Ontario’s rental rules changed yesterday. If you own a house on the corridor with a basement apartment, a second suite or a tenant of any kind, four of the changes are worth an hour of your attention — and at least three things being repeated about them this week are wrong.
The changes came into force on 21 September 2026, and the first thing to understand is why so much of the coverage is muddled: two different Acts landed on the same day.
Bill 60, the Fighting Delays, Building Faster Act, 2025, brought the landlord-side procedural changes, with the detail filled in by Ontario Regulation 241/26. On the very same date, long-dormant parts of Bill 97, the Helping Homebuyers, Protecting Tenants Act, 2023, were finally proclaimed into force after sitting unused for three years. Because Bill 97 carries a 2023 date, several summaries have written those pieces off as old news. They are not — they started applying this week.
Everything below is taken from the consolidated statute and regulations rather than from the coverage, and the section numbers are there so you can check any of it yourself.
What actually changed
A tenant now has seven days to pay, not fourteen
This is the one with the widest reach. Section 59(1) now reads that a landlord may give notice of termination for unpaid rent “effective not earlier than the 7th day after the notice is given.”
Before yesterday that was fourteen days for a monthly tenancy. It is now seven for everyone. The notice itself — the N4 — is unchanged in every other respect, and it is still void if the tenant pays the arrears before the landlord files with the Board.
Persistent lateness now has a number attached, but it is a floor and not a test
Section 58 lets a landlord end a tenancy at the end of a term where a tenant “has persistently failed to pay rent on the date it becomes due.” That has always been judged case by case. A new subsection now says the meaning is set by regulation, and Ontario Regulation 241/26 supplies it.
The regulation says persistent failure includes paying more than seven days late on at least three occasions within any six-month period. Two details are being dropped in the retelling. It does not count if the lateness was solely because the landlord applied a payment to some other amount the tenant owed. And the regulation says expressly that these circumstances “shall not limit what may constitute a persistent failure” — so three strikes is a threshold that clearly qualifies, not a safe harbour below which nothing counts.
120 days’ notice can waive the month of compensation — but only for your own move-in
This is the change most likely to be misapplied, and it matters more to a seller than anything else on this list.
If you end a tenancy because you, your spouse, your child or parent, or a caregiver is moving in, section 48.1 has always required you to pay the tenant one month’s rent or offer another acceptable unit. A new subsection removes that obligation if the notice gives at least 120 days and ends on the last day of a rental period or fixed term.
The trap is the word “landlord.” That waiver is written against section 48 — your own occupancy. It does not touch section 49, which is the notice you give on behalf of a purchaser. Section 49.1 was not amended. If you sell your home and the buyer wants it empty, you still owe the tenant one month’s rent, no matter how much notice you give.
Selling with a tenant in place did not get cheaper yesterday. Moving in yourself did.
Worth remembering alongside this: the purchaser’s-own-use notice under section 49 is only available where the complex has no more than three residential units. A house with a basement apartment is two, so it qualifies — a triplex with a fourth unit in the attic does not.
And if you give an own-use notice, you now have roughly 60 days to actually move in
This is the Bill 97 half, and it is the part most likely to catch a seller out.
Section 57(6.1), in force the same day, creates a presumption. If nobody named in the notice — you, your spouse, a child or parent, or a caregiver — occupies the unit within the period set by regulation, it is presumed both that the notice was given in bad faith and that the unit was not occupied within a reasonable time. Ontario Regulation 240/26 sets that period at 60 days after the termination date in the notice, or, where the tenant overholds past that date, 60 days after they actually leave.
Two details matter. It is a rebuttable presumption, not an automatic penalty — you can still prove good faith on the balance of probabilities. And a tenant who leaves early does not start your clock early, because it usually runs from the termination date in the notice rather than from the day the keys came back. The exposure if it is not rebutted includes an order for increased rent the former tenant has had to pay elsewhere, and an administrative fine that is not capped at a token amount.
A tenant who wants to raise problems at an arrears hearing now has to pay first
Section 82 used to let a tenant raise any issue they could have brought as their own application — repairs, harassment, illegal charges — at the landlord’s arrears hearing. That right survives, but it is now conditional. The tenant must give advance written notice of each issue, and must pay at least half of the arrears as claimed in the application when it was filed, not the larger balance that has built up since. The regulation sets the payment deadline at no later than seven days before the hearing, and the money goes to the landlord directly rather than into the Board in trust.
The trigger is the date the landlord filed, not the date of the hearing, so applications filed before 21 September 2026 run under the old rules even if they are heard now.
There is a second change in the same direction that has had almost no coverage. The Board’s power to postpone enforcement of an eviction order is now narrowed: under the new regulation it may do so only where the landlord consents, or where specific conditions are met. Its power to review its own decisions is likewise now subject to prescribed limits.
Where the coverage is going wrong
Fixed-term leases still roll over automatically. Several summaries this week claim Bill 60 ended the automatic continuation of a lease as month-to-month at the end of its term. It did not. Section 38 is untouched and still reads exactly as it did in 2006: where a fixed term ends without renewal or termination, landlord and tenant “shall be deemed to have renewed it as a monthly tenancy agreement” on the same terms. Nothing about that changed yesterday.
The N13’s 120 days is not new, but the renovation update duties are. Two separate things get blended here. The 120-day notice period has been in section 50(2) since 2006 and is unamended — and note it has two limbs, because the termination date must also fall at the end of a rental period or fixed term, and missing either one produces an invalid notice. The update obligations are a different story: they were written into Bill 97 back in 2023 but only came into force on 21 September 2026, so they are genuinely new this week. They are also triggered by the tenant rather than by your notice — they only bite where a tenant has given written notice under section 53(2) that they want the right of first refusal. Then you must tell them in writing, without delay, when the unit is expected to be ready, whenever that estimate changes, and once it is ready, and give them at least 60 days to take it back.
The 60-day move-in rule is real, but it is not an absolute deadline. It is widely reported as a hard requirement to occupy within 60 days of the tenant leaving. It is actually a rebuttable presumption of bad faith under section 57(6.1), and the clock usually runs from the termination date in the notice rather than from the day the tenant moved out — set out above. The underlying test is still the one in section 48(1): the unit must be required in good faith “for the purpose of residential occupation for a period of at least one year.” Treat 60 days as the line past which you will be the one doing the explaining, not as a rule that ends the tenancy question.
What this means if you own on the corridor
Most people reading this are not institutional landlords. They own a house with a finished basement that pays part of the mortgage, or they are weighing what a second suite does to a sale.
Three practical consequences.
Your paperwork has to be right the first time. Shortening the N4 to seven days compresses the whole sequence, and a notice with the wrong termination date is not a fast eviction — it is a void notice and a wasted filing.
The trap worth naming: the seven days run from the day the notice is given, not the day you write it. Hand it to the tenant and that is the same day; put it in the mail and it is deemed given several days later, so a mailed notice dated seven days out is short and the application built on it can be dismissed. The Board’s forms are free and their instructions set out how the days are counted. Read that page before you count.
If you are selling a tenanted home, budget the compensation. One month’s rent is still owed on a purchaser’s-own-use notice, it stays the obligation of the seller who gives the notice rather than passing to the buyer, and it needs to sit in the closing arithmetic beside the land transfer taxes and the rest. It is also a reason to decide early whether you are selling vacant or selling tenanted, because those are two different listings with two different buyer pools.
If you are building a second suite, you are becoming a landlord. A basement apartment or a garden suite is a rental unit under this Act, with every notice period and obligation that follows. That is not an argument against building one — it is an argument for knowing what the rules are before the drawings.
Common questions
When did these rules take effect?
21 September 2026. The consolidated Residential Tenancies Act on e-Laws shows a consolidation period beginning that date, with Bill 60 — the Fighting Delays, Building Faster Act, 2025 — as the last amendment.
How long does a tenant have to pay after an N4 now?
Seven days from the day the notice is given. That replaces the fourteen days that applied to monthly tenancies. The notice is still void if the tenant pays the arrears before the landlord files the application.
Does a fixed-term lease still become month-to-month when it ends?
Yes. Section 38 of the Act was not amended. If a fixed term ends and the tenancy has not been renewed or terminated, it is deemed renewed as a monthly tenancy on the same terms.
Can I avoid paying the month’s compensation by giving 120 days’ notice?
Only if the notice is for your own occupancy, or that of your spouse, child, parent or caregiver, under section 48, and it ends on the last day of a rental period or fixed term. The waiver does not apply to a notice given on behalf of a purchaser under section 49, where one month’s rent is still owed.
I am selling my house and the buyer wants it empty. What changed for me?
Very little, and that is the point. The purchaser’s-own-use notice still requires at least 60 days, still requires good faith and an affidavit, and still carries one month’s compensation payable by the seller who gives the notice. It remains available only where the complex has no more than three units.
If I give an N12 for my own use, how long do I have to move in?
Treat it as 60 days. Since 21 September 2026, if nobody named in the notice occupies the unit within 60 days of the termination date — or within 60 days of the tenant actually leaving, where they stayed past that date — bad faith is presumed under section 57(6.1). The presumption can be rebutted, but the burden is then yours.
Is it true the Board can no longer delay an eviction?
Not quite. Its discretion is narrower rather than gone. Enforcement of an eviction order may now be postponed only where the landlord consents or where prescribed conditions are satisfied, and the Board’s power to review its own orders is subject to prescribed limits.
Where can I read the actual rules?
The Residential Tenancies Act, 2006 and Ontario Regulation 516/06 are both on Ontario’s e-Laws site, and the current notice forms are on the Landlord and Tenant Board’s site. From Bill 60 the sections that changed are 43, 48.1, 58, 59, 77, 82, 83, 209 and 241.5; from Bill 97, proclaimed the same day, the ones to read are 53 and 57.
If any of this affects a decision you are about to make
The questions we get asked most are not really about the Act. They are whether to sell vacant or tenanted, what a second suite does to a sale price on a particular street, and whether a basement apartment is worth keeping through a move. Those are answerable with comparable sales, and the legislation is one input among several.
If you are weighing one of them, book a free home evaluation and we will work through the numbers on your address. If the property has been sitting empty while you decide, read the vacant home tax piece first, because that deadline catches people out. And if the move on your mind is a smaller home rather than a sale, the right-sizing guide covers the sequence.
This is general information for Ontario property owners, not legal advice. We are real estate agents, not paralegals or lawyers. Notice periods, forms and obligations under the Residential Tenancies Act turn on facts specific to your tenancy — confirm them against the Act and the Landlord and Tenant Board’s current forms, and get advice from a paralegal or lawyer before serving any notice or responding to one.
