It is legally possible to offer a lease shorter than twelve months to proposer-tenants. Depending on the context, this possibility can offer advantages, but it is also a batch of disadvantages. As opposed to what one could believe, to offer a shorter lease of fixed duration to a tenant with an aim of ensuring oneself of his practices of payment, protects only the latter.
Indeed, from the moment a tenant signs a lease with you, he is entitled to the maintenance of the premises, the automatic renewal of the lease is thus worth as much, whatever the duration of the lease. The tenant can thus not be evicted at the end of 3, 6, or 12 months of the lease. The tenant can then renew as much as he wishes it, even if he does not abide by all the conditions of the lease, which comes to thwart the first motivation of this step. Even a clause in the lease granting you the right to repossess the housing at the end of the term would be without effect, the Civil code of Quebec is stringent on this matter.
Another major disadvantage of a shorter lease is that the tenant can practically constantly deliver a notice of non-renewal during the year, that is to say after the first month of each beginning of the lease, if the lease is 3 months, for example. Moreover, if he does not pay his rent, the allowance in the event of a decision of the Rental Board will be reduced to the duration of the lease, that is to say 3 months maximum, in lieu of an allowance equivalent to 6 months of rent.
May it also be known that a 3-month lease allows you an increase in the rent only once per year, just like the traditional 12-month lease.