An Examination of Some of the Recent Amendments to the Ontario Landlord and Tenant Act

Ontario's was the first Canadian legislature to attempt to overcome certain anomalies in the law applicable to residential tenancies.' The effect of many of the Act's provisions remained uncertain until authoritative court decisions were rendered. Would the courts view the Act as intending to overcome the traditional orientation of landlord and tenant law towards land law doctrine? Sufficient time has now passed for many of the most important provisions of the Act to have been adjudicated upon by the superior courts, and it would be safe to say that the Act usually has been given a liberal interpretation. Many of the old rules based upon doctrines of feudal tenure have been held to be superceded by the statutory rules which are more consistent with developments associated with contract law.