Why Bill 60 Is A Landlord's Dream AND Nightmare

Ontario's Bill 60 is here, and it finally gives landlords some real power to deal with tenants who don't pay rent. For many of us, this is the moment we've been waiting for—a potential end to the nightmare of professional tenants and the endless delays at the Landlord and Tenant Board. On paper, it looks like a landlord’s dream come true. But what if I told you the same bill that’s supposed to solve your biggest tenant problems might also be designed to bankrupt you?

Benefits:
First, and most importantly: faster evictions for non-payment of rent. Under the old rules, if a tenant didn’t pay, you’d serve an N4 notice and wait 14 days before you could even file with the LTB. Bill 60 slices that time in half, down to just seven days. This is a game-changer. It sends a clear message that rent isn't optional. For those tenants who play the system, this shortened timeline is a powerful deterrent, and it dramatically cuts down the time a non-paying tenant can live in your property for free.

The second dream-come-true is the new rule stopping tenants from raising new issues out of the blue at a rent arrears hearing. We’ve all heard the horror stories. You’re finally at a hearing for a tenant who hasn’t paid in six months, and suddenly, they claim the fridge has been broken for a year or that you've been harassing them. The whole process gets derailed and adjourned for months, while you're still not getting paid. Bill 60 proposes to stop this ambush tactic by requiring that a tenant cannot raise a new issue at a rent arrears hearing unless they've paid 50% of the rent owed.

And the third major win for us is the change to 'Landlord's Own Use' evictions, the N12 process. Previously, if you needed to move into your own property or have a family member move in, you had to give notice AND pay the tenant one month's rent as compensation. Bill 60 scraps that compensation rule, as long as you give the tenant 120 days' notice.

While we were all celebrating these much-needed changes, we might have missed the bigger picture. We focused on the fine print of the Residential Tenancies Act, but we ignored the name of the bill itself. There's a reason the government called it the Fighting Delays, Building Faster Act. Fixing the LTB was only half the story; the real goal was to crank up the supply of rental housing.

On the surface, this sounds great. But the government buried a poison pill in this bill, and it's designed to drop the value of your rental property. They’ve given you a sword to fight your tenant battles, but at the same time, they’ve started a flood that threatens to drown your entire investment.

The "Building Faster" part of Bill 60 isn't just a catchy phrase; it's the whole point. The bill is packed with measures to streamline approvals and push for the rapid construction of new housing across the province. The government’s main strategy to solve the housing crisis is simple: flood the market with supply.

The second, and scarier, part of the nightmare is what that does to your wallet: falling rents. It's basic supply and demand. More units fighting for fewer tenants means one thing—landlords have to drop their prices.

This brings us to the final stage of the nightmare: your personal financial ruin. Let's connect the dots. You, the small landlord, probably bought your property with a big mortgage at a high interest rate. Your monthly costs are fixed, and they're high. For the last few years, you could justify it because rents kept climbing. But now, thanks to the very same bill that helps you evict a bad tenant, the market is being flooded with brand new, competing units.
So, where does that leave us with Bill 60? It’s both a dream and a nightmare—a double-edged sword of the highest order. The government has given landlords long-overdue tools to enforce our contracts and protect our properties. The ability to deal decisively with non-payment and system abuse is a real, tangible victory for every small landlord in Ontario. These are rights we should have had all along.

But we can't let our focus on these wins blind us to the existential threat on the horizon. The core mission of this legislation is to radically increase housing supply in a market that's already softening.

Landlords have to get ready for a much more competitive world. Your property needs to be pristine, your service top-notch, and your pricing sharp. The days of easy rent increases are over. The future belongs to landlords who can run lean, efficient, and competitive businesses in a market where tenants have an abundance of choice.

The government may think it has solved the housing crisis, but in the process, they may have sacrificed the small landlords who provide the majority of Ontario's rental housing.

John Karimzad Broker
Direct 416-845-9872
Office 905-475-4750
Re/Max Excel Realty Ltd, Brokerage

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