Ontario's Standard Lease: What Landlords Need to Know
This post used to host a generic lease-template tool. In Ontario that's the wrong starting point, so we rewrote it around the standard lease, and linked each fact to its source. This is general information, not legal advice.
If you rent out a home in Ontario, you don't need to find a lease template. For most tenancies, the government already wrote one, and you have to use it.
Who has to use it
The standard lease is required for most residential tenancy agreements signed on or after April 30, 2018. (Source) Landlords "must use the standard lease template, for all new leases". (Source)
It doesn't apply to care homes, mobile home parks and land lease communities, most social and supportive housing, co-operative housing and some other special tenancies. (Source)
What's in it
The lease has sections for the parties, the unit, contact details, the term, rent, services and utilities, rent discounts, deposits, smoking, tenant insurance, changes to the unit, maintenance, assignment and subletting, additional terms, changes to the agreement, and signatures. (Source)
Some sections are fixed. The ones on changes to the unit, maintenance and repairs, and assignment and subletting "cannot be changed". Extra details go in the additional terms section. (Source)
Additional terms that won't hold up
You can add your own terms, but a term that takes away a right or responsibility under the Residential Tenancies Act is void and can't be enforced. The government's examples include:
- banning pets (condo rules may still restrict some pets);
- banning guests or roommates;
- requiring deposits or fees the law doesn't allow, such as a damage deposit;
- making the tenant pay for repairs that are the landlord's job.
(Source)
Deposits
A rent deposit can't be more than one month's rent (or one week's, if rent is paid weekly). It can only be used as rent for the last month or week, never for damage, and you must pay the tenant interest on it every year. (Source) The lease also has a section for a key deposit, which the law limits too (source). It must be refundable when the keys are returned.
Give the tenant a copy
You must give the tenant a copy of the signed lease within 21 days after they sign it and give it to you. (Source)
If you don't use the standard lease
A tenant can ask for the standard lease in writing. You then have 21 days to provide it. If you don't, the tenant can withhold one month's rent, and if you still haven't provided it 30 days after they start withholding, they can keep that rent. (Source)
When the lease ends
The end of the lease doesn't end the tenancy. The tenant doesn't have to move out or sign a renewal to stay. (Source) We cover this in fixed-term vs month-to-month.
Download the current standard lease from the government's guide to the standard lease each time, rather than reusing an old copy.
In Rentingwell, you can store the signed lease with the unit, next to its rent and records.