Want to know how an Ontario Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) adjudicator is likely to handle a question that comes up again and again? Look at the Interpretation Guidelines. They set out the Board's usual reading of the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006 (RTA) on topics such as rent arrears, own-use evictions, relief from eviction and reviews. Landlords and tenants preparing for a hearing can treat them as the Board's published reasoning. Below: their legal status, a link to every current guideline, and the four rewritten on September 21, 2026.

Quick summary

Question Short answer
Author The Rules and Guidelines Committee of the LTB (RTA s. 176)
Binding? No. Section 176(3) calls them "non-binding guidelines to assist members"
The point Adjudicators usually go along with them; each also gathers the leading cases on its subject
How many Twenty: 1 to 19, then 21. No number 20 is listed
Revised September 21, 2026 7, 10, 11, 12
Find them at LTB Law, rules and decisions

How much weight do they carry?

Their legal footing is RTA s. 176(3). It permits the committee to adopt guidelines that are non-binding, meant to help Members interpret and apply the Act and regulations. In practical terms:

  • The Member deciding your case does not have to follow a guideline.
  • A guideline gives way to the RTA, to a regulation, and to court decisions.
  • Even so, most Members decide the way the guideline describes, and each one footnotes the Board orders and appellate rulings (Divisional Court, Court of Appeal) behind it.

Put to work, a guideline helps at three stages:

  • Drafting a notice. Guideline 10 in particular lists the defects that invalidate a notice.
  • Getting ready for the hearing. You can predict the questions, for instance on the s. 83 circumstances Guideline 7 lists.
  • Making your argument. Cite the guideline and the cases inside it, but lead with the RTA and binding case law.

Guidelines are a separate thing from the Rules of Procedure (the procedural rulebook) and from Practice Directions (the Board's expectations of parties).

Tenants, take note: the guidelines are just as useful to you. Guideline 7 sets out when the Board can refuse or delay an eviction, Guideline 10 lists the notice defects you can point to, and Guideline 11 explains the new half-arrears rule at rent hearings.

The full list

Guideline No. In brief
Adjourning and Rescheduling Hearings 1 Postponing a hearing date: what the Board considers
Payment into the Board 2 Money held in trust by the Board, in and out
Costs 3 Making one side pay the other's filing fee or costs
Abandonment of a Rental Unit 4 Has the tenant left for good? The test the Board applies
Breach of Maintenance Obligations 5 Repair and upkeep duties owed by landlords; tenant remedies
Tenants Rights 6 Harassment, interference, vital services and other tenant claims
Relief from Eviction – Refusing or Delaying an Eviction 7 The s. 83 power to say no to, or put off, an eviction (rewritten Sept. 21, 2026)
Review of an Order 8 Asking for a review: the 15 days and the O. Reg. 178/26 grounds
Eviction for an Illegal Act or Business 9 Illegal acts and illegal businesses as eviction grounds (N6, N7)
Procedural Issues Regarding Eviction Applications 10 Is the notice valid? Service, filing windows, completeness, order expiry (rewritten Sept. 21, 2026)
Rent Arrears 11 Arrears cases (L1, L9, L10) and tenant issues raised at them (rewritten Sept. 21, 2026)
Eviction for Personal Use, Demolition, Repairs and Conversion 12 Own-use, demolition, repair and conversion evictions (N12, N13) and T5 claims (rewritten Sept. 21, 2026)
Other Powers of the Board 13 Catch-all Board powers, for example attaching conditions
Applications for Rent Increases Above the Guideline 14 Above-guideline increases (L5) for capital spending, taxes, security
Amending an Order 15 Correcting typos and clerical slips
Administrative Fines 16 Administrative fines and when they are imposed
Human Rights 17 Human Rights Code duties in Board cases
Restricting Public Access and Seeking Confidentiality Orders 18 Keeping hearings or records private: sealing, anonymizing, bans
The Landlord's Right of Entry into a Rental Unit 19 Entering a unit under ss. 26 and 27, with notice and without
Landlords, Tenants, Occupants and Residential Tenancies 21 Deciding who is a landlord, a tenant, or an occupant, and who can be a party

The September 21, 2026 rewrites

Bill 60 and Bill 97 amended the RTA and O. Reg. 516/06, and the operational update of September 21, 2026 brought four guidelines into line. Below are the practical highlights only; check the full current text of a guideline before you lean on it.

Guideline 7: Relief from Eviction

Under s. 83(1) the Board may deny an eviction outright if that would not be unfair, or it may postpone enforcement. The revised guideline follows O. Reg. 516/06, s. 8.4, which narrows the second choice. A delay is now possible only:

  • with the landlord's consent; or
  • for most grounds, where the Board is satisfied there are compelling grounds and the landlord and other tenants would not be treated unfairly by the delay.

On the N12 and N13 grounds (notices under ss. 48, 49 and 50), just the "not unfair" test is applied. Where neither route is open, the guideline says the Board "does not have the authority to delay an eviction".

Watch the examples. Older cases in the guideline where tenants won a delay (a tight rental market, serious illness, a very large family) all predate s. 8.4, and the guideline flags that they "may no longer be applicable". Two further points: Board eviction orders usually become enforceable 11 days after issue, though no RTA section fixes that figure; and s. 8.2 now supplies a test for setting an L3 order aside.

Guideline 10: Procedural Issues Regarding Eviction Applications

Think of this one as the validity checklist for notices and applications. Its topics:

  • the precise termination date (a wrong one cannot be amended and probably sinks the notice);
  • naming each tenant and each landlord, and signing;
  • giving reasons and details;
  • the s. 212 substantial-compliance rule;
  • more than one notice, each on its own ground;
  • N4s and first N5s that can be voided;
  • earliest and latest filing dates, complete applications, and when eviction orders expire.

Its N4 examples have been reworked around the 7-day period. It also follows the Divisional Court in treating unpaid rent as both late rent and arrears, so an N4 and an N8 can proceed together. Tribunals Ontario has flagged this guideline as revised effective September 21, 2026, yet gave no list of edits; rely on today's version instead of any copy you saved earlier.

Guideline 11: Rent Arrears

The revised Guideline 11:

  • states the 7-day N4 period for N4s given from September 21, 2026;
  • explains the new rule for rent applications (L1, L9, L10) filed since then: a tenant who wants to raise other issues under s. 82 must pay half the claimed arrears to the landlord, directly and not into the Board, at least 7 days before the hearing, even when the tenant disputes the amount;
  • covers the July 1, 2026 seasonal charge for tenant-installed air conditioners in units where rent includes electricity;
  • walks through calculating the arrears in each kind of rent application.

Guideline 12: Eviction for Personal Use, Demolition, Repairs and Conversion

Its subjects are N12s, N13s and T5 bad-faith claims. What changed on September 21, 2026:

  • The 120-day N12. A s. 48 (landlord's own use) N12 served from September 21, 2026, whose termination date is 120 days or more after the notice and falls on the last day of a period or term, carries no compensation or alternative-unit obligation (s. 48.1). This does not extend to purchasers' N12s.
  • The 60-day presumption. Sixty days is the window for the intended occupant to move in, measured from the N12 termination date, or from the tenant's actual departure if later. Miss it, and any T5 filed since September 21, 2026 begins with bad faith presumed (RTA s. 57(7)). The guideline points to O. Reg. 240/26 for this rule.
  • Returning after an N13. When a tenant says, from September 21, 2026 on, that they want to return, the landlord owes them written updates: the expected finish date, any revision of it, and notice once the unit is ready. A unit that becomes ready from that date on must be held for at least 60 days for the tenant to reoccupy.

Unchanged: N12s need 60 days' notice and N13s 120, with the date landing at the end of a rental period or term, and the intended occupant must be one of the people listed in s. 48(1).

Common questions

Are the guidelines law?

No. RTA s. 176(3) makes them non-binding. Members tend to follow them, yet the Act, the regulations and the courts come first.

May I rely on a guideline at the hearing?

Yes, and people often do. Point the Member to the guideline and the decisions it cites, and have the exact paragraph ready.

Why does the numbering skip 20?

No guideline is published under 20. The published list goes 1 to 19, then 21.

Are the older delay examples in Guideline 7 still reliable?

Maybe not. Guideline 7 warns that they were decided before s. 8.4 of O. Reg. 516/06 and might not hold up now.

Where do I find the guideline on reviews?

Guideline 8 covers it, including the 15-day limit and O. Reg. 178/26 grounds for orders from July 1, 2026 onward. The form itself is explained at Request to Review an Order.

Official sources