A new online portal has opened to help make disputes between tenants and landlords move along quicker.

Cameron Choquette, the CEO of the Saskatchewan Landlords Association said the new portal gives both landlords and tenants another option for claims to the Office of Residential Tenancies, or O.R.T.

“We’re pleased to see the O.R.T. portal is now live, for landlords and tenants in the province,” said Choquette. “It’s something our association has been advocating for for several years to improve access for both landlords and tenants.”

The portal, located at www.saskatchewan.ca/ort, is providing landlords and tenants the ability to upload evidence, photos and other O.R.T. related documents at any time. The province’s news release, Justice Minister Gordon Wyant said this will “allow O.R.T. staff to respond to claims faster and better manage claims from beginning to end, improving access to justice and reducing paper usage.”

Choquette said the previous system for dispute resolution was relatively paper-based and required a lot of emailing back and forth.

“This just gives landlords and tenants another option to file claims, to track claims and hopefully reduce the length of time from filing an application to when a decision is rendered,” he said, adding this will improve access to justice in the rental housing industry.

Choquette, who said there are probably going to be some kinks with the new technology, said they look forward to learning with the O.R.T. over the next few months and provide constructive feedback where possible.

“Ultimately, (we want) to try and get a system that works for both landlords and tenants and helps everybody find the justice that need when they need it,” he said.

The O.R.T. saw over 150,000 inquiries through email and phone in 2020-2021 and had 3,969 applications from tenants and landlords.