Latest news with #LandlordandTenantBoard
Global News
12 hours ago
- Global News
Toronto tenant fears homelessness amid alleged ‘bad faith' eviction
A Toronto man who has lived in the same High Park apartment for decades says he now fears for his livelihood after being denied permission to appeal his eviction to Ontario's top court. Andras Henye, who is disabled, partially blind and dealing with declining health, has lived in the same apartment for nearly 50 years. He had asked the Ontario Court of Appeal to hear his case, arguing that he was evicted in bad faith by his landlord, Minto Apartment REIT. According to court documents, Henye's eviction is due to non-compliance with smoking rules in the building, despite having a grandfathered right to smoke. He says he fully complied with previous court orders requiring him to stop, but is still being evicted. Now in his late 50s and with ongoing health issues, Hanye told Global News he fears he won't be able to find another place after his court proceedings were posted online by an unknown third party without his consent. 'I'll be evicted, and I'll be homeless. And that's what worries me the most,' he said. Story continues below advertisement Henye has lived in the apartment since childhood; his parents died in the same unit. 'My home is my life. Losing it would mean losing everything, possibly my life.' Henye says he's up to date on rent and had stopped smoking in the unit before his landlord, Minto Apartment REIT, moved to evict him. In a decision released this week, the Court of Appeal dismissed Henye's motion for leave to appeal and denied his request to stop the eviction. Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy 'While I am cognizant of attachment to the unit and his health challenges, I see no meritorious ground of appeal such that an order should be granted,' wrote Justice Julie Thorburn. The eviction order remains in effect and may be enforced at any time. Legal team raises concerns Henye's lawyer, Dr. Michael Motala, said the case raises concerns about how the Landlord and Tenant Board handles vulnerable tenants, especially those representing themselves. Story continues below advertisement 'At the Landlord and Tenant Board, Mr. Henye was not given an opportunity to speak whatsoever until I think approximately an hour into the hearing,' Motala said. Motala said that Henye asked to raise preliminary issues and seek an adjournment briefly to get a lawyer, but 'none of these things happened in this matter.' Motala also told Global News that Henye fully complied with all court orders and stopped smoking in his unit long ago. 'There's a lot of stigma associated with smoking. Despite the fact that there's a contractual right, he has in good faith obeyed any court order, including the one he referenced, and has completely ceased the activity,' Motala added. 'Housing is a human right' Other tenants say Henye's case is not unique and reflects a larger pattern of corporate landlords displacing long-time residents. Story continues below advertisement Melinda McInnes, a longtime High Park resident and community advocate, said she's seen it firsthand. 'I have seen countless REITovictions in my time,' McInnes said. 'There's fear for housing security.' She adds that this case will set a concerning example for corporate landlords and tenants dealing with similar situations. 'Decisions like these send strong messages to long-term, vulnerable tenants that their rights are irrelevant. Housing is a human right, not a bump in a monthly dividend cheque.' In response to an inquiry from Global News, Minto declined to comment on the specifics but said the case has been ongoing for some time. 'We are not going to be providing any additional details on this matter at the given moment,' said Tamara Costa, senior director with Minto. 'Many parties are involved … it's been going on for many years.' 'I simply want fair treatment and the right to live my life peacefully,' said Henye.
Hamilton Spectator
26-05-2025
- General
- Hamilton Spectator
My apartment had been my affordable refuge during divorce. Then my landlord sent me the email all tenants dread
Real estate is emotional. Why? Because a home is more than walls and a roof, it's a canvas and container for our lives, our families, our communities. As part of an ongoing series, we've asked local writers to share their stories on real estate and housing. Want to write for the Star's Home Truths series? Email hometruths@ . 'I would like to present a proposal for your consideration,' the email from my building manager began. Here we go , I thought. After years of worrying about it, I was being asked to move out of my affordable rental. The email went on to say that a plan to renovate the roof would cause a significant amount of dust and disturbance to me in my top-floor unit. The property manager offered to move me from my one-bedroom apartment in Humewood—Cedarvale into a studio in another building a short distance away in Briar Hill—Belgravia. The rent would be reduced from the market rate — though still above my current rent — and I was offered a $15,000 incentive that I could take either in the form of a lump sum or a monthly rent reduction for one year on top of the reduced rate. While there was nothing in the email that indicated they planned to force me from the unit, it felt like the writing was on the wall. I'd already successfully ignored a similar email from the property manager a couple of years prior. With a second proposal now looming, and my rent well below market rate, I believed I had to play ball. Saying no felt like kicking the problem into a future where maybe there wouldn't be a deal and where I'd have to compete for a home in Toronto's expensive rental market. It wouldn't be until I was installed in my new apartment that I would start feeling a deep sense of loss and sadness. Tenants don't have to move unless they receive an eviction order from the Landlord and Tenant Board, but standing up for tenant rights requires time, health and money. Last August, I didn't have an abundance of any of those things. With very little time to make the decision, what I did have was anxiety. I didn't want to move but weighing the choices wasn't straightforward. If I did, I'd have a renovated unit with new appliances, but I would be paying a lot more for a smaller space. At the time, I was paying $1,049 for my one-bedroom unit, whereas comparable listings were going for about $1,300 more on average. If I went to the open market, that $15,000 incentive would be eaten up in less than a year. In the studio they were offering, I'd give up my bedroom but gain a balcony. I'd never missed having one, but I imagined that a future me might enjoy reading outside. But my old apartment was where I mended my heart after a divorce, where I reimagined who I was and what I could be, where I decided to return to school at age 40, where I completed the work of two degrees, and where I survived a pandemic. Indeed, uprooting my life at someone else's behest was much like my divorce, except back then the act of moving made me feel powerful whereas now I felt powerless. In the end, there were two factors about the new location that tipped the scales toward accepting the landlord's proposal. The new unit overlooked a quiet residential street, which would bring me an unfathomable amount of serenity compared to the screeching buses on Bathurst and racket from the 24-hour gas station I lived above. And importantly, the new building had an elevator. This would mean that my mother, who hadn't been able to climb the stairs to my current unit for years, would once again be able to visit me. So, I took the deal. I thought it would keep me safe. A neighbour in my old building used to joke with me that our rent-controlled walk-up would have to burn down around us before we considered moving. That's because for many years we had an individual landlord who, content with the extra income the building generated, never raised our rent. But great deals on rent come with a catch. Over the 17 years I lived there, the once well-maintained building began to fall into disrepair. That changed when the building was sold to a corporate landlord. Soon, the new landlord began making welcomed safety and cosmetic improvements to the property. As tenants moved out, their apartments were renovated and rents for those units subsequently increased. Eventually, only a handful of us 'OGs' remained. Then, one month from the day the proposal landed in my inbox, I was unpacking in my new home. In late October, I found Statistics Canada's Canadian Housing Survey in my new mailbox. The questionnaire, which collected data until March 31, sought insights from Canadians on housing topics such as affordability, needs, satisfaction, aspirations and discrimination. It also included a section on what it called 'forced moves.' These are defined as situations where 'you were made to feel there was no other option but to move.' This was the validation I needed to start making peace with my decision. Still, months later, my cheeks blaze with shame that I didn't put up more of a fight. I'm still close enough to my old neighbourhood to visit my favourite haunts, but when I do, I remember that I'm just a visitor passing through and a lump balls up in my throat. I'll never know my new neighbourhood or any other one as intimately as the five-kilometre radius around St. Clair West and Bathurst, having walked and rewalked every nook and back alley during pandemic lockdowns when all I could do as a single person was walk and walk and walk. I don't regret my decision — I feel strongly that staying would have simply postponed a similar outcome — but it's been hard to recover from the trauma and exhaustion of packing up in panic-mode. Meanwhile, I've learned that some of my new neighbours describe themselves as 'OGs' in this building, just like I used to at my old place. Soon after I moved into my new unit, I arrived home from work and found a piece of Bristol board posted at the elevator along with some cheerful balloons. Everyone was invited to write a message to a neighbour celebrating her 85 th birthday. The residents in my old building tended to be youngish single people and couples due to the one-bedroom units and the nature of it being a walk-up, which excluded older people. My new home feels more like a community because there is greater diversity in unit sizes and tenant ages. On the other hand, being forced to move from my one-bedroom to a studio feels like sliding backwards in life. I had to make many painful decisions about what came with me, including letting go of the piano I had taken childhood lessons on and a dining set that my father had refinished. But my formerly feral cat, who remains deeply distrustful of most humans, is thriving in a home where she can easily survey her entire domain. I try to take my cues from her, and in doing so I am learning that this can be a creative container to hold who I am now as I transition from university into a new career. Nevertheless, the circumstances here are all too familiar: a rent-controlled building and long-term tenants paying below-market rent. There are similar cases all over town and affordable rentals are disappearing. In November, the city passed a bylaw designed to prevent renovictions — evicting tenants in bad faith under the guise of renovations. Among other things, it will require landlords to pay for a $700 per unit renovation licence and prove that their intended renovation requires the tenant to vacate their home. Enforcement is set to begin on July 31. While the bylaw is well-intentioned, I worry about unintended consequences, should landlords race to beat the incoming regulation. Once enforcement begins on July 31, will landlords simply find new ways to get rent-controlled tenants out? For now, my housing feels secure, but the situation has revealed how vulnerable I am as a single tenant. It's left me wondering how long I can continue to live in a city that doesn't seem to love me back. Leslie Sinclair is a Toronto journalist who reports on culture, social justice and religion. In 2024, she won a National Magazine Award for her work exploring access to information in Canadian prisons. She is still unpacking in her new apartment.
Yahoo
10-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Ontario's Landlord and Tenant Board isn't working for anyone, so how do the parties plan to fix it?
After losing more than $8,000 to a person he describes as "a professional tenant," landlord Nicholas Sikatori wants provincial politicians to fix Ontario's "badly broken" Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB). At the top of his list is allowing landlords to quickly evict tenants in clear cases of non-payment, avoiding what is now often a months-long process he said hurts both tenants and landlords. "It's easy to fix," Sikatori told CBC News. "No rent, no stay. Landlords are leaving units empty because of the risk [of renting to bad tenants] right now." Sikatori endured a six-month ordeal to evict a tenant who stopped paying after the second month, intentionally delaying the legal eviction process, then demanded thousands of dollars in payment to leave. It started last August when Sikatori bought an eight-unit apartment on Ross Street in St. Thomas, Ont., renting out a two-bedroom apartment to a man who receives a monthly stipend from the Ontario Works Program. Their arrangement was that the tenant's $1,200 Ontario Works rent supplement was paid to Sikatori directly, with the tenant agreeing to cover the balance on the $1,800 monthly rent. Sikatori said the man paid first and last month's rent and also paid for September. After that, Sikatori said his tenant didn't make another payment. 'Landlords are leaving units empty because of the risk right now' - Claire Whittnebel, ACORN Sikatori filed an L1 form with the LTB, which is a legal eviction notice used in cases of non-payment. However it took months to play out, in part because the tenant was able to get two stay orders approved by the board, each one delaying the eviction by more than a month. Sikatori said the tenant also failed to show up to some of the LTB online hearings, and those no-shows added to the delay. "The adjudicator would just postpone it, leaving me helpless," said Sikatori. A few months into the troubled tenancy, Sikatori said his tenant asked him for $10,000 to leave in a "cash for keys" deal. "He wasn't going to leave otherwise," said Sikatori. "He was not afraid of being evicted by the sheriff." Sikatori did some digging and said he learned his tenant had used similar tactics against previous landlords. Sikatori said the last landlord gave Sikatori a false positive reference just to get rid of him. Desperate, and now out thousands in rent, Sikatori threatened to post his eviction notices against the man on Openroom, a website that compiles court documents and LTB decisions in a searchable online database. Sikatori said the site has become a standard tool for landlords to screen prospective tenants. The tenant eventually agreed to vacate, so long as Sikatori didn't post his eviction order to Openroom and also agreed to stop chasing him for back rent. "If I had paid him $10,000, that would have been his first and last month's rent for his next apartment," said Sikatori. While tenants often complain the LTB works against them, Sikatori said his months-long ordeal illustrates the LTB isn't serving landlords well either, because it can tie up rental suites for months. A tenant from the Webster Street apartments in London holds a sign advocating for city officials to strengthen their renoviction bylaw by requiring landlords to relocate and provide rent top-ups to displaced tenants. (Isha Bhargava/CBC) Sikatori's situation illustrates what was clearly spelled out in a scathing 2023 Ombudsman's report which found widespread problems at the LTB, illustrating it isn't working well for landlords or tenants. A report released last year by Tribunals Ontario found the LTB had a backlog of 53,000 unresolved cases. Tenants also say fixes needed Claire Whittnebel of the London chapter of the tenants rights group ACORN agrees the LTB "isn't working for anyone." However, she said any fixes coming from the next government at Queen's Park should first be directed to helping tenants, saying the system is weighted in favour of landlords. 'In our experience, landlords have more access to lawyers - Claire Whittnebel She'd like to see a return to in-person hearings, which are now only done by video chat, and a triage process for tenant applications to speed up the hearing process. "In our experience, landlords have more resources to access lawyers," she said. "The system needs to be improved, but our focus is on tenant situations." What the parties are saying Ontario PC's told CBC News in November they're spending an additional $6.5 million for 40 new LTB adjudicators along with five new staff members. Also last fall, the province announced it would introduce the Cutting Red Tape, Building Ontario Act to speed up operations at the LTB, by allowing staff to overlook small mistakes in applications and give executives the power to reassign cases to a new adjudicator if the original one fails to complete a hearing. A spokesperson for the Ministry of the Attorney General said the province has made recent investments in the LTB — including spending an additional $6.5 million in 2023-24 for 40 new adjudicators and five new staff. ACORN was critical of those changes, saying they included measures that would allow consumer reporting agencies more access to information about tenants who'd fallen behind on their rent. In a statement to CBC News, the Ontario Liberals agreed the LTB "needs an overhaul." They're offering phased-in rent control, and also say they'd hire more adjudicators to get disputes resolved "in two months." They're also proposing an emergency reserve fund to help vulnerable renters avoid eviction if they fall behind in rent due to an emergency. The Liberals also want a return to in-person hearings and more face-to-face supports, including counter service, for tenants who need help with the process. In a statement issued Thursday, the NDP said fixing the LTB will be part of a wider package of supports for renters, one that includes "real rent control" so that rents don't jump so sharply when units become vacant. The NDP is also promising to crack down on renovictions and limit short-term rentals to the property owner's primary residence.
CBC
10-02-2025
- Business
- CBC
Ontario's Landlord and Tenant Board isn't working for anyone, so how do the parties plan to fix it?
After losing more than $8,000 to a person he describes as "a professional tenant," landlord Nicholas Sikatori wants provincial politicians to fix Ontario's "badly broken" Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB). At the top of his list is allowing landlords to quickly evict tenants in clear cases of non-payment, avoiding what is now often a months-long process he said hurts both tenants and landlords. "It's easy to fix," Sikatori told CBC News. "No rent, no stay. Landlords are leaving units empty because of the risk [of renting to bad tenants] right now." Sikatori endured a six-month ordeal to evict a tenant who stopped paying after the second month, intentionally delaying the legal eviction process, then demanded thousands of dollars in payment to leave. It started last August when Sikatori bought an eight-unit apartment on Ross Street in St. Thomas, Ont., renting out a two-bedroom apartment to a man who receives a monthly stipend from the Ontario Works Program. Their arrangement was that the tenant's $1,200 Ontario Works rent supplement was paid to Sikatori directly, with the tenant agreeing to cover the balance on the $1,800 monthly rent. Sikatori said the man paid first and last month's rent and also paid for September. After that, Sikatori said his tenant didn't make another payment. Sikatori filed an L1 form with the LTB, which is a legal eviction notice used in cases of non-payment. However it took months to play out, in part because the tenant was able to get two stay orders approved by the board, each one delaying the eviction by more than a month. Sikatori said the tenant also failed to show up to some of the LTB online hearings, and those no-shows added to the delay. "The adjudicator would just postpone it, leaving me helpless," said Sikatori. A few months into the troubled tenancy, Sikatori said his tenant asked him for $10,000 to leave in a "cash for keys" deal. "He wasn't going to leave otherwise," said Sikatori. "He was not afraid of being evicted by the sheriff." Sikatori did some digging and said he learned his tenant had used similar tactics against previous landlords. Sikatori said the last landlord gave Sikatori a false positive reference just to get rid of him. Openroom, a website that compiles court documents and LTB decisions in a searchable online database. Sikatori said the site has become a standard tool for landlords to screen prospective tenants. The tenant eventually agreed to vacate, so long as Sikatori didn't post his eviction order to Openroom and also agreed to stop chasing him for back rent. "If I had paid him $10,000, that would have been his first and last month's rent for his next apartment," said Sikatori. While tenants often complain the LTB works against them, Sikatori said his months-long ordeal illustrates the LTB isn't serving landlords well either, because it can tie up rental suites for months. Sikatori's situation illustrates what was clearly spelled out in a scathing 2023 Ombudsman's report which found widespread problems at the LTB, illustrating it isn't working well for landlords or tenants. A report released last year by Tribunals Ontario found the LTB had a backlog of 53,000 unresolved cases. Tenants also say fixes needed Claire Whittnebel of the London chapter of the tenants rights group ACORN agrees the LTB "isn't working for anyone." However, she said any fixes coming from the next government at Queen's Park should first be directed to helping tenants, saying the system is weighted in favour of landlords. 'In our experience, landlords have more access to lawyers - Claire Whittnebel She'd like to see a return to in-person hearings, which are now only done by video chat, and a triage process for tenant applications to speed up the hearing process. "In our experience, landlords have more resources to access lawyers," she said. "The system needs to be improved, but our focus is on tenant situations." What the parties are saying Ontario PC's told CBC News in November they're spending an additional $6.5 million for 40 new LTB adjudicators along with five new staff members. Also last fall, the province announced it would introduce the Cutting Red Tape, Building Ontario Act to speed up operations at the LTB, by allowing staff to overlook small mistakes in applications and give executives the power to reassign cases to a new adjudicator if the original one fails to complete a hearing. A spokesperson for the Ministry of the Attorney General said the province has made recent investments in the LTB — including spending an additional $6.5 million in 2023-24 for 40 new adjudicators and five new staff. ACORN was critical of those changes, saying they included measures that would allow consumer reporting agencies more access to information about tenants who'd fallen behind on their rent. In a statement to CBC News, the Ontario Liberals agreed the LTB "needs an overhaul." They're offering phased-in rent control, and also say they'd hire more adjudicators to get disputes resolved "in two months." They're also proposing an emergency reserve fund to help vulnerable renters avoid eviction if they fall behind in rent due to an emergency. The Liberals also want a return to in-person hearings and more face-to-face supports, including counter service, for tenants who need help with the process. In a statement issued Thursday, the NDP said fixing the LTB will be part of a wider package of supports for renters, one that includes "real rent control" so that rents don't jump so sharply when units become vacant. The NDP is also promising to crack down on renovictions and limit short-term rentals to the property owner's primary residence.
