A backlog of cases at Ontario’s Landlord and Tenant Board has grown to 38,000 and it is taking an average of seven or eight months—sometimes up to two years—for a hearing to be scheduled, the province’s ombudsman said Thursday.
The findings are part of a large report from Ombudsman Paul Dubé, who has issued 61 recommendations aimed at improving the functioning of the board and its “excruciating delays.”
When the pandemic hit, the backlog was already at 20,000 applications, and the subsequent move to virtual hearings and a moratorium on evictions impeded the board’s efforts to chip away at the backlog, he said….