Ontario's Residential Tenancies Act 2006 ("RTA") is the primary statute governing most private residential tenancies in the province. It covers rent increases, deposits, maintenance, ending a tenancy, and the dispute-resolution process through the Landlord and Tenant Board. This article is a plain-language overview of the framework — the clauses and processes that matter most to the ~1.7 million Ontario renter households and the landlords who rent to them.
This is a factual overview, not legal advice. The Residential Tenancies Act 2006 itself, the Ontario government's "Renting in Ontario" guide, and the Landlord and Tenant Board's forms and procedural pages are the authoritative sources for any specific question.[¹][²][³][⁴]
Scope and exemptions
The RTA applies to most residential tenancies in Ontario, but not all. Units that fall outside the RTA include:
- Owner-occupied units where the tenant shares a kitchen or bathroom with the owner or the owner's immediate family.
- Short-term rentals in vacation-style settings.
- Rental units in certain institutional settings (care homes, hospitals, prisons).
- Some co-operative housing arrangements.
Most standard apartment rentals, house rentals, and condominium rentals fall squarely within the RTA. For tenants, the threshold question before reading the RTA's specific rules is whether the RTA applies at all. The LTB's guidance pages cover the exemption boundary in detail.
The standard lease
Since April 2018, most new private residential tenancies in Ontario must use the Ontario Standard Lease — a prescribed form that the Ministry publishes. The standard lease covers: the parties, the unit, the term (fixed or monthly), the rent amount and due date, the inclusion or exclusion of utilities, rules on guests and pets, maintenance and repair responsibilities, and how to end the tenancy.
The standard lease was introduced to make tenancy terms consistent and readable, and to reduce the use of one-sided custom leases. Landlords of most private residential rental units must use the standard lease template, and must provide a copy within 21 calendar days if the tenant requests one in writing. If the landlord does not provide the standard lease on request, the tenant may be able to withhold up to one month's rent until it is provided.[²]
Additional terms are allowed beyond the standard lease, but they cannot contradict the standard lease's protections. A custom clause that conflicts with a standard lease provision — or with the RTA itself — is void to the extent of the conflict. For the pattern of reading any residential lease across jurisdictions, including the clauses worth checking first, see our universal lease-reading checklist.
Rent and rent increases
Ontario regulates both the amount and the timing of rent increases:
- Frequency. Rent cannot be increased more than once every twelve months.
- Notice. The landlord must give at least 90 days' written notice on the prescribed LTB form (Form N1 for most cases, Form N2 for partially-exempt units) before the increase takes effect.[³]
- Guideline. The Ontario government publishes an annual "rent increase guideline" that caps the percentage by which rent can be increased without LTB approval. The 2026 guideline is 2.1%.[²] The guideline is set each year based on the Ontario Consumer Price Index and is capped at 2.5%.
The guideline applies to units built before 15 November 2018 (the "rent control" cohort). Units built or first occupied on or after that date are exempt from the guideline cap — landlords can increase rent by any amount, still subject to the 90-day notice and once-a-year frequency. This "post-2018" exemption was introduced as a supply-side measure and remains in force.
Above-guideline increases for pre-2018 units are available through an application to the LTB, typically for capital expenditures, extraordinary increases in municipal taxes, or certain operating costs. The tenant can dispute the application.
The security-deposit prohibition
Ontario is unusual among Canadian provinces in prohibiting security deposits for damage. Section 105 of the RTA prohibits landlords from collecting a deposit for damage, cleaning, or any similar purpose on a residential tenancy. A deposit clause in the lease is void to the extent it purports to hold money for damage.
What landlords CAN collect, under section 106, is a rent deposit — money held toward a future rent period, most commonly the last month's rent of the tenancy. The rent deposit cannot exceed one month's rent (or one rent period, whichever is less for shorter rent periods). The landlord must pay the tenant interest on the rent deposit annually, at the rent-increase-guideline rate. At the end of the tenancy, the rent deposit is applied to the last month's rent — it cannot be used to cover damage, cleaning, or unpaid utilities.
This creates a practical consequence that often surprises landlords from other jurisdictions: Ontario landlords who want protection against damage cannot take a deposit to cover it. Recovery for damage beyond normal wear and tear has to be pursued through the LTB via an application after the tenancy ends, against whatever assets the tenant has.
Document the condition at move-in
Regardless of jurisdiction, the single most useful thing a tenant can do at the start of a tenancy is photograph or video every room at move-in, with date-stamped files stored somewhere accessible a year or two later. Include close-ups of any pre-existing marks, scratches, stains, or damage. If the landlord provides a move-in condition checklist, go through it line by line and note discrepancies in writing before returning the signed copy.
In Ontario specifically, the absence of a security deposit for damage does not mean end-of-tenancy disputes never arise. Landlords who believe a tenant has caused damage can still pursue the tenant through the LTB, and the evidentiary battle turns on contemporaneous documentation. A ten-minute walk-through with a phone camera on day one reliably closes that evidential gap.
Maintenance and habitability
Under section 20 of the RTA, the landlord is responsible for maintaining the rental unit in a good state of repair and fit for habitation, complying with health, safety, housing, and maintenance standards. This obligation applies regardless of any clause in the lease that tries to shift it to the tenant.
Tenant responsibilities are narrower: ordinary cleanliness, repair of damage the tenant or their guests cause, and any other duties the lease imposes that do not offload the landlord's habitability obligation. A common dispute concerns pest infestations — the landlord is typically responsible for dealing with infestations absent clear evidence of tenant cause.
A tenant whose maintenance complaints go unaddressed can apply to the LTB for an order requiring repairs, an abatement of rent, or other remedies. Alternatively, a municipal property-standards complaint can trigger a by-law inspection, which often produces faster movement than the LTB process.
Ending the tenancy
Most Ontario tenancies end by way of one of the following:
- Tenant's notice (Form N9). A tenant ending a tenancy gives at least 60 days' written notice for a monthly tenancy, effective at the end of a rental period. For a fixed-term tenancy, the notice is typically given to end at the end of the fixed term; an early exit requires either landlord agreement or assignment/subletting.
- Agreement to end (Form N11). Landlord and tenant agree in writing to end the tenancy on a specified date.
- Landlord's notice for cause. The landlord serves one of the N-series notices setting out the ground: N4 for non-payment of rent, N5 for interference / damage / overcrowding, N6 for illegal acts in rent-geared-to-income units, N7 for serious problems in the unit or complex, N8 at end of term where a specific statutory ground applies.[³]
- Landlord's notice for landlord or family use (Form N12). The landlord, a purchaser, or an immediate family member requires the unit for personal occupation. Requires the landlord to pay the tenant one month's rent as compensation; a subsequent failure to actually occupy the unit exposes the landlord to damages.
- Landlord's notice for demolition / major repair / conversion (Form N13). Similar compensation obligations; additional requirements for major repairs that require vacancy.
A tenant who disputes a landlord's notice does not have to move out; the landlord must apply to the LTB for an eviction order, and the tenant has the right to a hearing.
The Landlord and Tenant Board
The LTB is the adjudicative body that hears applications under the RTA. Both landlords and tenants file applications (L-series for landlord applications, T-series for tenant applications) using prescribed forms. Hearings are typically held by video or phone; in-person hearings are available but less common.[⁴]
The LTB's process has experienced significant backlogs in recent years — cases often wait several months from filing to hearing. For landlords pursuing rent arrears or eviction, this delay is a practical cost of the Ontario system; for tenants facing eviction, it is both protection (more time) and pressure (arrears continue to accrue).
What this means for reading an Ontario lease
The practical implications for anyone reading an Ontario residential tenancy agreement:
- The standard lease is the baseline — additional terms cannot override it or the RTA.
- Any clause demanding a damage deposit, cleaning deposit, key deposit above a nominal amount, or pet deposit is void. Rent deposit only, capped at one month.
- The rent increase language should align with the RTA's 90-day notice, once-a-year frequency, and the current guideline (2.1% for 2026).
- Maintenance obligations cannot be shifted from landlord to tenant beyond ordinary cleanliness and tenant-caused damage.
- Termination follows the N-series notice process; a lease that shortens statutory notice periods or adds new landlord grounds not in the RTA is unenforceable.
- Pets are specifically protected — a blanket no-pets clause in the lease is not enforceable in Ontario, with narrow exceptions for condominium by-laws or genuine safety concerns.
The RTA is strongly tenant-protective by comparative standards, and the specific rules above explain why.