Surprise eviction

A woman called us for help on the morning that she, her partner and three children were being evicted. She was shocked that her landlord had obtained an eviction order, because they had agreed to a rent repayment plan during a Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) hearing months earlier, and she had been making payments.

When we looked into the case, we discovered that the landlord had made multiple applications to evict these tenants, which created a different LTB file. Despite his recent agreement with the tenants, he still had a valid eviction order on another file, and had the local sheriff act on that one. The family spoke to us from Tim Hortons later that day, where they were frantically trying to call shelters.

RESULT: We reached the Vice Chair of the LTB, who reviewed the file based on our calls, and told us the LTB would order the landlord to keep the unit as is pending an emergency hearing. The tenants spent a weekend in a hotel, but were readmitted to their home immediately after their hearing. We referred them to legal aid resources to seek compensation for their expenses and confirmed that they planned to remain in the landlord’s unit for the time being.