Your first stop for self-help is a review of our FAQs. Take a look at the ever increasing collection of questions asked by Ontario’s small-scale landlords as well as the actual answers provided by Landlord’s Self-Help Centre.
No, if you have not increased the rent each year, you cannot claim it retroactively.
Your tenant is correct, a notice of rent increase must be provided in the Board approved form which is Form N1. A letter is not considered a proper notice to increase rent and therefore is not valid.
The Province has recently passed legislation, Bill 57 – Restoring Trust, Transparency and Accountability Act, 2018, which amends the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006 (RTA) to include an exemption from rental control for new residential rental units.
Section 6.1 of the RTA provides details of the a rent control exemption and refers to two types of rental units:
- A building, mobile home park or land leased community, no part of which was occupied for residential purposes on or before November 15, 2018; and
- Rental units located in detached, semi-detached and row houses which meet and are subject to specific requirements.
The exemption for new rental units located in detached houses, semi-detached houses or row houses, not occupied for residential purposes on or before Nov. 15, 2018, are subject to the following:
- the detached, semi-detached or row house contained not more than two residential units on or any time before November 15, 2018;
- the residential unit has its own bathroom and kitchen facilities; has one or more exterior and interior entrances; at each entrance the unit has a door equipped so it can be secured from the inside of the unit; and at least one door is capable of being locked from the outside;
- the owner, or one of the owners, lived in another residential unit in the house; or the house was unfinished space immediately before the rental unit became a residential unit.
The guideline is usually announced in August for the following year. You can find more information about this on our website at https://landlordselfhelp.com/annual-rent-increase-guideline/ and at https://www.ontario.ca/page/rent-increase-guideline
When you purchase a property with tenants in possession you assume whatever agreement they have in place with the previous owner. Therefore, when you take over as the new owner you are not allowed to increase the rent unless it’s by the allowable guideline and if the tenants have not had an increase in the past twelve months. To increase the rent you must give the tenants a 90 day notice on a prescribed form which is a Form N1.
If you don’t take an increase each year, you will not be able to recover it. In this case you can only increase the rent by this year’s guideline amount. You can find a link to the current amount on our website at https://landlordselfhelp.com/annual-rent-increase-guideline/.
You are still entitled to the rent increase in this case because this would not be considered a new tenancy. The tenancy continued and remains the same despite the fact that one of the tenants has moved out and she signed a new lease.