L7 Application: Moving a Care Home Tenant Whose Care Needs Have Changed

With an L7, the landlord of an Ontario care home asks the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) for an order moving a resident out and end the tenancy because the resident's care needs no longer fit the home. It covers both directions: a resident who now needs less care than the home gives, and one who needs more. The second direction carries extra conditions the landlord has to prove before any transfer can be ordered.

Key facts

The legal test

Under RTA s. 2(1), a "care home" is a residential complex that people occupy, or are meant to occupy, to receive care services. Those services include health care, rehabilitative or therapeutic services, and help with daily living activities. Residents of a care home are tenants with the full protection of the RTA. A change in their needs, on its own, is not a reason they can be moved. What s. 148 offers the landlord is an application for an order that transfers the resident out and evicts them, on one of two grounds:

1. The resident does not need the level of care provided (s. 148(1)(a)). This includes a resident who keeps pulling out, substantially, of some or all of the care services their tenancy agreement includes, while not receiving community-based services that are substantially equivalent (O. Reg. 516/06, s. 49).
2. The resident's needs exceed what the landlord's care can deliver (s. 148(1)(b)). The Board can order a transfer on this ground only if two things are shown (s. 148(2)): that somewhere appropriate is available for the resident to go, and that the home's care, together with community-based services brought into the home, still cannot meet the resident's needs.

Is the L7 the right route?

• It is when the only reason for ending the tenancy is that the resident's needs and the home's care no longer match.
• It is not for behaviour, unpaid rent or any other ground. Those go through the usual notices and applications, such as an N4 then an L1, or an N5 then an L2.
• Confirm the RTA applies at all. Section 5(l) excludes short-term respite stays in a care home. Section 5(e) excludes places governed by the hospital statutes or by the Fixing Long-Term Care Act, 2021. If coverage is in doubt, look at the A1.
• On the higher-care ground, prepare in advance. The instructions call for a search for suitable alternative accommodation, and for inquiries into which community care services might let the resident stay. Skip that work and the Board has no basis to grant the order.

Timing

• When to file. An s. 148 application has no statutory deadline, and you do not serve a termination notice first.
• Serving the application. Usually the landlord does not serve. When the Board does direct it, Rule 5.7 requires the application and Notice of Hearing in a care home transfer to be served no less than 30 days before the hearing. A Certificate of Service is then filed within five days of serving (Rule 5.15). Take a hearing set for Thursday, March 18, 2027: the latest service date is Tuesday, February 16, 2027.
• Mediation. Section 148(3) sends any dispute to mediation before an order can be made. The form cautions that refusing to try mediation can lead to dismissal.
• Review. For orders issued on or after July 1, 2026, every party has 15 days to ask for a review (Rule 26.5).

Completing the L7

The version in use is 01/04/2022. Write in capitals, by hand or typed, and go through the L7 instructions before you start.

Part 1, General Information

• The rental unit. Full address, including room or unit number and postal code.
• The landlord. The operator or owner, named as landlord, with contact details (phones, email, mailing address). List co-landlords on a separate Schedule of Parties.
• The tenant. Name the resident. Give a separate mailing address only if it is not the unit.
• Tenant's Representative / Substitute Decision Maker. Care home residents frequently have a substitute decision maker, for instance an attorney appointed under a power of attorney. Enter who that is and how to reach them.
• Related Applications. File numbers for any open LTB matters involving this unit.

Part 2, Reason for Your Application

Shade just one reason.

• Reason 1 (less care needed). Set out the minimum level of care the home gives, and explain why the resident's needs fall below it. If the resident has pulled out of services, name the services, give the date it started, and confirm they are not getting equivalent services in the community.
• Reason 2 (more care needed than the home can give, even with community services added). Describe the home's care, explain why it falls short for this resident, identify the community-based services that are available, and explain why the home's care together with those services still would not be enough.

Alternate accommodation. Next comes a yes-or-no question about whether somewhere suitable is available for the resident to move to now. Shade Yes or No. With Yes, give the facility's name and address and the arrangements for the move. With No on a Reason 2 application, no transfer order will issue unless, by the hearing date, you can satisfy the Board that suitable alternative accommodation is available.

Part 3, Signature

Indicate whether you sign as the landlord or as a legal representative, and date it. A representative also gives contact details and a Law Society number.

Payment Information Form

Mark your payment method. Online payers enter their receipt number here.

Filing it

• By email. First pay the $201 online (debit or credit, Mastercard or Visa). Then, inside 24 hours, send the receipt and application together to [email protected]. Put the receipt number and the unit address in the subject line.
• By mail or courier. Enclose payment: a credit card on the Credit Card Payment Form, or a certified cheque or money order payable to the "Minister of Finance".
• At ServiceOntario. Go in person to a location that takes LTB filings.

No fee is refunded (see the LTB fees page), but you can ask for a Fee Waiver Request. After filing, expect a call from a Board mediator, who reaches out to both sides.

Why L7 applications fail

1. No place lined up for the resident (Reason 2). Section 148(2)(a) makes available alternate accommodation a precondition. No proof, no transfer.
2. Ignoring community services. Reason 2 also requires proof that the home's care combined with community services cannot meet the resident's needs (s. 148(2)(b)). Describing only what the home cannot do is not enough.
3. Not mediating. A landlord who will not take part in mediation can see the application dismissed (s. 148(4)).
4. No substitute decision maker named. The form asks for one. Leaving that person off risks delay and a fairness objection, particularly where the resident cannot participate alone.
5. Late service when directed to serve. Falling short of the 30-day rule lets the Board adjourn or dismiss (Rule 5.17).
6. Weak proof. Assessments, care plans, records of withdrawn services, and letters exchanged with community providers and the receiving facility make the case. Bare conclusions seldom earn a transfer order.

For residents and families

If you are the resident, or the person acting for them, the landlord carries the burden. On the higher-care ground, two things must be proven before any transfer: a suitable place to go exists, and the home's care plus community-based services cannot meet the resident's needs. Make sure the substitute decision maker is named on the application and takes part. Mediation comes first where there is a dispute, and at any hearing the Member must consider relief from eviction under s. 83. If an order is made on or after July 1, 2026, a review request must be made within 15 days.

After filing

If mediation does not settle it, a hearing follows. Since eviction is what an L7 seeks, s. 83 relief has to be considered. Since September 21, 2026, delaying eviction without the landlord's agreement requires two findings: compelling reasons exist, and the delay is not unfair to the landlord or other tenants. Enforcement of a transfer order works like any eviction: through the Court Enforcement Office, also called the Sheriff.

What changed recently

• September 21, 2026 (Bill 60). Tougher s. 83 test for relief from eviction. A delay the landlord does not consent to now needs a finding that it is not unfair and that compelling reasons exist. That applies to the eviction sought on an L7.
• July 1, 2026. Reviews must be requested within 15 days, not 30 (Rule 26.5).
• No new L7 came out on September 21, 2026. The 01/04/2022 version is still the one to use.

Common questions

Can a care home end a resident's tenancy because their needs changed?

Not without an L7 order made under RTA s. 148. The landlord must show the resident's care needs are below what the home offers, or beyond what it can offer. In the second case, the landlord also has to show a suitable place is available and that community services would not close the gap.

Does an L7 have to go to mediation?

Yes, if the parties disagree. Under s. 148, disputes are mediated before the Board decides, and a landlord who stays out of mediation may have the application dismissed.

What if the resident refuses care services?

It can. Under O. Reg. 516/06, s. 49, a resident who repeatedly and substantially withdraws from the agreed care services, and has no substantially equivalent community services instead, may be treated as needing less care, which is Reason 1.

Official sources

• Form L7 – Application to Transfer a Care Home Tenant (PDF)
• L7 Instructions
• LTB Forms, filing and fees
• Residential Tenancies Act, 2006, ss. 2(1), 5, 83 and 148
• O. Reg. 516/06 (General), s. 49
• LTB Rules of Procedure, Rules 5.7, 5.15, 5.17 and 26.5
• LTB Operational Update, September 21, 2026