While the Landlord and Tenant Board and the Small Claims Court have the same monetary jurisdiction at the moment (both can award up to $10,000), they are by no means substitutes of each other.
The legislative purpose of the Landlord and Tenant Board is to “to balance the rights and responsibilities of residential landlords and tenants and to provide for the adjudication of disputes and for other processes to informally resolve disputes.”
In other words, the Board is mainly concerned with the rights and obligations between the landlord and the tenant. While the Board has the power to award compensation, it’s actually quite restricted.
For matters concerning maintenance standards, the Board has limited discretion in awarding compensation under the frame work of the Residential Tenancies Act. For instance, under section 30 of the RTA, if the Board has found the landlord in breach of its obligation regarding property maintenance, the Board may order one or more of the following:
- termination of the tenancy
- an abatement (reduction) of rent
- authorizing or ordering the tenant to complete the repairs and seek costs from the landlord
- reasonable costs and out-of-pocket expenses of the tenant
- prohibiting further rent increases until the property is repaired
- any other order that the Board considers appropriate
As you can see, under this example the Board’s power is limited to what we lawyers call “special damages,” i.e., reasonable costs incurred or expected to be incurred, and compensation in the form of abatement of rent. Other types of damages, such as punitive damages and economic losses, are not available.
Although the statute allows “any other order” that the Board considers appropriate, the Board exercises this power vary cautiously. For example, the Board rarely awards compensation for “hurt feelings” and “upset.” (I’ve never seen one instance yet.) For claims involving replacement of personal properties, the Board takes factors such as depreciation into consideration.
