How to deal with a tenant who is persistently late with rent

Tenant’s obligation to pay rent on time

Of course, some landlords can be lenient in giving the tenants a day or two payment extensions.
Still, let’s be clear that by law, the rent payment is late even if it’s late by just one day—though the later the payment, the stronger the landlord’s case.
At the same time, one late payment isn’t reasonable grounds for eviction or disciplinary action.
So, the process outlined below most applies to landlords whose tenants are chronically late with payments.

When eviction for late payments is possible

Late payments of rent must be persistent to become a ground for eviction.
There is no specific rule regarding how often a tenant must delay paying rent to be persistently late with rent payments.
Yet, there should be at least several substantially late payments during a reasonable time. The Landlord and Tenant Board determines the persistence of lateness on a case-by-case basis.

How to deal with a tenant who is persistently late with payments

If you do have a tenant who is clearly late in paying his or her rent all the time, you should, as always, address it through the Landlord and Tenant Board.
To succeed in your eviction application for late payments, you must gather evidence.

Evidence

The best evidence is a collection of N4 Notices of Termination. Essentially, if the tenant does not pay on the due day, serve the tenant with a Notice of Termination for non-payment of rent the very next day. I outlined this process in an earlier post.
As discussed in that post, if the tenant pays after receiving the notice, he or she can stay. However, the Notice serves as confirmation that he or she was, in fact, late in paying.
Also, be sure to do the following:
- Save copies of the tenant’s cheques or other payment methods.
- Keep a record of when the tenant made each payment or deposited money into your account.
- Make a note of any bounced cheques.
- Keep a record of all cases where you went through the process to evict the tenant for non-payment, but the tenant paid just in time to stay. It definitely counts as an occasion for late payment.

All this is a good precautionary practice, even if you have no immediate intention to evict your tenant.

Eviction notice

Once the tenant has been late paying rent several times, serve him or her with an N4. Deliver it together with Form N8 – a Notice of Termination for persistently late payment of rent.
This way, you can proceed with either of two or both applications to terminate the tenancy: for non-payment of rent or late for persistently late payment of rent, respectively.

Eviction application

From there, the process for evicting the tenant for persistently late payments is similar to evicting a tenant for non-payment.
You can file an L2 application with the Landlord and Tenant Board after giving the N8.
Attend the hearing when it is scheduled.

Eviction hearing

At the hearing, you or your representative will need to prove late payments on several occasions.
From there, the Board may not immediately issue an eviction order. Nevertheless, the Board may evict the tenant immediately if the total rent remains unpaid on the hearing day.
Usually, the order will be that the tenant must pay rent on time in the future. The Board orders that if payment is late again, the landlord can file for eviction using a simplified procedure.
In practice, this means that if the tenant is one dollar short or one day late at any time in the future, the landlord needs only file a short application without notice to receive an eviction order fairly quickly and without a hearing.

Therefore, while going through evicting the tenant for persistently late payment of rent will not always result in immediate eviction, it sets you up for easy tenancy termination the next time payment is not made on time.

In situations where the tenant pays late persistently, there can be multiple potential causes for eviction, most importantly non-payment or late payment. It is important to consider which of these causes to pursue to ensure that the tenancy is terminated and/or arrears are paid as soon as possible.

Don’t hesitate to contact us for help with your specific situation!

Wishing you a life free of legal hassles!