IMPORTANT NEWS TO SHARE: Ontario’s Commercial Evictions Ban
The Ontario government has made a change to commercial tenant eviction protection which makes it stronger. Under the old commercial eviction protection that expires January 31, 2021, tenants qualify by being CECRA-eligible (i.e. minimum 70 per cent revenue loss, regardless of whether their landlord applied for the program).
However, the old commercial eviction protection is being replaced by more certain protection that could potentially benefit more small businesses. In a nutshell, a regulation (https://www.ontario.ca/laws/regulation/r20763) that was approved on January 2, 2021 means any business (regardless of amount of revenue loss) that was approved for the new federal CERS program qualifies for Ontario’s commercial eviction protection for the period December 17, 2020 until April 22, 2022, as long as they provide proof of the CERS approval to their landlord.
Please note that this eviction protection covers non-payment of rent only (i.e. doesn’t cover other reasons a landlord might have justification to evict a commercial tenant based on terms of the lease)
