Landlord Won’t Repair or Keeps Barging In? Filing a T2 or T6 With Ontario’s LTB

A T6 for what is broken, a T2 for how you are treated — but the Board decides on proof, not grievance. Here is how to build a case that survives a hearing, and the one deadline that quietly kills most of them.

I am Arthur Zhao. After years on both sides of these disputes, here is the first thing I ask a furious tenant: not what happened, but what you can show. The LTB does not run on grievance — it runs on evidence, and that single fact changes how you should approach the whole thing.

This is not a piece about who is responsible for what; that is a separate article. It is about proof: when the landlord will not repair, or keeps letting himself in, how you turn a legitimate complaint into something the Board can act on — and how tenants who are clearly in the right still lose because they arrive with nothing in hand.

The question that actually decides your case: can you prove it?

Before the forms, understand the filter you are really being measured against. It is not who is right — it is what you can put in front of the Board. Get that backwards and a genuine grievance evaporates at the hearing.

Two things get sorted at the door. Is your problem with the unit — something broken the landlord will not fix (no heat, a leak, pests, a safety hazard)? That is a breach of the duty to maintain under s.20, and it goes on a T6 (Application about Maintenance). Is it with the landlord’s conduct — entering without notice, changing your locks, cutting a service, harassment? That violates your tenant rights under s.21 to s.27, and it goes on a T2 (Application about Tenant Rights). Both are filed with the Landlord and Tenant Board under section 29 of the Residential Tenancies Act — and both trade in the same currency: proof.

First filter: are you still inside the one-year window?

Before you gather a single document, check the clock — if you are out of time, none of the evidence matters. RTA s.29(2) bars any application filed more than one year after the conduct occurred; past that line the Board has no power to hear it, however clearly the landlord was in the wrong. A one-time act — a single illegal entry — counts from the day it happened; an ongoing problem — heat out for months, sustained harassment — is generally measured from the day it ended. That second rule is often contested, so do not lean on it: if your issue has run for most of a year, treat filing as urgent.

What proves a T2 versus what proves a T6

Building the evidence file

Start the file the day the problem starts, not the week before the hearing. Save everything, and convert anything verbal into writing: after a phone call, send a one-line text — “confirming the leak we just discussed, please address it” — and that message becomes evidence. Screenshots should show dates; photos and video should carry timestamps.

One legal edge most tenants miss, and it weighs most on a T6: RTA s.30(2) requires the Board, when deciding your remedy, to consider whether you told the landlord about the problem before you applied. Notifying in writing first is not politeness — it is a factor that can raise or shrink your abatement. So the written report does double duty: it proves the problem existed, and it proves you gave the landlord a chance to fix it.

Turn evidence into the form: incidents, not adjectives

Download the T2 or T6 from the LTB website, then resist the urge to vent — vague complaints lose. Do not write “the landlord harasses me constantly”; write “on March 5, 2026, at approximately 9 p.m., the landlord entered without notice and stayed about 20 minutes.” Every claim should map to a specific date, place, account, and a numbered exhibit in your file. The form also asks what you want — the abatement amount, an order to repair, compensation — so decide the remedy before you file, not at the hearing.

Filing, fees, and the fee waiver

File with the LTB. The Tribunals Ontario Portal is the practical choice — it costs $48, less than the alternatives, and lets you track status in real time. You can also file by mail or courier, or in person at a ServiceOntario centre, for $53. The fee is non-refundable; once it is paid you get a file number, which goes on everything afterward. If the fee is a genuine hardship, submit a Fee Waiver Request at the same time — low-income applicants can have it waived, so cost is not a reason to stay silent.

At the hearing: serve early, let the timeline talk

The LTB sets a hearing date, and most hearings now run by video. The work is front-loaded: organize your file into a clean, numbered timeline, and serve your key documents on the landlord and the Board ahead of the deadline in the LTB’s rules — evidence sprung on the day may be refused. At the hearing itself, do not perform outrage; walk the adjudicator through the chronology and let the documents speak. You can represent yourself, bring a licensed paralegal or lawyer, and request a free interpreter if you need one. The decision — the order — usually arrives afterward in writing.

What your proof can buy: the remedies

Win, and the Board can do far more than scold the landlord. The usual remedies:

Rent abatement: part of the rent you paid returned, scaled to the severity and duration of the problem — the most common outcome.
An order to comply: repair by a deadline (T6), or stop the conduct and not repeat it (T2).
Compensation: reasonable out-of-pocket costs, and property that was damaged or disposed of.
Authority to repair (T6): in serious cases, permission to arrange the work yourself, at the landlord’s expense, and deduct it from rent.
Ending the tenancy: where the unit is genuinely uninhabitable.
Administrative fine (mainly on a T2): for egregious conduct, payable to the Board — capped by statute at the greater of $10,000 or the Small Claims Court monetary limit (RTA s.31).

“He keeps coming in”: when annoyance becomes an illegal-entry case

Not every unwanted visit is illegal — knowing the line tells you whether you have a T2. Under RTA s.27, a landlord can enter for a repair, inspection, or showing only with written notice at least 24 hours ahead, and the notice must state the reason, the date, and a time between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. A landlord who shows up at 7 a.m., or with no written notice, or “just to check on things,” is outside those rules.

The exceptions under s.26 are narrow: a genuine emergency, your consent at the time, regular cleaning if your lease requires it (8 a.m. to 8 p.m.), or showing the unit to prospective tenants after a notice to end the tenancy has been given. Anything past that — repeated, unannounced, or off-hours entry — is exactly what a T2 illegal-entry claim is for. Log each instance with the date, time, and whether any notice was given; that log is your case.

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Arthur Zhao

Real Estate Broker · FRI · ABR · SRS · PSA · MCNE · E-PRO · CLHMS & GUILD Elite · REAIS

VP & Branch Manager, Bay Street Group Inc.

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