Issuing a Summons

Please be aware, while this article follows the procedures of the Landlord and Tenant Board. The general concept can be applied to various administrative bodies in Ontario.

For the Landlord and Tenant Board there is no cost for the Landlord and Tenant Board to confirm the summons. A witness is required to be paid as per Tariff A of the Rules of Civil Procedure.

First Step - Downloading the Forms

Download the Request for the LTB to Issue a Summons and Summons form from the Landlord and Tenant Board.

Second Step - Request for the LTB to Issue a Summons

You are required to the fill out the form before submitting it to the Landlord and Tenant Board. In the section of File Number, you will put in the Landlord and Tenant Board file number that can be found on your Notice of Hearing or when the Board confirmed receipt and filed your application.

Requester's Information

You are required to fill in the party who is requesting the summons. This means, if you are representing the Tenant, you put in the Tenant's information and vice versa.

Unit, Building or Complex Covered by this Application

In this section you fill in the required information about the residential unit in question.

Information about the Hearing

Fill in the hearing date and time as indicated on the Notice of Hearing

For the Hearing Location, if the matter is a video hearing. You need to include the video hearing link, the phone number and passcode for the video hearing, on top of the call in details for the witness.

Part 1: Witness to be Summoned to Attend the Hearing

This is where the information to contact the witness must go. If you are summoning a professional witness, you are required to fill in the business address of the witness. You do not put in the home address of the professional witness.

Explain how the witness is connected to the case.

You must answer the question who and how the witness relates to the hearing.

For example, I want to a call a By-law officer as a witness. I would write that the By-law officer is from the City of Ottawa and inspected the property on January 1, 2020. Out of that inspection, a report or order was issued to the Landlord.

Another example, that I want to call James Smith. James Smith is the neighbour of the Tenant and witnessed the noise complaints coming from the Tenant that form the subject matter of the application.

Give a general description of the evidence the witness will provide at the hearing and explain why this evidence is relevant and necessary to resolve the application.

In this section, you write what the witness is expected to testify. You don't need to provide a detail break down of what the witness will testify too. You need to provide an outline of the issues that the witness will be testifying to.

In the above example concerning the By-law Officer, the By-law officer will testify to their inspection and outstanding maintenance issues.

The James Smith example, the witness would be testifying to the excessive noise coming from the Tenant's unit.

Part 2: Documents Witness Must Bring to the Hearing

You need to be very specific with the documents that the witness needs to bring. Alternatively, you can request a scope of documents that the witness must bring to the witness.

In the example of the By-law Officer, you would request a date range of notes, orders, inspection reports, etc in relation to the residential property in question. Your job is to provide the scope of the documents for your witness to bring. The witness has no idea what documents are relevant to your case. It is your job to provide the scope of documents or a specific document(s) for the witness to bring.

Signature

Who ever filled out the form, will put their information in this section. As the requester, you have the option in how to the LTB will send you the summons. Make sure that you sign the form, if you do not sign the form. The Landlord and Tenant Board will send the form back to you to be signed.

Third Step - Completing the Summons Form

The part when it says To: (Name) and Address, you are required to put in the witness' information.

In the name section, a professional witness such as a By-law Officer will have that section filled out as "Anna Jones (By-law Officer of the City of Sudbury). For a non-professional witness, there is no need to clarify their role.

In the address section, if you are summoning a professional witness, you are required to fill in the business address or any address in relation to their role. If you summoning a non-professional witness, you will use their home address. You do not put in the home address of the professional witness. It is important to note, that if you do not know the address, you can not issue a summons.

The next section to be filled out is the Hearing Date and Time and Hearing Location. For the Hearing Location, if the matter is a video hearing. You need to include the video hearing link, the phone number and passcode for the video hearing, on top of the call in details for the witness.

The next section is the The hearing is about. You are required to put in the residential address of the unit in question.

After that, you are required to put in the parties names.

You must bring with you and produce at the hearing the following documents and things:

You will restate what you put in the Give a general description of the evidence the witness will provide at the hearing and explain why this evidence is relevant and necessary to resolve the application. You must make sure that it is easy to read and understand, that the documents being requested are clearly stated, and that numbered lists are used for the documents.

You are not required to fill out the last part of page 1. A Member of the Landlord and Tenant Board will fill out the where it was signed, the date, and their signature.

On the 2 second page, it is the requester's information that is filled out.

Third Step - Print Summons and Request for the LTB to Issue a Summons

There is two ways to print the documents required.

Option A

Print a hardcopy of the forms, sign the Request for the LTB to Issue a Summons form, and scan the paper into a pdf form.

Option B

You can print both documents to a .pdf through opening Adobe Acrobat Pro DC. Once it is open, go to File -> Print -> change the Printer to: Microsoft Print to PDF. Once it has been printed to .pdf, you can now digitally sign the form.

Fourth Step - Filing the Summons

You will email the completed Summons and Request for the LTB to Issue a Summons to the regional office that is handling the LTB Application.

Your subject line should be: FILE NUMBER - RE: REQUEST FOR BOARD TO ISSUE SUMMONS. If it is urgent, put it the subject line.

Fifth Step - Serving the Summons

Have something other than yourself personally serve the summons and complete a Affidavit of Service. You must include a cheque of $50 as per Tariff A of the Rules of Civil Procedure.