Landlord and Tenant Board Essay Example

The Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) operate as an adjudicative tribunal under the regulation of the Government of Ontario ("Landlord and Tenant Board | SJTO", 2018). It was created and incorporated in January 2007 under the Residential Tenancies Act (RTA) of 2006. Majorly, LTB provides an avenue for dispute resolution among the landlords and the tenants. Ideally, the RTA provides the rights and responsibilities of the landlords and the tenants and also develops the process to enforce them. Further, the RTA also sets the process of resolving any eviction disputes in the non-profit housing cooperatives ("Landlord and Tenant Board | SJTO", 2018). Despite the regulation by the RTA, the LTB does not provide any information regarding the rights and obligation of the members and the players in the non-profit housing co-operatives (co-ops).

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The tribunal consists of three key players including the customer service officers, the dispute resolution officers, and the members ("Landlord and Tenant Board | SJTO", 2018). The core role of the customer service officers is to process applications, develop the schedule for hearing, and to provide the public with relevant information about the RTA. However, the customer service officers do not provide any legal advice to the public in any case whatsoever. The dispute resolution officers are usually available in most of the hearings to provide help to the tenants, landlords, the co-ops and the co-op members. Majorly, they help is solving the underlying application by mutual agreement among the players therein. Additionally, the dispute resolution officers also operate as hearing officers upon an application by the parties. They ensure all the issues in the hearing are documented fully ("Landlord and Tenant Board | SJTO", 2018). The members represent the decision makers also known as the adjudicators whose role is to hold a hearing. During a hearing, the parties including the tenants and the landlords provide the members with information relevant to the application therein. Upon reviewing the information and the evidence presented, the member determines the law applying to the case and thus makes a legally enforceable decision.

The LTB cases are not usually doe in a courtroom or instead heard by a judge as it is for most of the cases. For this reason, the members represent the special tribunal that hears the specific matters regarding tenants and landlords. The provincial government and in particular the provincial minister of housing appoints the members or adjudicators therein. Furthermore, the members may either be community legal workers, business people, social workers, lawyers, or arbitrators among other participants in the community ("Landlord and Tenant Board | SJTO", 2018). As discussed earlier, the members specifically deal with disputes between the tenant and landlords by providing relevant information about the RYTA. For this reason, in appointing the adjudicators, they have to possess relevant and sufficient knowledge regarding the RTA.

Ideally, the LTB formerly known as the Ontario Rental Housing Tribunal has a primary role of meditating and settling any disputes that arise between the landlords and tenants ("Landlord and Tenant Board | SJTO", 2018). Besides, in order to engage the LTB, the two parties have to be in a position that they cannot solve the dispute amicably. The LTB aims at ensuring there are coherence and stability in the renting and housing market in the country. Upon arising of any dispute, the LTB provides both the tenants and landlords with their rights and responsibilities as states by the RTA. After that, the tribunal does an investigation of the subject matter and thus acts as a mediate to resolve the problem at hand. A resolution is met by making significant recommendations to the parties involved. In this case, mediation entails an informal and confidential meeting involving the tenants and the landlord. The two parties meet to hold a discussion regarding their issues in the presence of a trained and a highly skilled mediator. The mediator is independent and impartial and helps the two parties to come to a mutual agreement to resolve their issue ("Landlord and Tenant Board | SJTO", 2018). Despite the presence of a mediator, the landlord and the tenant have the responsibility to make the final decision therein, but it is not the mediator who makes the decision.

Conclusion

The LTB engages in various decisions regarding the creation and enforcement of the tenancy rules and regulations as per the RTA. For instance, LTB has recently made key decisions in resolving the tenants and landlord issues. One of the decisions includes an application which was heard on 25th May 2018 by Whitby ("Landlord and Tenant Board | SJTO", 2018). In this case, the landlord applied in order to terminate the tenancy agreement and thus to evict the tenant. The landlord required possession of the rentals for residential occupation purpose. Further, the landlord needed compensation for an extra day that the tenant stayed in the rentals after the date of termination. After a close examination of the evidence presented and the application if the relevant laws as per the RTA, the adjudicators dismissed the application by the Landlord. Another decision that the LTB has recently made entails an application which was resolved by order TEL-88019-18 and issued on 10th April 2018 ("Landlord and Tenant Board | SJTO", 2018). In this case, the Landlord applied and ordered with the claim to terminate the tenancy by evicting two tenants who failed to pay the rent due. The issue was resolved without a hearing.

References

Landlord and Tenant Board | SJTO. (2018). Retrieved from http://www.sjto.gov.on.ca/ltb/