Your first stop for self-help is a review of our FAQs. Take a look at the ever increasing collection of questions asked by Ontario’s small-scale landlords as well as the actual answers provided by Landlord’s Self-Help Centre.
Yes. A tenant does not need the landlord’s permission to request a stay. If the Board or Court grants the stay, the Sheriff must pause enforcement until the matter is decided. This can happen very quickly, sometimes right before the scheduled eviction. The landlord must then wait for the next hearing or decision before proceeding. It is frustrating, but it is part of the legal process.
Yes. In many non-payment cases, if the tenant pays all rent arrears, and filing fees as per the order before the Sheriff enforces the eviction and files a motion to void the order, the eviction order will not be enforced. This is called voiding the eviction and is usually allowed once during a tenancy. The exact wording of the order matters, so landlords should review their eviction orders carefully.
A stay means that the eviction is temporarily paused. Even after a landlord has obtained an eviction order, the tenant may ask the Landlord and Tenant Board or the Court to temporarily suspend enforcement while the matter is being reviewed. This may occur, for example, if the tenant has filed a request for a review or an appeal of the eviction order. A stay does not cancel the eviction permanently, but it can delay the Sheriff from enforcing the eviction order until the review or appeal has been decided.
The Board member will decide whether to hear from the parties on some or all of the issues raised in the request to review. It is recommended that you be prepared to address all the issues in both the request to review and the original application. Below is a link to the Board’s Interpretation Guidelines on Review of an Order so you can get a better idea on how the Board deals with this issue, https://tribunalsontario.ca/documents/ltb/Interpretation%20Guidelines/08%20-%20Review%20of%20an%20Order.html