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The reason for rent control, she believes, was ultimately to ensure tenant security, because there was a tacit acknowledgement by governments that housing is not just a commodity.
“You could call it a shift in balance of power,” S’ad said. “But things weren’t balanced to begin with.”
Regardless, the pandemic appears to be compounding systemic issues in the rental market that have existed for years.
Harry Fine, the former adjudicator turned paralegal, said he is currently dealing with a client, a small-time landlord, who is owed $80,000 in rent arrears.
“The tenant’s rent was $6,400 a month, and by the time (the landlord) even gets a hearing, she will be owed $100,000,” he said.
It is a very difficult statutory regime for landlords, and it’s been getting worse. I simply would not be a landlord for anything today
Harry Fine
The LTB only hears cases when the maximum compensation or amount sought is $35,000 — anything above that has to be sorted out in the provincial court system.
“That means she will now have to hire a lawyer, not a paralegal. Higher costs,” Fine said. “Maybe you’ll get back $75,000 in rent arrears, but how much do you have to spend to get that?”
Attempting to clear the backlog, the LTB recently said it has approved more than 6,000 evictions to date, a number that causes huge concern for tenant rights advocate Kenneth Hale, who believes the moratorium on evictions should continue indefinitely throughout the pandemic.
Further complicating matters, Ontario recently passed Bill 184, a controversial bill that appears designed to ease the LTB backlog, but which both landlords and tenants say puts them at a disadvantage.
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