Summonsing a Witness to the LTB: A Step-by-Step Guide for Landlords and Tenants in Ontario

In Ontario, a Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) summons is a Board Member's signed order requiring a person to come to your hearing to testify, and to bring along any documents it names. Landlords and tenants can both ask for one. Representing yourself? You complete one form, the Request for the Board to Issue a Summons. Have a lawyer or paralegal? They complete that request and also prepare the Summons to go with it.

A landlord might need a police officer, a neighbour, a contractor or a municipal inspector. A tenant might need an inspector who saw the problem, a tradesperson or a former building employee. The steps are the same for either side.

The short version

Where the power comes from

The Statutory Powers Procedure Act (SPPA), in section 12, gives a tribunal power to order anyone, a party included, to give evidence and produce documents and things "relevant to the subject-matter of the proceeding and admissible at a hearing".

The LTB's Rule 7.5 explains how to ask: file the Request form, and if a licensee represents you, they prepare the summons and submit it together with the request. Rule 7.6 makes the person who asked responsible for two things: having it served, and paying the witness under Tariff A of the Rules of Civil Procedure.

A Member, the Requesting a Summons brochure explains, signs only when the testimony or records are relevant and necessary for deciding the case. Write your request with that test in mind.

Do you actually need one?

A summons makes sense if:

• [ ] the person will not come unless ordered;
• [ ] they are willing, but their employer wants an official paper before giving them the day off; or
• [ ] they hold records you want at the hearing, for example a repair company's invoices.

If the witness has already said yes and you trust them to turn up, the brochure says you can do without one.

Timing

1. Ask early. Rule 7.5: file once you know a summons will be needed.
2. Serve fast. After it comes back signed, deliver it promptly so the witness can arrange to be there (brochure).

Steps to complete the Request form

1. Requester's Information. Mark whether you are the tenant, the landlord, a co-op or co-op member, or someone else, and fill in your contact details.
2. Unit, Building or Complex Covered by this Application. The complete rental address.
3. Information about the Hearing. Every scheduled hearing day, with its time and place.
4. Part 1: Witness to be Summoned. Who the witness is and how to reach them. Next, sketch out their expected testimony and why the Member needs it (relevant and necessary). Those two words are the test, so point to the issue in the case it helps prove.
5. Part 2: Documents Witness Must Bring. List each item and why you need it, described clearly enough that the witness can find it.
6. Signature. Say whether you are the requester, a representative or someone else; add your phone number and, for a licensee, the LSO number; sign and date.
7. Return of the signed summons. Tell the LTB whether to email it, mail it, or hold it for you to pick up. Delivery to the witness is up to you; the Board will not do it.

Example (tenant side). A tenant has a hearing about repairs and wants the property standards officer who inspected the unit. Part 1 says the officer saw the bathroom ceiling and issued an order, which bears on whether the landlord failed to repair. Part 2 asks for "inspection report and photographs for the unit", explaining they show the ceiling's condition.

If a lawyer or paralegal prepares the Summons

Your representative completes the Summons with the file number, the witness's details, the hearing particulars, the rental address, the parties, the items to be brought, and the representative's own name and LSO number in the "issued at the request of" area. The Board fills in the Member's signature and "Dated at" lines.

Note: the current Summons form still cites the old rule numbers (7.4 and 7.5) and asks for an "LSUC #". Since the Rules were updated on September 21, 2026, the summons provisions sit in Rules 7.5 and 7.6.

Filing, delivering and paying: a checklist

• [ ] File it using the Tribunals Ontario Portal. Licensees have had to use the Portal for summonses since January 1, 2025.
• [ ] Hand it to the witness personally. This is required by SPPA s. 12(3), and repeated on the Summons form and in the brochure. Mail, fax or leaving it with a relative does not count. Anyone can do the handing over, but should be ready to prove it.
• [ ] Pay the witness under Tariff A (the LTB Rules copy it into Appendix A):
• $50 per day of necessary attendance;
• $3.00 per day for travel when the witness lives in the same city or town as the hearing;
• 24¢ per kilometre each way for trips within 300 km;
• beyond 300 km, return airfare, with 24¢ a kilometre added for the drive to and from each airport;
• $75 per night for lodging and meals when an overnight stay is necessary.

Why summonses get refused or fall apart

1. No reason given. "She knows the tenant" fails the relevant-and-necessary test; tie the testimony to a real issue.
2. A licensee skips the Summons or the Portal. Both are compulsory for lawyers and paralegals (Rule 7.5; Practice Direction).
3. Indirect delivery. Mailed, emailed or left with family means the witness cannot be compelled.
4. No attendance money. The Summons form explains that a witness who stays away without lawful excuse can be brought before the Superior Court of Justice only if properly served and paid.
5. A fuzzy document list. Records the witness cannot identify will not arrive.
6. Asking too late. The Member has to review the request first, and serving takes time too.

If the witness does not show up

The brochure gives two options: proceed without the evidence, or ask for an adjournment. To prove delivery, have the person who handed it over swear an affidavit before a commissioner and attach a copy of the summons. If a served witness stays away and the evidence is material, a Superior Court judge has power under SPPA s. 12(4) to issue a warrant for that person.

Questions people ask

Is there a fee to request a summons?

Not for the request (brochure). What you pay is the witness's Tariff A money, including travel.

Does the Board deliver it to the witness?

No. Serving is not something the LTB does, as the request form points out. Someone has to place it directly in the witness's hands.

Can a landlord summons the tenant, or the other way around?

It is possible. SPPA s. 12(1) covers "any person, including a party", provided the evidence is relevant and necessary.

What does a summoned witness get?

$50 for each attendance day, plus travel and any overnight allowance, as set out in Tariff A and reproduced in Appendix A to the LTB Rules.

Official sources

• Request for the Board to Issue a Summons (form)
• Summons (Lawyers and Paralegals Only)
• Brochure: Requesting a Summons
• LTB Rules of Procedure, Rule 7 and Appendix A
• Statutory Powers Procedure Act, s. 12
• 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.