It's difficult for anyone to keep a roof over their head in a city as expensive as Toronto, and even some residents who are lucky enough to own property are now finding themselves without a place to live.

Months-long backlogs at Ontario's Landlord and Tenant Board, the body that resolves disputes between the two sides of a rental agreement, have gotten so extensive that some homeowners are finding themselves unable to boot tenants even if they aren't paying rent, are trashing their unit or worse.

Does this guy even know what he's talking about. I'm a renter and I know the system in place already protects renters more than it should in Ontario. There are people in my building that are 6 months without paying rent and they still waiting for tenant board to process eviction

— DigitalMaskWorx (@MaskWorx) August 2, 2024

While the province has rules in place to try and protect tenants — and rightfully so, given that they are the more vulnerable group in the power dynamic — it seems that more renters are taking advantage of the system knowing that their landlord's hands are tied in certain circumstances until the board hears their case.

There have been multiple horror stories of first-time buyers unable to move into their new home because tenants simply refuse to leave despite the buyers' valid and legal reason to evict them.

There was a recent story of one homeowner who was forced to retreat to his restaurant's basement for months after applying to live in his own place — while the LTB took more than a year to decide if his N12 eviction was in good faith — or the woman who ended up living in her car after buying a townhouse, which existing tenants stopped paying rent on but also wouldn't vacate.

Others claim to be out tens of thousands of dollars from delinquent tenants that they simply can't kick out until a tribunal hearing deems it okay. As one expert told Global News in a story on the subject in the spring, "you can get away with not paying rent for a year now."

Ontario mom and pop landlords share horror stories about bad tenants https://t.co/6O7puLFOJv #Ontario

— blogTO (@blogTO) February 24, 2022

While it is quite fair for people to be generally unsympathetic to rental property owners when wealthy investors own the majority of new condos in Toronto, housing has become a profitable asset rather than a human right, and rent prices are as high as they are, mom and pop landlords can clearly also get screwed by the system right now.