An eviction order for unpaid rent in Ontario is not always the end of the tenancy. Pay every dollar the order demands and a tenant can use this motion to have the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) treat the L1 order as void. Below: when paying works, when it doesn't, what the tenant files, and how the landlord can respond.

Summary
Filed by The tenant named in an arrears-based L1 order
Timing After paying in full: pre-enforceable-date (some or all money paid directly to the landlord), or post-enforceable-date but pre-Sheriff
Hard stops Nothing helps once the Sheriff has acted. The post-enforceable route is a one-time option per tenancy agreement
Filing and service To the Board, with proof of payment and a declaration; serve two days (48 hours) or more ahead of a hearing
Fee $0
Landlord's reply S3 Motion to Set Aside an Order to Void: 10 days from a no-hearing order

How paying voids an order

The mechanism is s. 74 of Ontario's Residential Tenancies Act, 2006 (RTA): a tenant ordered out for arrears can buy the tenancy back. The route depends on the calendar.

Stage 1: before the enforceable date (s. 74(4)–(6))

The order becomes void once the tenant has paid, to the landlord or to the LTB, all of the following:

Item Included
The arrears in the order Yes
Every rent instalment falling due between the order and the payment Yes
NSF cheque charges and NSF administration charges the order allows Yes
Costs the order awards Yes

Everything paid into the LTB? No motion needed; the Board sends out its own notice that the order is void (s. 74(5); Rule 20.2).

Any part paid to the landlord? Then the motion is required. It is filed ex parte (the landlord is not told), asks for confirmation that the order is void, and is decided on paper (s. 74(6)–(8)).

Stage 2: after the enforceable date, before the Sheriff enforces (s. 74(11))

Three steps: pay the entire balance, current rent included; file the motion with notice going to the landlord; and swear that the money covers it. The Board then hears the matter (s. 74(14)).

The limits

  • Stage 2 is a one-time option for each tenancy agreement (s. 74(12)).
  • If any Stage 2 requirement is missing, s. 74(11.1) obliges the Board to refuse it.
  • Page 2 of the form is clear that enforcement by the Sheriff, or the tenant's departure, ends the possibility of voiding.

Is this the right form?

It is built for one thing: an L1 order flowing from an N4. Orders made ex parte on an L3 or L4 are attacked through the S2; most others through the Request to Review an Order. Paying some but not all leaves the order intact, and money short of the full amount deposited with the Board is refunded to the tenant (Rules 20.3 to 20.6).

Dates to track

The enforceable date. Printed on the order, together with the amount that voids it before that date. From that day on, the Court Enforcement Office (Sheriff) may act, and the tenant's payoff grows by every rent instalment that comes due.

Example. An order made on March 3, 2027 says the tenant can void it by paying $4,800 before it becomes enforceable on March 14, 2027. Monthly rent: $1,600, payable on the first. Paying $4,800 in full on March 10 voids the order (Stage 1). If the tenant waits until April 5, rent for April has also fallen due, so the payment has to be $6,400 plus anything else the order requires, and a Stage 2 motion is needed.

Service. Rule 5.11: at least two days (48 hours) before the hearing time on the Notice of Hearing.

The landlord's S3. Ten days, counted from issuance of the s. 74(6) paper order, is the landlord's window (s. 74(9)). An extension request has to travel with the S3 (Rule 16.2).

Order expiry. Unfiled with the Sheriff half a year after its effective date, an eviction order lapses (s. 81). Guideline 10 says the six months pause while a Board motion has the order stayed.

Completing the form

Use the 15/12/2018 version. It opens with two pages of explanation before the motion proper.

  1. Between / File Number. Parties' names, rental address, Board file number.
  2. The request. One line: fill in your name, the order's file number and its date, asking for a finding that it is void.
  3. Signature. Tenant (or representative): sign, print name and phone, date it.
  4. Declaration for the Tenant's Motion. Confirm that arrears, costs, NSF charges and every rent payment since the order are paid. Below that, a table for post-hearing payments only: how much, when, to whom, and in what form (money order, cheque, cash). Anything paid earlier is already accounted for in the order.
  5. Proof of payment. Landlord receipts or Board trust deposit slips go in with it.

Declaration or affidavit? The statute (s. 74(7) and (11)) says affidavit; the form says declaration. No conflict: under Rule 1.5, any RTA affidavit requirement can be met by a signed, dated declaration with identical content that affirms its truth and recognizes that a false one is an offence. Guideline 11's wording, which allows either a signed declaration or an affidavit, is consistent.

Filing

No charge. Where to file is a little unclear: the Board's forms page today shows it as a Portal filing, whereas the 2018 form itself sends people to an LTB office, the mail, a courier or ServiceOntario.

In RTA terms (s. 74(11)) the motion seeks to set aside the eviction order, which brings in Rule 25.1. So the moment a Notice of Hearing and stay come out, copies must go to the Court Enforcement Office without delay, and if voiding is later confirmed, that confirmation goes there too (Rule 25.2).

What each side should do

If you are the tenant

  • Get the number exactly right. Arrears, every month of rent that has come due since the order, the NSF charges and costs allowed. Short by any amount and the order stands.
  • Keep every receipt. You'll need proof of each payment.
  • Know which stage you're in. Before the enforceable date, payment alone (Stage 1) can do it. After it, you need the motion, a hearing, and it can only be used once in the tenancy agreement.
  • Act on the stay. After filing a Stage 2 motion, take the Notice of Hearing and stay to the Court Enforcement Office right away.

If you are the landlord

  1. Reconcile immediately. Build a dated ledger: the ordered sum, rent falling due afterwards, allowed costs and NSF charges, each payment in. One dollar short and the order survives.
  2. Received an order voiding the eviction, made without a hearing? Where full payment did not in fact arrive before the enforceable date, an S3 (free) is due within 10 days. Expect it to fail, under s. 74(10), if the tenant either paid everything in time or has paid everything since.
  3. Tenant paid after the enforceable date? Your ledger and Sheriff fee receipts are the evidence. The Board fixes the non-refundable enforcement costs you incurred; until the tenant deposits that sum with the Board by the deadline, the eviction order keeps its force (s. 74(15)–(17)). A failed motion can lead to an order that the tenant repay you those costs (s. 74(18)).
  4. Look for an earlier motion. One Stage 2 motion per tenancy agreement is the limit (s. 74(12)); the eviction order is supposed to flag a prior use (s. 74(3)(c)).
  5. Don't enforce during a stay. Section 74(13) stays the order once a compliant s. 74(11) motion is filed.
  6. Run the numbers before taking money. Taking arrears isn't automatically a reinstatement (s. 45), yet collecting the whole amount can trigger voiding under s. 74.

Why motions to void fail

  1. Short payment. Forgetting rent that came due after the order, the NSF charges or the costs keeps the order alive (s. 74(4), (11)).
  2. Listing payments made before the hearing. They're baked into the order already; repeating them inflates the total and the declaration becomes wrong.
  3. A second Stage 2 motion in the same tenancy agreement. Barred by s. 74(12).
  4. A defective sworn statement. If it doesn't satisfy s. 74(11), refusal is mandatory and there is no stay (s. 74(11.1), (13.1)).
  5. Too late. Sheriff already acted, or tenant already gone: nothing left to void.
  6. Enforcement costs unpaid by the ordered date. Stay over; enforcement may proceed (s. 74(17)).

After filing

Pre-enforceable payments: a paper decision, open to an S3 from the landlord. Post-enforceable payments: a hearing, ending either in a declaration of voidness (enforcement costs aside) or the stay being lifted (s. 74(14)).

FAQ

Can paying after the eviction order still save the tenancy?

Yes. Ahead of the enforceable date: the ordered amount and any rent that has since come due. Afterwards: the full balance plus this motion, usable once per tenancy agreement and never after the Sheriff has acted.

Who covers the Sheriff's fee if the order is voided?

In Stage 2 the tenant does. The Board names the landlord's non-refundable enforcement outlay, and the tenant has to deposit it with the Board by the deadline given, or the voiding doesn't happen (s. 74(15)).

Does the motion cost anything, and where is it filed?

Free. The Board's website lists it under Portal filings, though the 2018 PDF mentions in-person LTB offices, post, courier and ServiceOntario. Either way, send the declaration and payment proof with it.

Can the landlord fight an order confirming the eviction order is void?

Yes. A paper voiding under s. 74(6) can be challenged by S3 within ten days of the order's issue date (s. 74(9)); a request for extra time must accompany it (Rule 16.2).

Is there a limit on how many times this can be used?

Post-enforceable motions: one per tenancy agreement (s. 74(12)). Pre-enforceable payment carries no equivalent cap.

Official sources