A provincial tribunal has dismissed a 92-year-old’s request for compensation from his former landlord over a “bad faith” eviction during a Toronto heat wave last summer — a decision the former tenant is appealing.
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tenant → dismiss → decision
Isidoro Ventullo filed an application called a T5 with Ontario's Landlord and Tenant Board on June 1, arguing he was evicted in July 2025 because he was only paying $800 a month rent in a high-demand area and was vulnerable as an older tenant — and not because his landlord needed the unit for himself, as he asserted.
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he → file → himself
Ventullo was seeking $34,800 in compensation.
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Ventullo → seek → compensation
Did the landlord really move in?
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landlord → move → ?
George Demelo, the son of Ventullo’s former landlord who took over the property from his dad, successfully sought an eviction order against Ventullo, after a two-year legal battle that ended at the Superior Court of Justice.
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that → take → Justice
The eviction battle came to a head on a muggy July 4 last year in Little Italy, with a Star reporter observing as provincial officers, Toronto police and even staff from a local councillor’s office struggled with what to do.
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officers → come → what
Although the Superior Court of Justice sided with Demelo, that day police weren’t eager to forcibly evict the then-91-year-old — nor make an arrest on a night the shelter system was full.
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system → side → night
Isidoro Ventullo has filed an application with the Landlord and Tenant Board for compensation after his former Little Italy home was listed for sale.
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home → file → sale
Isidoro Ventullo has filed an application with the Landlord and Tenant Board for compensation after his former Little Italy home was listed for sale.
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home → file → sale
In the following days, locals temporarily took him in, then he briefly lived in Etobicoke with his niece before finding a new home in Little Portugal.
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he → follow → Portugal
An online fundraiser generated more than $15,000 for him.
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fundraiser → generate → him
In his submission to the board, Demelo argued the eviction was not in bad faith as he intended to move into the unit for at least a year to be closer to his elderly father who had dementia — and who died a few months after Ventullo’s eviction.
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who → argue → eviction
“The Landlord’s testimony was clear, consistent, detailed, plausible, uncontradicted, and unshaken on cross-examination,” wrote Dale Whitmore, a member of the board who adjudicated the case, in a Sept. 29 decision.
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who → write → decision
“I have no difficulty accepting it as true.”
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I → have → it
Whitmore said he believed Demelo had proven, “on a balance of probabilities” — meaning more likely than not — that when he gave Ventullo the eviction order he “genuinely intended” to live in Ventullo’s unit for at least one year.
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he → say → year
Under the provincial law, if landlords want to evict tenants for personal use — so either themselves, a family member or spouse can move into the unit — the person moving in must intend to occupy the unit for at least one year.
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person → want → year
According to Demelo’s testimony, he moved into the unit on Aug. 8, 2025.
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he → accord → Aug.
Whitmore said he believes this was corroborated by documents he submitted.
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he → say → documents
Demelo testified that his father then died in November 2025.
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father → testify → November
“His plans only changed after he received his father’s estate’s income tax bill in November 2025 and decided to sell the property,” Whitmore wrote.
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Whitmore → change → property
The property has been listed twice since, but hasn’t sold yet.
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property → list → ?
In his decision, Whitmore said he believed the testimony of Erin Leslie, a Canada Post mail carrier who said she saw Demelo doing renovations and sometimes wouldn’t see him for weeks at a time.
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Demelo → say → time
But he said it was “insufficient” to prove Demelo didn’t move into Ventullo’s unit within a reasonable time nor that he was not living there.
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he → say → time
“The Tenant bears the onus of proving, on a balance of probabilities, that the Landlord did not occupy the unit within a reasonable time,” Whitmore wrote.
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Whitmore → bear → time
Leslie “only saw the inside of the unit once, through a crack in the door, on an unspecified date.”
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Leslie → see → date
Why the tenant says the decision was wrong
However, in a request to appeal the decision submitted to the board on Monday, Ventullo said Whitmore made “serious errors” that affected the outcome and ultimately resulted in “prejudice” toward Ventullo.
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that → say → Ventullo
Ventullo said, among other things, that the board should not “assume facts that were not established.”
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that → say → facts
He argued the documents Demelo showed to the board should have been scrutinized.
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Demelo → argue → board
They may establish that an address was used for particular purposes, but “they do not necessarily establish when a person physically moved into and continuously resided” in the unit he was evicted from.
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he → establish → unit
For example, in photographs of shipping and delivery labels, one had a date on it that was before Demelo’s move-in date of Aug. 8, 2025 and other labels “do not clearly establish the year.”
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labels → have → year
Ventullo also argued that the income tax bill for Demelo’s father’s estate was presented for the first time at these hearings and it “impaired” his ability to challenge Demelo.
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it → argue → Demelo
Ventullo also questioned Demelo’s chronology in parts of his testimony.
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Ventullo → question → testimony
For example, the tax document is dated March 31, 2026 — one week before the property was listed for sale in April.
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property → date → April
Ventullo questioned how Demelo came to the decision in just one week.
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Demelo → question → week
Part of Demelo’s testimony in why he wanted to be closer to his father included that his father unexpectedly obtained a long-term-care placement in Alexandria in July 2025, shortly before the eviction.
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father → want → eviction
However, “the evidence did not establish precisely when the Landlord learned of the (long-term care) placement, when it was accepted, or when the arrangements became known to him,” Ventullo said in his appeal request.
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Ventullo → establish → request
The Aporia
