Landlords, tenants facing lengthy delays, barriers to access at Landlord Tenant Board

Advocates for landlords and tenants in Thunder Bay, Ont., say lengthy delays at the Landlord Tenant Board and procedural changes due to COVID-19 are causing additional headaches for both parties in what is already sometimes a challenging relationship.

The moratorium on residential evictions, instituted by the Ontario government in March, came to an end on Aug. 1. And the Landlord Tenant Board began regular hearings again after putting all but the most serious cases on hold for more than four months.

But some landlords are still waiting for hearings on applications for eviction orders that they had filed before the pandemic had even begun, said Rose Marie, a southern Ontario-based landlord advocate who owns propertyin Thunder Bay.

"Thunder Bay has a very large drug problem," she said, "so many of the landlords are suffering with tenants who are selling drugs on their properties, damaging them, having peopleextra people moving to the houses that were not on the lease."

Other problemshave worsened due to the delay in evictions, she said.

"For example, there's a lot of garbage, and the bylaw department is now being called, and they're saying, 'Well, we will find the landlord,'" she said. "We have one landlord where her electricity has been cut off. The water has been cut off, and she's worried about what will her house be like for the winter."

The founder of the Thunder Bay Landlords Facebook group said some tenants simply stopped paying rent when the moratorium on evictions was announced, and landlordswere powerless to do anything about it.

"The way I understood it is the provincial government basically told everybody at the beginning, like, if you can't pay your rent, don't pay your rent. Get food instead," said Stephen Vares, referencing comments by PremierDoug Ford during a Marchnews conference. "And that was concerning because at no point was there any relief put forward to most landlords, right?"

But landlords aren't the only ones disadvantaged by the backlog at the Landlord Tenant Board, said Sally Colquhoun, the coordinator of legal services at the Kinna-aweya Legal Clinic.

Tenants are still waiting for hearings on requests for maintenance and repairs or concerns about harassment, Colquhoun said. When they do get hearings, they sometimes feel like they're being rushed through the process and not given a chance to properly explain their situation.

The push to expedite hearings to address the backlog has led to some "serious organizational issues," she added.

"We've heard stories of people, of parties and representatives, not getting hearing notices. And there are lots of technical problems," she said. "They're doing those hearings now on Microsoft Teams. And there are lots of situations where people can't get into the hearings. They're phoning or trying to connect on the internetand they actually can't connect. For our clients who are all low income people, there's a really significant issue with lack of technology."

The clinic has allowed clients who lack access to phones or computersto connect to their hearings from the Kinna-aweya office, Colquhoun said. But she's concerned about the safety of their clients and staffas a result.

"We've got Plexiglass barriers and air purifiers and things," she said. "But really, you know, the tribunal is saying they're not doing in-person hearings because it's not safe. But we're having to have to do hearings."

Both Coulquhoun and Marie say they are optimistic things will start to improve in the near future.

In a statement to CBC News, the Landlord Tenant Board said it is gradually resuming and strengthening its ability to provide services. The board said it is currently scheduling applications that had hearings cancelled due to the COVID-19 stoppage. It also has its largest number of adjudicators, with 38 full-time and 36 part-time.

The board also said it encourages landlords and tenants to work together to resolve their disputes.