The Ontario L1 Application: Eviction and Rent Recovery After an N4, Explained for Both Sides

In Ontario, unpaid rent ends up at the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) through the L1. One filing seeks both an eviction order and a judgment for the arrears. It is step two of a two-step process. Step one is an N4 notice; only once its termination date has passed, with the arrears still unpaid and the tenant still there, can the landlord move to the L1. This page walks landlords through the form and shows tenants which dates and rights matter to them.

Quick summary

What an L1 can and cannot get you

Two remedies sit inside one application:

1. Ending the tenancy. The landlord asks for an eviction order based on the s. 59 notice of termination, the N4.
2. Money. Unpaid rent, plus (if claimed) bank fees and administration charges for NSF cheques (RTA s. 87).

A successful L1 produces an order listing the arrears, a daily amount the tenant owes for every day they remain after the hearing, and what the tenant must pay to stop the eviction ahead of the enforcement date (RTA s. 74(3)). The tenant also gets credit for a last month's rent deposit and its unpaid interest (RTA s. 87(4)).

Three things it will not do:

• Recover non-rent amounts. Damage, or utilities billed to the tenant by the provider, are claimed through the L2.
• Bind a guarantor (Interpretation Guideline 11).
• Award more than $50,000. Any excess is extinguished when the order is made (RTA s. 207(3)).

Picking the right form

The L1 fits one situation: the tenant is still living there, rent is owing, and a valid N4 has expired unpaid. If your facts are different:

Dates and deadlines

Counting the N4

Seven days is the minimum gap between giving an N4 and its termination date, for any N4 given from September 21, 2026 (RTA s. 59(1)); it used to be 14. Rule 1.13 sets the counting method: skip the day the N4 is given, include the termination date.

Mailing adds time. The law deems a mailed N4 to be given five days after it goes in the mail (RTA s. 191(3); Rule 3.9), and a couriered N4 the day after the courier takes it, or the next business day if that day is a Saturday, Sunday or holiday (Rule 3.9; Rule 1.1 counts weekends as holidays). Start the 7 days from that deemed date.

When the L1 can go in

Only once the termination date is behind you, starting the following day (RTA s. 74(1)). File any earlier and the Board turns it away (Rule 6.7). Two worked examples:

• Handed over in person on December 1, 2026. The earliest termination date is December 8. The L1 can be filed starting December 9.
• Mailed on December 1, 2026. The N4 counts as given on December 6. The earliest termination date becomes December 13, and filing can start December 14.

No 30-day cut-off, but payment cancels the N4

Most eviction applications have a 30-day filing window; rent applications do not (RTA s. 69(3)). There is a trade-off, though. Should the tenant clear the arrears and whatever rent has come due since, ahead of the filing, the N4 is void (s. 59(3)).

Other clocks

• Attachments on the Portal. The N4 and Certificate of Service go up with the L1, or no later than 5 calendar days after; miss that and dismissal is possible (Rule 4.5).
• Before the hearing. Evidence: 7 days ahead (Rule 19.1). Information Update: 5 days ahead (Rule 10.2).
• After the order. For orders issued July 1, 2026 or later, a review request must be made within 15 days. An eviction order dies if nobody files it with the Court Enforcement Office (Sheriff) inside six months (RTA s. 81).

If you are the tenant

Your key dates are the same ones. Paying the full arrears plus newly due rent before the landlord files voids the N4. After filing, paying everything owing plus the filing fee before an order issues ends the case. And for an L1 filed from September 21, 2026, the 7-day deadline before the hearing matters if you want to raise repair or other issues (see "The half-arrears rule" below).

Filling in the L1

Use version 2026/09. You will find three pieces: a checklist and information sheet (two pages, for your own use only), the application proper (seven pages), and a Payment Information Form.

Language and accommodation. English or French. If you need an accommodation, request it on its own form; the tenant never sees that request.

Part 1: Address of the rental unit. Match the N4 word for word, covering street number and name with its direction ("Road North", say), the suite or unit, and then the municipality and postal code.

Part 2: Total amount the tenant owes. Do this one last. Then copy the Total from Part 6 and add the date of filing. The tenant sees this page first, so it must agree with Part 6 to the dollar.

Part 3: General information. - Landlord. Use the legal name; companies use the "Company Name" line. With more than one landlord, attach a Schedule of Parties. - Communication. Mail or Email. Ticking Email is consent, on behalf of all applicants, to LTB service by email. - Tenants. The same people named on the N4. More than two requires a Schedule of Parties. Add a mailing address only if it is not the unit.

Part 4: Reasons for your application. - Mark the eviction-and-rent reason; mark NSF as well when you seek bounced-cheque charges. - Is the tenant still living in the unit? If you would answer no, stop: this is not your form. - Say how rent is paid: monthly, weekly, or another period such as every two weeks. - Rent deposit. State the deposit amount, its collection date, and the most recent period you paid interest on it. No deposit, leave it blank. Do not subtract the deposit from the arrears yourself: Interpretation Guideline 11 limits a deposit to the final rental period.

Part 5, Section 1: Rent Owing. Each row is a rental period showing its start and end dates, the rent charged, what was paid, and the balance. Bring the arrears up to the filing date, even if that is more than the N4 showed. You may lump older periods into row one or two; the final row, however, shows only the most recent period.

Which charges are rent? Separate payments for services like parking do. So does a fixed monthly utility charge paid to the landlord, and a seasonal air-conditioner charge calculated properly. A share of a bill that changes month to month does not, and neither do utilities paid straight to the utility company.

Part 5, Section 2: NSF Cheque Charges. List every returned cheque with its amount and date, when your bank hit you with the fee, how much that fee was, and your own administration charge. That last item is capped by O. Reg. 516/06, s. 17 at $20 per cheque. Add the bank fee and the administration charge to get Total Charge. The face value of the cheque stays out, because Section 1 already captures the unpaid rent.

Part 6: Total Amount Owing. Add up three numbers: the rent total, the NSF total, and the fee you really paid ($186 online through the Portal or $201 otherwise). Repeat that total in Part 2.

Part 7: Signature. Signed by the landlord or a legal representative, who adds name, Law Society number and contact details. Nobody else may sign except the landlord or someone the Law Society Act permits to act for them. Where the landlord is a company, Guideline 10 accepts a director's or officer's signature.

Payment Information Form. Pay by credit card, by money order, or by certified cheque made out to the "Minister of Finance". Paying by card while filing on paper? Use the Credit Card Payment Form. Card numbers never go into a Portal upload or an email.

Using the Portal. Online, you enter the same information and pay with a Visa, Mastercard, Visa Debit or Debit Mastercard. Once the "Ready to Submit" screen appears, the help page warns, your draft is locked, so double-check the rent table and the attachments first. Tribunals Ontario has not published a screen-by-screen guide; follow the prompts.

Filing

Four items are mandatory for each L1 (O. Reg. 516/06, s. 53; Section D of the L1 Instructions):

• the application, without its checklist;
• the N4 as given to the tenant;
• proof of serving the N4, on the Certificate of Service, with the method and date;
• payment, or an approved Fee Waiver Request.

If any is missing, the Board refuses the application (Rule 6.10).

The LTB forms page points to the Portal; the instructions also allow paper filing by mail, courier or at ServiceOntario. Licensed representatives (lawyers and paralegals) have no choice: Portal only. As for getting the papers to the tenant, the LTB looks after that, not the landlord. A landlord with an unpaid LTB fee, fine or costs can have a new rent application discontinued until that debt is paid (Rules 6.1–6.3).

Errors that defeat an L1

1. Jumping the gun. An L1 that arrives on or before the termination date is rejected (Rule 6.7). Most often the landlord counted from the day of mailing when the deemed date, five days later, was the right start.
2. A flawed N4. Guideline 10 is clear that a non-compliant N4 is void, and amendment cannot rescue it. Give too little notice and the eviction request fails, however obvious the debt. The Board may still offer an arrears-only order.
3. Claiming more than rent on the N4. The N4 is for rent, full stop. Guideline 11 warns that tacking on late fees, NSF charges, a deposit the tenant never paid, or utilities that are not rent is likely to invalidate it. Where the N4 demands unlawful rent, for instance after an invalid increase, it has been found not to substantially comply.
4. Filing after payment. Once the tenant has caught up, including any rent that fell due in the meantime, before the L1 goes in, the N4 is dead (RTA s. 59(3)) and no L1 can rest on it. Note that when a new period starts, the tenant's catch-up has to include it.
5. The tenant had already moved. Possession on filing day is required; otherwise it is L10 territory. The Board can allow an amendment at the hearing, provided the former tenant is aware of the claim.
6. No N4 or no Certificate of Service. Missing either one, the L1 is refused. On the Portal, anything still outstanding after 5 days exposes the file to administrative dismissal (Rule 4.5).
7. Leaving out a tenant. All tenants living there should appear on the N4, receive it, and then appear again on the L1.
8. Figures that do not add up. The Part 2 and Part 6 totals must match, and every row of the rent table must work out. Treat the official checklist as compulsory.
9. No valid signature. Unsigned applications are refused. Only the landlord or an authorized licensed representative can sign (RTA s. 185).
10. The old version after November 30, 2026. The L1 was reissued September 21, 2026, and the Board refuses anything older than 2026/09 from November 30, 2026.
11. No Information Update. Skip the 5-day service and filing and the hearing may wait until it is done; the Board may also refuse to give back your filing fee (Rule 10.3).

What comes next

Before the hearing

Payment ends the case. A tenant who pays the arrears, the rent that has accrued since, and the landlord's filing fee, either to the landlord or into the LTB, before any order, ends the application (RTA s. 74(2)). The landlord files a Request for a Discontinuance Order Without a Hearing to close it out. Since July 1, 2026 any repayment plan must use the mandatory Payment Agreement form. The resulting consent order cannot terminate the tenancy on its own; a later default by the tenant, though, can support an L4 (s. 206(3), (3.1)).

The half-arrears rule

This applies to every L1 filed from September 21, 2026. Tenants who plan to bring up their own complaints (repairs, harassment and the like) face two conditions, both due a week or more before the hearing date (RTA s. 82(2); O. Reg. 516/06, s. 8.3; Rule 19.4):

• 50% of the arrears claimed, paid to the landlord personally, never to the Board; and
• a written account of each issue, delivered to both the landlord and the Board.

Miss either condition and s. 82 is closed to those issues. Section 83 relief remains available. Landlords should issue a receipt for the payment and keep a record. Tenants should get that receipt.

At the hearing

Section 83 obliges the Board to think about denying or postponing eviction. From September 21, 2026, a postponement the landlord has not agreed to requires compelling grounds, and it must not be unfair to the landlord or to other tenants (O. Reg. 516/06, s. 8.4).

After the order

Up to the enforceable date, paying the whole sum in the order voids it (s. 74(4)). Between that date and the Sheriff's visit, a tenant may bring a motion to set the order aside on paying all that is owed, but only once in a tenancy (s. 74(11)).

Recent changes

From September 21, 2026:

• 7 days, not 14, for the N4.
• Rent applications (L1, L9, L10) filed from then on are subject to the half-arrears rule.
• "Compelling grounds" are needed before an eviction is postponed over the landlord's objection.
• Revised L1 and Information Update forms, and revised Guidelines 10 and 11. L1 forms dated before 2026/09 are refused from November 30, 2026.

From July 1, 2026:

• 15 days, not 30, to seek a review of orders issued from that date.
• The Payment Agreement form became mandatory.
• Seasonal air-conditioner charges may be treated as rent.

Common questions

What is the earliest day an L1 can be filed?

Once the termination date has passed, beginning the next day. An N4 given from September 21, 2026 must allow at least a week before that termination date, and mailing pushes everything back 5 days.

Does the landlord have a deadline to file?

Rent applications escape the 30-day limit (RTA s. 69(3)). The risk of waiting is that the tenant pays up first, the N4 is voided, and the landlord is back to square one.

Are NSF fees and late fees claimable?

Part 5 of the L1 is the place for bank NSF fees and an administration fee capped at $20 a cheque. The N4 is not. Late fees above the regulated limit are unrecoverable (Guideline 11).

As a tenant, do I have to pay half the arrears to raise repair problems?

Yes, when the landlord's L1 was filed from September 21, 2026. Seven days or more before the hearing, pay the landlord half of what is claimed and hand over a written list of your issues. Neither step is needed for an L1 filed before that date.

L1 or L9?

The L1 when eviction may be wanted. The L9 when only the money is wanted and the tenancy should continue. An L9 order cannot be used to evict anyone.

Official sources

• Form L1 (2026/09) and L1 Instructions
• L1/L9 – Information Update
• Residential Tenancies Act, 2006, ss. 59, 69, 74, 82, 83, 87, 191, 206, 207
• O. Reg. 516/06, ss. 8.3, 8.4, 17, 53, 56
• LTB Rules of Procedure
• Interpretation Guideline 10 and Interpretation Guideline 11
• LTB Operational Update, September 21, 2026
• LTB Forms, filing and fees