applicants who filed an L2 application affected by this issue will be receiving a letter from the LTB asking that they complete a new L2 application using our PDF forms and upload it to their Tribunals Ontario Portal file,” the post reads. “This will not have an impact on the affected application’s place in the queue with respect to hearing dates and legislative deadlines, and any supplementary filings such as the Request to Extend or Shorten Time will also be unaffected. The original filing date will be preserved.”
