Windsor landlord highlights shortcomings of Landlord Tenant Board with squatter 'nightmare'

Process to evict a squatter A Windsor landlord was having hard time evicting a squatter from his duplex. Rich Garton takes a look at the process and some of the issues.

A Windsor landlord who had a squatter living in the upper-unit of his home at 459 Chilver Road is frustrated by delays and backlogs for hearings before the Landlord Tenant Board (LTB).

That’s the only legal process to remove a tenant or squatter, but the LTB is currently overwhelmed with cases leading to long wait times for resolution.

Neill had a legal tenant in his upstairs unit who stopped paying rent. When Neill initiated the LTB process for non-payment of rent, the tenant left town and handed her key to a friend, who for months on end paid no rent or utilities, living scot-free and leaving Neill without any rental income for the property.

“You receive little to no help and you feel absolutely powerless, like you’re a prisoner in your own home,” said Neill. “There's simply nothing that I can do, the police can do. The systems that we have set up to help people in this position aren’t working or take too long.”

Neill has been advised he can’t just change the locks or forcefully remove someone because they don’t have a lease.

“Their belongings are there, therefore they feel they have the right to be there,” said Christopher Hall of Hall Paralegal Services in Windsor.

Because of squatter’s rights, Hall advised Neill that he must follow the process through the LTB, one that right now could take anywhere from five months to a year to resolve.

“Until then, there's nothing that the police department can do. There's nothing that the sheriff can do, or the landlord for that matter can do,” said Hall.

Neill followed those steps, filing paperwork for non-payment of rent with the board in April and May.

“I check it daily, online and it continues to say pending. There is no one I can really go to escalate it or move it faster up the line. It's simply sit and wait and suffer situation.”

According to Hall — who represents both landlords and tenants before the board — the backlog of cases before the LTB started in 2018.

“And then COVID hit and it just became an explosive problem,” he said.

Hall believes the LTB doesn’t have enough adjudicators to settle the influx of cases.

“The cases are just keep coming in there and they're just not capable to keep up with those,” he said.

It’s also the hot housing market and low vacancy rate in Windsor and around the province which play a major role, according to Hall.

“The more you increase the rent, the more the rent becomes unpayable for some of these people because some of the rent is just astronomical,” he said. “The higher your rent is, the less likely you're going to get paid. So you basically put yourself into a catch-22 position.”

Thankfully for Neill, he won’t have to wait any longer. After Thursday’s story on CTV Windsor, the squatter packed up his stuff and vacated the premises.

Neill has since changed the locks and will now begin to repair the damage done to his unit.

Hall will withdraw their matter before the landlord tenant board to help reduce the case backlog.

LANDLORD TENANT BOARD RESPONDS

The Landlord Tenant Board acknowledges the delays have gotten significantly worse, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which “had a significant impact on the LTB’s caseload including the five-month moratorium on eviction hearings from March to August 2020 which contributed to us falling short of meeting our service standards,” said Janet Deline, the media spokesperson for Tribunals Ontario.

“Since then, the LTB has taken great strides to modernize our operations to provide more timely and effective scheduling for our users. The LTB has implemented or is in the process of implementing numerous strategies to support backlog reduction, including to streamline processes and provide adjudicators with additional training to support efficient file and hearing management, among other things,” Deline said in a statement emailed to CTV Windsor.

Deline notes L1 and L9 applications are currently being scheduled within five months.

“Other new and adjourned matters are currently being scheduled, on average, within seven to eight months from when they were received or adjourned,” she said, noting it’s an improvement from earlier this year when it took around eight to 10 months to get to a hearing.

Deline said the LTB expects further improvements, “once new adjudicators are recruited, on-boarded and in place following the Ontario government’s recent investment in the LTB.”

As applications are processed in the order in which they are filed, these files will be scheduled for a hearing in due course.

Deline also indicates a Request to Shorten Time form or request for an expedited hearing is available if the applicant feels their matter is of high priority.

“These requests are reviewed by an adjudicator for decision. If granted, the hearing is scheduled in a dedicated urgent matter hearing block,” she said.