Ontario shortens eviction notice period for unpaid rent to seven days

Ontario has shortened the time tenants have to pay overdue rent before a landlord can seek eviction from 14 days to seven days.

The change is part of amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act drawn from Bill 60 and Bill 97, CBC News reported.

The law now defines "persistent late payment" as rent being more than a week overdue on at least three occasions within a six-month period.

Tenants who want to raise separate issues at an eviction hearing, such as problems with their unit, must first pay 50 percent of the rent they are alleged to owe.

Dania Majid, director of duty counsel for the Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario, warned that the new seven-day window could have effects beyond individual cases.

"That's going to trigger more hearings. And that's going to trigger a backlog," she said.

Majid also argued that forcing tenants to raise housing-condition complaints separately could create more inefficiency, not less.

"Now the tenant has to file a separate application to raise these issues… when the entire matter could have just been handled at the same hearing," she said.

Personal-use evictions are also changing.

A landlord who gives 120 days' notice for their own use or a family member's use no longer has to offer compensation or another unit.

If the intended new occupant does not move in within 60 days, the eviction is presumed to be in bad faith.

The housing minister's office has framed the overhaul as a way to "restore balance and rebuild confidence in Ontario's rental housing market."

The province's government has presented the amendments as part of its response to long delays at the Landlord and Tenant Board.

Tribunals Ontario, which oversees the board, said it has been preparing for the changes with "no impact anticipated on caseload or application processing times."

Kayla Andrade, founder of landlord advocacy group Ontario Landlords Watch, said the shorter repayment period "just means you can file the paperwork a little sooner at the LTB."

"It doesn't mean that you're going to get your hearing any faster," she said.

The Federation of Metro Tenants' Associations said in a release that efficiency was merely a "smokescreen" for "eroding tenants' rights."

Ontario Landlords Watch, the Small Ownership Landlords of Ontario, and the Federation of Metro Tenants' Associations have all questioned the premise that the changes will ease board delays.

The measures apply to both sides of Ontario's rental market.

For Ontario renters already stretched by high housing costs, a new set of rules could make it easier for them to fall into crisis, The Cool Down reported.

With files from The Cool Down