How can someone be legally evicted under the Residential Tenancies Act?
General Rule: For a tenant to be evicted in Ontario, their landlord must follow the legal eviction process established under the Residential Tenancies Act. This process has five key steps:
- Notice of Termination
- Application to Evict a Tenant
- Eviction Hearing
- Eviction Order
- Sheriffs’ Notice to Vacate
Note: If your client’s living arrangements aren’t protected by the Residential Tenancies Act, they can be evicted without notice and without a hearing. Their landlord is not required to follow this process of eviction. For more information on who is protected by the Residential Tenancies Act, see “Are there protections against eviction?”
How You Can Help:
Step 1: Identifying where your client is in the eviction process is the first step to helping them preserve their housing and figuring out the best way to support them. The strategy for helping them will depend on how far along they are in the legal eviction process. The earlier in the process they are, the easier it is to take action and save their housing.
