Late evidence can simply be refused. Capture it early.
At the Landlord and Tenant Board every party gives the other parties and the Board a complete copy of the evidence they intend to rely on at least 7 days before the hearing, and 5 days if it is responding evidence that addresses something the other side raised. An adjudicator may decline to look at anything that misses the deadline. Uploading to the portal is not, by itself, service: absent a written consent agreement, an identical copy has to reach the other party by the same date. Meanwhile the listing you are relying on is being edited.
Works on Chrome and Edge. From $4.99 (about C$7) as a one-off, or a 7-day trial that requires a credit card.
Phone screenshot
- Page address
- not recorded
- Time captured
- not recorded
- Amount claimed
- C$3,150
- File hash
- none
- Checked by
- your word
ProofSnap package
- Page address
- rental-listing/4821
- Time captured
- 03:12:47 UTC
- Amount claimed
- C$3,150
- File hash
- a1f3…9c2
- Checked by
- anyone, offline
Anchored to the Bitcoin blockchain, so the capture time cannot be moved.
Illustrative example. Both files can be filed. Only one of them can be checked.
Canadian tribunal deadlines punish disorganization more than they punish weak arguments. Under Rule 19 of the Landlord and Tenant Board rules and its practice direction on evidence, every party serves and files a complete copy of the evidence it intends to rely on at least 7 days before the hearing, and 5 days where the material is responding evidence that addresses an issue the other side raised. Material that arrives late may not be looked at. Uploading to the Tribunals Ontario Portal does not by itself serve the other party, so the same bundle has to reach them by the same deadline. In British Columbia the Civil Resolution Tribunal runs the equivalent process online. A ProofSnap capture gives you something that is both ready to file and hard to dispute: the full page, the saved source, the exact URL, the capture time in UTC, a SHA-256 hash of every file, an RSA-4096 signature and a Bitcoin blockchain timestamp, all of which the other party can check in a browser. If the matter moves to court, section 31.2 of the Canada Evidence Act satisfies the best evidence rule on proof of the integrity of the electronic documents system, and the provincial Evidence Acts ask materially the same thing. From $4.99 (about C$7) as a one-off.
By Radim Motycka, Founder and Lead Engineer, ProofSnap · · Independently verifiable via Trust Verifier
How these disputes actually run
The listing changes, and then the deadline arrives
Hearings happen weeks or months after the thing that caused them. By then the page has been edited, the ad has been pulled and the thread has been deleted.
The listing no longer says what it said
Rental and sale listings are edited constantly. Parking, laundry, pets, utilities included, the price. When the listing that made you sign is gone, you are describing it from memory while the other side describes it differently.
The message thread gets tidied up
Property managers change, portals archive, and messages are deleted for everyone. The repair you asked about four times becomes a repair nobody remembers being asked about.
The deadline is real, not a formality
Seven days for the evidence you intend to rely on, five for responding evidence, and service on the other party by the same date. Time spent hunting for evidence you no longer have comes straight out of that window.
Which forum, and what it asks of your evidence
Canada runs a federal Evidence Act alongside a provincial one in every province, all drafted from the same uniform model. The forum decides how formally the rules apply.
Landlord and Tenant Board, Ontario
Applications, status and evidence all run through the Tribunals Ontario Portal. The practice direction on evidence sets 7 days for the evidence a party intends to rely on, and 5 days for responding evidence, and an adjudicator may refuse to consider late material. Portal upload is not, by itself, service, so absent a written consent agreement send the identical bundle to the other party too.
Civil Resolution Tribunal, British Columbia
An online tribunal handling small claims, strata disputes, some tenancy matters between co-occupants, and intimate image protection orders. Everything is filed and exchanged online, which makes a self-verifying package particularly easy to submit.
Small claims courts
Monetary limits differ by province, so check the ceiling where you are filing. What does not differ is that these matters are decided on documents, and the documents are usually web pages that no longer exist by the hearing date.
Federal and provincial Evidence Acts
Section 31.1 of the Canada Evidence Act puts the authenticity burden on whoever tenders an electronic document, and section 31.2 satisfies the best evidence rule on proof of the integrity of the electronic documents system. Ontario section 34.1(5) asks a slightly different question, satisfying the best evidence rule on proof of the integrity of the electronic record itself, and section 34.1(5.1) expressly recognizes reliable encryption as a way of proving that integrity. Where the dispute started with a fraudulent listing rather than a real trader, begin instead with capturing the site before it disappears.
A note for landlords, property managers and contractors
This cuts both ways, and the deadline cuts both ways too. If you manage rentals or quote work online, the same capture protects you from a tenant or client who says the listing or the quote promised something it never did. Capture the listing as published on the day it goes live, keep the package, and the argument ends before it starts. A subscription makes sense once you are doing this weekly rather than once in a while.
Three steps, about forty seconds
No forensic training required. The proof is in the package, not in your testimony about how careful you were.
Capture while it is live
Open the listing, the portal message or the thread and capture it. The full page is saved, including the parts below the fold that a phone screenshot would cut off.
Everything is hashed and timestamped
SHA-256 for every file, an RSA-4096 signature over the manifest, and a Bitcoin blockchain anchor so the date cannot be moved afterwards.
File it, and serve it, on time
Attach the PDF evidence report to your filing and send the identical bundle to the other party by the same deadline. Keep the ZIP so anyone can verify it later.
What lands in the evidence package
Between 11 and 15 files depending on your plan, delivered as one ZIP that anyone can check without installing anything.
Full-page screenshot
The whole page, not just the visible window, stitched and hashed.
Saved page source
The document as rendered at capture time, including the head, meta tags and structured data.
Extracted page text
Searchable plain text, so a quote can be found and cited without retyping.
Technical metadata
URL, page title, HTTP response headers, browser, operating system and the capture time in UTC.
Signed manifest
SHA-256 for every file, signed with an RSA-4096 key whose public key ships in the package.
Blockchain timestamp
The manifest hash anchored to Bitcoin via OpenTimestamps, so the capture time cannot be backdated.
Chain of custody and forensic log
A record of what happened during the capture, in the order it happened.
Evidence report as PDF
A readable summary you can attach to an application, a notice or a report.
Verification instructions
Written steps plus scripts, so the other side can re-check the hashes offline.
Where all of that comes from
Every file above is produced by one press in the side panel, while the listing, the chat or the invoice is still on screen. Nothing has to be assembled the night before a filing deadline, which is where late evidence usually comes from.
Capture as many pages as the dispute needs. Each one becomes its own sealed package, so an adjudicator or a deputy judge can take them one at a time instead of weighing a folder against an explanation.
Want to see what comes out before you install anything? Download a sample evidence package and open it yourself.
Anyone can verify it, including the other side. Drop the ZIP onto the public Trust Verifier and the hashes, the signature and the timestamp are checked in the browser. Nothing is uploaded and nothing depends on ProofSnap still existing.
Three ways to get the evidence
Prices are charged in USD. Approximate Canadian figures are shown for orientation only, and your card issuer sets the actual rate.
One dispute
$4.99 once
about C$7
A SnapPack is a single up-front purchase for a set number of captures. No subscription, no auto-renewal, no trial. Best when you have one problem and you want it documented today.
Get a SnapPackOngoing matters
$8.99/month
about C$13
For anyone who captures regularly: practitioners, property managers, HR, investigators. The 7-day free trial requires a credit card. Cancel any time during the trial and you are not charged.
Start the 7-day trialWe do it for you
$44.99 per URL
about C$63
Send us the link and our team captures the package for you, with nothing to install. Useful when the capture should not come from a party to the dispute.
See the capture serviceProofSnap is not a law firm and does not give legal advice. Qualified timestamps are issued by Disig a.s., a Qualified Trust Service Provider on the EU Trusted List. Canada has no equivalent regime, so that timestamp is independent corroboration here rather than a legal presumption.
Official sources
Every figure and deadline on this page comes from the following primary sources. Check them yourself rather than taking our word for it.
- LTB Practice Direction on Evidence the 7-day and 5-day deadlines and what happens to late material.
- Tribunals Ontario Portal where applications and evidence are filed, and what the portal does not do.
- Civil Resolution Tribunal, British Columbia the online tribunal for small claims, strata and intimate image matters.
- Canada Evidence Act, section 31.2 the integrity test that a hashed and signed package is built to satisfy.
- Ontario Evidence Act, section 34.1 the best evidence rule for electronic records and the reliable encryption route in subsection 5.1.
Presentation matters as much as the capture. Number your pages, label each document, and give the tribunal and the other party the same bundle. An adjudicator reading two tidy bundles decides on the merits. An adjudicator reading one tidy bundle and one pile of screenshots notices.
Questions people actually ask
Capture it now, file it on time
The listing you are looking at today is the evidence you will need in three months. It will not be there then.