The L7 Form Explained: When an Ontario Care Home Can Transfer a Tenant

In Ontario, the L7 is how a care home landlord asks the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB, or "the Board") to move a resident out of the home, and end their tenancy, because their care needs no longer match what the home offers. It works in both directions: a resident who now needs less support, or one who now needs more. For landlords it is the only lawful path for this kind of move; for residents and families, knowing the tests the landlord must pass shows you exactly what the Board will weigh.

The essentials

Who uses the L7, and what it means for each side

Landlords: the L7 seeks an order under section 148 of the Residential Tenancies Act (the RTA) moving the resident out and evicting them.

Residents and families: a person living in a care home has the full protection of a tenant under the RTA. Shifting health needs do not, by themselves, let the home move anyone out. The landlord needs an order from the Board and has to prove one of two grounds.

What counts as a care home

Under s. 2(1) of the RTA, it is a residential complex whose occupants live there (or are meant to) to obtain care services. "Care services" covers health care, rehabilitation or therapy, and assistance with everyday tasks such as bathing, dressing or eating, which the Act calls the activities of daily living.

The two grounds, in plain words

1. The resident needs less than the home supplies. This also catches a resident who has, again and again and to a substantial degree, stopped using some or all of the care services in their agreement, and who is not getting substantially equivalent help from community providers (O. Reg. 516/06, s. 49).
2. The resident needs more than the landlord is able to supply. On this ground the Board may order the move only if both points are proven (s. 148(2)): - somewhere appropriate for the resident to go is actually available; and - even adding community-based services delivered inside the home to the home's own care would not meet the resident's needs.

Is the L7 the right form? Run this check

• ☐ The problem really is a care mismatch. Unpaid rent, behaviour or other grounds go through the standard notices and applications instead, for instance an N4 followed by an L1, or an N5 followed by an L2.
• ☐ The Act applies to this home. Brief respite stays in a care home are excluded (s. 5(l)), as is housing governed by the Fixing Long-Term Care Act, 2021 or the hospitals Acts (s. 5(e)). In doubt? The A1 asks the Board to decide coverage.
• ☐ On the "needs more care" ground, the homework is finished. The official instructions expect the landlord to have looked for a suitable new placement and to have explored which outside care services might let the resident remain. Skip that and the Board has no basis for an order.

Timelines to keep in mind

• Filing: no deadline under s. 148, and no notice of termination is served beforehand.
• Service: if the Board directs the landlord to serve, the application and Notice of Hearing in a care home transfer go to the resident no fewer than 30 days ahead of the hearing (Rule 5.7). Proof of that, the Certificate of Service, must reach the Board within five days afterwards (Rule 5.15).
• Mediation: a disputed L7 goes to mediation before any decision (s. 148(3)). The form itself warns that a landlord who will not agree to try it may see the application dismissed.
• Review: orders dated July 1, 2026 or later can be challenged by a review request made within 15 days (Rule 26.5).

Worked example. The hearing is booked for Monday, March 15, 2027. Thirty days earlier is Saturday, February 13, 2027. Because that is a weekend, the cautious plan is to have the papers served no later than Friday, February 12.

Filling out the L7: step by step

Use version 01/04/2022, the one currently posted. Capital letters, typed or printed. Read the L7 instructions first.

Step 1: General Information (Part 1)

1. Rental unit address, complete with room or unit number and postal code.
2. Landlord details: the owner or operator, with mailing address, phone and email. Co-landlords go on a Schedule of Parties.
3. Tenant details: the resident's name; a separate mailing address only if their mail does not go to the unit.
4. Representative or substitute decision maker: anyone who acts for the resident, for example someone holding power of attorney. In a care home there often is such a person, so ask.
5. Related applications: file numbers of open LTB matters about this unit.

Step 2: Reason for Your Application (Part 2)

Pick one reason only.

• Reason 1 (less care needed). Explain the lowest level of care the home delivers and why this resident needs less. Where the resident has dropped services, list them, say when that began, and confirm nothing equivalent is coming from the community.
• Reason 2 (more care needed, even counting outside help). Explain what the home offers, why it is not enough, which community services could come in, and why the two combined still leave the resident's needs unmet.

The form then asks whether another appropriate place is available right now. Answer Yes or No. For Yes, give that facility's name and address and how the move has been arranged. For a No on Reason 2, expect no transfer order unless you can prove by the hearing that a suitable place has become available.

Step 3: Signature (Part 3)

Mark whether you are the landlord or a legal representative, then sign and date it. Representatives add their Law Society number and contact details.

Step 4: Payment Information Form

Mark your payment method and, for an online payment, the receipt number.

Sending it to the Board

Pick one route:

1. Email: pay the $201 fee online with Visa or Mastercard (credit or debit). Within 24 hours, send the form and the receipt to LTBpayments@ontario.ca; the subject line should show the receipt number and the unit's address.
2. Mail or courier: enclose a certified cheque or money order made out to the "Minister of Finance", or the Credit Card Payment Form.
3. ServiceOntario: drop it off at an office that takes LTB filings.

Fees are not refunded (see the LTB fees page); a Fee Waiver Request is available to those who qualify. Once it is filed, a Board mediator gets in touch with both sides.

Common reasons an L7 is refused

1. Reason 2 with nowhere for the resident to go. Section 148(2)(a) makes an available placement a condition. Without proof of one, there is no order.
2. Silence about community services. Reason 2 also needs evidence that outside services added to the home's care would still fall short (s. 148(2)(b)). Listing only the home's limits misses half the test.
3. Walking away from mediation. The Board may dismiss the application of a landlord who will not take part (s. 148(4)).
4. No substitute decision maker named. The form asks for this person. Leaving them out invites delay and a fairness complaint, particularly when the resident cannot participate unaided.
5. Late service when the Board said to serve. Breaking the 30-day rule can bring an adjournment or a dismissal (Rule 5.17).
6. Thin evidence. Orders rest on documents: assessments, care plans, a record of refused services, letters exchanged with community agencies and with the new facility. Bare conclusions rarely succeed.

Checklist for residents and families

Each point flows from the legal tests above:

• ☐ Which reason did the landlord choose, and does its description fit the resident's real needs?
• ☐ For Reason 2, is a genuine, suitable new home named?
• ☐ Has the landlord explained why in-home community services would not be enough?
• ☐ Is the resident's representative or substitute decision maker listed and informed?
• ☐ Answer the mediator's call; mediation is the first stage after filing.

What comes after filing

1. The mediator works with both sides to see whether the dispute can be settled.
2. No settlement means a hearing before a Board member.
3. Because eviction is being sought, the member has to consider relief from eviction under s. 83 (the power to refuse or postpone an eviction). From September 21, 2026, postponing over the landlord's objection requires a finding that doing so is not unfair to the landlord or the other residents, plus compelling reasons.
4. A transfer order is carried out like other eviction orders, by the Court Enforcement Office (Sheriff).

What has changed

• Bill 60, September 21, 2026: s. 83 relief became harder to get. The Board can delay an eviction the landlord objects to only if satisfied it is not unfair and there are compelling reasons. The eviction in an L7 is covered.
• July 1, 2026: time to ask for a review fell from 30 days to 15 (Rule 26.5).
• The L7 itself was not reissued on September 21, 2026; 01/04/2022 is still the current version.

Questions landlords and families ask

Can a care home make a resident leave because their health changed?

Not without a Board order. Under RTA s. 148 the home must show that the resident needs either less care than it provides or more than it can manage. In the second situation it must also prove that another suitable placement is available and that outside services could not bridge the gap.

Does every L7 go to mediation?

Every contested one. Section 148 puts disputes in front of a mediator before the Board decides, and a landlord who declines risks dismissal.

A resident keeps refusing their care services. Does that matter?

It can. If the refusals are repeated and substantial, and no comparable community services fill the gap, that can support Reason 1 (O. Reg. 516/06, s. 49).

How long is there to challenge an L7 order?

Fifteen days for orders issued from July 1, 2026 onward (Rule 26.5).

Official sources

• Form L7 – Application to Transfer a Care Home Tenant (PDF)
• L7 Instructions
• LTB Forms, filing and fees
• Residential Tenancies Act, 2006, ss. 2(1), 5, 83 and 148
• O. Reg. 516/06 (General), s. 49
• LTB Rules of Procedure, Rules 5.7, 5.15, 5.17 and 26.5
• LTB Operational Update, September 21, 2026

Last reviewed October 31, 2026. General information, not legal advice for your situation. Always use the current version of the form from the LTB.