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Follow these steps to apply for a hearing at the Residential Tenancy Dispute Resolution Service.
The Residential Tenancy Dispute Resolution Service (RTDRS) offers landlords and tenants a method of resolving disputes under the jurisdiction of the Residential Tenancies Act and the Mobile Home Sites Tenancies Act without going to court.
Landlords and tenants can submit applications online using the RTDRS eFiling Service.
Information on what landlords and tenants can apply for is found in the RTDRS eligibility section.
Preparation is the key to a successful application. A well-prepared application is only the beginning of the process. You will need to file the application, serve the respondent, attend the hearing and enforce the order. This takes time and effort.
Before filing an application with the RTDRS, consider the following:
When filing an application against your landlord or tenant, you must make sure that the name and spelling of the landlord or tenant is correct.
When filing a claim against an individual landlord:
If you are filing an application against a business it is important to know whether the business is incorporated or unincorporated. An incorporated business usually has Limited, Ltd., Incorporated or Inc. after its name.
An incorporated business can only be claimed against in the name of the business. Put the full name of the business on the application form. To find out the exact name of an incorporated business, a Corporation Search should be done at any Alberta Registry Office.
Firms (partnerships of 2 or more people) and sole proprietorships are called unincorporated businesses. An unincorporated business must be claimed against in the name of the owner. Put the owner's full name and the name of the business on the application form. To find out the owner(s) of an unincorporated business and the address of the owner, do a Trade Name Search at any Alberta Registry Office.
There is a $75 filing fee at the time of your application.
This can be paid by Debit, MasterCard, VISA, American Express, Cheque or Money Order. Cheques should be made payable to the “Government of Alberta”.
The RTDRS does not accept cash.
If you cannot afford the filing fee, you may apply to the RTDRS for a waiver of the fee if you meet the criteria. You must provide 3 months’ proof of income, either as pay stubs or as a printout of your bank account.
PDF form issues
Fillable PDF forms do not open properly on some mobile devices and web browsers. To fill in and save the form:
Applicants should complete the RTDRS Fee Waiver Form (PDF, 98 KB) and submit it to the RTDRS.
Apply online using the RTDRS eFiling Service.
If not applying online:
An instruction sheet is attached to each application to help you fill out the form.
Information on what landlords and tenants can apply for is found in the RTDRS eligibility section.
If you are including supporting evidence, read Step 2 below for details on how to properly prepare evidence.
Submit your application in person at either the Edmonton or Calgary RTDRS office.
You can now submit your application online via the RTDRS eFiling Service.
You do not need to provide witnesses, but in some cases, they may help your case. Fill out the witness section of the application form if you will have witnesses provide testimony at the hearing.
Parties are responsible for having their witnesses available for the teleconference at the time of the hearing.
If the hearing is to take place in-person, witnesses may be required to attend in-person.
If you intend to call a witness such as a police officer or health inspector, you should apply for a Notice to Attend. A Notice to Attend is similar to a subpoena. The party requesting that a Notice to Attend be issued must complete a Declaration in Support of a Notice to Attend (PDF, 133 KB). This form will be reviewed by a Tenancy Dispute Officer who will decide whether or not to grant the request.
If the request is granted the party requesting the Notice to Attend is responsible for personally serving it to the witness and paying a witness fee ($10 per day or $20 per day for an expert witness). An expert witness is a person who is a specialist in a field who may present his/her expert opinion without having been a witness to any occurrence relating to the claim.
Evidence is the legal word for things that are used to prove what happened during the tenancy. Evidence can be:
The RTDRS does not accept physical evidence such as insects, mould samples or weapons. Instead you must submit photos with a written description.
The Tenancy Dispute Officers adhere to the processes and procedures outlined in the RTDRS Rules of Practice and Procedure. More information on evidence is available in the Evidence tip sheet.
Make sure your evidence is in the order that corresponds to the sections in the application form.
Mark the pages of evidence in sequence as ‘Item A, Item B’ and write the same item letter in the corresponding spaces in the application form.
If submitting evidence online, type in the item letters in the spaces provided. Submit your evidence in the least amount of uploads as possible. Convert all documentary evidence into one document for easy uploading. Do not upload 10 pieces of evidence individually. Instead, convert the 10 pieces of evidence into one document with 10 pages.
If you are including numerous documents and photographs you should number the pages and each photograph individually. You must tape the photographs on letter-size paper so that the RTDRS Information Officers can easily scan the photographs into their system.
Organize your evidence so that you are not submitting the same piece of evidence more than once (for example: do not submit 3 photographs of the same item).
You do not need to make copies of your application form. RTDRS will do that for you.
You must have the correct number of evidence copies when you arrive at the RTDRS office. The number of copies that you must make depends on the number of respondents in your application form:
If submitting your application online, each document uploaded will be restricted to 10 MB. The total upload for the application will be restricted to 100 MB. The file types that are supported are: pdf, txt, rtf, doc, docx, xps, jpg, jpeg, jpe, jfif, gif, png, bmp, tif, tiff, dib, xls, xlsx.
You can submit your application either in person or online.
You will also need to pay a $75 filing fee.
Take your completed application form and the correct number of evidence copies to the RTDRS office.
Hours: 9:30 am to 11:30 am, 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm (open Monday to Friday, closed statutory holidays)
Edmonton office:
44 Capital Boulevard
Main Floor, 10044 108 Street NW
Edmonton, Alberta T5J 3S7
Calgary Office:
Main Floor, Rocky Mountain Plaza
180, 615 Macleod Trail SE
Calgary, Alberta T2G 4T8
After you apply, an Information Officer will give you the appropriate number of copies of the filed Application Package.
The Application Package includes:
You will receive 2 emails from the RTDRS once your application has been processed. The first email will include your filed application package (application form, documented evidence and the Notice of Hearing). Ensure that you have checked your Junk email folder if you did not receive emails from the RTDRS before contacting us.
Make a copy of the entire filed Application Package for each respondent named in the Notice of Hearing form and serve each one with a copy.
The second email that you will receive will include the Declaration of Service. This form must be completed by the person who serves the application package on the respondent. You may submit the Declaration of Service form online via the RTDRS eFiling Service.
Serve a copy of the Application Package on each respondent listed on the application form. Get more information.
If the filing fee is a financial difficulty, you may apply to the RTDRS to waive the fee.
You must provide 3 months’ proof of income, either as pay stubs or as a printout of your bank account.
Applicants may apply for a waiver of the filing fee by completing the RTDRS Fee Waiver Form (PDF, 98 KB) then submitting it to the RTDRS.
Connect with RTDRS:
Phone: 780-644-3000
Toll free: 310-0000 before the phone number (in Alberta)
Fax: 780-644-2266
Email: [email protected]
The RTDRS does not accept applications or evidence via this email address.
RTDRS eFiling Service
Residential Tenancy Dispute Resolution Service
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