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RTA - Money Paid Into Board. Elguindy v. Galaxy Real Estate Core Ontario LP
In Elguindy v. Galaxy Real Estate Core Ontario LP (Div Court, 2024) the Divisional Court dismissed an appeal from "a Review Order, ... of the Landlord and Tenant Board (the “LTB”), which dismissed a Motion to Void an Eviction Order ...", here where the issue was a return to the tenant of funds paid into the Board after an inadequate arrears 'catch-up' payment [RTA 74(11)]:[14] The Member also dismissed the Tenant’s Motion to Void: the Tenant argued that pursuant to section 74(11) of the RTA, the Tenant had paid the $70,069.76 required to void the eviction order. The Member found that the Tenant had in fact only paid a total of $60,381.00, of which $39,886.64 was held in trust by the LTB.
[15] Pursuant to the LTB Rules of Procedure Rule 20.6, which states that if after an order becomes enforceable, the Tenant pays less than the amount required to void the order, then the monies be directed back to the Tenant, the Member directed that the LTB direct any monies held in trust back to the Tenant.
....
[36] With respect to the Member’s decision to order the payment of the rent paid into the LTB out to the Tenant, I agree with her that Rule 20.6 of the LTB Rules provides that this is what is supposed to happen. However, I note that a previous version of these rules provided the opposite — until 2018, the monies held were to be paid to the landlord. I also note that Rule 1.6 of the LTB Rules states the following:In order to provide the most expeditious and fair determination of the question arising in any proceeding the LTB may,
a. waive or vary any provision in these Rules ... [37] Thus, the Member had a discretion not to apply Rule 20.6 in the interests of fairness. Furthermore, the Landlord made a submission before her that applying Rule 20.6 would not be fair. Instead of dealing with that submission on the merits, the Member simply applied Rule 20.6 without considering whether to exercise her discretion to waive the rule. This was an error of law.
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