Tenant act ruled discriminatory
Working single mother of two faced eviction Activists hail unprecedented decision
Ontario’s landlord- tenant legislation discriminates against single parents, seniors, the disabled and new Canadians, says an adjudicator for the province’s rental housing tribunal.
In a strongly worded ruling, adjudicator Paul DeBuono cited Ontario’s Human Rights Code in his order to set aside an Aug. 10 eviction order against Toronto single mom Cara Reid. He said a clause in the province’s Tenant Protection Act that requires tenants facing eviction to file a written dispute to the tribunal within five days “results in constructive discrimination.”
“ The infringement of one person is too many to continue with a rule or practice which may infringe the protected right of other persons,” DeBuono wrote in his decision, issued last week.
Reid, a single parent of a 9year- old boy and an 8- monthold girl, had just returned to work after the birth of her daughter and was several weeks late in paying her rent when her landlord issued the eviction order requiring a written response within five days.
Juggling a new job and a new baby was overwhelming and she just didn’t have the time or energy to file the response that would have given her a chance to fight the eviction, she tearfully told the tribunal last week. DeBuono noted that Reid leaves her home at 5 a.m. to drive her daughter from northwest Toronto to a Brampton babysitter in time to be at her office job in Mississauga by 6 a. m. The traffic at the end of the day means she often doesn’t get home until 6 p. m. “The combined pressures of parenting and working prevented the tenant from effectively responding within five days,” DeBuono wrote in his ruling. He quotes 2004 tribunal statistics showing that 65,480 tenant households received default eviction orders like the one Reid received. Of those, only 17,512 — or 27 per cent — filed a written dispute within the five- day period. Of the remaining 47,968 tenant households, 39,027 — or 81 per cent — were eventually evicted, DeBuono said.
Yet, in cases where tenants’ homes are at stake and where inaction may result in homelessness, the rate of written disputes is “ unusually low,” DeBuono noted. He added that in the 10 months he has served on the tribunal he feels many tenants don’t understand the process. The ability to file a dispute within five days may be impacted by language challenges, family responsibilities and health challenges, DeBuono said. Under the law, if rent is not paid on time, landlords can issue a notice of termination telling tenants they have 14 days to pay or move out. If rent is still not paid, landlords may apply to the tribunal for a notice of eviction hearing. To challenge the notice, tenants must file a dispute form within five days. If tenants don’t respond, the hearing is cancelled and the tribunal issues a default eviction order. The tenant still has 10 days to pay the rent and the landlord’s tribunal cost of $ 150.
After that the landlord can call the sheriff’s office for purposes of evicting.
Finally, tenants can appeal to the housing tribunal to get an eviction order set aside, but unless tenants can adequately explain why they didn’t file the dispute order within five days, the tribunal usually rubber- stamps the eviction.
At least one tenant activist hailed DeBuono’s decision. “ This is an issue we have been raising for some time now and for an adjudicator to agree is very significant,” said Kathy Laird, director of the Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario. A spokesperson for Housing Minister John Gerretsen said the minister is aware of concerns about the tenant law and has been “ consulting widely” on new legislation.