Our group, called Ontario Landlords and Tenants (OLAT), will lobby the Ontario Government to fix laws and procedures that are unfair to landlords and tenants. This petition is to stop forcing landlords to give free rent, which results in severe abuse of landlords, extreme LTB hearing delays (for both tenant & landlord requests), reduced affordable housing and higher rental prices (as landlords become afraid to rent) which in turn hurts tenants. Rather than just complaining, we have a complete solution. This can be fixed with a few changes (to the RTA, LTB and some processes) as suggested in The Change.Org/StopFreeRent SOLUTION shown below.

Please sign our petition at https://Change.Org/StopFreeRent
Over 29,300 signatures when combined with similar petitions.
Comments are welcome. Please share. Media attention needed. 

The Residential Tenancies Act 2006 fails to balance the rights and responsibilities of residential landlords and tenants by allowing dishonest tenants to stop paying rent without any negative consequences such as quick eviction, interest and penalties. The ACT encourages them to remain without paying rent until escorted out by a Sheriff (which could cost the landlord $60,000 or more over 2 years in lost rent, interest and other costs such as administration, legal fees and time wastage). Some tenants even rent rooms while paying no rent. This is like FORCING a landlord to give a dishonest tenant $60,000 while they still pay for mortgage, interest, insurance, maintenance and property tax. The result is lower investment in rental properties, lower housing availability, higher rent prices, applicants needing A+ ratings to be accepted as a tenant, lower tax revenue to CRA and extreme delays for LTB hearings. Most tenants are hard-working honest people that pay full rent on time and they don't like the "bad apples that spoil the whole crop". For tenants abused by landlords, due to shortcomings in the Act, other petitions may be created. We want all tenants and landlords to be treated fairly.

HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN? - The process for getting a simple non-payment of rent eviction is extremely long, complicated and frustrating for Landlords to fill out forms and for the LTB to read. Click here for an example showing all the steps involved.

THE LTB IS SEVERELY OVERLOADED, DUE TO NON-PAYMENT OF RENT
According to wikipedia, the LTB processes around 80,000 applications per year and the MAJORITY are for non-payment of rent.  Severe delays in processing simple evictions has resulted in Landlord bankruptcy and becoming homeless. For simple eviction due to non-payment of rent, Landlords need to learn about, complete and submit huge quantities of documents and the LTB then needs to read and process them. A class action lawsuit is in process against the Ontario Government claiming that the LTB has caused extreme financial hardship and loss, and emotional and psychological stress, due to tenants being allowed to live rent free.

THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN TO COMMERCIAL LANDLORDS
If a commercial tenant fails to pay rent for longer than 16 days after the rent was due, the landlord may “re-enter” the premises, change the locks, prevent the tenant from using the premises any longer, and rent the unit to another tenant after allowing tenants to have up to 5 consecutive hours within the following 7 days to access the rental unit to remove their property (and if not done so, the landlord can seize and sell the tenant’s property or dispose of it). A landlord may hire a private bailiff to carry out an eviction.

Why should it be different for residential tenants? A commercial tenant may have their life savings in their business and also have hard times paying rent. If the reason is that the Ontario Government wants to help residential tenants who cannot pay rent, then there needs to be a way for tenants to immediately borrow rent money from a bank, guaranteed by the Ontario government, rather than forcing landlords to be a money-losing charity. 

****** THE Change.Org/StopFreeRent SOLUTION ******
Our suggested solution should be quick to implement once we have political will. It involves making a few changes to the RTA, LTB and some processes:

1. HELP TENANTS PAY RENT - if a tenant has a bad month [i.e. lost their job or medical emergency] and finds it hard to pay rent, they would be able to go to a bank or credit union (ideally before the rent is due) to quickly get a line of credit (LOC) specifically for 1-3 months rent, guaranteed by Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). This should be enough time for most Tenants to get their affairs in order. In the best case, the tenant keeps paying their LOC each month to avoid interest costs, builds their credit rating to increase their credit limit and becomes a great customer for life. In the worst case, if the tenant fails to meet the bank's repayment terms, the bank closes the LOC, CRA pays back the outstanding balance to the bank, CRA adds this balance to the income tax owed by the tenant, then CRA uses its normal tax collection methods to recover the debt with interest and penalty (including the ability to garnish a tenant's income or assets) but CRA may waive interest and penalties when justified.  CRA should support this suggestion because it will lead to greater tax revenues from Landlords that receive rent payments. 
2. RIGHT TO CHANGE LOCKS AFTER 16 DAYS - Give residential landlords the right to change the locks after 16 days (and hire a private Bailiff if necessary) if full rent has not been received  without needing LTB approval for eviction. Click here for details.
3. LANDLORD MUST GIVE NOTICE TO CHANGE LOCKS - A Landlord must give the Tenant notice, with notice date, on both the door and via email that locks will be changed in 17 days if full rent has not been received within 16 days of the notice date.
4. DISAGREEMENT THAT RENT WAS PAID - If the landlord and tenant disagree that rent was paid up in full within 16 days of the notice date, the landlord must wait for the following verification process to be completed before changing the locks.  Click here for details.
5. CRIMINAL OFFENCE - stealing rent from a landlord is no different than stealing from a bank, store or person - except that it may repeat each month. If a Tenant is evicted for non-payment of rent and then repeats this offence again with another Landlord,  it would be considered a criminal offence with possible jail time (which has free rent).  Also banks may close a LOC or refuse to open another LOC for repeat offenses.
6. INTEREST AND PENALTIES - Give the landlord the right to charge interest on rent arrears (to compensate for their interest costs) and penalties on rent arrears (to compensate for their  administration and legal costs) equivalent to what a tenant would pay to CRA if they don’t pay taxes.  Click here for details. 
7. UPDATE LTB FORMS AND STANDARD LEASE - Replace “you do not have to move out” WITH “If you fail to pay rent for longer than 16 days after the rent is due, the landlord may change the locks with 16 days notice and you may be charged interest and penalty on late rent payments.
8. LTB SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO DISMISS A CASE DUE TO A CLERICAL ERROR OR TECHNICALITY - Updated technology should enable tenants and landlords to add, edit and delete documents at any time and/or make explanations during a hearing. Dismissing a hearing causes more damages and does not reduce the backlog.
9. RETROACTIVE COMPENSATION TO LANDLORDS FOR MONEY LOST, DUE TO RENT ARREARS - until the proposed changes are made, many landlords will have lost money, due to the reasons mentioned above. A process is needed where landlords can apply to the Ontario Government to be compensated for their financial losses, due to lost rent, interest, and other costs (such as administration, legal, time wastage and property damage). The retroactive compensation to a Landlord should be added to the Tenant's income tax account with CRA.
10. ABILITY TO RENT FOR SHORT TIME PERIODS - allow Landlords to rent to Tenants for short periods (ie. the time agreed to on the lease,  with no automatic conversion to month-to-month) so that they don't need to convert to a short-term rental such as AirBNB. Currently if a landlord goes on vacation and rents the property while they are away, they may not get the tenant out when they return. Landlords should be able to change the lock after the agreed checkout date, like hotels do (and hire a private bailiff to carry out an eviction if necessary). This will put more rental properties on the market.
11. APPLY RENT CONTROLS TO ALL RENTAL PROPERTIES - put rent controls also on rental units built after November 15 2018 to be treated the same as older ones. If a tenant moves out or is evicted, then the Landlord can raise the rent to any price. Eventually rent controls should be removed, once there is sufficient affordable housing, as competition for renters is a more fair way to control rent prices.
12. BUILD LARGE AFFORDABLE-RENT APARTMENT BUILDINGS - The Federal Government should create the Affordable Housing Agency (AHA) which will fund the building of large apartment buildings (40 floors) in strategic locations (ie. some in areas of poverty and lack of housing but mostly outside major population centres), then run and maintain them as non-profit housing so that Tenants are only paying for costs, not profit. Such housing should be built quickly (within 6 months) using pre-approved building permits, blueprints, plans and contractors. The AHA should also subsidize renovations of existing homes to quickly provide low cost rental space (such as creating 2-3 rooms to rent in a basement for under $1000/month with shared kitchen and shared washroom).

BENEFITS OF MAKING THE ABOVE SUGGESTED CHANGES

1. BENEFIT TO LANDLORDS - ability to minimize financial losses from tenants that do not pay rent. 
2. BENEFIT TO THE LTB - significant reduction in LTB hearings, reducing time, cost and stress.
3. BENEFIT TO ONTARIO WORKS - it will be easier and faster for OW clients (and people don't have an A+ rating on their application) to find housing if Landlords are less afraid to rent.
4. BENEFIT TO SOCIETY - More affordable housing will become available if residential property owners are less afraid to rent  existing properties (and invest in new ones). The resulting greater supply of housing will increase competition for tenants which helps to lower rent prices. This is most important in areas where demand for housing greatly exceeds supply such as in Toronto.
5. BENEFIT TO TAXPAYERS - If a tenant doesn't pay $2400/month x 12 months = $28,800/year, that is equivalent to the tenant getting a raise of $41,143/year (assuming 30% tax bracket, paying $12,343 tax, but in this case the tenant is not paying this tax and the landlord is also paying less tax, due to less income). When both tenants and landlords pay tax, we all benefit from more taxes being paid to support our services.
6. NO COST TO HONEST TENANTS - tenants that pay rent as promised in their lease agreements are not affected by these changes but they will benefit when more housing options become available to them.  
7. BENEFIT TO POLITICIANS - while politicians may lose a few votes from dishonest tenants, they will gain much more votes from the much larger voter base of honest, hard-working people and businesses that pay their rent on time and that believe in justice and human rights. 

CONTACT
Our group, called Ontario Landlords and Tenants (OLAT), will lobby the Ontario Government to fix laws and procedures that are unfair to landlords and tenants. For public messages, click on Comments. To reach us in private, and for media inquiries, EMAIL: OntarioLandlordsAndTenants@gmail.com

ADDENDUM
Click on this link to see our Addendum which contains some useful links to other related petitions and news that gives us more ammunition. 

HOW CAN YOU HELP US?  PLEASE ...

1. SIGN THE PETITION on at https://Change.Org/StopFreeRent to show your support for the "SUGGESTED CHANGES (TO RTA, LTB AND PROCESSES)" mentioned above.
2. SHARE https://change.org/StopFreeRent to all your contacts and social media that may agree with us. Even if you don't live in Ontario Canada, the same could happen where you live. If we can fix it here, it could also lead to change where you live.
3. DONATE - a donation of $25 to Change.Org helps us to reach another 2500 viewers and increases our chances of getting the law and processes fixed.