There will be temporary customer service delays from Oct. 19 to Nov. 20, LTB says
Iler Campbell LLP has called on the provincial government to devote efforts to addressing the case backlog at the Landlord and Tenant Board and to finding speedy ways to house people.
In a blog post written by Celia Chandler, partner at Iler Campbell, the firm expressed concerns over the LTB potentially collapsing under the weight of its cases. The firm has also previously suggested in an earlier blog post that the government’s failure to fill vacancies among adjudicators has overwhelmed the system.
The firm said that it has assisted clients in resolving issues relating to non-payment and behaviour through alternative methods. However, for the most serious files, the firm has filed applications on the clients’ behalf so that the clients would already be in queue for when the LTB is prepared to deal with these applications.
Since Mar. 16, the firm has filed nine applications relating to behaviour and four applications for arrears, with two of these applications filed on an urgent basis. These two urgent applications were also the only ones for which the firm has received hearing dates, the firm said.
The firm then said in a subsequent blog post that it received an email in relation to a particular application, which introduced a new form, dubbed the Advanced Resolution Request, for Landlords, Tenants and Co‑op Applicants to submit. According to the firm, the declared purpose of the new form was to assist the LTB in identifying any changes to applications that have been filed.
The firm speculated that the form showed that the LTB “lost track of applications’ status” and that it “sent out this form with the intention of the Applicant doing the leg work of sorting out the tangled caseload.”
The website explaining the LTB’s operations amid the COVID-19 pandemic, last updated on Sept. 14, states that, while in-person service counters are closed until further notice, beginning Aug. 1, the LTB has started issuing pending eviction orders and certain consent eviction orders, scheduling hearings for non-urgent evictions and conducting non-urgent eviction hearings beginning in mid-August and into the fall. The LTB is also continuing to hear urgent eviction matters relating to health and safety which have been scheduled.
The website also reported that there would be temporary delays in customer service from Oct. 19 to Nov. 20.
