Asking the LTB for a New Member When a Decision Is Overdue

If an Ontario Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) Member cannot finish your case, or has let a Chair-imposed deadline pass, a party can move, using the Request to Assign a New Member, to have the file given to someone else. Landlords and tenants stuck waiting on a decision both use it. It is the official answer to delay, but the conditions are tight.

Key facts

The legal basis

A tribunal chair can hand a hearing or decision to a new panel by virtue of s. 4.4 of the Statutory Powers Procedure Act. That power arises when a one-person panel dies, is (or seems) unable to finish, or misses a completion date the chair fixed. At the LTB, how to ask is set out in two places: the Practice Direction on Motions to Assign a New Member Due to Delay, and Rule 27.

You can bring the motion only on one of two grounds. The original Member:

1. has died, or for some other reason is unable, or appears unable, to finish the hearing or decide; or
2. has missed a deadline the Chair previously set for finishing the hearing or deciding.

Nothing else qualifies. The Practice Direction says in so many words that the motion cannot be used for any other reason, full stop.

When it fits, and when it does not

It fits once the hearing is over, nothing more is booked, at least 90 days have gone by since the last submission deadline or hearing date, and your written status inquiry has gone unanswered by a decision.

It does not fit:

• because you disagree with the Member, or believe the Member is biased. Rule 27 does not cover that;
• to hurry along a hearing that was adjourned. For that, the Practice Direction says to file a Request to Shorten Time instead;
• while more hearing dates are booked or expected. In that situation the motion is not accepted.

The 90-day wait

Count 90 days or more from whichever of these comes last:

• the last day of hearing, if nothing further is scheduled or anticipated;
• the due date for post-hearing submissions the Member asked for;
• the final submission due date in a written hearing.

Until that period has run, the LTB will not take the motion (Rule 27.2; the form; the instructions).

Example. Your hearing ended on June 3, 2026, and the Member gave the parties until June 17, 2026 for written submissions. June 17 is the later date. Ninety days after June 17 is September 15, 2026, so that is the earliest day to file.

The status email. First, under Rule 27.1, you must ask in writing what the status of the hearing or decision is: a written inquiry. Both the instructions and the Practice Direction direct that it go by email to [email protected], with the file number as the email's subject. Save that email. The LTB looks at it first when weighing the motion.

Filling in the form

1. Language Preference and Accommodation. Accommodation needs are covered on the Accommodation Request page.
2. File Numbers. Include each related file.
3. Requesting Party's Information. Check the box that fits: Tenant, Tenant Representative, Landlord, Landlord Representative or Other. Add your name and, for a corporate landlord, the company name, plus mailing address, phone numbers and email. - The form asks "What is the best way to communicate with you?" Checking Email means you agree to get LTB documents by email. Where several people are requesting and even one wants paper, leave Email unchecked.
4. The rental address (the form's heading is Unit, Building or Complex Covered by the Application). Write the whole address. Long compass directions may be shortened (NE, NW, SE, SW), per the instructions.
5. Request Details. The section opens with a statement that the Member cannot finish, or that the deadline the Chair set has gone by. Below it, give your reasons, organized around the factors the LTB may weigh: - the date of your earlier status email; - the length of the delay; - why it happened, if you know; - when the original Member is expected to be able to finish; - how complicated and how urgent the matter is, such as arrears still building or a safety problem; - the LTB's resources, and anything else that matters.

Attach the status email and any answer you got. 6. Signature. Check your role, confirm the information is correct and that the request meets Rule 27, then sign it and add the date. 7. Information About the Legal Representative. The representative's LSO number and contact information. This is the email the LTB will use to reach the representative.

Filing it

Per the Practice Direction, the motion goes up through the Tribunals Ontario Portal, where the dropdown offers "Motion for Assignment of New Member". Other routes listed in the instructions: ServiceOntario; [email protected] by email; or mail or courier addressed to 15 Grosvenor Street, Ground Floor, Toronto ON M7A 2G6. If you have a representative, the Portal is the route to use. There is no listed fee.

Why requests are refused

1. The status email was never sent. Rule 27.1 makes it a condition, and the form warns that incomplete requests can be denied.
2. Filing early. Start the 90-day count at whichever is later, the final submission deadline or the final hearing date. The hearing alone is the wrong starting point.
3. More dates are booked or expected. In that case the motion will not be accepted.
4. The wrong ground. Unhappiness with the Member's conduct or with the likely result counts as "unrelated reasons", which the Practice Direction says "will not be considered".
5. Nothing showing urgency or prejudice. Under the complexity-and-urgency factor, months of unpaid rent piling up is relevant. Put the numbers in. Tenants can point to unresolved repairs or safety issues the same way.

Landlords and tenants: the same rules

Tenant or landlord, the conditions do not change: inquiry, 90 days, one of two grounds. The other party is normally not asked for submissions (Rule 27.3).

After filing

Rule 27.3 says the LTB will normally deal with the motion in writing: no hearing, and the other parties are not asked for submissions. The Chair may hand the motion itself to another Member to decide. If it is granted, the new Member can:

• decide from the existing record, hearing recording included;
• pick up an unfinished hearing where it stopped;
• rehear all or part of the case;
• recall witnesses, or require more evidence;
• invite the parties' submissions on next steps.

Common questions

What is the minimum wait before asking?

Ninety days (Rule 27.2). Measure them from the latest of three dates: the final hearing day, any deadline for post-hearing submissions, or the final deadline in a written hearing.

Must I write to the LTB before filing?

Yes, a written status inquiry has to come first (Rule 27.1). Send it to [email protected], putting the file number in the subject.

Can I use it because the Member seems biased against me?

No. The only grounds are a Member unable to finish, or a missed Chair-set deadline.

Is there a hearing on the motion?

Usually not. The LTB generally decides it without one and without hearing from the other parties.

Official sources

• Request to Assign a New Member (form)
• Instructions: Request to Assign a New Member
• Practice Direction on Motions to Assign a New Member Due to Delay
• LTB Rules of Procedure, Rule 27
• Statutory Powers Procedure Act, s. 4.4