In plain English
A landlord must not withhold or deliberately interfere with a vital service (heat, electricity, fuel, gas, hot or cold water) that the landlord is required to provide.
The statute text
21 (1) A landlord shall not at any time during a tenant’s occupancy of a rental unit and before the day on which an order evicting the tenant is executed, withhold the reasonable supply of any vital service, care service or food that it is the landlord’s obligation to supply under the tenancy agreement or deliberately interfere with the reasonable supply of any vital service, care service or food.
(2) For the purposes of subsection (1), a landlord shall be deemed to have withheld the reasonable supply of a vital service, care service or food if the landlord is obligated to pay another person for the vital service, care service or food, the landlord fails to pay the required amount and, as a result of the non-payment, the other person withholds the reasonable supply of the vital service, care service or food.
View this section on the official Ontario e-Laws site →
Reproduced under the King’s Printer for Ontario / Open Government Licence – Ontario. Confirm against the official e-Laws consolidation before relying on it.