From the Help Forums, comes this letter about the realities of being a landlord in Ontario and facing the biasedd LTB. Thanks to Janer1 and one of our site Founders, Skitter aka The Person the Tenant Activists Refuse to Debate!
A Letter From The Other Side: The Side No one Chooses to Look At
My husband and I are landlords. We are not rich people; we are ordinary, tax-paying citizens who happen to own some rental properties.
I am very concerned about the future of decent affordable housing. I feel good accommodation is a fundamental need and as a society we are falling short: the government cannot do it alone and the private sector can assist. But we need your help!
Ontario has some of the most landlord unfriendly housing legislation in North America, proof of this is the fact that private parties will NOT invest in the much need affordable housing. YOU can help change this and encourage investment in this housing…………………..
Let me tell you about what recently happened to us….our story is not uncommon…I know of many other stories from landlords who have been treated extremely unfairly.
We had a tenant who was renting a room (shared accommodation). She was on Ontario Works and moved in July1/09. Well it was not long before things went sour. She very quickly started terrorizing our other tenants. She was a very unclean person – she would not clean up after herself – would not take out garbage. She would smoke pot outside in the back yard with her boyfriend, and friends. She was selling her prescription percosets to make some money on the side. She was paying $450 a month all inclusive. We had had her sign an agreement that was very specific with regards to rules because she was sharing a kitchen and bathroom with another female tenant. One of those things was no smoking inside the unit – another rule she frequently broke.
After discussing things with the tenant downstairs and the tenants upstairs…my husband and I decided we needed to take some action with this unruly tenant. We told her that she had broken the agreement and that we felt it was in her best interest to leave the unit. She was agreeable as she told us that she was unhappy there also. This was Aug. 19. We agreed that she would leave at the end of the month (Aug. 31) and we would give her back last months rent ($450) and she wrote a letter stating these particulars. We gave her the $450 right then and there, of course with paperwork to account for this.
So Aug. 31 comes, and she does not leave…..my husband asks her when she plans on leaving, and she tells us Sept. 6 because the place she has is not quite ready. Sept. 6 rolls around, she has not left yet. So my husband files an L3 (he did this on the 4th) because our other tenants had heard that she was not leaving, and we wanted to get the process started because we knew there would be extra time given for her to move out.
So the LTB issues an order to her stating that she has to be out on or before Sept. 15/09. A cost to us of $170 to file this application. Tenant does not move out Sept. 15. My husband goes to the sheriff’s office to enforce the eviction first thing on Sept. 16. Well what a surprise, the tenant has received a stay at the eleventh hour. We cannot enforce the eviction, we don’t even know why. Oh, so that is why the tenant had a huge party the night of Sept. 15!!!
We call the LTB to find out what the hell is going on, and they tell us they cannot tell us anything regarding the case, we have to wait for the information to come in the mail!!!
When we get the letter in the mail, we find out that this tenant has received legal aid, and they requested a hearing because the tenant said she was coerced in to leaving the unit. Now this is a common tactic that is used by legal aid, I have discovered this after talking to other landlords. The hearing is set for Oct. 7. How convenient for the tenant who is not paying any rent now, yet is using all the utilities on our dime.
We applied for an emergency hearing because at this point, the situation is dire. The tenant downstairs is temporarily staying with a friend, because she wont go back into the unit until the unruly tenant is gone. The tenant’s boyfriend has threatened to burn down the house, the tenant’s friend has punctured my husband’s truck tire, while it was parked in the driveway. And yes we do have police incident reports for these occurrences.
So we were granted an emergency hearing for Sept. 23 (after filling out a bunch of forms for the LTB outlining WHY we needed an emergency hearing).
On Friday afternoon Sept. 18, we received a phone call from the tenant’s lawyer (legal aid) asking to
negotiate a settlement between us and the tenant. We came to an agreement that he would put it together (this included giving the tenant another $500). As it was the end of the day on Friday, the lawyer said he would draw up an agreement on Monday, and would fax it to us for review.
We received the fax on Monday the 21st. On Tuesday the 22nd in the early afternoon we proposed some changes to the lawyer in the paperwork. Lawyer said he would make the changes. We agreed that the tenant should come in first in case she did not want to sign the agreement with the changes. Lawyer called back and said he was unable to reach his client. Lawyer said that he had last talked to the tenant on Sept 21st. The tenant has a cell phone and we were very concerned that she intentionally did not answer her phone. Lawyer’s words were “it is a bad sign that she does not answer her phone”.
Just before the end of business day my husband called the lawyer again and asked if he had found out what was happening with the tenant and he said that he still had not reached her. Frustrated my husband asked again if he had an idea what was up with her because we needed to get this matter solved. He said he did not know. My husband asked him what would happen now, because we did not have an agreement before the hearing. He said that if they got an adjournment it did not preclude us from an agreement such that the tenant would still be out on October 1st. My husband asked lawyer what the process would be at the hearing the next day on the 23rd and he told us that his colleagues would argue for an adjournment and that we would be arguing for the hearing to be held without the tenant present. Until he told my husband that he did not even understand that the hearing could be held without tenant being present, so my husband repeated for clarity that his colleagues would be arguing for an adjournment and we would be arguing to have the hearing held right there and then. Lawyer said that my husband was correct.
It was our impression that if lawyer’s colleagues could not get the hearing adjourned, they would fight the case without tenant there.
As we knew how important it was for both my husband and I to present arguments at the hearing, we called my in-laws on the night of the 22nd so that they could drive down in the wee hours of morning on Sept. 23 from Washago to look after our interests, because again we did not know how long we would be at the hearing. IF WE THOUGHT ONLY AN ADJOURNMENT WAS GOING TO TAKE PLACE ONLY ONE OF US WOULD HAVE ATTENDED.
Also on the night of the 22nd we called our good tenants and left a message that there would be a hearing the next day to ask if they could attend. We did not get to speak with them that night.
On the morning of the 23rd we went to our tenant upstairs and asked if she could attend the hearing to present her safety concerns. She said that she could not attend because of an appointment but would write a letter stating her concerns. We then went to Staples business depot to make copies of her letter for the hearing. We then drove to the hearing.
When no one from duty council showed up- we did not know what was going on with their side- we only knew that we were there prepared to fight the case. They were the applicants in getting the eviction order stayed. We knew we had to get the stay lifted so we could enforce the eviction. So we patiently waited at the hearing until it was our turn. Because the other party did not show up, we won the matter on default.
By the way, as we waited our turn, we listened to some of the other cases before us. We were shocked to hear the amounts of money owed to the landlords, one poor landlady had not received any rent payments since April, and the adjudicator did not bat an eye at all at the arrears. I do not know why it is ok for people to steal from landlords, yet if you go to a candy store and steal a chocolate bar; you’ll have criminal charges laid against you.
So this hearing was on the Wed., by the time my husband was able to get the original order with the stay lifted (a fax is not allowed for a landlord yet a fax at the eleventh hour is allowed for the tenant), it was Friday, so my husband yet again went to the sheriff’s office to get the eviction enforced. The notice was posted that Friday Sept. 25th so the tenant still had 7 days until Oct. 2 to leave.
So here we are thinking that it is finally the end of the line for this trouble-maker tenant. Then at the end of the day, we get another phone call from the LTB saying the eviction has been stayed again. I’m not kidding when I say we almost had heart attacks. We had to stop everything we were doing, get home so the hearing co-coordinator could fax us more paperwork letting us know that another hearing had been scheduled for Oct. 7.
In the request for a stay, legal aid says “if the order is not stayed, the tenant will be evicted under an order obtained through an abuse of process and a denial of natural justice.” This is preposterous!!! What is an abuse of process and power is taking a case that is closed, and then re-opening it without even speaking to the party that followed all the rules along the process.
So we applied AGAIN for another emergency hearing, stating how serious the matter is, the tenant downstairs (who has a room) will not even go into the unit if the unruly is there – she is staying with a friend till tenant is out of the unit. The tenant upstairs will move out if tenant is not gone soon. She has a vegetable garden in the backyard. She is afraid to go into the backyard because of the unruly tenant’s friends. Our good tenants have been very patient waiting for this whole mess to be finished and they believe the tenant is leaving Oct. 2.
So we are granted another emergency hearing for Tues. Sept. 29. My husband goes to the hearing, and it really is a special hearing because the only people there are a security guard, the vice-chair, my husband, and the lawyer. The tenant DID NOT SHOW YET AGAIN. So a full blown hearing ensued, the vice-chair did believe the lawyer that there was an agreement in principle….my husband believes the vice-chair did this on purpose to cover up for legal aids mistake for not showing up to the first hearing. By the way, the taxpayers are paying for this special hearing……
I looked up Jonelle van Delft’s (vice-chair) qualifications on the LTB’s website. I see she practiced clinic law under the Ontario Legal Aid plan. This is very interesting to me because it explains the bias that my husband felt during the hearing.
Are there any adjudicators within the Ontario LTB that have been landlords? I think this is a legitimate question, because there is such a blatant disregard for landlords trying to exercise their capitalistic right to earn a living.
It was then determined that my husband won the hearing because the vice-chair found that no coercion took place, that the tenant did in fact agree to move out on her own volition. So the stay has been lifted again. Now what showed such bias was the remark at the end by the vice-chair when she said to the lawyer “I wish your client the best of luck in her new place”. How about the poor sucker future landlord that has to house this reckless tenant. How about sorry to my husband for the abuse of process that took place. How about stop absolving all tenants of any responsibility. How about stop treating tenants like babies. How about stop believing all the delaying tactics and lies. How about stop having taxpayers pay for useless hearings, when the tenant can’t even bother to show up for them. How about making tenants accountable for damaging property. How about when you hear tenants at hearings telling ridiculous stories, you call them out on it. I could carry on, but I think you get the idea.
Another thing I want to comment on about evictions. The LTB is so concerned about the poor tenant ending up on the street. Well, think about this, what are the options for a tenant who needs to move? The first is family and friends. Other options are emergency shelter and hostels. Now if family and friends do not want the tenant then what makes you think we can stand to house them on our dime????
So the tenant moved out, but even that was not simple…..the place was filthy…for example she had left in the bathroom cupboard bloodied sanitary pads wrapped in toilet paper….the fridge had all kinds of food left in there including moldy food….there was a hole in the wall….and to top it off she stole a roll-top desk and a dresser.
Bu the LTB does not care that we are out hundreds of dollars, suffered severe emotional stress, almost had our good tenants move out on us, had to run around photocopying, getting documents in order etc. ready for a hearing that legal aid inadvertently missed signing in for…..
Here are a few of the many problems with the RTA. I took excerpts from an open letter to the housing minister Jim Watson from a w
