Protecting Tenants and Strengthening Community Housing Act, 2020
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| Protecting Tenants and Strengthening Community Housing Act, 2020 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Legislative Assembly of Ontario | |
| |
| Territorial extent | Ontario |
| Enacted by | Legislative Assembly of Ontario |
| Royal assent | 21 July 2020 |
| Legislative history | |
| First reading | 12 March 2020 |
| Second reading | 27 May 2020 |
| Third reading | 21 July 2020 |
The Protecting Tenants and Strengthening Community Housing Act, 2020 (Bill 184, 2020; French: Loi visant la protection des locataires et le renforcement du logement communautaire) is a law in the province of Ontario that brought a number of changes to regulations surrounding rented housing in the province.[1]
The bill made a number of amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006 and the Housing Services Act, 2011, including giving landlords the power to offer tenants take-it-or-leave-it repayment plans, bypassing the Landlord and Tenant Board, and allowing landlords to make applications for arrears of rent up to twelve months after the tenant left the rental unit. The bill additionally allows landlords to make illegal rent increases, provided that the tenant doesn't dispute the increase within the first twelve months.[2]
As well, the bill increased the fine for bad faith evictions, allowing the tenant to seek an amount equal to up to one year's rent if the landlord is found that have evicted them in bad faith.[3]
Legislative history
The bill was first presented to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in March 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario and less than a month before a moratorium on evictions was declared by the province in response to the pandemic.
Some amendments to the bill were made by the Standing Committee on Social Policy before the bill returned to the Legislative Assembly for third reading, including that all applications that had already been filed but hadn't yet been heard by the Landlord and Tenant Board would proceed under the terms of the bill.[4] It received royal assent on 21 July 2020.