As rent prices have risen in Toronto, instances of tenants withholding rent in protest have become more common.
It’s called a “rent strike” and it is a practice that has gained widespread attention in the city in recent years, as the cost of a one-bedroom apartment surged to nearly $2.500.
In some cases, tenants use rent strikes to bring attention to poor conditions in their buildings. But for most, it’s a tool used to protest larger rent increases.
Sometimes rent strikes drag on for weeks or months but in other cases they can go for more than a year, in part due to a backlog of cases before the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB)
“It comes with the risk of eviction and landlords often try to criminalize it,” lawyer Samuel Mason, who has worked as a tenant rights lawyer for six years, both with Parkdale Community Legal Services and the Tenant Lawyer Professional Corporation, told CP24.com. “Landlords try to persecute tenants engaged in this type of organizing. … The social cost of what they’re doing, they do not want it to be known.”
Mason said that tenants, most often working-class ones, choose to stage a rent strike with the intention of making a strong statement and it usually has to do with them disagreeing with a landlord’s application to increase the rent significantly above what is permitted annually by the province.
Every year, the Ontario government sets a guideline rent increase for the following year for rent-controlled units, those that are first occupied before Nov. 15, 2018.
In 2024, landlords are permitted to raise the rent by 2.5 per cent. This is the same amount that was permitted in 2023. The year before that, the provincially-approved rent increase was 1.2 per cent.
Any rent increase above the set amount requires approval from the LTB.
According to the Residential Tenancies Act, above guideline increases (AGI) can be granted when a landlord’s costs for municipal taxes and charges have gone up by an “extraordinary” amount, when the renovations, repairs, replacements or new additions to their building or individual units are deemed to be “extraordinary or significant,” or when a landlord’s costs for security services increase.
Some of the other reasons why tenants may go on a rent strike is because they feel that their landlord is not properly maintaining their building or because they believe that their landlord has undertaken a series of unfair evictions, Mason said.
“Landlords will go to great lengths to get people to move out. They are prepared to evict tenants so they can find someone who will pay more, which will in turn increase their property values,” he said.
From a legal perspective, Mason said that tenants enter into an agreement with their landlord to pay rent in exchange for housing, however that contract comes with what is known as a “security of tenure,” which means that tenants can expect to not be evicted arbitrarily.
He said that a significant AGI can be the reason why tenants who are already struggling to make ends meet could end up living in poverty and see their quality of like decrease or even end up homeless. He said that this practice is essentially a roundabout way to unfairly evict tenants, to compromise their right to security of tenure.
“For some families, (an AGI) will be devastating because they will be evicted,” he said, adding tenants often feel no other option but to go on a rent increase to make their voices heard.
“People are so desperate to keep their rent affordable because the consequences are so real.”
Tenants who withhold their rent may receive an eviction notice from their landlord for non-payment of rent, even if they’re one day late.
The document that may be issued to tenants is known as an N4, a notice to end a tenancy early for non-payment of rent.
Tenants, however, have the right to challenge this notice and can refuse to comply with it if they disagree with the “details, substance, or purpose of it,” Mason noted.
A landlord who wishes to pursue an eviction is entitled to file an application for a hearing at the LTB, which could take a number of months to happen. Mason said that the tribunal has a track record of favouring eviction cases and moving them up the queue, especially when it comes to AGI matters, notably in cases when tenants have taken collective action.
Even if a tenant is ordered to vacate their unit on the basis of unpaid rent, the order becomes void if they pay the rent they owe before an ordered tenancy termination date, which usually includes the landlord’s filing fee, he noted.
Mason also said that tenants ordered to vacate their unit have the right to appeal their eviction at the LTB on the grounds of an error in law.
Tenants who are evicted for non-payment of rent should note that they still owe the unpaid rent to the landlord, which also includes the amount of any granted AGIs retroactive to when they were applied for by the landlord.
Tenants 'obliged to pay their rent,' says real estate lawyer
Despite how common rent strikes might seem, Long-time real estate lawyer Bob Aaron says tenant simply do not have the legal right to arbitrarily decide that they will no longer pay for housing.
“A tenant is obliged to pay their rent,” he said, pointing to the agreed upon terms of their least or monthly tenancy agreement.
“Under the Residential Tenancies Act (RTA) you have to pay rent – full stop. … It’s illegal to refuse to pay the rent.”
And while tenants are required by law to pay their rent in exchange for a roof over their head, he noted that landlords must also obey and are governed by the RTA, city bylaws and health regulations as well as the terms of the lease.
“The units must be fit for habitation, must have running water and heat in the winter, and not be unsafe,” said Aaron, who has practiced real estate law for more than five decades.
Aaron urged tenants who have concerns about their state of their housing to contact their municipality, which has the power to issue orders when housing-related bylaws and regulations are not being followed. Those inspections and orders must also be done and issued in much more timely way, he added.
Landlords, meanwhile, have and should exercise their right to evict tenants who do not pay their rent, said Aaron.
He said rent strikes are essentially tactic that is used to bring bad publicity to landlord and/or pressure them to cave and withdraw their applications for an above-guideline rent increase. However, he noted that they can also cause significant financial hardship to property owners.
Instead of placing blame on one side or the other, Aaron called on the Ontario government to take swifter action to address the concerns of both tenants and landlords so that it doesn’t come to the point where tenants feel that they have no other option but to withhold their rent. He also said that it makes no sense for the LTB’s eviction process to take nine to 12 months.
“It’s a disaster and the Ontario government should be ashamed of itself for denying access to justice to landlords and tenants,” said Aaron, adding the process put in place by the LTB to essentially hold unpaid rent in trust doesn’t sit well with him.
“Where’s the jurisdiction, the legal authority for holding the proceeds of a rent strike? I think that’s outrageous.”
100s of tenants are currently witholding their rent in Toronto
In Toronto’s west end, tenants in at least four apartment buildings are currently on a rent strike, with at least one of those actions dating back to last June.
Dozens of renters in three high-rise apartment buildings in East York’s Thorncliffe Park area have also been withholding their rent for more than year due to what they say are unfair AGI applications.
The landlord of those buildings has defended the rent increases as necessary to pay for structural building exterior and balcony restoration, lighting retrofit, and booster pump replacement.
“I think the fact that there are so many rent strikes speaks to how dire the housing situation is for tenants,” said Chiara Padovani, who is the co-chair of the York South-Weston Tenants Union (YSWTU), which is an umbrella organization that represents tenant groups at 13 buildings.
“The fact that people are exploring this kind of actions say a lot. … The intention isn’t to break the law, but to take collection action.”
She said that a lease needs to be viewed as a two-way agreement where tenants pay their rent, but landlords must also ensure that the buildings are safe and decent, and that the rent is stable.
“What we’re seeing is those parts of the agreement are not being followed through,” she said, adding YSWTU’s goal is to help educate and empower tenants when they choose to take this collective action.
“A rent strike is a coordinated, planned action and the strength of this action is in the numbers. … Tenants can only be exploited so far before they draw a line in the sand.”
Padovani noted that YSWTU works with a legal team to help those on rent strike navigate the process and understand their rights, and also ensure that landlords follow the law.
Mason said that’s a good idea, adding it’s important for tenants who choose to take this action to have good legal advice and to understand their rights as landlords can get quite aggressive and may try to intimidate them.
In the interim, the tenants of all of the aforementioned buildings have been ordered by the LTB to pay their rent to the board, which is holding the funds in trust until the matter is resolved.