Brochure: Mediation at the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB)

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What is Mediation at the LTB?

During mediation, a neutral person talks with the landlord and the tenant to help them reach an agreement that is acceptable to both sides. Mediation is voluntary; no one has to participate. Both the landlord and the tenant must agree to mediate for mediation to take place.

Mediation discussions at the LTB are led by a dispute resolution officer. The dispute resolution officer will explain what your rights are under the Residential Tenancies Act, but they will not give you advice.

Before you come to the mediation, you should think of solutions that might settle your differences. You may also want to talk to a representative before mediation or bring a representative with you. A representative can be a lawyer, a paralegal, a friend or a relative.

How Mediation Works

Mediation is available on the day of the hearing. If you want to mediate, arrive early to be sure there is time to meet with the dispute resolution officer before your hearing. At an online hearing, the dispute resolution officer will ask you to raise your hand if you want to mediate. At an in-person hearing, tell the security guard or LTB staff member that you want to mediate when you arrive. Remember that for mediation to take place, both sides must be willing to participate.

If the adjudicator gets to your case while you are waiting to mediate or in mediation, they will move on to the next case.

You may or may not resolve your dispute during mediation.

• If you can't agree, you can stop the mediation and have the application decided by a member at a hearing on the same day.
• If you reach an agreement during mediation, the dispute resolution officer will prepare a written agreement for you to sign and the hearing will be cancelled. You may also ask to have the terms of your agreement put into a consent order which will be issued by the LTB. The terms of a consent order (e.g. a tenant agrees to move out of the apartment on a specific date, the landlord must pay the tenant a rent rebate) can be enforced in the same way as other LTB orders.

Benefits of Mediation

1. You can come up with your own solution to the application, rather than having a member decide.
2. You can come up with solutions to other problems related to your tenancy that were not a part of the application.

Confidentiality

Only the parties and their representatives (if they have one) can attend mediation. Discussions that take place during mediation are private.

If you reach an agreement, you and the other side will each get a copy of the signed agreement; the LTB does not keep a copy. If your agreement is turned into a consent order, the LTB will send a copy of the order to each party.

If you do not reach an agreement, the hearing goes ahead. At the hearing, no one can tell the member what was said during mediation.

If the Agreement is not Followed

If one party does not follow the agreement, then the other party can file a Request to Re-open an Application. If the application is re-opened, an LTB member will deal with the issues raised in the original application at a hearing. You can’t file a Request to Re-open if the LTB has issued a consent order.

A mediated agreement or consent order related to an eviction application can include a term that allows the landlord to ask the LTB to issue an eviction order without holding a hearing if the tenant doesn’t do what they are supposed to do (e.g. make a payment by a deadline). For this reason, tenants should carefully consider whether they can live up to the conditions of the mediated agreement or consent order before they agree to it.

For More Information

For more information about mediation, see Rule 13 of the LTB's Rules of Procedure at tribunalsontario.ca/ltb.

Contact the Landlord and Tenant Board

Last updated: June 2021