By Katherine Harding
Since the Ontario Rental Housing Tribunal began three years ago, it has been criticized by housing advocates as being nothing more than an “eviction machine.”
The independent tribunal was set up to resolve landlord-tenant issues through adjudication and mediation under the Mike Harris government’s new Tenant Protection Act. Until June 1998, those disputes were settled in the courts.
The tribunal’s head office is in Toronto. But there are eight district offices in larger urban centres, including Ottawa, which hold quasi-judicial hearings, conduct mediations and provide information. Twelve customer service offices operate in smaller communities to receive applications and help clients.
Alan Sandeman, the tribunal’s regional manager for Ottawa and Kingston, takes exception to it being called an “eviction machine.”
“That’s a major misconception. We are upholding the law,” he says. “You have to pay your rent, and you have to pay it on time. If you don’t, you are giving up some of your rights.”
Since the tribunal’s Ottawa and Kingston offices opened in 1998, they have received about 20,000 applications from landlords — 16,000 seeking evictions for non-payment of rent. More than 10,000 of those complaints were settled by default because the tenants didn’t dispute the application. In the old court system, a hearing date was set automatically.
During that same period, they received about 2,500 applications from tenants and only 38 of those were settled by default.
“The tenant default number indicates to me that the system isn’t working properly,” says Bob MacDonald, program developer for Housing Help. The organization provides information and assistance to both landlords and tenants and is funded by the province and the city.
“When people are getting evicted they go into panic mode. And all they get is this pile of information from the tribunal and they don’t know what to do. Usually, their first response is to think with their feet and try to find another place as soon as possible,” he says. “Also, some of these people may be illiterate, have low learning skills or have language barriers.”
Unlike the court system, the tribunal only operates in French and English.
Tenants have five calendar days to respond in writing to the tribunal after they receive their hearing dates. If they don’t, they receive default orders, telling them they’ve already lost. Tenants can appeal the orders by filing set-aside motions to give them another chance at a hearing.
Since June 1998, the tribunal has granted about 1,400 set-aside motions to tenants.
Sherrie Tingley, program co-ordinator for the Centre for Equality Rights in Accommodation, doesn’t blame the tribunal for the confusion. “It’s the legislation that is really problematic for people. It’s very difficult for tenants to make their way through the system.”
She’d like to see tenants be given 14 days, instead of five, to respond in writing to the tribunal. Tingley also says the tribunal, not the landlords, should be responsible for notifying tenants about the eviction proceedings. Currently, the landlord applies to the tribunal for a hearing date and then has to serve the papers to the tenant.
Once tenants actually make it to the adjudication process, Housing Help’s Bob MacDonald says tenants are usually at a disadvantage.
“Landlords have lawyers, but tenants usually can’t afford one,” he said. “Counsel can’t go into a hearing with a tenant. They can only give them advice before they go in.”
Sandeman says most adjudicators realize when there is an imbalance “and they believe that someone is being railroaded because of lack of resources or what not.”
The adjudicator will often adjourn the hearing and advise the tenant to seek counsel, he adds. People requiring translators must pay for them.
Most of the Ottawa tribunal office’s adjudicators have backgrounds in law. When the government set up the tribunal three years ago, it hired adjudicators by receiving applications from the public. Sandeman says more than 1,700 people applied.
“But no matter what we do, each side believes that the tribunal favours the other. he says.
“Few relationships in society are as polarized as landlords and tenants. With the tribunal we are trying to make strides to reconcile that relationship.”