Hydro Shifted onto Your Bill? Ontario's T7 Application on Suite Meters and Shared Utilities

Ontario has strict, paperwork-heavy rules for two utility arrangements: moving a unit's electricity onto the tenant through a suite meter, and billing tenants of small buildings a percentage of a shared utility. When a tenant thinks the landlord skipped a step, the complaint goes to the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) on Form T7. In most cases the outcome depends on whether the landlord can produce the consent form, the notices and the rent-reduction math.

Quick facts

What the law requires

Suite meters (s. 137)

A landlord who provides electricity under the tenancy can cut it off briefly to install a suite meter, provided (s. 137(2)) the work is done by a suite meter provider, power is off for the minimum time possible, and the tenant is properly warned. Under O. Reg. 394/10, the warning is written, comes at least a day ahead, and names a time window falling between 8 in the morning and 6 in the evening.

Moving the cost of electricity onto the tenant takes four steps:

1. hand over the prescribed information before asking for consent (s. 137(4));
2. get the tenant to sign the Board's consent form, titled Tenant Agreement to Pay Directly for Electricity Costs;
3. provide written notice a full month (30 days) or longer before the switch; and
4. cut the rent by the amount the regulation prescribes (s. 137(3)).

Electrically heated units face extra hurdles (s. 137(5)). And O. Reg. 394/10, s. 10 sets fridge vintages: a landlord-supplied fridge cannot predate January 1, 1994, and a replacement cannot predate December 31, 2002.

Shared utilities in small buildings (s. 138)

Percentage billing of a utility is allowed only in buildings with no more than six units, and only if the tenant agrees in writing, gets a month's (30 days') written notice, and receives a corresponding rent cut. Prospective tenants must learn, before signing, both their unit's share and the latest available year's total cost for that utility (s. 138(4)). The trade-off for landlords: unpaid shares can never be the basis of an N4, an L1 or an L9 (s. 138(3)).

What the Board can order

Section 137(12) options: abating rent; ordering repairs or replacements, or reimbursing a tenant who paid for them; reducing rent and ordering a rebate; anything else appropriate. For consent, information or electric-heat breaches, s. 137(13) also lets the Board terminate the tenancy, or send the hydro bill back to the landlord and fix a new rent.

Picking the right form

Use the T7 for suite meter and apportionment issues and nothing else. Ordinary repair problems: T6. Other unlawfully collected money: T1. Note that charges, fees and deposits for supplying electricity are not "rent", so ss. 134 and 135 don't apply to them (s. 137(16)). Disputes with the electricity distributor or the suite meter provider are for the Ontario Energy Board; its contact details are part of the information the landlord must provide before asking for consent.

Time limits

Example: a landlord moves a tenant onto a suite meter on February 1, 2026 without the LTB consent form. A T7 on that ground should be filed by February 1, 2027. A complaint that the supplied fridge was made before 1994 has no deadline.

Older tenancies. Section 137(19) may keep pre-2020 tenancies under the old wording of s. 137.

Completing the T7

The current form is version 01/04/2022.

Part 1 – General Information. Where the unit is, who the tenants and landlord are, the move-in date, a yes/no on current occupancy, and any related file numbers.

Part 2 – Reasons, sorted by situation:

Part 3 – Remedies. Eight choices:

1. rent abated;
2. tenant reimbursed for work already done;
3. tenant authorized to do work and bill the landlord;
4. landlord ordered to do the work;
5. rent lowered, with a rebate;
6. other relief;
7. tenancy terminated;
8. utility handed back to the landlord and the rent reset.

Only Reasons 2, 3, 4 and 10 unlock numbers 7 and 8.

Part 4 – Signature. Payment page follows.

Filing

No Portal filing exists for the T7. Choose post or courier (LTB, 15 Grosvenor Street, Toronto), a ServiceOntario centre accepting LTB filings, or email to [email protected], which prompts a secure payment link valid for three calendar days. Cost: $53.

Preparing: both sides

Tenant

• Pin down the date each problem started; most claims must be filed within a year of it.
• Keep whatever you were given (or note what you weren't): the consent form, any information sheet, the 30-day notice, the installation notice, rent receipts before and after.
• For a fridge complaint, the manufacture date is usually on a label inside or behind the unit.
• Choose remedies that match your reasons; 7 and 8 need Reason 2, 3, 4 or 10.

Landlord

1. Assemble the documents: the tenant's signed Board consent form, the pre-consent information sheet, the month's notice, the day-ahead installation notice, and your rent-cut calculation. Small-building percentage billing also needs the share and annual-total disclosure given before the tenancy began.
2. Run the dates. Twelve months after the first breach, consent, notice and disclosure claims expire; refrigerator and conservation claims never do.
3. Fridges. Record when each fridge you provide was manufactured, and where costs are apportioned, do it for the whole building.
4. Electric heat. Electrically heated units need proof that the extra s. 137(5) requirements were satisfied.
5. Lease wording. Section 137(18) voids any tenancy clause giving advance consent to taking over hydro.
6. Disclose on time: one week ahead, or five days for reply material (Rules 19.1–19.2).

Why T7 claims fail

1. Too late. Consent, notice and disclosure claims filed over a year after the breach first happened are barred.
2. The building is too big. Seven or more units puts it outside s. 138.
3. Remedy 7 or 8 paired with the wrong reasons. Those two need Reason 2, 3, 4 or 10.
4. The real dispute is with the distributor or meter provider, over their charges or deposits, rather than the landlord.
5. Wrong filing route, or the fee isn't paid. Portal filings and unpaid applications both go nowhere.

After filing

A hearing, then an order. For orders dated July 1, 2026 or later, either side may ask for a review inside 15 days; legal questions may be appealed to Divisional Court within 30 (s. 210).

FAQ

Hydro is included in the lease. Can the landlord make the tenant start paying it?

Five boxes must all be ticked: metering in place, prescribed information delivered up front, written consent on the Board's form, a month's written notice, and a correct rent cut (s. 137(3)–(4)). Refusing is the tenant's right.

Can a tenant be evicted for not paying their share of a utility?

No. Section 138(3) rules out an N4, L1 or L9 grounded on an unpaid utility share.

What are the fridge age rules?

Landlord-supplied: built January 1, 1994 or later. Replacements: built December 31, 2002 or later.

What is the deadline for a T7?

Twelve months from the first breach, as a rule. Conservation and efficiency claims carry none.

Official sources

• Residential Tenancies Act, 2006, ss. 137, 138, 207, 210
• O. Reg. 394/10, Suite Meters and Apportionment of Utility Costs
• T7 Instructions
• T7 – Tenant Application about Suite Meters (PDF)
• Tenant Agreement to Pay Directly for Electricity Costs (PDF)
• LTB Rules of Procedure, Rules 19, 26
• LTB Forms, filing and fees