Asking the LTB for More Time: A Plain Guide to the Request to Extend Deadline

If you are a landlord or a tenant in an Ontario Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) case and a filing deadline has slipped past, the Request to Extend Deadline is how you ask the Board to accept your document late. On the landlord side it usually comes up with a review, an amendment or an S3 motion filed after time ran out; tenants may need it for a late review or a late motion to set aside an order. It can only rescue deadlines the law lets the Board move.

Quick facts

What the Board can and cannot do

Section 190(2) of the RTA gives the Board power to stretch or shrink time limits in its cases, with one big exception: it may not touch "the prescribed time requirements". How you ask is governed by Rule 16 of the LTB Rules of Procedure. Rule 16.1 wants a written request, with reasons, filed in the manner the Rules set out. A successful request means your late document is treated as received on its actual filing date (Rule 16.7).

Deadlines you may ask to extend

Drawn from the official instructions and the Rules:

1. Reviews. Orders dated July 1, 2026 or later allow 15 days for a Request to Review an Order; earlier orders allow 30 (RTA s. 209(3); Rules 26.4 to 26.6).
2. Amendments. Rule 24.1 gives 30 days for a Request to Amend an Order.
3. S3 motions. When an eviction order has been voided, the landlord's S3 motion challenging that must come within 10 days (RTA s. 74(9)).
4. Mediated settlements. Re-opening an application resolved in mediation must happen within one year of signing (Rule 13.12).
5. Dates for written submissions or evidence fixed by an LTB order or direction.
6. Two less common landlord deadlines: reviewing a municipal work order (20 days under s. 226(1)), and the s. 159(2) application about assigning a mobile home site.

Deadlines that cannot be moved

The Board has no power over any time limit that O. Reg. 516/06, s. 56 prescribes. The ones that matter most:

• All notice periods for ending a tenancy. An N4, N5 or N12 that gave too little notice is not fixed by an extension.
• Most application filing deadlines. The exceptions are the handful s. 190(1) names (AGI, s. 159(2) and s. 226). According to the instructions, no extension is available to file an L3 late, nor an L4.
• Re-opening after a missed payment. Under s. 206(6), a landlord has 30 days after a tenant's default to ask to re-open the consent order, and that period is fixed.
• Rent increase timing: both the 90 days' written notice and the 12-month rule.

A request aimed at any of these will be turned down; your options are a fresh notice or a different route.

Timing rules to know before you ask

1. Count first. Days are calendar days. Leave out the first day, include the last, and a final day falling on a weekend or LTB holiday is pushed to the following business day (Rules 1.12–1.14). You might still be on time.
2. Pair it with the late document. Barring exceptional circumstances, Rule 16.2 has the extension and the late filing submitted at once. This covers S3 motions, a tenant's motion to set aside, requests to amend or review, reviews of work orders and the mobile-home application. Under Guideline 8, a review extension sent by itself will not be looked at.
3. Filed it alone anyway? If the Board grants it, you will get a date for filing the document and paying whatever fee it carries. Miss it and the document is refused (Rule 16.3).
4. You get one attempt. Once refused, a second try on the same deadline requires that circumstances have changed significantly (Rule 16.6).

Example. Suppose an order is issued on Friday, February 12, 2027, with the 15-day review period. Start counting the day after: the fifteenth day is Saturday, February 27. A weekend deadline carries to the next business day, Monday, March 1, 2027, so a review request filed that Monday is in time, and no extension is needed.

Filling in the form, step by step

The form in use is version 2026/07.

1. Top section. Enter the LTB file number, your language choice and any accommodation you need.
2. Requesting Party's Information. Fill in your name and any company, plus email, phone and mailing address, and choose how documents should reach you.
3. Unit, Building or Complex. The complete address of the rental unit.
4. What you want extended. In the part that begins "I am requesting that the LTB extend...", choose the box for review, amend, re-opening a mediated application, setting aside an ex parte order, or "other". For a landlord's S3, pick "other" and write the motion's name.
5. Your reasons. This is the part the Member reads most closely. Answer each Rule 16.4 factor in turn: - the length of the delay, and precisely what caused it; - what you lose if refused, and what the other side loses if it is granted; - how that loss could be put right; - your good faith.

Give dates and back them up, for instance with proof the order went to a wrong address. A doctor's note should name the condition, explain how it stopped you acting, and give an expected recovery date. For a late review, Guideline 8 lets the Board also weigh the strength of the review itself. 6. Signature. Say whether you are the landlord, the landlord's representative or someone else, then sign and add the date. Representatives also give their Law Society number and how to reach them.

Getting it to the Board

• Portal: use it if your file is already there.
• Email: LTB@ontario.ca.
• Mail or courier: to the LTB at 15 Grosvenor Street, Ground Floor, Toronto, ON M7A 2G6.
• In person: any ServiceOntario location that takes LTB filings.

Licensed lawyers and paralegals are required by the Practice Direction on licensees to use the Portal whenever this request is going in by itself, without another request. A late review is the exception to the usual routes: it follows the review process, which means email plus the online fee receipt. The instructions also accept a letter or email in place of the form, as long as it identifies the file, the deadline and your reasons, but they recommend using the form.

Seven reasons requests fail

1. The deadline is prescribed. Notice periods for termination, most application deadlines and the s. 206(6) window all appear in O. Reg. 516/06, s. 56.
2. Nothing attached. Rule 16.2 requires the late document to come with the request; for reviews, a lone extension request is simply not considered.
3. A weak explanation. "I was too busy" or "I never read the order" will rarely beat the other side's right to have the case over with.
4. No proof. The form cautions that missing supporting documents can result in denial.
5. Reasons saved for later. A repeat request needs a significant change in circumstances; it is not a chance to add what you could have said the first time (Rule 16.6).
6. Following outdated instructions. A 30-day review window still appears in the January 2025 instructions, but RTA s. 209(3) now allows 15 days for any order issued from July 1, 2026 onward.
7. More delay. Each day you wait lengthens the delay the Member weighs and undercuts your good faith.

After you file

The Member often rules without asking the other parties to comment (Rule 16.5), then gives a decision and reasons.

• Granted: your document is processed with its real filing date as the date received.
• Denied: the normal deadline governs, and the late filing is turned away.

Recent changes

The deadline this form most often rescues, the review deadline, dropped to 15 days from 30 when Bill 60 took effect on July 1, 2026 (RTA s. 209(3)). Rule 26.6 now cross-refers to each of the two review periods. The form was refreshed to version 2026/07, but the instructions that go with it are still the January 2025 edition.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a charge for an extension request?

The LTB fee schedule lists none. If the late document has its own fee, such as the $58 review fee, you still pay that.

I'm a landlord and missed the 30-day window for an L4. Is there a way back?

Not through this form. The instructions are clear: the Board has no power to give more time for an L4 (s. 78) or an L3. Consider whether re-opening the original application is still possible.

Is there a point where it is simply too late?

There is no set limit. The Member balances how long you were late and why, the prejudice to each party, good faith and anything else relevant. Lengthy, unexplained delays fare worst.

Can the LTB give my N4 more time?

No. Termination notice periods are prescribed by O. Reg. 516/06, s. 56, so they are outside the Board's extension power. Serve a new notice that gets it right.

Official sources

• Request to Extend Deadline form (PDF)
• Request to Extend Deadline Instructions (PDF)
• LTB Rules of Procedure, Rule 16
• O. Reg. 516/06, s. 56
• Residential Tenancies Act, 2006, s. 190
• Practice Direction Requiring Law Society Licensees to use TOP

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