Marco, 33, lost his marital home in a divorce settlement in January. He still has one income property — a two-suite home in Collingwood, Ont. — but he says his upstairs tenant hasn’t paid since June; the downstairs hasn’t since February. “I cover all my housing costs, mortgage and property taxes, and I can’t afford to rent in the dire financial situation I’m in,” she said. “I’m drowning in debt.” CBC News is not releasing Marco’s last name because he works as a commission-based mortgage loan specialist and fears it will affect his employment. She has filed complaints about both tenants with the Ontario Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB). But due to the backlog that formed during the pandemic, an adjudication process that was once supposed to take no more than one to three months has grown to about eight. Annual delays in fully resolving disputes are becoming more common.
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“I’m at the lowest point of my life,” Marco said. “I don’t understand how something like this can happen.”
The problem appears to be widespread, with tenants across the country refusing to pay rent, refusing to vacate a property, or both. In BC, the normal waiting period for a dispute to be heard has increased from about one month to over four. Nova Scotia is also reporting delays.
Due to the backlog that formed during the pandemic, a process that was once supposed to take no more than one to three months at the Ontario Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) has grown to about eight. (Kimberly Ivany/CBC)
In Ontario, as in many provinces, tenants can legally stay in their rental units, even without paying rent, until the dispute is heard and an eviction order is issued.
That, combined with the backlog, has created a climate that often favors renters, says Asquith Allen, director of policy and regulatory affairs at the Federation of Residential Rental Providers of Ontario (FRPO).
“More and more people are realizing that the [Landlord and Tenant] The board is slow to get to cases,” he said. “Tenants are just not paying rent, waiting until the outcome of this application … It’s disappointing.”
The emotional toll on property owners can be “devastating,” he said.
Marco says that after he and his wife bought the property in September 2021, his basement tenant didn’t pay the rent in full, asking instead to make partial payments.
Marco says tenants were already living in the property when he and his wife bought it in September 2021. (Google Maps)
Later that month, a city water main broke and flooded the basement. Marco says he offered to reduce the next rent payment of $1,700 by $1,000, but he says the tenant continued to pay even less for several months and, in February, stopped paying rent at all.
The upstairs tenant stopped paying the $1,900 rent in June, he says.
Marco estimates he owes more than $31,000.
“It boggles my mind that people can get away with this,” he said. “If I stole that much money from a store, I’d be charged.”
Tenants were already living there when Marco and his wife bought the house. He says they have been asking the selling agent for the tenancy statements for the past six months, but they “got it” and were under pressure to close the deal.
“We should have figured it out,” he said. “I didn’t do enough due diligence.”
The tenant who was renting this house in Abbotsford, BC, refused to pay rent for almost two years and then destroyed the house when an eviction notice was ordered. (Submitted by Morgen Yuan)
He hired a lawyer to try to expedite his cases with the LTB, but so far he has heard nothing. He has only received an automated response that his complaint has been registered and is still awaiting hearing dates.
“Once you are in a place where you find, you have to submit an application to [Landlord and Tenant] Board, you’re pretty much at their mercy,” Allen said.
A spokesman says the LTB is considering adding more hearings to deal with the backlog, but that there are “a lot of considerations”.
Ontario Attorney General Doug Downey, who oversees the LTB, declined an interview request. In a statement, a spokesman said the government was making “significant progress in appointing additional judges” to the LTB, but would not elaborate.
Elsewhere in Abbotsford, BC, a tenant refused to pay rent for most of 2021 and the first half of 2022. When the eviction was finally ordered, he demolished the interior of the house, cutting through ceiling joists, tearing up drywall and throwing around the insulation.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said broker Morgen Yuan, who told the owner of the offshore residence he would check in on the property.
WATCHES | Homeowner sleeps in basement, says evicted tenants won’t leave:
Ontario family living in basement due to landlord-tenant court delays | Go to Public
An Ontario family is forced to live in their basement because a long waiting list for provincial court means they haven’t been able to evict delinquent tenants. Yuan says the police told him no charges would be laid because rental issues do not fall under police jurisdiction. In Brampton, Ont., Hassan Khan, his wife and their 1-year-old child sleep on a single mattress in the basement of their home because a couple who rents the main floor with their grown son refuses to leave. The Khans rented the space while in India for six months. The last time tenants made a full rent payment of $2,400 was in December. Then they made a few payments and in May they stopped altogether. The Khans are stuck paying housing costs, so they can’t afford another place for themselves. They also can’t afford to do many things, he says. The family spent most of the summer in the backyard and drove to Toronto’s Pearson Airport a few times to sit and watch the planes take off and land. “We do things where we don’t have to spend money,” Hahn said. “I feel bad for the kids and how my wife feels.” Once a landlord files a complaint with the LTB, “you’re pretty much at their mercy,” says Asquith Allen, of the Rental Housing Providers Federation of Ontario. (Kimberly Ivany/CBC) It has been six months since he complained to the LTB, which rejected a request to expedite his case, saying Khan had failed to prove he was experiencing “significant financial hardship”. “[The tenants] laugh when I threaten to go for eviction,” he said. “They seem to be very aware of the loopholes.” Go Public asked the tenants – a couple who appeared to be in their 40s – why they had stopped paying rent. “We have some problems,” said the husband. He claimed that he had recently lost $90,000 in a business investment and then alleged that he only had sporadic work. The man swore to pay. But in September and October, according to Khan, they paid only a quarter of their rent. Ontario Ombudsman an investigation was launched into LTB delays in January after receiving 110 complaints from property owners, tenants, advocacy groups, MPPs and other stakeholders. Since then, it has received another 1,700 complaints. A spokesperson told Go Public that the investigation is in its “final stages” but no date has been set for the report to be made public. Meanwhile, Marco says that living out of his car is bad. “It’s extremely difficult,” he said. “My mental health is deteriorating.” He hopes to one day recover what he is owed, evict the tenants and move into this house himself. He also vows never to rent to tenants again.
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