With rents rising in Toronto, it is becoming increasingly common for tenants to refuse to pay rent in protest.

This is called a “rent strike,” and the practice has attracted a lot of attention in the city in recent years as the cost of a one-bedroom apartment has risen to nearly $2,500.

In some cases, tenants use rent strikes to draw attention to the poor conditions in their buildings, but for most, it is a means of protesting against major rent increases.

Sometimes rent strikes last for weeks or months, but in other cases they can last for more than a year, partly due to a backlog of cases before the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB).

“There is a risk of eviction and landlords often try to criminalize it,” attorney Samuel Mason, who has worked as a tenants’ rights attorney for six years at both Parkdale Community Legal Services and the Tenant Lawyer Professional Corporation, told CP24.com. “Landlords try to prosecute tenants who engage in this type of organizing. … They don’t want to bring the social cost of what they’re doing to light.”

Mason said tenants – mostly working-class tenants – stage a rent strike to make a strong statement, usually about disagreeing with a landlord’s request to raise rent well above the amount allowed by the province each year.

Each year, the Ontario government sets a benchmark for the following year’s rent increase for rent-controlled housing units first occupied before November 15, 2018.

In 2024, landlords will be allowed to increase rent by 2.5 percent. This is the same amount that was allowed in 2023. The previous year, the rent increase approved by the province was 1.2 percent.

Any rent increase beyond the specified amount requires the approval of the LTB.

Under the Residential Tenancy Act, above-average rent increases (AGI) may be granted if a landlord’s costs for municipal taxes and fees have increased by an “extraordinary” amount, if renovations, repairs, replacements or additions to its building or individual units are deemed “extraordinary or substantial,” or if a landlord’s costs for security services have increased.

Other reasons tenants might go on rent strikes, Mason said, include that they feel their landlord is not properly maintaining the building or that they believe their landlord has carried out a series of unjustified evictions.

“Landlords will do anything they can to get people to move out. They are willing to evict tenants so they can find someone who will pay more, which in turn increases the value of their properties,” he said.

From a legal perspective, Mason said, tenants enter into an agreement with their landlord to pay rent in exchange for an apartment. However, this contract comes with what is known as a “surety of purchase,” meaning tenants can expect not to be arbitrarily evicted.

He said a significant AGI can be the reason why renters who are already struggling to make ends meet live in poverty and their quality of life declines or even cause them to become homeless. He said this practice is essentially a roundabout way to unfairly evict renters and jeopardize their right to rental security.

“For some families, (an AGI) would be devastating because they would be evicted,” he said, adding that tenants often have no choice but to push for a rent increase to make their voices heard.

“People are desperately trying to keep their rent affordable because the consequences are so real.”

Tenants who are behind on rent can receive an eviction notice from their landlord for nonpayment of rent, even if they are one day behind.

The document that can be issued to tenants is known as an N4 and is a notice to terminate a tenancy early for non-payment of rent.

However, tenants have the right to challenge this notice and can refuse to comply with it if they disagree with its “details, content or purpose,” Mason noted.

A landlord seeking eviction is entitled to file a motion for a hearing with the LTB, which can take several months. Mason said that in the past, the court has favored and given priority to eviction cases, particularly in AGI matters, especially in cases where tenants have taken collective action.

Even if a tenant is asked to vacate his or her apartment due to unpaid rent, the notice will be invalid if he or she pays the rent owed before the ordered termination date, which usually includes the landlord’s filing fee, he noted.

Mason also said that tenants who have been asked to vacate their apartments have the right to appeal the eviction order to the LTB on the grounds of legal error.

Tenants who are evicted for nonpayment of rent should note that they will still owe the landlord the unpaid rent, including the amount of any AGIs granted retroactively from the time they were requested by the landlord.

Tenants are “obliged to pay their rent,” says real estate lawyer

While rent strikes may seem commonplace at first glance, longtime real estate attorney Bob Aaron says tenants simply do not have the right to arbitrarily decide they no longer want to pay their rent.

“A tenant is obliged to pay his rent,” he said, referring to the agreed terms of his minimum or monthly rental agreement.

“Under the Residential Tenancies Act (RTA), you must pay rent – ​​period. … It is illegal to refuse to pay rent.”

And while tenants are legally required to pay rent to have a roof over their heads, he pointed out that landlords must comply with and are subject to the RTA, city ordinances and health regulations in addition to the terms of the lease.

“The units must be livable, have running water and winter heat, and must not be unsafe,” said Aaron, who has been a real estate attorney for more than five decades.

Aaron urged tenants who have concerns about the condition of their housing to contact their municipality, which has the power to issue orders when housing-related ordinances and regulations are not followed. These inspections and orders also need to be conducted and issued in a much more timely manner, he added.

Landlords now have the right to evict tenants who do not pay their rent, and they should do so, Aaron said.

He said rent strikes are essentially a tactic designed to generate bad publicity for landlords and/or pressure them to give in and withdraw their requests for a higher-than-guideline rent increase. However, he noted that they can also cause significant financial hardship for property owners.

Rather than placing blame on one side or the other, Aaron urged the Ontario government to act faster and consider the concerns of both tenants and landlords so that it doesn’t get to the point where tenants feel they have no choice but to be denied rent. He also said it doesn’t make sense for the LTB’s eviction process to take nine to 12 months.

“It is a disaster and the Ontario government should be ashamed of itself for denying landlords and tenants access to justice,” Aaron said, adding that he did not like the LTB’s process of holding unpaid rent in trust.

“Where is the jurisdiction, the legal authority, to withhold the proceeds from a rent strike? I find that outrageous.”

Hundreds of tenants in Toronto are currently not paying rent

In Toronto’s West End, tenants in at least four apartment buildings are currently on rent strike, with at least one of these actions dating back to last June.

Dozens of tenants in three high-rise apartment buildings in East York’s Thorncliffe Park neighborhood have been missing out on rent for over a year because of allegedly unfair AGI claims.

The landlord of these buildings defended the rent increases by saying that they were necessary to pay the costs of renovating the exterior facade and balconies, retrofitting the lighting and replacing the booster pump.

“I think the fact that there are so many rent strikes shows how bad the housing situation is for tenants,” says Chiara Padovani, co-chair of the York South-Weston Tenants Union (YSWTU), an umbrella organization that represents tenant groups in 13 buildings.

“The fact that people are considering such measures speaks volumes. … The intention is not to break the law, but to initiate collection measures.”

She said a lease must be viewed as a two-way agreement: tenants pay their rent, but landlords must also ensure that the buildings are safe and appropriate and that rent remains stable.

“We see that these parts of the agreement are not being respected,” she said, adding that the YSWTU’s goal is to inform tenants and give them more freedom of action if they decide to take this collective action.

“A rent strike is a coordinated, planned action and the strength of that action lies in numbers. … Tenants can only be exploited to a certain extent before they draw a clear line.”

Padovani noted that the YSWTU is working with a legal team to help rent strikers navigate the process and understand their rights, and also to ensure that landlords comply with the law.

Mason said this was a good idea, adding that it was important for tenants who decided to take this step to get good legal advice and know their rights, as landlords could become quite aggressive and try to intimidate them.

In the meantime, the tenants of all the above-mentioned buildings have been ordered by the LTB to pay their rent to the Board, which will hold the funds in trust until the matter is resolved.