Press Release
The province is increasing security and peace of mind for renters by placing new requirements on the circumstances in which landlords can evict tenants.
Effective Sept. 1, when a landlord ends a tenancy so they or a family member can use a rental unit, landlords must:
•provide one month’s rent to the tenant as compensation or offer the tenant another acceptable rental unit; and
•express intent to occupy the unit for at least one year.
If the landlord advertises, re-rents, or demolishes/converts the unit within one year, he/she will be considered to have acted in bad faith unless they can prove otherwise and could face a fine of up to $25,000.
The new measures will help protect tenants by discouraging landlords from unlawfully evicting them, whether for conversion of the unit into a short-term rental or immediately re-renting it at a higher rate.
These changes build on other protections for tenants under the Fair Housing Plan, such as the expansion of rent control to all private rental units, including those first occupied on or after Nov. 1, 1991.
Under the changes, only individual landlords, not corporations, can end tenancies under the “landlord’s own use” provision.
It is an offence under the Residential Tenancies Act for a landlord to knowingly end a tenancy by giving notice in bad faith.
A conviction can result in a fine of up to $25,000 for an individual.
There are 1.2 million private rental households in Ontario.
