The Section 1 of the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006 states that the purpose of the Act amongst other things, is to protect tenants. With this in mind, parties should be aware that decisions originating from the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) are primarily based with this main purpose in mind. The emphasis on tenant’s rights is demonstrated in the case below where a tenant failed to attend a hearing for rent arrears that totaled $10K. After the decision was rendered, the tenant filed a Request to Review the decision and successfully obtained a three-month delay by simply providing the LTB with the excuse below. By the time the matter was reconvened, and the judgment reinstated, the rent arrears had increased to $16K. In the end, the landlord had no chance of recovering any of the rent arrears against an unemployed tenant who was on government assistance.
