How to File a T2 Application at the LTB

What the T2 Is For

The T2 — "Application About Tenant Rights" — is the Landlord and Tenant Board application tenants use when a landlord violates the tenancy itself. It flows from section 29(1) of the Residential Tenancies Act and covers claims that your landlord (or their superintendent or agent):

• entered your unit illegally;
• changed the locks without giving you replacement keys (lockout);
• substantially interfered with your reasonable enjoyment of the unit;
• harassed, obstructed, coerced, or threatened you;
• withheld or deliberately interfered with a vital service (heat, water, electricity).

Maintenance and repair problems are a different application (the T6). If your situation includes both — say, no heat AND harassment when you complained — you can file both together.

The One-Year Limit

Section 29(2) imposes a hard deadline: the Board can only consider events that happened within one year before you file. Serial misconduct? The application can describe the pattern, but the remedies attach to the last 12 months. Do not sit on a strong claim.

What You Can Win

• Rent abatement — a percentage of rent back for the period your rights were violated.
• Out-of-pocket costs — hotel nights during a lockout, replaced belongings, moving costs.
• An order that the conduct stop.
• An administrative fine payable to the Board.
• In lockout cases, an order letting you back in.

How to File, Step by Step

1. Gather evidence first: a dated log of every incident, photos, texts and emails, witness names, photos of any notices (or their absence).
2. Complete the T2 form (available on the Tribunals Ontario website). Be specific: dates, times, what happened, who did it.
3. File online through the Tribunals Ontario portal (fastest), by email, or in person, and pay the filing fee (fee waivers exist for low-income tenants).
4. Serve and prepare: you will get a hearing notice. Organize your evidence chronologically and upload it before the deadline on the notice.
5. At the videoconference hearing, you present first. Stick to the incidents, dates, and the remedy you want.

Practical Tips That Win Cases

• Contemporaneous records beat memory. A running log kept at the time is powerful evidence.
• Put complaints in writing to the landlord as things happen — it proves both the conduct and the landlord's knowledge.
• Ask for specific remedies with numbers: "25% abatement for three months," not "compensation."
• Free help exists: community legal clinics and Tribunals Ontario's duty counsel can review your case before the hearing.

The T2 exists because tenants' rights are enforceable, not decorative. Use it while your evidence is fresh.