Amending an Application (LTB)

Rules of Procedure

15.1 A request to amend an application before the hearing must be:

a) in writing;

b) served with the amended application to all other parties; and

c) filed with LTB with the amended application and a completed Certificate of Service.

15.2 Where the request to amend requires the LTB to revise the Notice of Hearing, the applicant must serve the revised Notice of Hearing to all other parties and file a Certificate of Service within 7 days of receiving the revised Notice.

15.3 The request to amend will be decided at the hearing after considering:

a) whether the amendment was requested as soon as the need for it was known;

b) any prejudice a party may experience as a result of the amendment;

c) whether the amendment is significant enough to warrant any delay that may be caused by the amendment;

d) whether the amendment is necessary and was requested in good faith; and

e) any other relevant factors.

15.4 The LTB may exercise its discretion to grant a request to amend made at the hearing if satisfied the amendment is appropriate, would not prejudice any party and is consistent with a fair and expeditious proceeding.

TEL-94810-18 (Re), 2019 CanLII 87595 (ON LTB)

5. The Landlord’s application includes a claim made pursuant to s. 89(1) of the Act (the ‘damage claim’) in the amount of $2,500.00. But the application includes no particulars; it is simply blank. Absent a timely request to amend the application to include particulars, proceeding to hear such a claim would deny the Tenant the right to know the case against him. So the Landlord’s damage claim must also be dismissed.

6. The Tenant’s application as originally filed names another applicant tenant. He is the tenant of another rental unit in the residential complex. He rents the other room on the upper level. So he and the Tenant are both tenants of the Landlord but they do not share a rental unit; they have separate tenancy agreements.

7. Pursuant to s. 186(2) of the Act:

Two or more tenants of a residential complex may together file an application that may be filed by a tenant if each tenant applying in the application signs it.

8. Here, only the Tenant signed the application. The other tenant named in the application played no role in these proceedings and the allegations contained in the application pertain to this Tenant alone.

9. As a result, the Tenant’s application is amended to remove the second named applicant tenant as a party.

17. The Landlord did not seek to amend the application prior to the hearing pursuant to Rule 15.1, the amendment was not requested as soon as the need for it was known, the Tenant is prejudiced by the lateness of the claim, and delaying the hearing to permit proper amendment of the application is not warranted given the minor value of the claim.

18. As a result, the request to amend the application to include the NSF claim is denied.