Frequently Asked Questions

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.

Despite the fact that this clause is in the lease you would not be able to terminate the lease earlier for the purpose of moving in. When there is a fixed term lease in place a landlord can only terminate the tenancy for the landlord’s personal use at the end of the lease term.

Once a lease expires the tenancy becomes month to month. The tenant is still required to provide 60 days notice to terminate the tenancy. However, if the landlord is asking the tenant to leave then the notice period depends on the reason that the landlord is terminating the tenancy. More information can be obtained on this issue at the Landlord and Tenant Board website: https://tribunalsontario.ca/ltb/brochures-videos/.

At the end of the lease if the tenants wish to vacate, they must give 60 days written notice pursuant to the provisions of the Residential Tenancies Act.

At the end of the initial lease agreement, if the tenants wish to stay on they can choose to stay on a month to month basis under the same terms and conditions of the expired lease. The tenants are not obligated to renew for another year. On a month to month tenancy the tenants must still give 60 days written notice when they decide to move out. However, when the landlord is giving notice to the tenants the notice period will depend on the reason to terminate.

When there is a lease in place, the landlord can only terminate at the end of the lease if the landlord has a valid reason to terminate the tenancy such as the landlord requires possession of the unit for his own personal use, etc.

If this is not the case, the tenancy will continue after the lease expires, it automatically becomes a statutory tenancy on a month-to-month basis under the same terms and conditions of the lease.

Ontario landlords are now required to use a standard form of lease. The Ontario Ministry of Housing has released a Residential Tenancy Agreement (Standard Form of Lease) which is mandatory for all written tenancy agreements entered into on or after April 30, 2018. You will find the standard form of lease at http://www.mah.gov.on.ca/Page18704.aspx.

Provided this information is clearly stated in the lease agreement and the tenant agrees to it from the beginning of the tenancy this should not be an issue.

There is no legal way to require a tenant to sign a lease once they are already in possession of the unit, the tenant would have to agree to it.

Under the Residential Tenancies Act there is no provision which allows a landlord to charge a fixed penalty when a tenant terminates a tenancy before the end of the rental term. A landlord’s recourse when a tenant moves out before the end of the lease term is to mitigate their loss by finding new tenants as soon as possible and file a claim for any losses the landlord incurred as a result of the tenant’s breach of contract. As of September 1, 2021, landlords can file an application to collect rent arrears and/or compensation that you believe the former tenant owes you with the LTB within one year from the date the tenant moved out of the rental unit. The tenant must have moved out of the rental unit on or after September 1, 2021.  However, in order to file this application with the LTB, you will have to find out their new residential address to be able to serve them. 

The law does not require a landlord to provide a prospective tenant with a copy of the lease before it is signed; the law only requires that the landlord provide the tenant with a copy of the lease within 21 days after the lease has been signed.

The problem a landlord may face in having a long term lease is terminating the tenancy. There are certain grounds to terminate a tenancy that are only possible at the end of the term or lease period. These grounds are the following: terminating based on landlord’s or purchaser’s own use, persistent late payment of rent or major renovations to be done on the unit. In any of these situations the tenancy cannot be terminated early, the tenants are protected by the lease. Of course if they stop paying rent altogether or they are causing damages or disturbances the lease can be terminated early for those reasons.

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