Rent repayment agreements in Ontario: the LTB form is now mandatory

When rent falls behind in Ontario, the formal track is well known: N4 notice, L1 application, hearing, order. The less-known track is often better for both sides — a repayment agreement under s. 206 of the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006, which lets the Landlord and Tenant Board issue a payment order on consent without a hearing. As of July 1, 2026, that track has a new formal requirement: the agreement must be made on the LTB's official Payment Agreement Form. Tribunals Ontario confirmed the change, which arrives via the Helping Homebuyers, Protecting Tenants Act, 2023 (Bill 97) alongside the Bill 60 amendments, in its June 30, 2026 operational update. A handshake deal or an exchange of texts no longer does the job.

The form itself, like all LTB forms, is a free download from Tribunals Ontario.

How the s. 206 route works

1. An application must be on file. The s. 206 route runs inside an arrears application (an L1 for arrears and eviction, or an L9 for arrears only).
2. The parties agree in writing — on the mandatory form. Amounts, instalment dates, and ongoing rent, signed by both sides.
3. The Board issues an order without a hearing. It can cover the arrears, NSF charges and the filing fee. A s. 206 payment order does not include an eviction — but it may include a s. 78 clause, which permits the landlord to apply for eviction without a new notice or hearing if the tenant breaches.
4. On breach, the landlord can ask the Board to reopen the application within 30 days of the breach, identifying the term breached — or, where the order contains a s. 78 clause, file an L4 for an ex parte eviction order.

When to propose repayment rather than ride the N4

For tenants, the arithmetic changed this year. From September 21, 2026, an N4 gives 7 days instead of 14 before the landlord can file an L1. If you cannot pay the arrears in full within the notice period, a realistic written plan proposed early is the strongest move available: it can end the application without a hearing, and performance under an order is the best protection against eviction.

For landlords, the question is time-to-money. An L1 hearing date is months away; a consent order can issue in weeks. If the tenant has income and the arrears are one or two months, a s. 206 order with a s. 78 clause usually recovers more, sooner, than a contested hearing — and keeps a unit occupied by a paying tenant rather than cycling through re-letting.

Repayment is not always right: where arrears are large and growing, the tenant has made and broken plans before, or there are other grounds in play, the formal track may be the honest answer.

Negotiating a plan that holds

• Instalments the tenant can actually make. A plan built on hope defaults in month one; a defaulted plan with a s. 78 clause ends in an eviction order without a hearing. Both sides should prefer smaller, longer, kept.
• Ongoing rent comes first. A plan that repays arrears while current rent slips is treading water. Put ongoing rent in the agreement.
• Fixed calendar dates, not "when I get paid."
• Use the form, file the form. Since July 1, 2026 an informal side deal is not a s. 206 agreement at all — it gives the tenant no protection from the pending application and gives the landlord nothing to enforce.
• Tenants: understand the s. 78 clause before signing. It is the landlord's usual price for consent, and it makes the instalment dates hard deadlines.

Prevention, next tenancy

Most arrears disputes trace back to loose paperwork at the start — unclear due dates, cash payments without records, utilities nobody assigned. A properly drafted lease with clear rent, due-date and utilities terms (attached to Ontario's mandatory standard form where required) makes both the N4 arithmetic and any repayment discussion cleaner.

→ Residential Lease Agreement

Related: the N4 notice and the new 7-day period · what Bill 60 actually changed about fixed-term leases