OPEN LETTER TO ONTARIO MPPs

Date: 2024 04 02

Re: Final follow-up on petition for automatic eviction orders for non-payment of residential rent at the L.T.B.

Dear Ontario Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP),

This will be the final email correspondence from the undersigned regarding the auto-evict petition, signed by 35,614 (up from 20,000 when we last wrote to you) angry and upset residential housing providers who have lost their faith in Ontario’s justice system. 

The following is everything an MPP should know but was afraid to act:

No tenant rights lost: The petition does not remove or modify any existing residential tenant rights. There’s no legislation that gives tenants the right to not pay rent. Conversely, the government has a legislated obligation to enforce rights guaranteed under law, which the LTB is not doing.

• The petition deals solely with uncontested and proven non-rent-paying legal claims.

Lost faith in the law: The petition addresses tens of thousands of alleged recurring breaches by the LTB regarding a housing provider’s right of repossession of property, guaranteed by contract law and administered under common law to enforce the terms and conditions of the government’s own standardized tenancy contract. 

• The universal legal principle applies to buying food at a grocery store, paying for a phone or paying a mortgage. Once a payment has not been made, the product or service must be returned to its rightful owner. An impartial court then decides what the consequence should be for the breaching party. Deliberate non-payment is theft—a crime. 
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• Lost faith in the law is the beginning of the breakdown of society, mob rule and potentially vigilantism, amongst other things.

Rent-paying tenants are suffering as much as housing providers. Implementing an automated eviction proceeding significantly benefits rent-paying tenants:

• Tens of thousands of more affordable rental units become readily available: The most affordable rental properties such as second suites, condos, lane way houses, etc., are ONLY offered by the estimated 500,000+ small housing providers, and are being pulled out of Ontario’s housing inventory en masse. 
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• Easier qualification process: It’s infinitely more difficult for a rent-paying tenant today to qualify for a place because housing providers are scrutinizing every applicant. Under today’s LTB regime, the operating mantra is, “better vacant than a claimant.” If a housing provider knew they’d have their property returned to them quickly upon default of the tenancy agreement, then not only would they not apply a stringent qualification process but they’d likely accept a much greater risk of financially-borderline, marginalized or lower-credit score tenants. 
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• Rent-Paying Tenants Support the Petition: Many rent-paying tenants left supporting statements in the 2,830 petition comments. Rent-paying tenants would not fault the government for implementing an automated process for enforcing the provisions of its own residential tenancy agreement. 

Withholding Rent for Maintenance Issues is Illegal

• Several LTB brochures unambiguously state, “Do not withhold rent - A tenant should not withhold any part of the rent, even if the tenant feels that maintenance is poor or a necessary repair has not been done. A landlord can apply to evict a tenant if the full rent is not paid on time.”
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• Existing laws address maintenance issues:
• • Significant remedies and penalties are already provided in the RTA
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  • Every municipality has property standard by-laws and by-law enforcement officers paid for by property taxes (etc.), specifically to address such issues
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  • Texas (USA) state law has an excellent balance for handling maintenance by-law and property standards complaints. A tenant has to first prove that they paid their rent in full and on time. THEN the tenant can file a maintenance complaint, after which the by-law officer will immediately follow up.

• LTB cost savings: 41.5% of all LTB applications annually are for eviction due to non-payment of rent. Reducing uncontested non-rent-paying applications will save at least $7 million in adjudicator payroll costs, not including support staff, benefits and related operating costs. 

• MPPs allegedly breach constituents’ rights: when an MPP refuses to meet with a constituent to discuss a genuine issue that meets the “provincial government services” criterion, it’s an alleged breach of fiduciary duty–a minimum, legal threshold of accountability to which all members of parliament must adhere. Denial of this fundamental democratic right abuses the power imbalance, and discretionary power, that an MPP has over their vulnerable constituents. 

• Losing more housing than it’s creating: Ontario is the only province that had a net loss of 6,548 rental units despite building 94,000 new homes in 2023 alone. Small housing providers are fearful that they will end up with a non-paying and/or property-damaging tenant and the Ontario government won’t do anything about it. Every other jurisdiction in Canada and in most places around the world enforce the same basic right of repossession … except Ontario’s LTB. 

• Losing federal funding: Ontario was notified around 2024 03 31 that it may lose $357 million in federal funding for failure to meet its 2018 new housing construction commitment after five years. 

SUMMARY

Nothing gets done without money. The province doesn’t have it to build a fraction of the housing it needs. It NEVER will. Ontario has the largest sub-national debt in the world—more than 166 countries, including Russia. Only the private sector can solve housing affordability and availability, and Ontario is chasing away all the housing investment money.

Fixing this problem is a lot less expensive than a $4 billion class action, that if awarded would cost taxpayers and politicians far more than applying the petition’s elegant, simple and super-quick solution, which materially benefits all rent-paying tenants, government rental housing construction objectives, rent affordability, and housing providers whose restored confidence in Ontario’s judicial system will compel them to re-enter the market with thousands, if not tens of thousands, of the most affordable rental properties.

Respectfully,

Chris Seepe

Rental Housing Provider

416-525-1558

cseepe@aztechrealty.com