Ontario's Landlord and Tenant Board 'fundamentally failing,' ombudsman finds

A "perfect storm" of factors including the 2018 election, inefficient practices and the COVID pandemic has left Ontario's trouble-plagued Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) "fundamentally failing" to provide swift justice, the province's ombudsman says.

In a lengthy reported published Thursday, Paul Dubé made 61 recommendations to address a backlog of cases at the tribunal that has ballooned to more than 38,000 applications.

"Where once it took the Board a matter of days to schedule hearings, it now takes an average of seven to eight months," Dubé noted. 

"As of February 2023, landlord applications were generally being scheduled for hearing within six to nine months of receipt, and tenant applications could take up to two years to be scheduled."

Dubé's office launched its investigation in 2020 following a sharp spike in complaints about delays at the tribunal from people on both sides of the landlord and tenant divide. His office would eventually hear from 4,000 more Ontarians over the course of its inquiry.

You can read the full report at the bottom of this story.

"There were tenants stuck waiting while they endured harassment, unsafe living conditions, and improper attempts to force them from their homes," the report said.

"And there were small landlords, including those renting out space within their own homes, who were trying to cope with tenants' abuse, criminal conduct, and facing financial ruin and serious health harms."

Dubé found that while the COVID-19 response exacerbated already existing problems at the LTB, many of the primary causes for delays predated the pandemic.

By 2019, the tribunal had already fell into a "moribund state" with a backlog of more than 20,000 applications due to a "host of inefficiencies" that included:

Subsequent moves to virtual hearings and two moratoriums on evictions during the pandemic impeded the board's ability to chip away at the existing backlog. 

Dubé concluded that, given the experience of the last several years, the LTB has "proven itself unequipped for the task of reducing its extraordinary backlog of applications." He added that those applications represent tens of thousands of Ontarians suffering hardship due to the board's inadequacies.

"As an administrative tribunal, the Board is fundamentally failing in its role of providing swift justice to those seeking resolution of residential landlord and tenant issues. In doing so, it is denying justice to a significant segment of Ontarians," he continued.

Dubé noted that several of his dozens of recommendations were directed at the provincial government because they require legislative change. They include suggested amendments to limit how turnovers in government can reduce the capacity of the board to issue decisions and another to extend the time given to adjudicators who terms on the board are about to expire so they can complete cases they already heard.