Manual

Scarborough                    416-396-7071

Etobicoke/York                416-394-2535

North York                        416-395-7011

Toronto & East York       416-397-9200

You can also find out more about Municipal Licensing & Standards and Apartment Standards at the City of Toronto’s website, listed in the Where to Get Help section of this manual.

Make arrangements with Municipal Licensing & Standards inspector for an inspection.

After the inspection the inspector may issue the property owner a ‘Notice of Violation’ or ‘Order to Comply’. If the property owner does not comply with an Order from the City, they may be fined.

Sometimes, your local City Councillor can help with getting repairs and maintenance taken care of. To find how to contact your City Councillor, see the section Where to Get Help at the back of this manual.

The Residential Tenancies Act states that repairs must be done in a “reasonable” amount of time. “Reasonable” can be confusing to tenants, because there is nothing that states how long a repair should take.

Reasonable is what YOU consider reasonable, and the length of time you choose to wait for repairs may change, depending on the problem.

If repairs still have not been completed:

You may submit a T6 form (Application About Maintenance) to the Landlord and Tenant Board.

If you file an application about repairs and maintenance with the Landlord and Tenant Board, you can also ask to pay your rent into the Board instead of to the property owner. See Section 195. (1), (b) of the RTA for more information.

You can ask the Board for:

ü A rent abatement (a temporary lowering of your rent)

ü Compensation for the cost to repair or replace property which was damaged

ü Compensation for expenses (like spoiled food, a space heater)

ü An Order Prohibiting Rent Increases

ü An Order that the property owner pay for the cost of repairs you did

ü An Order that the property owner pay for the cost of repairs you will do yourself

ü An Order that the property owner do the work

ü An Order ending your tenancy

See Sections 30 and 31 of the RTA for more information about remedies.

To prepare for a T6 application, you must have evidence that there are repair and maintenance issues and that you have asked the property owner to fix them.

Evidence can be:

· Letters: Letters prove that you have asked the property owner to do the repairs, and they also can prove how long it has taken the property owner to fix the problem

· Photos: can help illustrate the extent of the repair issue, or the extent of the damage

· Witnesses: if there are other tenants who have problems, or if they have seen the problems in your unit, they can act as witnesses. Property Standards inspectors can sometimes act as witnesses

Filing an application about Maintenance at the Landlord and Tenant Board costs $45. If there are other tenants who are affected by the same issue, you can file an application together. Each additional applicant must pay $5. The more people you add to the application, the cheaper it becomes for each individual tenant.

For more detailed information about getting repairs done, you can download a copy of Getting Repairs Done from the FMTA website or if you call the Tenant Hotline at 416-921-9494, we can mail you a copy.

We are currently testing this online version of the Tenant Survival Manual: If you notice something that needs to be clarified; if you want more information on a particular subject; or if you simply would like to comment on the Tenant Survival Manual, please click here to send us an email.