Tenant Protection Act Reform

The Tenant Protection Act (TPA) was introduced by the Ontario Government in 1998 in order to replace the previous Landlord-Tenant Act. The Tenant Protection Act does not protect tenants. Since 1998, the number of evictions in Ontario has soared and tenants have fewer rights in accommodation. Because of this, a lot of the work that we've done has focused on the need to change the Tenant Protection Act.

The Liberal Party's Pledge for a New Tenant Act

At a meeting of the Don Valley West Tenants Advisory Council Town Hall Meeting on February 11, 2004, Kathleen Wynne and Brad Duguid made the following pledges on behalf of the Liberal Party of Ontario:

eliminate vacancy de-control
rent controls based on vacancy rates
rent control measures on a regional basis
introduce legislation to stop conversion of rental housing to condos
change rent increase guideline
make changes in the area of costs no longer borne
no rent increase with outstanding property standard issues
changes to dispute resolution in the area of evictions
tenant rights: liberals want to ensure that tenants are educated about their rights
supply of affordable housing: 20K units
provincial rent bank
address administrative issues: photocopy fees, mediators, adjudicators

Dalton McGuinty's pre-election letter to Tenants

The Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario (ACTO) has released a useful factsheet about the issues that tenants face in Ontario, and wrote a submission to the Ontario government on TPA reform

We have made a submission to the Provincial Government on Tenancy Reform, and our Redprint for tenant law reform states our position on how we would like to see the TPA change

Click here to see a copy of our Tenant Resolutions Pamphlet

We also have proposed New Law for Tenants in Ontario

Our Housing Fact Sheet has some interesting facts about being a tenant in Toronto

Our response to the Green Paper

On October 20th, the government announced the Residential Tenancies Act (RTA). The act will be officially proclaimed on January 31st, 2007

Some Key Points:

The Ontario Rental Housing Tribunal will be replaced by a Landlord Tenant Board which the government promises will be more user friendly

Regulations for allowable capital expenditures have been tightened for Above Guideline Increases and maintenance may be raised as an issue at hearings

Maintenance issues may be raised as a defence against evictions and tenants may pay rent to the Landlord-Tenant Board when there is a dispute about maintenance

There will be a much fairer eviction process, which will prevent some evictions by requiring a hearing and more time for tenants to respond

The annual guideline will be equal to the Consumer Price Index

But while there are some positive changes in the new legislation, landlords can still charge whatever they want on vacant units. That means every time somebody moves, rents go up. What to do? You can:

download a letter to send to John Gerretsen,

Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing

Call your MPP to demand an end to vacancy decontrol

The government promised "real rent control". The Residential Tenancies Act isn't it.

Click Here to see our Suggested Amendments and our

Submission to the Provincial Government