Renting in Ontario (part 2)

Increase in rent: notices and delays

Ontario prescribes rates of increase each year. The owner must give a written notice of 90 days and can increase the rent only once per 12 month period. The increase must respect the statutory rate published in August of each year. To increase the rent beyond the statutory rate, the owner must apply to the Commission de la location immobilière / the Landlord and Tenant Board. (Capital expenditure is subjected to an annual ceiling of three points of a percentage more than the statutory rate, for a maximum duration of three years.)

N.B.: There are certain types of renting which are not subjugated to the provisions of the law on rent control; however, the 12 month rule and the 90 days’ notice obligation apply nevertheless.

In the event of seriously deferred maintenance work, the tenant can submit a request to the Commission de la location immobilière / the Landlord and Tenant Board in order to cancel any increase in rent or increase higher than the statutory rate. In the serious cases, the tenants pay their rent at the Landlord and Tenant Board  until the problems of maintenance and repair are solved.

Note: The rules on the increase in the rents apply only to the tenants in place. If the tenant leaves the premises, then the owner can increase the rent at his discretion.

Late payment 

The day after the date that the rent is due, if it is still unpaid, the owner can give to the tenant the notice of cancellation for non-payment of the rent. The tenant then has 14 days in the case of a renting per month or per year to pay the rent. After this delay, if the rent remains unpaid, the owner can then apply to the Landlord and Tenant Board of Ontario to recover the overdue rents.

Eviction

Several reasons justify eviction, most important being the non-payment of the rent. Here’s the procedure of eviction to be followed in Ontario concerning overdue rents:

The day when the tenant procrastinates in paying his rent, the owner gives him a notice; the tenant then has a 14-day delay to pay the rent; on the 15th day, the owner pays for the rights of a Request for eviction of the tenant for non-payment of the rent and in order to obtain the payment of back rent; the Landlord and Tenant Board emits a notice of hearing as soon as possible; the owner informs the tenant about the notice; the owner signs the certificate as accreditation.

Contrary to the preceding law, there is no process by default envisaged by the Residential Tenancies Act and all the requests go in hearing. The hearings must be held as soon as possible. If the owner is in his right, he makes an agreement with the provincial sheriff to carry out the eviction of the tenant.

The owner can ask for an accelerated treatment of the eviction of a tenant who deliberately causes important damage. In such a case, the period of notice passes from 20 to 10 days and the tenant cannot make the notice null and void by carrying out repairs. In cases of considerable intentional damage, expulsion can be immediate.

Access to the premises of the owner

The lease can envisage the cases where the owner can penetrate in the premises. He must generally give notice of the time indicating the reason, the date and the hour of access (between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.). The owner can penetrate in the premises in the event of urgency or if the tenant agrees to it.

Animals and smokers

The Residential Tenancies Act does not protect people before they become tenants; the owner could thus refuse to rent a dwelling for these reasons.

If the lease contains such a prohibition, the owner cannot expel a tenant who has an animal in infringement of the lease. The Law does not mention prohibitions to smoke. An owner could however have reasons to expel a tenant, be it either because he has an animal or because he smokes, if that causes damage to the property or disturbs the other tenants.

Lastly, the tenant cannot retain the payment of the rent for repairs not-carried out.

As regards the owner, it is possible to replace the locks with the provision of giving a key to the tenant.

In the next newspaper, that is to say May 2010, we will compare these rules and we will share the experience of a Quebec owner who has buildings in the two provinces.