Rental Housing Enforcement Unit (Ontario)

An Ontario government unit that deals with landlords or tenants who break the law under the Residential Tenancies Act. Offences include taking back a unit without following the legal process (an illegal lockout), changing the locks without giving the tenant a new key, cutting off or interfering with vital services like heat, water, electricity, natural gas or fuel, and harassing a tenant to move out. The unit can contact the other side with your consent, send a letter, follow up, and start an investigation that may lead to charges. Fines can reach $100,000 for a person and $500,000 for a corporation.

Program in Ontario-wide. Housing & rent Legal help

When: No deadline, but act quickly on a lockout. Once another tenant is living in the unit, the Landlord and Tenant Board cannot order the landlord to let you back in.

How to reach them

1. Go to the phone line.
2. Say who you are and what you are offering or asking.
3. Come back here and tell us if they answered.

Other ways, if that one is quiet

• PhoneCall 416-585-7214
  It workedNo answer

• EmailEmail RHEU.info@ontario.ca
  It workedNo answer

Where else they are

Their website is ontario.ca/page/solve-disagreement-your-lan....

Good to know

• For whomTenants anywhere in Ontario, including Toronto, who believe their landlord broke the Residential Tenancies Act. Landlords can also use it. You do not need to file an application. If your problem is not an offence, staff explain your rights and connect you with the Landlord and Tenant Board or another agency.
• CostFree
• LanguagesEnglish
• Their stepsIf you are locked out and need help right away, call the police. Call the Rental Housing Enforcement Unit at 416-585-7214 or 1-888-772-9277, Monday to Friday 8:30 am to 4:30 pm, or email RHEU.info@ontario.ca, and explain what happened. With your consent, the unit contacts your landlord, sends a letter about the complaint and follows up. If the problem is not fixed, it can open an investigation that may lead to charges. For a lockout you can also apply to the Landlord and Tenant Board with Form T2, Application about Tenant Rights, to ask for an order to let you back in. You can also talk to a legal clinic, lawyer or paralegal.

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