The September 21 LTB changes: the fine print beyond the seven-day clock

When we covered Bill 60's September 21 changes earlier this month, the headline was the seven-day eviction clock, and one big procedural change — the 50 per cent arrears rule — still had no confirmed start date. It does now. The Landlord and Tenant Board's September 21 operational update confirms the rule is in force, along with a longer list of changes than most coverage has mentioned. Some cut against tenants; two are new protections worth knowing about.

This is general information, not legal advice. For a live dispute, Ontario's community legal clinics, the LTB's resources, or a paralegal are the places to start.

The half-the-arrears rule is now in force

To raise other issues at a non-payment-of-rent hearing — bad maintenance, harassment, illegal charges — a tenant must now pay the landlord half of the arrears claimed in the application, at least seven days before the hearing. It applies where the landlord filed the arrears application on or after September 21, 2026.

Two details matter. The payment goes directly to the landlord — the LTB will not hold it in trust — so keep a receipt as proof. And the existing requirement to give the landlord and the Board a written list of your issues at least seven days ahead still applies on top. Miss either step and your maintenance complaints wait for a separate tenant application instead of offsetting the arrears claim.

The arrears hearing used to be where a tenant with a leaking ceiling could put the whole story in front of an adjudicator. Now that costs half the claimed arrears, paid up front.

A new tenant protection: the 60-day occupancy presumption

Buried in the same update is a change that helps tenants fighting bad-faith own-use evictions. For N12 notices, the landlord (or their family member) must normally move in within 60 days of the termination date. If they don't, and the tenant files a T5 bad-faith application, the Board now presumes the eviction was in bad faith — the landlord has to prove otherwise. That flips the hardest part of a bad-faith own-use case: the burden of proof. It doesn't apply to purchaser's-own-use evictions.

Renoviction: right of first refusal, with teeth

If you get an N13 for renovations and give written notice that you want to return, the landlord must now tell you in writing the estimated completion date, update you if it changes, notify you when the unit is ready, and give you 60 days to move back in — at a rent no higher than if you'd never left. Skip those steps and the Board presumes you were denied your right of first refusal. The T5 filing deadline also changed: two years from moving out, or six months after renovations finish, whichever is later. This provincial layer sits alongside Toronto's own renoviction bylaw.

The rest of the list

The update also confirms: persistent late payment is now defined as rent arriving more than seven days late at least three times in six months; the Board's power to delay or set aside evictions is narrower, especially for own-use and renovation cases, where it need only be satisfied a delay wouldn't be unfair to the landlord; and ten notice and application forms were replaced — old versions stop being accepted November 30, 2026, a detail small landlords should not learn the hard way at a hearing.

Check the record on both sides

These rules reward whoever knows the building's history. Before a hearing — or before you sign anywhere new — pull the property's orders and violations, check its bylaw investigations, remember that LTB orders are a public download, and set up monitoring so the next order or permit on your address lands in your inbox.