Settled cases at Ontario's Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) do not always stay settled. When a deal breaks down, the Request to Re-open an Application brings the file back to the Board. Landlords file it most often, usually because a tenant missed an instalment under a section 206 consent order or ignored a mediated settlement. Tenants can file it too on certain grounds.
Summary
| Available to | Parties to a case that ended in a mediated settlement or a s. 206 consent order |
| Reason to file | A broken term; or a deal obtained by pressure or deliberate lies, or signed without capacity |
| How long you have | Consent order breach: 30 days from the missed term. Consent order coercion/misrepresentation: 30 days from the order. Mediated settlement: one year from signing |
| Where it goes | The Tribunals Ontario Portal, and then to the other party with the Notice of Hearing |
| Fee | The LTB fee schedule lists none |
| Paperwork afterwards | Certificate of Service (or an L4 in place of this request, where the order permits one) |
Which outcomes can be re-opened
Only two kinds.
Mediated settlements. If an LTB mediator (a Dispute Resolution Officer) helped the parties reach a deal, that deal is not a Board order (Rule 13.7). Rule 13.11 lets a party ask for a re-opening on any of three grounds. One: a term was not kept by the other side. Two: the requester lacked capacity. Three: the other side coerced the requester, or knowingly said something false or misleading, and it materially affected the deal.
Section 206 consent orders. On an L1 or L9 file, landlord and tenant may sign a Payment Agreement, and the Board then issues it as an order under s. 206 of the RTA. If the tenant falls short of its terms, the landlord can re-open (s. 206(4)). Coercion or deliberate misrepresentation lets either party re-open (s. 206(5)).
Nothing else qualifies. Rule 13.13 rules out re-opening a case that a regular post-hearing order decided. For those, the options are an appeal or a review.
Re-open, L4, or something else?
Ask yourself which of these describes your file:
- An L1 consent order that includes an L4 term, and a payment was missed. Two paths are open. Because the order allows an application under s. 78, the landlord may file an L4: free, without notice, and decided before the tenant is heard. Re-opening is slower and fuller: the original application gets a hearing. Having the L4 term does not take away the right to re-open (s. 206(5.1)).
- An L9 consent order, or an L1 order with no L4 term. A missed payment is dealt with by re-opening.
- A settlement under s. 194 that contains an L4 clause. Where the settlement says so, an L4 can be used (s. 78(1)).
- A typo or slip in an order. Wrong form. Use the Request to Amend an Order.
The clocks
Breach of a s. 206 consent order. File within 30 days of the tenant's failure (s. 206(6)). It is a prescribed period, and prescribed periods are not extendable (item 19 in s. 56 of O. Reg. 516/06).
Coercion or misrepresentation behind a s. 206 consent order. Count 30 days from the date of the order (s. 206(5)).
Mediated settlement. You have one year from signing, or longer if the parties agreed to more time (Rule 13.12). Unlike the consent-order limit, this one can be stretched: send a Request to Extend Deadline in with the request.
Service. Deliver the request and Notice of Hearing at least 15 days ahead of the hearing (Rule 5.13; RTA s. 206(7)). Then file proof of service.
Every instalment runs on its own clock from the particular payment you rely on. Example: a consent order requires $650 on February 1, 2027, and nothing arrives. Thirty days after that failure is March 3, 2027, so that is the last day to file on that missed payment. A file sent on March 4 is too late, and the Board has no power to extend it.
Completing the form
The current version is v. 01/04/2022.
Part 1: General Information. Begin with the LTB file number of the case being brought back. Select your role and fill in your name, mailing address and phone numbers, then the rental unit's address and the other party's contact details. If there are several other parties, add a Schedule of Parties. Under Related Applications, note other Board files for that unit.
Part 2: Reasons for Re-Opening your Application. Two choices. First, how the case ended: an agreement reached with an LTB mediator, or a repayment-plan consent order under s. 206. Second, one reason only:
- a term of the consent order or mediated agreement was not met by the other party;
- you were forced into it by the other party, or that party knowingly supplied false or misleading information that materially affected the agreement; or
- the person making the request did not have capacity to enter the mediated agreement.
The explanation box matters most. For reason 1, spell out which terms were breached and how; s. 206(4) demands this for consent orders. Give the due date, the amount owed, and every payment received with its date. For reasons 2 and 3, tell the story of what happened.
Part 3: Signature. Choose requester, representative or other. Add a name and phone, a signature and the date; a representative also lists licence number and contact information. Re-opening a mediated settlement? Rule 13.12 requires a copy to be attached.
Filing and service
File it on the Tribunals Ontario Portal, which is the route the Board lists; licensed representatives have no alternative. The Board then schedules the matter and issues a Notice of Hearing. Next, the filer delivers both documents to the other party (s. 206(7)) and proves it with a Certificate of Service under Rule 3.8.
Six errors that sink a re-opening
- Letting the 30 days pass on a consent order. The period in s. 206(6) is prescribed. No extension is possible.
- A fuzzy description of the breach. Under s. 206(8), the merits are not heard on a consent order until the Board is satisfied a term was broken. Identify the term, the due date and how much was short.
- Leaving out the mediated settlement. A copy is mandatory under Rule 13.12.
- Trying this on a regular order. Apart from s. 206 consent orders, a case closed by an order stays closed (Rule 13.13).
- Late or missing service. The minimum is 15 days before the hearing (Rule 5.13). Skipping service altogether risks dismissal under Rule 5.17.
- Taking late money with no clear record. Payments received after a breach make it harder to say which failure started the clock, and when. Track every dollar.
For the tenant on the other side
Served with one of these as a tenant? The first question at the hearing is narrow: was a term actually broken? Bring your own receipts and bank records showing dates and amounts, since the Board needs to be satisfied of a breach before the original case is reopened (s. 206(8)). Check the timing as well; a consent-order breach must be raised within 30 days of the missed payment.
The hearing
Step one for the Board is proof of the ground (s. 206(8)–(9)): was a term breached, or did coercion or a deliberate misrepresentation materially affect the deal? Only with a yes does it move to the original application, where it can make any order it could have made at the start, eviction included on an L1. With a no, the request fails and the existing order or settlement keeps applying.
Frequently asked questions
Which is better for a missed payment: L4 or re-opening?
Where the L1 order includes the s. 78 term, the L4 is quicker: free, no notice, and no hearing before the order. Re-opening is the choice for L9 orders, orders lacking that term, and situations where you want the Board to look at the whole case again.
The tenant missed more payments later. Does each one restart the 30 days?
The statute's trigger is "a failure of the tenant to meet a term" (s. 206(6)), so on its plain words each later missed payment carries a separate 30 days. The LTB has published no guidance on repeated missed payments, so act quickly on the first one you intend to rely on, and get advice before banking on a later one. On its own, a missed payment more than 30 days old is out of time for good.
Is re-opening only for landlords?
No. A tenant, like a landlord, may re-open a s. 206 consent order within 30 days of it on the ground of coercion or deliberate misrepresentation, and may rely on Rule 13.11 to re-open a mediated settlement.
Whose job is it to serve the Notice of Hearing?
Whoever filed. Under s. 206(7), that person delivers both the request and the notice to everyone else, no later than 15 days before the hearing.