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Programs and services across Ontario - Getting help in Housing law
Programs and services across Ontario - Getting help in Housing law
Community legal clinics
Legal Aid Ontario funds community legal clinics across Ontario to give free legal services to people with low incomes. Lawyers, community legal workers, and law students can help people with some legal problems, like social assistance, housing, and workers' rights.
To get help from a clinic:
- your legal issue must be one the clinic deals with
- you must live in the area the clinic serves
- you must have a low income
Most clinics also give brief advice or what’s called "summary advice", without asking about your financial situation. If your local clinic can't help you, they may be able to refer you to someone in your community who can.
Tenant duty counsel
Tenant duty counsel help tenants who don’t have a lawyer on the day of their hearing with the Landlord and Tenant Board. The Landlord and Tenant Board is the tribunal that decides issues between landlords and tenants.
Duty counsel are lawyers and legal workers paid for by Legal Aid Ontario. They can:
- give legal advice
- review documents and prepare forms
- help tenants and landlords agree on issues
- sometimes represent tenants during a hearing
To speak to duty counsel, arrive at least 30 minutes before your hearing. If you have a telephone hearing, you can usually talk to duty counsel when you call in for your hearing.
Housing Help Association of Ontario
Website
The association has a listing of housing help centres. These centres help people find a place to live, avoid eviction, and get financial support, including social assistance, rent bank loans, and help to pay utility bills.
Centre for Equality Rights in Accommodation (CERA)
Website
Contact Information
CERA is an organization that works with tenants mainly by telephone and email. Their staff are not lawyers or paralegals.
Tenants facing eviction can get information about the eviction process and services that can help them. CERA’s human rights services include helping tenants who:
- are being discriminated against when looking for housing
- are being harassed
- need accommodation for a human rights reason, such as a disability
- want general information about human rights or the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario
Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB)
Website
Contact Information
The Landlord and Tenant Board is the tribunal that decides issues between landlords and tenants.
The Board’s website has information about housing law, forms that landlords and tenants must use, and a FAQ page that answers common questions about housing law and the Board’s processes.
You can also call the Board for information. The Board can’t give legal advice.
Law Society Referral Service
Website
The Law Society of Ontario has on online Law Society Referral Service that gives you the name of a lawyer or licensed paralegal who will give free legal advice for up to 30 minutes in any area of law.
If you can’t wait for a legal representative to call you back, or if you don’t have a call-back number, email lsrs@lso.ca. Or, if you’re in crisis or in custody, call 1-855-947-5255 or 416-947-5255, Monday to Friday, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Ontario Legal Information Centre
Website
Contact Information
The centre offers a free 30-minute meeting with a lawyer to anyone in Ontario by telephone or in person at their Ottawa office in any area of law in English or French. You may have to leave a message, and a lawyer will call you back.
Centre francophone de Toronto
Contact Information
The Centre francophone de Toronto offers legal representation and advice in French to people living on a low income. They can help in the areas of:
- immigration and refugee law
- social assistance and disability benefits
- employment
- tenants’ rights
- human rights
- French language rights
They also have a legal advice line that gives legal information and advice in French over the telephone. You may have to leave a message, and someone will call you back.
They don’t help with family law or criminal law matters.