Eviction (N13) Renovations

Marineland of Canada Inc. v. Olsen, 2011 ONSC 6522 (CanLII)

[16] The landlord also raised the issue of set-off on the request to review. The Board member questioned whether the Board had jurisdiction to make such an order and then concluded that this was an issue for the enforcement stage.

[17] In my view, this was an error in law and an unreasonable conclusion. The Board was being asked to award compensation to the tenants for amounts that the landlord improperly retained. While the tenants were entitled to $3,000.00 in compensation because of the N13 Notice, the landlord was owed more than $3,000.00 by them at the time of their application. The amount owing for arrears of rent should have been taken into consideration in determining the amount of compensation owing. Had that been done, the Board would have had to conclude that the tenants were owed nothing in compensation at the time of the application because of the set-off.

[18] This conclusion is in keeping with the purposes of the Act set out in s. 1, which include “to balance the rights and responsibilities of residential landlords and tenants and to provide for the adjudication of disputes and for other processes to informally resolve disputes.” I note that counsel for Marineland acknowledged that should it seek to pursue any remaining amounts owing from the tenants, it would be required to set off the $3,000.00 of compensation that it owed to the tenants.