After more than 16 months of his tenants not paying rent, Michael Portman was hoping the problem had been solved when the provincial board that oversees rental issues sided in his favour and served the tenants an eviction notice.
But, the Windsor, Ont., landlord was wrong.
Days before the tenants would have been forced to leave the home, Portman says they successfully filed for a stay of the eviction, which puts the case on hold temporarily.
CBC News first spoke with Portman in March when he had already been waiting several months to have his case heard at the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB). After the LTB sided in his favour, Portman was cautious, as his lawyer told him that because the tenants weren’t at the September hearing, they would likely try to delay the eviction.
When he was notified that this process wasn’t over, he says he “couldn’t even feel angry.”
“I was just numb and it wasn’t a matter of shock, because I knew that this could happen, it was just, once again, the system fails to do its job,” he said.
A stay is typically granted because a person says they were never notified of a hearing that led to the eviction or that there was an error in the law that led to the eviction decision.
CBC News knocked on the tenants’ unit and left a note — one of the tenants responded and did not want to comment.
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Tenants owe more than $28K
While Portman understands that everyone deserves the right to a fair process, he says the lack of accountability and timeliness has allowed his situation to drag on for months.
And in doing so, it’s left him on the hook for more than $28,000 in rent, plus legal fees.
Portman has been renting out the second unit of his side-by-side duplex for several years, and specifically started renting to his current tenants in 2021.
But shortly into their tenancy, he says they stopped paying rent.
On Oct. 17, the tenants were ordered to either pay Portman the amount of rent owed to date and continue living there or pay the rent owed and move out by the end of the month, according to documents from the LTB that Portman shared with CBC News.
If they didn’t pay by the end of October, the tenants had to move out of the rental unit. Portman says he was told the eviction would be enforced by the Ontario Provincial Police on Nov. 7.
But three days before, the tenants filed for a pause.
While he’s tried to have this resolved in a timely manner, Portman says he’s prepared for the case to stretch into next year. But he’s frustrated with the system and lack of support for small landlords.
“This is not something that needs to be disputed — these people haven’t paid rent in 16 months,” he said.
“I’m trapped in this house. I have no control over my life and … the reason that [the tenants] are allowed to do these things is the Landlord [and] Tenant Board.”
Portman added that he feels there’s a lot of finger pointing from the government on who should be held responsible.
Changes at the Landlord and Tenant Board
While Windsor-Tecumseh MPP Andrew Dowie admits that there is still work to do with improving the timeliness of the LTB, he says there have been positive changes.
The provincial government — which oversees rules around rental agreements — has made several investments into the LTB, including $6.5 million in April last year to hire more staff.
Andrew Dowie is the MPP of Windsor-Tecumseh. (Dax Melmer/CBC)
Dowie says the funding doubled the number of full-time adjudicators, who are now fully trained and hearing cases.
“They’re getting through far, far more cases now than ever before, so the capacity rate is about 80 per cent, which is good and we gotta knock that higher, but well on our way,” said Dowie.
In an email, the LTB said despite a large number of applications filed, every month this year it has “reduced its active case count” and “significantly reduced application processing timelines across all application types.”
L1 and L9 applications — which deal with non-payment of rent — make up over half of the LTB’s total applications.
In 2023, it took eight to 10 months on average for these cases to be heard, but now they are getting scheduled in about three months, according to the LTB.
All other matters were taking up to 10 months last year, but are now taking on average five to seven months.
The LTB says it has scheduled more than 105,000 hearings this year, which is the “highest number of hearings ever scheduled.”
Once the matter is heard, it’s taking about 30 days for an order to be issued.
Dowie said he couldn’t comment on Portman’s specific case as it’s before the LTB.
But added that he shares the community’s concerns and has brought them forward to the Attorney General.
People not seeing improvements at LTB: local lawyer
Lilian Bahgat, supervising lawyer at the University of Windsor’s Community Legal Aid, says that they handle many housing related issues. She says they’re not seeing improvements on their end and continue to hear about lengthy delays.
“We primarily do tenants’ rights and repair and maintenance applications and those seem to not take priority at the board right now,” she said.
“We have several at the clinic that have been several months where we’ve started it, but we haven’t finished it. So from our clients’ perspective, we’re not seeing those efficiencies and improvements.”
Lilian Bahgat is a supervising lawyer at the University of Windsor’s Community Legal Aid. (Jennifer La Grassa/CBC)
She also cautioned that housing disputes are complex, especially in cases of non-payment of rent. Typically, she says, there are other factors at play and she believes there could be more collaboration with community agencies to help people who are struggling.
The delays, she says, are because people are not being properly notified of a hearing or order, causing matters to be adjourned. It’s also the result of a “high turnover of adjudicators.”
Since there’s no legislation mandating that adjudicators have to complete orders before they resign or their term expires, she says cases are often heard and the adjudicator leaves before issuing an order — this forces the process to start all over again.
Bahgat says Community Legal Aid has been advocating to bring back in person hearings, as virtual ones don’t properly “serve the most vulnerable of our community.”
The LTB says that people can request in person hearings as an accommodation, but that virtual is the default. In the last fiscal year, it says that of the 120,000 applications it received, less than 300 people requested in-person.
So what’s next?
As for Portman, the process is essentially stalled.
The stay on the eviction order is in place until a hearing takes place to determine whether or not the case should be reviewed.
If a review is granted, then there will be another hearing to go over the original application, where both the landlord and tenants can make their case as to why an eviction should or should not move forward.
If the tenants do not go to the review hearing, then the LTB’s stay application says that might lead to “costs being ordered” against them.
The LTB did not respond to questions about whether a stay of eviction is prioritized differently and how long the wait for a review hearing is. But Bahgat says stays typically do take priority.
Meanwhile, Portman says he’s just ready for this to all be over. He wants to get the tenants out and sell the property.
“I want to move to an area where there are few people out in the county and I never want to have anything to do with this ever again, because the law that I had faith into look out for me has utterly failed me,” he said.