Ontario’s New Scheduling Rules Designed to Speed Up Evictions

by | Nov 7, 2011 | Eviction Strategies

Landlords Required to Submit New Form

The Ontario Landlord Tenant Board has taken steps it says will improve access to justice for both landlords and tenants.
 
The Board has implemented a new scheduling protocol.  Effective immediately, the Board will begin scheduling L1 and L9 applications (Applications to Evict for Non-Payment of Rent, and To Collect Unpaid Rent) on specific days in each regional office.

Grouping L1 and L9 applications on designated days will ultimately lead to a reduced time to hearing for all applications according to the Board, because members will be able to schedule and hear applications more efficiently. The Board expects the new scheduling protocols will reduce the number of adjournments and delays and will result in more focussed and effective hearings.

These scheduling protocol changes were recently tested in one of the district offices, where the L1 and L9 applications were scheduled into dedicated hearing blocks. A duty member dealt with the uncontested matters in a separate hearing room, allowing the hearing member to focus on the contested L1 and L9 applications.

Landlords were required to provide written updated information about their application and submit this to the duty member.

The test showed that processing L1 and L9 applications in this way gave adjudicators more time to hear contested cases, and allowed the Board to process more applications overall.

This process of streaming uncontested L1 and L9 applications along with consent matters into a different hearing room, and using the landlord update form, will be implemented in all regional offices on the designated L1/L9 hearing days.

The Board recognizes that there may be circumstances where, because of scheduling conflicts, there may be requests to schedule L1/L9 applications on non-designated hearing days. The Board will set aside a limited number of hearing times for L1/L9 applications on other days. Selecting one of these times, however, may result in a longer wait for a hearing.

The Board will continue to adjust its scheduling practices to achieve more effective, efficient adjudication, and may designate days for other types of applications. It will be consulting with stakeholders as it moves forward with these initiatives.

The Board has created a new form–The L1/L9–Information Update As of Hearing Date, that must be completed by landlords and submitted at the hearing.  The form is essentially an accounting which provides an up-to-date itemization of unpaid rent and other costs which the landlord is seeking against the tenant.  Beginning January 1, 2012, the landlord update form will be mandatory, and failure to complete and submit the information could result in a delay in the scheduled hearing.

This post is provided by Tenant Verification Service, Inc., helping landlords reduce the risks of renting with fraud prevention tools that include Tenant Screening, Tenant Background Checks, (U.S. and Canada), as well as Criminal Background Checks, and Eviction Reports (U.S. only).

Click Here to Receive Landlord Credit Reports.

Disclaimer: The information provided in this post in not intended to be construed as legal advice, nor should it be considered a substitute for obtaining individual legal counsel or consulting your local, state, federal or provincial tenancy laws.

shiftsuite
Property management software for Canadian Condos.

Property Boss

Property management software for single family, multifamily, and student housing.

TVS

Screening services for property managers and landlords. Select a market below.

USA

Canada