Estoppel (LTB)

TNL-68456-15 (Re), 2016 CanLII 69277 (ON LTB)

4. The Tenant’s representative submitted that estoppel is not available in this case, because the Court of Appeal for Ontario determined in Price v. Turnbull’s Grove Inc., 2007 ONCA 408 (CanLII), (2007) O.J. No. 2177 (C.A.) that a rent increase that is void under the Act is of no force or effect. As the Court of Appeal writes in paragraph 37: “It is as if the increase never occurred.” In such cases, the Tenant’s representative submitted that it would be inappropriate to apply the doctrine of estoppel.

5. The Board, of course, is required to follow the Court of Appeal’s decision and reasons in Price v. Turnbull’s Grove. That is, if the rent increases the Landlord collected from the Tenant are void because the Landlord’s NORIs do not comply with the Act’s requirements, those rent increases must be determined to be a nullity.

6. Accordingly, I agree with the Tenant’s representative that, where a matter is a nullity, the remedy of estoppel is not available.

NOT-07689-12 (Re), 2013 CanLII 41381 (ON LTB)

49. Estoppel by laches is defined in Black’s Law Dictionary as: a failure to do something which should be done or to claim or enforce a right at a proper time. To create “estoppel by laches” the party sought to be estopped must with knowledge of the transaction have done something to mislead the other party to his prejudice.

Cause of Action Estoppel

TST-74594-16-RV (Re), 2016 CanLII 88771 (ON LTB)

14. The Tenant filed application TST-67983-15 on November 3, 2015. In that application the Tenant alleged that the Landlord illegally entered the rental unit on November 6, 2014. At the time that the Tenant filed application TST-67983-15, he was aware of the alleged illegal entry of June 8, 2015, which is the allegation in the current application. At the hearing, I explained that it appears that the illegal entry allegation in this application would be barred by the doctrine of cause of action estoppel, which is a branch of res judicata.Cause of action estoppel precludes a litigant from asserting a claim or a defence that he or she had an opportunity of asserting and should have asserted in past proceedings.

20. Issue estoppel is a branch of res judicata. Issue estoppel precludes a litigant from raising issues in a proceeding that were already adjudicated in a previous proceeding. It appears that the essence of the rent receipt allegation in the current application was adjudicated in order TST-64205-15.

TSL-69672-15 (Re), 2016 CanLII 39831 (ON LTB)

16. A proprietary estoppel claim may be established through evidence that one party made a representation, whether communicated expressly or through conduct, to another and that the other party relied on that representation to his or her detriment: Ryan v. Moore, 2005 SCC 38 (CanLII), (2005) 2 S.C.R. 53. Upon such facts being established, the doctrine of estoppel may be applied to prevent a party, in this case the Landlord, from resiling from its representation to prevent unfairness to the Tenant.

21. It appears that cause of action estoppel also applies here, to the extent that the Tenant’s allegation in the current application is with respect to rent receipts that are different from the one at issue in application TST-64205-15. The Tenant should have raised the issue with respect to the rent receipts provided after the June 2016 receipt as an amendment to application TST-64205-15. The hearing that gave rise to order TST-64205-15 was held in March 2016 and in May 2016. At this time the Tenant was aware of any issues he had with rent receipts issued for the months of July 2015 to March 2016.