In the summer of 2011 Minister Bartolucci reacted in mock horror to the announcement of the 3.1% provincial rent increase for 2012, saying his government would re-vamp the system if the Liberals were re-elected.  And so they have!  Today a…

I was not surpised to see Auditor general Jim McCarter report on the way Legal Aid Ontario handles it’s money. As a paralegal working primarily in the area of landlord and tenant law, I routinely see 3 staff lawyers paid…

The Landlord and Tenant Board is experiencing unprecedented backlogs.  They are currently experimenting with a system to deal both with the time to get rent matters to hearing, and the difficulty in hearing the more complex conduct applications and tenant…

Remarkable case today at the Board.  Shows how perverse the whole system is.  Shows how poorly the LTB operates in its tenant-centred focus.I attended at the Board with a landlord in March of 2011 with a tenant who had mental…

Another day at the LTB.  The Residential Tenancies Act says that proceedings are supposed to move along at a good clip: Expeditious procedures 183.  The Board shall adopt the most expeditious method of determining the questions arising in a proceeding that…

I rarely mention LTB adjudicators by name here, partly because I am often critical on these pages, and I have concerns about my obligations to the Law Society.  I sometimes come close to the line, but I try not to…

While lamenting about Ontario's over-bearing and over-reaching rental housing legislation, the first plank of Marx's communist manifesto comes to mind.  It reads as follows: Abolition of private property in land and application of all rents of land to public purpose.…

On Friday Minister Bartolucci reacted in mock horror to the 3.1% provincial rent increase for 2012, saying he would re-vamp the system if the Liberals are elected.  But let’s look at the facts.Prior to the Liberals enacting the Residential Tenancies…

The rent control guideline for 2012 will be 3.1%, up from the 2011 guideline of 0.7%. The 2012 guideline is calculated using CPI data from June 2010 to May 2011.The rent guideline is based entirely on a pre-determined formula based…

I’ve just read a recent case, decided in July by the province’s highest court, the Ontario Court of Appeal.  The decision reversed (or at least modified) the reasoning in an earlier decision of the Ontario Divisional Court which allowed a…