'No fairness in this system': Small landlords seek ways to protect themselves amid Ontario tribunal delays

The tenant in Nazar Ajeely's one-bedroom unit stopped paying rent, refused to take his calls and gave no explanation. 

The tenant also refused to leave the apartment in Windsor, Ont., Ajeely said, giving him no choice but to go to the province's Landlord and Tenant Board to seek an eviction order.

But the tribunal is mired in delays and the wait for his hearing went on for 11 months. In the meantime, Ajeely's tenant racked up more than $14,000 in unpaid rent and left the landlord questioning how this could be occurring.

"I can't believe this is happening in Canada. There is no fairness in this system and so many people are in severe stress, both financially and mentally, because of it," Ajeely said.

He said he needed to do something to warn others about what was happening, so he went on TikTok with a message to other landlords and a warning to his tenant.

"Do you know there are websites these days landlords can use to report you to the credit bureau? Plus there are other websites like Openroom.ca and bad tenants list so you'll be very famous," he says in the video. 

"Do you think anyone will rent to you after that? Your name will be all over the internet."

Some small landlords such as Ajeely say they are taking extra measures to protect themselves and other landlords. Since the start of this year, several initiatives have been launched to try to hold tenants more accountable.

They include the launch of a website, Openroom.ca, which allows landlords and tenants to report public orders from the board to flag problem tenants and landlords and a petition on Change.org calling for the return of automatic eviction for non-payment of rent that has more than 39,000 signatures. Multiple "bad tenant" Facebook pages have also been created, where users are uploading images and information on tenants.

Landlords say the drive behind all of this is the need for an overhaul of the province's Landlord and Tenant Board.

It's a situation some say is worsening the housing crisis as some landlords and tenants become increasingly polarized against each other. 

"I'm worried about the Wild West where no one has faith in the Landlord and Tenant Board," Douglas Kwan, a director at the Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario (ACTO), said. 

"If we had a functioning tribunal that could regulate these issues we wouldn't be seeing all of this."

The most recent update from the board shows a backlog of more than 53,000 cases. Between 2022 and 2023, there were 37,690 applications to evict tenants for non-payment of rent.