Ontario LTB Form T7: Dispute Suite-Meter or Utility Charges
Use Form T7 if you are challenging certain separate electricity meter or utility-charge arrangements.
T7 is for a tenant or former tenant challenging the landlord’s compliance with the rules for separate electricity meters or allocating utility costs. It is not a general complaint about a utility bill. Choose the specific circumstance on the form and explain what the landlord failed to do.
This guide explains the application; it does not file it for you or guarantee an outcome.
Which T7 reason fits?
- Reasons 1–5: electricity became your responsibility after you moved in. These address improper suite-meter installation, missing information or consent, notice and rent-reduction problems, and related restrictions.
- Reasons 6–7: the meter existed when you moved in. These cover missing prior electricity-use information and certain refrigerator-efficiency rules.
- Reasons 8–10: in a building with six or fewer rental units, the landlord charges you a share of the building’s utility costs without following the required disclosure, equipment or consent rules.
What must the landlord do?
For suite-meter installation affecting an existing tenant, the landlord generally must give at least 24 hours’ written notice of the power interruption, including a time between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. and its estimated duration. Transferring electricity payments to an existing tenant generally requires the approved written consent, specified disclosure and at least 30 days’ written notice, with the required rent reduction.
How to complete T7
- Part 1: enter your unit, landlord’s details, whether you still live there and any related cases.
- Part 2: select only the numbered reasons that fit your situation. State dates of notices, interruption, consent, billing change and rent reduction. Explain exactly which disclosure or requirement was missing.
- Part 3: select an available remedy, such as a rent reduction/rebate, reimbursement, a repair order or another appropriate remedy. Give the amount and how you calculated it where required.
- Part 4: sign, date, attach any additional sheets and file using an accepted LTB method with the $53 fee or an eligible waiver.
Worked example: electricity charged without consent
Rent is $1,850/month. On June 1, the landlord tells the tenant to start paying the electricity provider directly on June 15, without signed consent or a rent reduction. The tenant keeps the notice, lease, bills and emails and chooses the T7 reason about transferring electricity costs without the required consent, notice and reduction. T7 asks the LTB to assess the facts; it does not automatically eliminate the bill.
What to collect, and what happens next
Save the lease, proposed consent form, electricity disclosures, rent-change notice, meter installation notices, bills and meter-provider records. The LTB may consider the landlord’s evidence and order an available remedy if a breach is proven. Do not invent a universal filing deadline from the 24-hour or 30-day landlord-notice rules; those concern the landlord’s actions, not every T7 application.
Common mistake
An electricity provider’s price dispute is not automatically a T7 dispute. Identify which Residential Tenancies Act suite-meter or utility-allocation rule the landlord allegedly breached.
Current filing procedure for Form T7: the LTB lists email, mail/courier and participating ServiceOntario locations, not the general Tribunals Ontario Portal, for this application. If filing by email, send the completed application to ltbpayments@ontario.ca, follow the LTB’s secure payment-link instructions and pay before its three-calendar-day expiry. Do not email credit-card numbers. Confirm the current process directly with the LTB before filing.