Why our N4 template is a half-page and not a form.
An N4 — formally, "Notice to End your Tenancy Early for Non-payment of Rent" — is the LTB form a landlord serves on a tenant who is behind on rent. It is one page, with checkboxes, a small grid for the months and amounts owed, and a section at the bottom where the tenant can pay to "void" the notice. We file four or five of these in a typical month across the portfolios we manage. Most never reach the Board. The ones that do are usually decided in a hearing that takes under an hour.
The form is fine. It is exactly what the Board needs to start the file, and the Board's case-management system is built around the assumption that what arrives is the form. If you are filing an N4 to start a Board file, you have to send the form. Not a paraphrase, not a summary, not a friendlier version. The form.
The problem with the form, alone, is that tenants do not read it. Or rather: tenants read it once, scan for the dollar amount and the deadline, and put it down. The form does not, in plain prose, explain why this paper exists, what happens if the dollar amount is paid by the deadline, what happens if it isn't, who is involved, what the timeline looks like, what the tenant can do today that resolves the situation entirely. The form is a legal artifact, not a communication artifact.
We figured this out the hard way in the second week of operating. We filed three N4s in that week. Two of the tenants paid before the deadline. One did not, and the situation escalated further than it should have, because the tenant had read the form, panicked, decided to move out without paying, and only contacted us four days after the deadline — by which time the file was at the Board and the cure window had narrowed. The tenant called us once, asking what to do. The honest answer was: there were three things you could have done a week ago that you can't easily do now. The reason the tenant didn't do them is that the form didn't explain that they existed.
The next N4 we filed went out with a half-page note attached. The note is signed by the operator who's handling the file, addressed to the tenant by name, and reads roughly like this:
Hi [name],
Attached is a formal notice from the Landlord and Tenant Board called an N4. We have to send it because rent for [month] is past due. The form is what the Board needs to start a file. This note is so you know what's going on and what you can do.
You owe $[amount] for [month/months]. If you pay this in full by [date], the notice is automatically void and the file doesn't go any further. You can pay by [our usual methods]. Call me at [number] if you need a few extra days; we'd rather work it out than file at the Board.
If the amount isn't paid by the deadline, the file moves to the Board. You'll get a hearing notice from them within a few weeks. You can still pay before the hearing — the file is dropped if you do — but the process takes longer and is harder to unwind.
I'd rather talk than send notices. The fastest way to make this go away is to call me today. If you can't pay, tell me what you can pay, and we'll work out a plan in writing.
[Operator name] [Operator number]
The note is half a page. It says what the form doesn't say. It is signed by a person. It includes a phone number that goes to a person, not a queue. And the addressee is a tenant, not a respondent.
The results, over the last six weeks: four N4s filed, three resolved before the deadline (two payments, one written payment plan), one at the Board. The one at the Board is a tenant we have been unable to reach by any channel; the file will be heard in mid-May. The cure rate on filed N4s, before the half-page, was roughly 50%. After the half-page, it's 75% — small sample, but the direction is the direction we wanted.
A few operating reasons we send the half-page alongside the form, rather than instead of it.
The Board needs the form, in the form's format. Trying to be clever about this — sending a friendlier version and skipping the official one — would invalidate the filing, force a refile, and lose two weeks. Cleverness about regulatory paperwork is one of the few mistakes that compounds badly in this industry.
The form does not need an explanation in the Board's eyes. The half-page is for the tenant, not the adjudicator. We do not attach the half-page to the Board file. If the case is heard, the adjudicator sees the form. If a payment plan is reached, the half-page is what got us there.
Some tenants do not read English well. For two of the units we manage, we keep a Mandarin version of the half-page (translated by a paralegal contact and reviewed by a tenant who agreed to read it before we use it). A Tamil version is in the works. The form is in English because the Board needs it in English. The half-page can be in whatever language helps.
The half-page is signed. Not by Jaray PM, by a person. The operator who is handling the file puts their name and number on it. The signature is the difference between a notice from a company and a note from a human who can take a call. Tenants notice. Almost every call we've had after sending an N4 has started with the tenant addressing the operator by name.
The version of property management we are not running is the version where the N4 is filed by a system, on a calendar, with a portal notification, and a portal reply that the tenant can use to dispute it. That version is what most operators are headed toward, because the dispatching of the form is cheaper that way. The dispatching is not the work. The cure is the work. The half-page is the part of the work that nobody is paying us specifically for, and which is the entire reason the cure rate is what it is.
If you'd like a copy of the half-page template, write to hello@jaraygroup.com. We share it with anyone running their own small portfolio.