You waited four months for this hearing because your tenant hasn't paid rent for four months now. You filed the paperwork. You served the notice. You showed up. And then the adjudicator opens the file. You're ready to go. But then your tenant starts raising a complaint about a broken furnace from last November. Unfortunately, they are allowed to do that and it is in the RTA and most landlords have never even heard of this. Let me tell you more.

My name is Wet Tang Bulu. I am the CEO and co-founder ofopenroom.ca. I have seen thousands and thousands of orders come through our system and these are the topics that I track. I read through all the mistakes and what could happen so that you don't make the same mistakes these landlords did and the same mistakes that I made when I went through these problems.

Section 82 (RTA)

In today's video, I'm going to be talking specifically about section 82 of the Residential Tenancies Act in Ontario. This is very specific to when a tenant brings up section 82 all about maintenance and it could derail your application.

All right, let's rewind. The Ontario Residential Tenancies Act, also known as the RTA, is the law that governs every rental in this province. The RTA is administered by the Landlord and Tenant Board, Ontario's Housing Tribunal, or the LTB for short.

Form L1

When you file an L1, that is the application form for evicting a tenant over unpaid rent. You expect the hearing to be about rent, right? What I didn't know in the past is that section 82 of the residential tenancies act says your tenant can bring something else entirely.

T-Applications Form

So, at your L1 hearing, a tenant can raise any issue they could have filed a T application form. T applications are the forms tenants use to report maintenance failures, illegal entry, and rights of violations. If your tenant raises one at your eviction hearing, the adjudicator can reduce the rent of ears, delay the eviction, or even dismiss your L1. And then the whole hearing could be dragged out because there is more to it than just non-payment of rent.

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Here is why this matters

Now, but let me tell you why this matters. So, say your tenant owes about $6,000 in rent and at the hearing they raise a section 82claim about a leak that went unprepared for five months. The adjudicator finds the leak reduced the value of the unit by 20% for 5 months at $2,000 rent. That is $2,000 in abatement. Now, your tenant actually just owes you $4,000. The eviction process can still proceed, but the arars just dropped. And if your maintenance record is worse, the number drops further.

Landlord Sam had DM'd me after his L1 hearing last spring. Sam's tenant had been paying nothing for four months. He filed the L1.He showed up to that hearing feeling ready. And about 10 minutes in, his tenant pulled out a folder. What? Photos of a radiator that had not worked properly since November. A text they had sent Sam in December asking about it. Another one in January. No response in writing ever. The adjudicator stopped the hearing and said she needed to hear this. Sam told me I didn't think any of that was relevant. I thought we were there to talk about rent. Wrong. Section82 says both things are relevant at the same time in your hearing.

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L1 Hearings + Section 82

‍All right, hold on. Let me explain how L1 hearings normally work and then what section 82 adds. Normally, what happens is that the L1 hearing is very straightforward. You present your notice, your ledger, your proof of service, and then the adjudicator checks whether the notice was valid. If the tenant owes rent, the order is issued. Standard order. Pretty straightforward. The section 82 makes a dent in that. Any tenant who wants to raise a maintenance or rights issue at your L1 hearing must give 7 days written notice to the LTB and then also to you. They must list the specific issues they intend to raise.
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The most common section 82 claims are maintenance issues

Common #1 Maintenance Issues

If they do this correctly, the adjudicator has to hear both things at the same hearing. The most common section 82 claims are maintenance issues. Your furnace was broken. The water heater failed. A window could not close and mold appeared and you did nothing to fix it for 3 months. These are maintenance failures undersection 20 of the RTA. A tenant can file a T6 application for these. At your eviction hearing, they can raise them under section 82 instead.

Common #2 Illegal Entry

The second most common is for illegal entry. If you entered the unit without giving 24 hours notice, a tenant can raise that at the hearing. that falls under a T2application raised through section 82.

Common #3 Rent Overcharge

‍Third most common is rent overcharge. If you raised rent without proper notice or above the guideline, the tenant can then raise that too as a T1 application.

And the interesting part is that the adjudicator hears all of it at your eviction hearing for non-payment of rent issues. If the adjudicator agrees with the tenant on a section 82 claim, the remedy comes off the arrears and that is the mechanism to understand. You are owed $8,000 in unpaid rent. The adjudicator finds the landlord failed to repair the heating system for 90 days. That is a 15% rent abatement for 3 months on a$2,500 unit. That ends you at about 1,125 and then your rears drop to now 6,875instead of the original 8,000 that they owe.

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What the Adjudicator Can Do

‍The adjudicator can still order an eviction. section 83 of the RTA give them broad discretion to delay or deny it. Most of the time though, if rent is genuinely owed, the eviction process will proceed. The question is how much the tenant owes when it does. And in extreme cases, if maintenance failures are severe and well documented, the abatement can wipe out the fullers and then theL1 gets dismissed.

Here is what todo before every L1 hearing

Here's what you want to do before every L1 hearing for non-payment of rent. pull your maintenance records, every email, every text, every work order, every repair receipt. If you believe that your tenant might pull out a section 82, if you received a maintenance request and responded within a reasonable time, you have a defense against that abatement, and there's nothing really to worry about. If you received the complaint and ignored it, then that's where the section 82 claim is going to land, and you will have to be very careful there. Check the unit history. Check the logs. Rent increase notices any document a tenant could point to and say you violated their rights. You should know your own weaknesses before the hearing starts. There should be no surprise because you don't want that at the hearing. Section82 is not a loophole.

It is a design feature. The RTA is built so that the landlords and tenants resolve everything at once. One hearing, all the issues, one order. At least that's the intention of it. Whether that happens in practice, that's another story we can discuss later. All right. The system works in your favor if your records are clean, but it would work against you if you have been ignoring maintenance calls, entering without notice, or raising rent without proper form. The paper trail here is the whole game, so make sure you have it. And tenants with photos beat landlords with just a memory.

Overall, three things to remember

First, section 82 of the RTA lets your tenant raise maintenance and rights violations inside your L1 hearing, not just as a separate hearing. Two, a valid section 82 claim reduces the arrears. In extreme cases, it cancels the eviction entirely. Although it's rare, it still happens. Number three, your best defense is a written maintenance record showing you've responded and taken care of all of your duties. Testimony alone does not quite get you the win on this one. If you're heading into an L1 hearing, audit your records, be prepared, and also prep your legal rep if you've got one. They'd want to know what they could be blindsided with.

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• Residential Tenancies Act (RTA), 2006 - Full Text: The official Ontario government law governing all landlord and tenant relationships in the province.
• Section 82 of the RTA - Tenant Issues at Hearing: The specific section of the RTA that allows tenants to raise maintenance and rights violations at a landlord's eviction hearing.
• Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) - Main Website: Ontario's official housing tribunal that administers the RTA and handles all landlord and tenant disputes.
• Form L1 - Application to Evict a Tenant for Non-Payment of Rent: The official LTB application form landlords use to begin the eviction process when a tenant has not paid rent.
• T6 Form - Tenant Application about Maintenance: The form tenants use to formally report a landlord's failure to maintain the rental unit, which can also be raised under Section 82 at an L1 hearing.
• T2 Form - Application about Tenant Rights (Illegal Entry): The form tenants use to report rights violations such as a landlord entering the unit without proper 24-hour notice.
• T1 Form - Tenant Application for a Rebate (Rent Overcharge): The form tenants use to seek a rebate when a landlord has charged rent above the legal guideline or without proper notice.
• Tribunals Ontario Portal - Online Filing: The official online portal where landlords and tenants can file L1, T1, T2, T6, and other LTB applications digitally.
• LTB Guide to the Residential Tenancies Act: A plain-language summary of the RTA published by the LTB covering landlord and tenant rights and responsibilities.