These changes are long overdue and despite the description as a "gift" to corporate landlords they will be hugely helpful to 'mom and pop' landlords and to fix the very broken Landlord Tenant Board.
The proposed law shortens the rent arrears eviction notice period from 14 days to 7 days and limits tenants’ legal defenses against eviction in these cases.
If they're not paying rent, why does a tenant need 14 days for an eviction notice? In AB, we can give notice the day after rent is due, although they still have 14 days to pay after that.
LTB adjudicators will no longer be permitted to allow tenants to raise disrepair issues at eviction hearings unless tenants have notified the LTB in advance and only if they have paid off 50 per cent of the rent monies the landlord claims they owe before the day of the hearing.
Good. Because raising "repair issues" AFTER notice for non payment of rent has just been used as a delaying tactic in ON. If they have been raised BEFORE the notice they are likely legit complaints. And paying 50% of rent owing shows they are trying to catch up. Its fair.
Another one of the new measures proposes to explicitly define the circumstances under which landlords can evict tenants for persistent late rent payments.
The article doesnt state what those circumstances are but it definitely needs clarification. Being late once or twice on rent is generally not cause for eviction, but if its constant it definitely presents a problem.
Beyond countering tenant organizing, the legislation’s most drastic proposal was to open the door to eliminating security of tenure altogether. In Ontario, tenancy agreements automatically renew at the end of their term — landlords can’t increase unit turnover rates by signing tenants to expiring leases.
That one is a bit more controversial. In AB, a fixed term lease just ends on the last day of the lease, there is no tenure. If both sides are happy with the last lease, they usually make an arrangement a month or two ahead of the end date and just sign a new lease. If either party is unhappy, the lease expires and its done, no eviction needed its just over. Tenure works fine when everything is going well, but it also locks in the lease rate to whatever the gov allows.
These changes do seem to be more in favor of landlords but that's not a bad thing when the ON Landlord Tenant Board is extremely broken - tenants in ON have dragged out evictions for months and months knowing that there are several ways to game the system and ultimately no one wants to build more rental housing if they cant at least get rents paid so it ultimately hurts tenants by decreasing supply.