Repairs in an Ontario rental: who fixes what, and how fast

01The split: repair versus clean

Section 20 of the Residential Tenancies Act puts the repair duty on the landlord. You provide and maintain the complex and the units in a good state of repair, fit to live in, and in line with health, safety, housing and maintenance standards.

The next line matters more than people expect. That duty applies even if the tenant knew about the problem before they signed. A tenant who took the place knowing the back window did not close has not agreed to live with it.

The tenant's side is narrower. Section 33 makes the tenant responsible for ordinary cleanliness. Section 34 makes them responsible for repairing undue damage caused deliberately or carelessly by them, another occupant or someone they let in.

So the dividing line is not how big the job is. It is what caused it. A twenty year old dishwasher that dies is yours. A dishwasher a guest broke is theirs.

02Heat has a number

Most of this area is judgement. Heat is not. The regulation under the Act names September 1 to June 15 as the period when heat is a vital service.

During that period, where the landlord supplies the heat, it has to be provided so that the temperature is at least 20 degrees Celsius. The measurement is taken 1.5 metres above the floor and one metre from an outside wall, in any habitable space and in areas tenants normally use, such as a recreation room or a laundry room. Locker rooms and garages are excluded.

There is one exception. The rule does not apply to a unit where the tenant controls the temperature themselves and 20 degrees can be maintained by the main heat source. If the tenant has the thermostat, the duty is that the system can deliver, not that the room is at any particular number.

Municipal by-laws can set a higher standard, and many cities do. Check yours, because that is the number an inspector will use.

03How fast is fast enough

There is no table of deadlines in the Act. The standard is a good state of repair, and what that means in practice is judged case by case.

That sounds vague, and it is, but it works out in a predictable way. The more the problem affects health, safety or the basic use of the home, the shorter the reasonable window.

No heat in February, no water, no working lock on the front door, a live electrical fault: these are same day or next day. A leak that is spreading is measured in days. A cupboard door that will not sit straight can wait for the next visit.

The practical answer is to reply the same day even if you cannot fix it the same day. Tell the tenant what you are doing and when. Most maintenance applications to the Board are not about the repair taking two weeks. They are about nobody answering for two weeks.

04How to document a repair

If a repair ever gets argued about, it will be argued about a year later, from memory, unless you wrote it down. Five fields are enough.

1. 1

   The date it was reported, and by whom

   In writing where possible. A text message counts. If the tenant told you at the door, send them a short message confirming what you heard, which puts a date on it.

2. 2

   What the problem is, with a photo

   One photo at the time of reporting. It settles later arguments about whether the damage grew or was always that size.

3. 3

   What you did, and when

   Booked a contractor on the 3rd, attended on the 6th, part ordered, returned on the 11th. Gaps are fine if they are explained.

4. 4

   The invoice

   Keep it. It is proof of the work and it is a deductible expense at year end, on the repairs and maintenance line of the T776.

5. 5

   The date it was closed

   Ideally with the tenant confirming it is fixed. That confirmation is worth more than anything else in the file.

05What a tenant can do instead of withholding rent

The Board's own guidance is direct about this. A tenant should not withhold any part of the rent, even where maintenance is poor. Withholding rent creates arrears, and arrears are their own process with their own notice.

The route that works starts with a written request. A letter, an email or a maintenance form, with a copy kept. That copy is the first exhibit in every successful maintenance case.

If the problem is not fixed in a reasonable time, the tenant can file a T6, Tenant Application about Maintenance. It costs $53, or $48 through the Tribunals Ontario Portal. There is a one year limit: the application has to be made within a year of the conduct complained about.

The Board has real remedies. It can order a rent abatement, order the repair done by a deadline, authorise the tenant to do the repair and be reimbursed, award money for expenses or damaged property, prohibit a rent increase until the work is done, or in a serious case end the tenancy.

There is also a middle route. Where a tenant has a maintenance application in front of the Board, section 195 lets the Board permit the tenant to pay some or all of the rent into the Board instead of to the landlord. Rent paid that way is not treated as a default. That is the lawful version of what withholding is trying to be.

06What to do this month

How TenantBay helps: each issue carries its own activity timeline, so the reported date, what was done, the invoice and the closing date sit on one record instead of across a phone and a shoebox.

• Put one written channel in front of every tenant for repairs, and reply on it the same day.
• Check the heat before September 1, not in the first cold week.
• Write down five fields per repair: reported, what, action, invoice, closed.
• Keep every invoice. They are the evidence at a hearing and the deduction at tax time.
• If a tenant says they are withholding rent, answer the repair first and the arrears second. Both processes will run, and the repair is the one you can still influence.