What can a tenant do if the apartment they're renting turns out to be a disaster and their landlord fails to provide essential services, timely maintenance or abide by the rules set out by the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB)?
Not much, it turns out.
With wait times for LTB hearings increasing, tenants are left waiting and are forced to put their faith in a system that Newmarket paralegal Simon M. Brown calls "broken."
Renters across Ontario and within Newmarket have been waiting — sometimes for more than a year — for a hearing date and are often forced to remain in the unit and in contact with the very landlord they are complaining about.
According to Tribunals Ontario, 254 applications were filed with the LTB from Jan. 1 to Oct. 31, 2021 for rental addresses in Newmarket.
A Newmarket woman, who requested anonymity for fear of repercussions from her landlord, had been renting an apartment on Main Street while waiting for a new home to be built.
When she and her six-year-old daughter moved in, the apartment "was in a filthy disgusting condition," she sad. "Everything was broken, everything was damaged."
She had seen the unit in advance but was told by the real estate agent that it was under renovation and would be "fixed and tidied up" prior to move in.
It wasn't. It looked exactly as it did the day she saw it.
There was no grout between the tiles in the bathroom, dirty appliances, windows without screens, and the air conditioning didn't function.
Along with the obvious safety hazards, the property manager began entering the unit without prior, written notice, as required by law.
"What if I was naked? What if I was with somebody?" she said.
She repeatedly asked the property manager to make the necessary repairs but there was always an excuse.
As summer turned to fall, she realized the unit had no heat. She used her oven to heat the apartment and became increasingly concerned for her daughter's health when she missed two weeks of school after becoming ill.
She filed a complaint with the LTB and with the Town of Newmarket. According to her, the bylaw officer who came to the property told her there had been prior complaints about it.
Shortly after the bylaw officer's visit, the heat was finally turned on.
John Comeau, acting manager of regulatory services for the Town of Newmarket, said in an email the town had received two separate complaints about the landlord, resulting in two separate investigations about "the property in question." In both instances, he said, the landlord complied and the files were closed.
The renter said she couldn't believe the property manager was permitted to oversee numerous units after multiple complaints had been lodged against him, but according to Comeau, "complaints about different issues result in new enforcement files and new orders."
In other words, if the essential service or violation is different each time, as long as the landlord complies, there are no real consequences for being a repeat offender.
"Should an officer be dealing with a property owner who is frequently found in violation of town bylaws, our officer will review that information as it will help provide them context to the active investigation. The town prefers education and voluntary compliance over enforcement action, however, in situations where repeated violations are found, our approach may lean more toward stronger enforcement action," Comeau said.
The property manager then filed an eviction notice against the woman, who had decided to stop paying rent when she had no heat.
She hasn't received confirmation of a LTB hearing date but expects to be waiting long after moving out.
Meanwhile, Brown, who filed on behalf of a tenant in September 2020, finally got a hearing date with the LTB for the beginning of November 2021, but when the board wasn't able to get to the case, the hearing was adjourned and a new date hasn't been set.
"My guess is for five to six months from now," Brown said, which means his client will have been waiting for almost two years.
One might assume that the LTB's issues are just another casualty of the pandemic but that would be wrong.
In fact, Brown said, the problems with the system go as far back as 2018 and were impacting renters and landlords long before the pandemic.
"The pandemic's effect on the board's delays is a pinch in the IV of a person on life support," he said.
The situation became so dire that in 2020, Paul Dubé, the Ontario Ombudsman, released a statement saying he would be investigating the LTB based on a "surge" of complaints about long waits for hearings that have increased "as its case backlogs have worsened."
“What we’re seeing in some of these complaints is that delays have a very real human impact. For example, when a landlord whose family relies on the rental income of a property has to go without that money for months before the LTB even schedules a hearing. Or when a tenant who has asked for repairs or is threatened with eviction has to live in limbo, waiting for the board’s decision.”
The LTB's own annual report states it "has not consistently met its own service standards since 2017," the statement said.
In an email, Janet Deline, spokesperson for Tribunals Ontario, acknowledged "the serious impact" hearing delays have had on everyone.
Throughout the pandemic, the LTB endeavoured to "provide timely and efficient dispute resolution services to the people of Ontario," the email said, without acknowledging the issue has been ongoing since long before that.
In 2021 Ontario Tribunals moved LTB hearings online in an effort to clear the backlog but the new system has been met with frustration and anger for many users with some advocacy groups saying it causes a barrier for marginalized individuals who lack access to technological devices.
So what can tenants do in the meantime?
Moving out, Brown said, doesn't permit a tenant to stop paying rent.
"Unfortunately, even if the place you're living in as a tenant is a hole in the ground, the landlord is due his rent," said Brown.
Unless and until the system can be repaired, tenants (and landlords) are left waiting.
The Main Street renter said she doesn't know much about the person she calls "the slum lord" except that "he's a horrible, horrible person."
She is extremely confident she will win her case against him; it's just a matter of getting a hearing date.
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