Sudbury landlords frustrated with delays at Landlord and Tenant Board

Landlords and property managers in northern Ontario are getting fed up with delays at the tribunal that is responsible for resolving rental disputes.

The Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) is currently facing a shortage of adjudicators to hear cases and issue decisions in disputes between landlords and tenants.

There are usually two adjudicators for northern Ontario but both positions are currently vacant, according to the Social Justice Tribunals Ontario (SJTO), the umbrella group for the board.

SJTO says the board is also below capacity across the province, with only 33 of 45 full-time positions filled.

Sherry Jordan, the vice president of the Greater Sudbury Landlord Association, says the delays are good news for bad tenants who aren't paying rent.

"They can take advantage of the length of time it takes to actually be heard at the Landlord and Tenant Board," she said. "And in the meantime, they do not have to pay rent."

Decisions delayed 'two or three months'

In Ontario, a landlord cannot simply kick a tenant out of a rental unit they must file a notice with the LTB, schedule a hearing and wait for a decision or order from an adjudicator.

A tenant is entitled to live in the unit until the landlord receives the paperwork to hire a sheriff, who then legally carries out the eviction.

Chantal Mitchell, the owner of Rock Solid Property Management in Sudbury, has been dealing with the LTB for six years. She says it used to take a matter of weeks to get a hearing and a decision.

"In the last year, now we're getting decisions closer to two or three months, if not longer," she said.

Mitchell says she has one case involving a tenant who failed to pay rent that hasn't been resolved since January.

She says it took five months to receive the adjudicator's decision and when the paperwork came in the mail, it was missing a key piece of information.

"We were nice enough to ask the adjudicator, 'Can you just put him on a promise to pay?' But this is where she failed to put section 78, which allows us to hire the sheriff if he defaults," Mitchell explained.

She says the tenant did default in July, but she only recently received the amended order and is still waiting to get confirmation that the sheriff has been hired.

Mitchell wonders how much longer the wait will be with the adjudicator shortage, and suspects some landlords will be driven from the business.

"I just think that a lot of the landlords are going to be faced with out of pocket expenses themselves, instead of the building carrying it itself," Mitchell said.

"I have seen it in my years of doing property management where landlords are forced to sell their building, or even give it back to the bank, because they just can't afford it anymore."

Jordan says another side effect of the delays is that landlords are tightening their screening.

"It's in our best interest to avoid the Landlord Tenant Board altogether," she said.

"And so therefor, with tightening the screening, your lower income, struggling tenants are going to find it harder to rent, because we can't take the risk anymore with the cost of the Landlord Tenant Board and the delays in time to be heard."

Landlords call for changes to 'broken' system

SJTO saysit's working to fill vacancies, and job postings for full- and part-time adjudicators have gone up online.

The organization is also recommending re-appointments, however there is a cap that prevents an adjudicator from holding an appointment for more than 10 years.

In the meantime, adjudicators from other parts of the province are filling the gap in the north, and are travelling or using the phone to conduct hearings.

Both Jordan and Mitchell hope the LTB will fill the vacancies as quickly as possible, but they say the shortage is just the tip of the iceberg in a system that puts the landlord at a disadvantage.

Jordan says landlord associations across the province are now lobbying the government for changes to Ontario's Residential Tenancies Act.

"Unfortunately those changes are not in effect today, so they're sort of stuck with what they have, which is a broken system that's expensive and costly and time consuming. And it will have to stay that way until our voice is heard."