Tribunals Ontario Portal, Step by Step: Filing, Linking and Sharing Evidence at the LTB

The Tribunals Ontario Portal, usually called TOP, is the online system the Ontario Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) uses to run its case files. Landlords use it to start the most common applications at a lower fee; tenants use it to file their own applications or to follow a case a landlord has brought against them. Both sides can upload evidence, trade messages and documents, and see where a file stands. This guide walks through each step, and flags the one trap that catches people most often: assuming that an upload serves the other side.

Quick reference

What the Portal handles

Tribunals Ontario lists these Portal functions:

1. file applications and pay the fees;
2. check a file's status;
3. upload evidence;
4. read and swap messages and documents with the other parties;
5. in some cases, pick your own preferred hearing dates; and
6. negotiate through ODR, the online dispute resolution tool.

For the LTB, the Portal is the live version of your file. Its help page explains that what you see there is up to date, and that phoning staff will not get you any more status detail than the screen already shows.

Step 1: create your sign-in

Access runs through Public Secure, Ontario's government login. You have two choices:

• My Ontario Login: you choose an email address and a password. The password needs at least eight characters and must mix capitals, lower-case letters, digits and a symbol.
• A Sign-in partner: Government Sign-In by Verified.Me, where your online banking login gets you in.

Skip Internet Explorer, which Tribunals Ontario says does not work well with the Portal; a current version of Edge, Safari, Firefox or Chrome is recommended.

Filing the application yourself? Then the file shows up in your account on its own, with no PIN involved.

Step 2: know whether your application belongs here

Landlord applications on the Portal:

• Money only: L9 (a current tenant's unpaid rent) and L10 (what a former tenant owes)
• Unpaid rent with eviction: L1
• Other eviction or money claims: L2
• A tenant's own notice, or an agreement to end: L3
• A settlement or order the tenant did not honour: L4

Tenants can file a T1, T2, T5 or T6 on it, and co-ops can file a C1 or C2.

Everything else goes another way. The LTB's list of email filings covers the A1, A2, A4, L6, L7 and L8, plus a Request to Review an Order and a Request for Hearing Recordings. Step one is payment on the Online Payment for Tribunal Applications page; step two is emailing the receipt and the application together to ltbpayments@ontario.ca. An L5 (for an above-guideline increase) follows a separate email route, to AGIpayments@ontario.ca, with the Rental Unit Information (RUI) spreadsheet attached. Paper is still an option for the A applications and the L5 through L8: mail, courier, or a ServiceOntario centre that accepts LTB documents. The Request to Review an Order is listed for email. Never type card numbers into an email, because the LTB deletes any application containing them.

Step 3: file, one stage at a time

1. Gather your notice and proof of service first. For an L1 or L2, that is the N4, N5, N12 or other termination notice, together with the Certificate of Service that proves how and when the tenant got it.
2. Work through the guided form. The Portal takes you section by section. Name all the tenants. Wherever you know one, add an email address for every party and any representative, since that is where the LTB will send PINs and documents.
3. Upload the notice, the affidavit or the Certificate of Service as you file. That is a requirement of Rule 4.4. Rule 4.5 then allows 5 calendar days if you can't; let it lapse and the file may be dismissed administratively.
4. Check everything before you reach "Ready to Submit". That page locks the draft. An error found after that point means starting over with a new application.
5. Pay the fee on the Portal with a Visa credit card, Visa Debit, a Mastercard credit card or Debit Mastercard. LTB fees are not refunded.

Two rules worth knowing. Rule 4.8: an upload is filed the same day it goes up. Rule 4.3: on the Portal, a typed name works as a signature.

Once it is filed, LTB staff review the application, its attachments and whether it came in on time. An application that is incomplete or late can be refused or dismissed. Rule 6 lists the timing errors people most often make (for rent cases, see the L1 guide).

Step 4: linking with a PIN (the other side's way in)

When someone files on the Portal, every other party is notified and receives a unique, single-use PIN. It arrives by email when the filer supplied an address; otherwise it comes in the mail.

If you are the tenant (or anyone who did not file):

1. Sign in, then pick the option "Link my Account to a File at LTB".
2. Enter the LTB file number and your 5-digit PIN.
3. Once the file is linked, you will not need the PIN again.

Each PIN is personal; never pass it on. Hiring a lawyer or paralegal after you have filed? Go to Documents, Evidence and Requests on the file and upload a "Request to Add a Representative or Agent". Lost PIN, or never got one? Email LTB@ontario.ca, or phone 416-645-8080 (toll-free 1-888-332-3234).

Step 5: upload your evidence correctly

The Practice Direction on Evidence asks for Portal uploads on L1, L2, L3, L4, L9 and L10 files. The path is: your file, then Documents, Evidence and Requests, then Submissions.

Upload checklist:

• [ ] Each file is 500 MB or smaller.
• [ ] It is in an accepted format. For text, use PDF, DOCX, DOC, MSG or TXT; for tables, XLSX, XLS, CSV or DAT; for pictures, PNG, JPG, JPEG, TIF or GIF; for recordings, MP4, MOV, AVI or MP3.
• [ ] Instead of a link to a website or social media post, you have saved or printed the content as a document.
• [ ] It is readable, the pages run in sequence, and several items come with a table of contents.
• [ ] You are uploading the file itself, not sharing it from Dropbox, iCloud or another cloud service, which the LTB refuses.

Timing. Think in weeks. Rule 19.1 requires 7 days at minimum: each party's evidence must reach the others and the LTB a week or more ahead of the hearing (or case management hearing). Evidence answering it has a 5-day minimum under Rule 19.2. And on L1 and L9 files, Rule 10.2 requires the landlord's L1/L9 Information Update to reach the LTB and every tenant 5 or more days ahead.

For example, with a hearing on Wednesday, February 17, 2027, your main evidence should be with the other side and the LTB by Wednesday, February 10, and any responding evidence by Friday, February 12.

Step 6: serve the other side, because uploading is not enough

This is where hearings are lost. Rule 19.1.1 says uploading alone does not count as giving evidence to the other side, with one exception: they agreed in writing to Portal service and that written agreement is on the file. Lacking it, the same deadlines apply to serving them another approved way: in person, by mail or courier, or by email if they accepted email service.

That agreement is recorded on the LTB's Consent to Disclosure through Tribunals Ontario Portal form. What to know about it:

• one form per tenant, signed by that tenant and the landlord;
• any written consent works; the LTB form is simply convenient;
• either signer can withdraw later by writing to the other;
• after consenting, watching the Portal for new uploads is your own job.

Once signed, it goes up under Documents, Evidence and Requests with "Consent to Disclosure through TOP" selected. Where that consent exists, Rule 3.1 accepts a Portal upload as service, and under Rule 3.9 the service date is the upload date.

Messages, settlements and withdrawing

With the ODR tool, the parties negotiate between themselves. Tribunals Ontario says it is not mediation and not adjudication; once there is agreement, or a deadlock, the parties may ask for a Dispute Resolution Officer. Under Rule 13.5, ODR talks are confidential, so none of it can be raised before the LTB. Possible endings include a mediated agreement, a consent order, a payment plan, or the applicant withdrawing on the Portal.

If you have a lawyer or paralegal

Any licensee of the Law Society of Ontario must, from January 1, 2025 on, file Portal-eligible applications through the Portal, along with: evidence; summonses; L1/L9 Information Updates; amendments to an application; requests to reschedule or to extend or shorten time; withdrawal or discontinuance requests; and requests to amend an order or re-open an application. Sent by a licensee any other way (ServiceOntario, email, courier, fax or mail), those items will not be processed.

Frequently asked questions

Will I pay less by filing on the Portal?

Yes. Online, the L1, L2, L3, L9 and L10 each cost $186 instead of $201, and there is no fee at all for an L4.

Can the L5 go through the Portal?

No. It goes by email to AGIpayments@ontario.ca, RUI spreadsheet attached, or on paper by mail, courier or ServiceOntario. To pay, you use a secure link the LTB sends by email; it stops working after three calendar days.

The tenant linked to the file with their PIN. Has my evidence been served by uploading it?

Only if the tenant agreed in writing to be served through the Portal and that agreement is uploaded. If not, serve the evidence on them some other approved way, on time.

I found an error after reaching "Ready to Submit". Can I fix it?

Not in that draft. Begin again with a new application, and check each page before you click "Save and Next".

On hearing day, Zoom or the Portal won't work. Who can help?

Portal or PIN trouble goes to LTB@ontario.ca. Zoom trouble on the hearing day goes to LTB hearing support: 416-212-9064, toll-free 866-769-7865, or LTBHearingSupport@ontario.ca.

Official sources

• Tribunals Ontario Portal (LTB)
• Tribunals Ontario Portal – Help
• Information Sheet: Portal PIN
• LTB Forms, filing and fees
• Practice Direction on Evidence
• Practice Direction Requiring Law Society Licensees to use TOP
• Consent to Disclosure through Tribunals Ontario Portal (form)
• LTB Rules of Procedure

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