By Sam Tekerai, Guest contributor
During the current health crisis of COVID-19, the Ontario Government suspended tenant eviction notices that had already been filed with the Landlord and Tenant Board. Although that action was commendable, the government was already in the process of amending the existing Ontario’s Residential Tenancies Act, via its Bill 184 that was tabled prior to COVID-19. Although Bill 184 legislation has so many facets to amend the existing 2006 Act, greater focus should be on needed changes to the ‘existing mechanisms of evictions’.
Bill 184, titled “Protecting Tenants and Strengthening Community” was tabled by the Ontario Government prior to the advent of COVID-19. It has now passed its second reading in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario and is working its way through the process to become an ‘Act’. Once it is passed it will implement varies amendments to the existing “2006 Ontario’s Residential Tenancies Act”, which came into effect on January 31, 2007. That Act sets out the rights and responsibilities of landlords and tenants who rent residential properties. One is left to wonder if this nicely titled legislation “Protecting Tenants and Strengthening Community” could be a smokescreen for the real intent of Bill 184. These questions need to be addressed: Is the real intent to make it easier for the landlords to evict tenants, particularly those who are financially vulnerable going through economic hardship? Have these tenants reached some sort of agreement with the landlord to pay their ‘debt’ during the COVID-19 crisis?
Tenant advisory groups and lawyers have expressed concern that Bill 184 legislation proposed by the Ontario Government will have a major impact on tenants in general, but more so, on economically challenged tenants. Tenant advocates are alarmed that after the current health crisis (COVID-19) has subsided there is a high probability that a huge number of tenants may be ‘evicted’.
The existing 2006 legislation has in place a mechanism for how landlords can evict tenants or to deal with evictions. In short, first a landlord should give the tenant a “Notice of Termination” with the reason(s) to evict them. That Notice should contain provisions that allows tenants to be given the opportunity and reasonable timeframe to resolve the problem. If tenants have a legitimate reason and don’t move out after receiving the notice, or if the landlord is not satisfied with the tenant’s resolution of the problem, then the landlord can ask the “Landlord & Tenant Board” to end the tenancy by filing an application. Of course, Landlords should have a good or an airtight justification to evict tenants. Then, the board will decide if the tenancy will end after holding a Hearing. If the board decides to make an “Order of Eviction” it will inform the tenants when they must leave the unit. If the tenants do not move out, then the landlord can file the “Board’s Order” with the court enforcement office and legally evict tenants.
Unfortunately, Bill 184 amendments appear to bypass the Landlord and Tenant Board, hence giving more power to landlords to evict tenants. In particular, tenants who have the added burden of financial difficulty because of the current health crisis, and had reached some sort of financial arrangement in order to pay an outstanding rent amount (i.e. Debt), and had a signed agreement document with the landlords ‘without knowing the intricacy of the agreement’, they may now find themselves homeless if they fail to fulfill their obligation. Apparently under this agreement or because of this agreement reached between the landlord and tenant, the landlord can bypass the Landlord and Tenant Board and enforce eviction.
Tenants should read and understand any agreement before signing. In fact, they should obtain legal assistance (free legal assistance) to understand what impact it will have on them; especially those tenants who are the most vulnerable. Those tenants should give it the highest priority, especially in our big city of Toronto, where homelessness is rampant in the current erratic economic climate.
Although the amendment to Bill 184 is not yet law, tenants should be vigilant in understanding and protecting their “Rights”. Tenants should/must fulfill their obligation under the lease agreement and be careful not to give the landlord a reason to be evicted.
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UPDATED INFO
People want Ontario to
reinstate the residential
eviction ban
December 3, 2020
Toronto and Peel have been in full lockdown 2.0 for more than a week now, and residents are wondering why, if so many are out of work once more, a ban on residential evictions hasn’t been reinstated.
https://www.blogto.com/real-estate-toronto/2020/12/ontario-reinstate-residential-eviction-ban/
Another aspect to this story….Doug Ford is allowing landlords to evict tenants without a hearing because he reduced the number of adjudicators at the Landlord/Tenant Tribunal Board (long before the pandemic), resulting in a severe backlog.
Tenants in Ontario will have a rude awakening when they find out that the government they elected and trusted to do the right thing is making amendments to an existing Act in favour of landlords when it comes to evictions. It is scary to imagine that some tenants, who have been struggling to make ends meet during the COVID -19 Crisis, and have reached an agreement with their landlords for their outstanding unpaid rent , may find themselves homeless once the government temporary suspension is over.
I think when it comes to evictions an independent body should hear both the landlords’ and tenants’ side and determine if the eviction is appropriate. In fact, we already have an existing independent body, The Landlord and Tenant Board, which has been in operation since 2007. This Board should be strengthened instead of being weakened by amendments that favours landlords.
Furthermore, the Board should look into the agreement(s) the landlords made with tenants and determine if it has taken into account the tenants’ financial situation, i.e. the ability to pay; the reasonableness of the amount of monthly repayment and the time frame to repay have been taken into consideration. If the agreement is designed for tenants to fail making payments of their debts in order to evict them, the Board should render that the agreement null and void. Eviction should be the last resort, and that should still remain and be the decision of “The Landlord and Tenant Board”.
The amendment to BILL 184 by the Ford government leaves one with the sense that vulnerable residents will be impacted more than landlords. Many renters are experiencing financial difficulties and might face evictions during this COVID-19 pandemic due to loss of income. The idea that the Landlord and Tenant Board will become more like a Debt Collection agency is very troubling. These vulnerable tenants should pay close attention to the advice and suggestions provided in this article to protect themselves. Both the tenants and the landlords need to deal with this challenge in a civilized manner despite the amendments by the Ford government.
NOTE – You can sign a petition calling on Premier Ford to scrap his mass evictions bill at this link: https://act.leadnow.ca/bill-184-c2c-other/
Thank you for this article. We do need to remain vigilant. I suspect the Ford government will try to sneak their long-standing agenda into law while our attention is on the pandemic and the economy. Also, we should criticize the media for giving Ford/Conservatives free publicity at his daily live ‘briefings’, which are not ‘brief’, are no longer necessary, and veer onto topics other than the pandemic – unless they give equal time to the opposing parties.