When you go to a Residential Tenancies hearing or Small Claims court, the Residential Tenancies Office or Small Claims Adjudicator will issue a written decision or an Order with directions for the landlord and the tenant. These Orders are legally binding, and can be enforced by a Sheriff or Deputy-Sheriff.

If you receive an Order from Residential Tenancies that you want enforced you must first convert that Order to a Small Claims Order. You do this by waiting 10 calendar days after the decision is issued (to make sure it isn’t appealed to Small Claims) and then asking the Residential Tenancy Officer to convert the Director’s Order into an Order of the Small Claims Court. An Order cannot be enforced if one of the parties appeals the order to Small Claims. If one of the parties appeals a Small Claims Order to the Supreme Court, the Order can still be enforced unless someone applies to pause (or stay) the Order until the appeal is heard.

You do not have to do this step for Small Claims Orders, since they are already orders of the Small Claims Court.

There are two common types of Orders for tenancy cases:

1. Execution Order: Issued when money is owed.

2. Order for Vacant Possession: Issued for an eviction.

If an Order for Vacant Possession is issued against you, your landlord can take the order to the Sheriff’s office and the Sheriff can physically remove you and your belongings from the unit.

If you are seeking to enforce a monetary order (i.e. you are trying to get the landlord to pay you money you’re owed) you will need to go to the nearest Small Claims Court office and file for an Execution Order. You will need your claim number and the names and contact information for the parties involved in your case.

The court will mail you the Execution Order, which must then be registered in the Personal Property Registry. To do this, go to the nearest Personal Property Registry office with the court order and two pieces of government ID (including one piece of photo ID) and fill out a registration form. You will get a verification statement that you need to serve to the landlord. You now have 30 days to enforce the Order.

To have the Sheriff enforce an Order, you need to go to the nearest Sheriff’s office and fill out information about your landlord that states the following:

• Landlord’s employer, including type of employment and employer’s name, address, and phone number

• Banks where the landlord has an account (or the bank branch, address, and their full name)

If you do not know this information, you can put anything that you feel might be helpful.

The Sheriff can then order the landlord’s employer to garnish their wages or their bank to seize money from their account. If the landlord has other tenants, the Sheriff can order those tenants to pay rent to you instead of the landlord until your money is returned. To do this you must give them the address where their other tenants are living.

In total, you will need:

• The information sheet about your landlord

• The original Execution Order and three photocopies

• The verification statement from the Personal Property Registry (Form 46)

• Two pieces of government issued ID, including one piece of photo ID

• A deposit for the Sheriff’s services

Once the Sheriff has received money from the landlord, they will send you a cheque for the money owed minus any Sheriff’s fees.