As Founders of openroom.ca, we want to take a moment to express our heartfelt appreciation for your passionate support and involvement.
In September 2022, we created a small passion project that was motivated from our own tenancy dispute. Over the course of the last year, the community has responded to our project with curiosity and engagement. This is not to be taken for granted because many projects don’t end up getting the attention they deserve. Thank you for your continued involvement and active participation.
As we maintained the website and got feedback from the you, we have begun to understand the depth of the rental ecosystem. Our interactions with you, the community, has taught us about the current state of affairs and pain points from many different perspectives. While there is a lot more to still learn, your feedback helped us understand the key points that Openroom is now rallying around.
Our vision is that one day, there will be a transparent and connected rental ecosystem that appropriately incentivizes responsible members.
Our operating principles will always remain true as we continue our work to achieve this vision.
1. Landlords are business owners. Being a landlord is not hands-free passive income. Landlords are providing a service of housing in exchange for money. The tenants are customers. Landlords should make every attempt to provide the best service: a well maintained rental unit that is safe and legal to inhabit. Landlords should be aware of and comply with rental policies and regulations of their place of business.
2. Tenants are responsible customers. Tenants are aware of the policies and regulations and should be empowered to advocate for their rights. Tenants are responsible customers who will pay for services rendered in a timely fashion, maintain the rental unit in good condition, and respect what is stipulated within the signed rental agreement.
With the two key points above, we want to create an ecosystem that incentivizes the millions of Landlords and Tenants to engage in the business of tenancy as responsible members of the rental ecosystem.
There is a lot of opportunity to save time, money, and mental calories. We can make massive improvements together.
Our team consists of Software Engineers, Product Managers, and Operations Specialists. All of us have either been on the Tenant and / or Landlord side of the ecosystem over the last 10 years. Not only do we have experience in the rental ecosystem, we are software builders at heart. We know what a great user experience looks like and we want to bring that to you.
We are building alongside a group of subject matter experts across Canada. They are Paralegals, Lawyers, Non - Profit Board Members, Corporate Executives, Collections Agencies, Credit Bureaus, Tenants, Property Managers, and Landlords. We could use your brain power too!
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Submitting a Court Order
Step 1: Obtain order from the court. After your hearing with the court in your Province or Territory, you will receive an official written order in the form of a virtual PDF or a physical piece of mail indicating the ruling between yourself and the other party / parties involved.
Step 2: Upload to Openroom. Submit your written court order onto Openroom by using the 'Submit a Court Order' button. You must send the original PDF attached in the email the court has sent. It must NOT be modified.
Step 3: Wait for Openroom team to review and approve After submission, our back office team will review the information within 48 hours. Once successful, the PDF document will be published to Openroom and become searchable by all who visit Openroom.ca.
Submitting a filed application (for the Province of Ontario only)
Step 1: File the application to the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB). There will be either a 'T' or 'L' form you filed with. See the two questions immediately below for which applications we accept.
Step 2: Upload to Openroom. Submit your filed application onto Openroom by using the 'Submit a Court Order' button. You must send the export of the application you filed with the filing number on the form. It must NOT be modified.
Step 3: Wait for Openroom team to review and approve. After submission, our back office team will review the information within 48 hours. Once successful, the PDF document will not be published to Openroom but the names will be searchable by all who visit Openroom.ca.
Applications are filed to eventually get to a court hearing, unless it is cancelled. At this point in time, we only accept applications filed to the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) of Ontario.
From the Tenant's side, we accept all 'T' application filings all because we believe that Landlords have a duty to provide great customer service when running their rental business. When a Tenant is treated unfairly, a Tenant should have the right to voice it. It is ultimately up to the filing party/parties whether they want to upload to Openroom or not.
Applications are filed to eventually go to a court hearing. At this point in time, we only accept applications filed to the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) of Ontario.
From the Landlord's side, we accept a limited set of 'L' application filings because we believe in situations where Tenants have done absolute wrongs per the Residential Tenancy Act. For example, we do not accept N12/L2 filings because it has been often used as a means to evict Tenants or raise rent.
When we are unable to prove its authenticity to create a fair and transparent residential tenancy system, we do not accept it.
An LTB Court Order is a piece of official proclamation by the LTB adjudicator that defines the legal relationships between the parties to a hearing (whether virtual or in-person)
Landlords and Tenants are frustrated that the Canadian Legal Information Institute (CanLII) does not upload orders issued by the Landlord and Tenant (LTB) / Residential Tenancy Boards (RTB) across Canada onto their site in a timely fashion, sometimes never at all. This results in the parties who are in the wrong to continuously harm their next victims without any repercussions.
Yes. The basics of our website are absolutely free at the moment. That includes the search and upload functionalities for all of you visiting Openroom.
No! It's for tenants too. If you're a tenant who experienced injustices and you have a Court Order or specifically accepted application filings, please upload it into the Openroom website.
Less than 48 business hours. When uploads are submitted, it is in 'pending' state until our back office team reviews it.
Yes. As of July 2023, we are servicing all court order submissions from across Canada! We only accept application filings (i.e. those that did not go to the tribunal courts yet) in Ontario. Since we started off in Ontario so you will see many court orders from Ontario. Overtime, the other provinces and territories will build up.
CanLII stands for The Canadian Legal Information Institute. On the website (https://www.canlii.org/en/), it states: 'The CanLII.org website provides access to court judgments from all Canadian courts, including the Supreme Court of Canada, federal courts, and the courts in all Canada’s provinces and territories. CanLII.org also contains decisions from many federal and provincial administrative tribunals.'
Court Orders are public information and once published, it will remain on the Openroom website unless it is proven to be a fraudulent record. To dispute a record in our database, please use the Openroom Record Dispute Form.
All Court Orders are public information by Canadian law. The only thing that Openroom does at this point in time is surface it in a database for others to search because CanLII isn't doing it fast enough (or in some cases, CanLII never publishes it). If you feel we have violated any legalities, we're happy to chat. You can reach us at hello@openroom.ca.
If you feel like you have something to contribute, we absolutely want to hear from you. Please reach us at hello@openroom.ca. We usually respond within 24 business hours.
There will also be times when our team reaches out to you to get your help. We hope you say 'yes'!!!
You can reach us at hello@openroom.ca. We usually respond within 24 business hours.