You Got the Eviction Order for Rent Arrears — Paying It Off Doesn’t Always Save You in Ontario
In Ontario, paying your arrears can undo an eviction — but only if you catch the right window, pay the right total, and haven’t already used your one set-aside this tenancy.
The eviction order already has a date on it. If I clear every dollar of arrears before the sheriff shows up, am I guaranteed to keep my home?
No — whether payment saves you depends on which of three moving deadlines you catch, and on paying the full amount for that stage. Section 74 of Ontario’s Residential Tenancies Act (RTA) builds three separate pay-and-stay windows: (1) pay before the Board issues the order and the landlord’s application is discontinued; (2) pay after the order but before it becomes enforceable and the order is void — with no cap on how many times you can do this; (3) pay after it is enforceable but before the sheriff enforces it and you can move to set the order aside — but this one is limited to once per tenancy agreement. The famous one chance caps only that third step — not the first two.
Source: Residential Tenancies Act, 2006, S.O. 2006, c. 17, s. 74 (Ontario e-Laws, current version, verified subsection-by-subsection Aug 2026).
I am Arthur Zhao. Of every rental problem I walk clients through, an arrears eviction is the one where a comforting half-truth does the most damage — and the half-truth is almost always some version of: I will just pay it off before they physically remove me, and I am fine.
It is not wrong, exactly. It is just flattened. Ontario law does give a tenant who has fallen behind a way back, but it is really three doors, opening and closing at different moments, each with its own price tag and its own rules. When you pay decides how much you owe; whether you have used a door before decides if it is even open. Miss that, and you can believe you still have a fallback you actually spent on a previous lease. Here is each of the three windows, in the order the clock reaches them.
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It is a stopwatch, not a cheque
Tenants tend to picture the money as the thing that saves them. Under section 74 the money matters — but the moment you hand it over matters more. The exact same payment produces three different legal results depending on where the clock is: before the order, after the order but before it can be enforced, and after it can be enforced but before the sheriff acts.
So the first question is never how much do I owe. It is which door am I standing in front of right now — because that decides both the price and whether the door still opens at all.
Door 1 — pay before the order issues: the application is discontinued
What you owe at this stage is three things: the arrears; any additional rent that would have come due had the notice of termination never been given; and the landlord’s application fee. Notably, there are no NSF cheque charges, no administration fees, and no costs here — the order has not issued, so those have not been generated yet. This is the cleanest and cheapest of the three windows.
ℹ️A useful detail from Door 2: the void amount is not something you have to calculate. Section 74(3) requires the order itself to state the exact figure that makes it void if paid before it becomes enforceable — read it off your order, then confirm it against the Board before you pay.
Door 2 — pay before the order is enforceable: the order is void
This list is longer than Door 1 and different — five items: arrears; the additional rent that would have come due; the NSF cheque charges your bank charged the landlord (as allowed by the Board on the landlord’s s. 87 application); the NSF administration charges (also as allowed by the Board); and the costs the Board ordered. The landlord’s application fee drops off. The order itself must — under s. 74(3) — spell out that paying this amount before it becomes enforceable makes it void, and state the amount, so the figure is written right on your order.
After paying, you can move the Board without even notifying the landlord (s. 74(6)), attaching a sworn affidavit setting out the payment (s. 74(7)); the Board can confirm the order is void without a hearing (s. 74(8)). The landlord then has 10 days, on notice to you, to move to set that confirmation aside (s. 74(9)).
Here is the counterintuitive part. On that landlord’s motion the Board must hold a hearing (s. 74(10)) — and even if it finds you did not pay in full before the order became enforceable, but have since paid the full amount, it will still refuse to set the void aside (s. 74(10)(b)). Late, but paid in full, often still holds. And this void window carries no cap on how many times you can use it.
Door 3 — pay after it is enforceable, before the sheriff acts: motion to set aside (the capped one)
It differs from the first two in three ways that matter:
· It must be brought on notice to the landlord — you cannot do it one-sidedly the way you can with the void motion.
· You must have paid the same five items (arrears + additional rent + Board-allowed NSF charges + NSF administration charges + costs) and file your own affidavit proving it. Come up short and the Board must refuse to even accept the motion for filing (s. 74(11.1)).
· It can be used only once per tenancy. Section 74(12) is explicit: subsection (11) does not apply if you have previously made a s. 74(11) motion during the period of your tenancy agreement with this landlord. Your order will say so, under s. 74(3)(c).
Filing it does buy immediate protection: the moment the Board accepts the motion for filing, the eviction order is stayed and cannot be enforced (s. 74(13)) — but only if your affidavit fully meets the requirements (s. 74(13.1)). At the hearing the Board either voids the order if you have paid in full (s. 74(14)(a)) or lifts the stay if you have not (s. 74(14)(b)).
🚨Door 3 is the single non-refundable card in your hand for this tenancy. Use the set-aside motion once and s. 74(12) shuts it for the rest of this tenancy agreement — and it does not reset after a year. Treat it as the last resort it is, not a routine backstop.
Void vs set aside: the two after-the-order routes people mix up
Two traps: section 78 is a different road, and do not eyeball the dates
First, do not confuse this with section 78. That is a separate mechanism: where the landlord has already applied before and a s. 194 settlement or order set conditions on you that expressly allow a s. 78 application, the landlord can apply to terminate without notice to you. It polices breaches of a conditional order or settlement — not paying off arrears. Different road; the s. 74 relief in this article does not touch it.
Second, the three moments — issued, enforceable, enforced — fall on specific dates in your case, and you have to read them off your actual order and the LTB timeline, not estimate them. If a landlord refuses your payment, or the dates are tight, get a licensed professional, a community legal clinic, or tenant duty counsel to look at it early. These deadlines, once passed, usually do not come back.
💡 My honest read: the most expensive mistake in an arrears eviction is almost never not having the money — it is assuming you still have time. Section 74 really does give three fallbacks, but they get more expensive and scarcer the longer you wait: cheapest and uncapped before the order issues; a few more items but still uncapped to void it before it is enforceable; and finally the set-aside, which needs notice, needs complete paperwork, and burns your one shot for the entire tenancy. So the only genuinely safe play is the boring one — the moment you know you will fall behind, deal with it in the earliest window, not the last. Banking on I can always fix it at the end is the single fastest way I have watched a tenant talk themselves into an actual eviction.
- Residential Tenancies Act, 2006, S.O. 2006, c. 17, s. 74 (three pay-and-stay windows: 74(2) discontinued, 74(4) void, 74(11)-(12) set aside and the once-per-tenancy cap, 74(10)(b) late-but-full payment)
- Residential Tenancies Act, 2006, S.O. 2006, c. 17, s. 78 (no-notice application after a breached conditional order or settlement — a different mechanism, outside this article)
- Landlord and Tenant Board (Ontario) — for the specific dates and forms (N4, etc.); the controlling text is the statute cited above and your own order
Ontario Eviction Process Landlord Ltb →Selling Tenanted Property Eviction →Ontario’s Winter Disconnection Ban — and the Landlord Who Doesn’t Pay the Bill →First-Time Renter Guide →
Frequently Asked Questions
Does paying my arrears before the sheriff comes guarantee I can stay?
Not by itself. After the order is enforceable, staying means a s. 74(11) motion to set it aside: on notice to the landlord, full payment of all five items (arrears + additional rent + Board-allowed NSF and NSF administration charges + costs), and your sworn affidavit. If anything is missing the Board must refuse to accept the filing (s. 74(11.1)) — and you only get this motion once per tenancy (s. 74(12)). Paying in an earlier window is easier and lower-risk.
The one chance rule — which step does it actually limit?
Only the third one: the set-aside motion under s. 74(11), capped by s. 74(12) to once during the period of your tenancy agreement with that landlord — not once a year. The two earlier windows — getting the application discontinued before the order issues (s. 74(2)) and voiding the order before it is enforceable (s. 74(4)) — have no cap in the statute. So it is not pay once and never again.
Do I owe the same amount whenever I pay?
No. Before the order issues (s. 74(2)) you pay three things — arrears, any additional rent that would have come due, and the landlord’s application fee — with no NSF charges or costs. After the order (void under s. 74(4) or set aside under s. 74(11)) you pay five — arrears, additional rent, Board-allowed NSF charges, NSF administration charges, and costs — but not the application fee. The longer you wait, the more items stack on.
I missed the payment date by a few days — is it hopeless?
Not necessarily, on the void route. If the landlord moves to undo your void order, the Board must hold a hearing, and even if you did not pay on time but have since paid the full amount, it will still refuse to set the void aside (s. 74(10)(b)) — late but paid in full often survives. Do not lean on it as a rule, though; the exact dates govern, so act early and get help if it is tight.
What is the difference between the order being enforceable and being enforced?
They are two different moments, and section 74 turns on both. Enforceable is the date the order itself states it takes effect — up to that date you are in the void window (s. 74(4)). Enforced is when the Sheriff actually removes you — the set-aside window (s. 74(11)) runs after the order is enforceable but before it is enforced. So read the enforceable date off your own order, know that enforcement is scheduled as a separate step, and do not assume how large the gap between them is.
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