Ontario residential tenancy law updated: shorter non-payment notice, tighter eviction postponement rules, and new tenant hearing requirements

Plain-language summary · AI-assisted · not legal advice

Several provisions of Ontario's residential tenancy law have been consolidated from previously announced future amendments into the active text of the law. For non-payment of rent, landlords can now give a termination notice effective as early as 7 days after it is given, regardless of whether the tenancy is daily, weekly, or any other period — the prior longer 14-day period for non-daily/weekly tenancies has been removed. When a tenant wants to raise their own issues at a landlord's non-payment hearing, they must now comply strictly with advance-notice and payment requirements (including paying half of the claimed rent arrears before the hearing); the previous exception allowing a tenant to skip these steps with a satisfactory explanation has been removed. The Board's power to postpone enforcement of an eviction order is now explicitly subject to prescribed limitations or conditions set by regulation. Landlords issuing 'own use' termination notices must compensate tenants or offer an alternative unit, but that obligation no longer applies in circumstances defined by the new exemption added to section 48.1. Transition provisions from older amendments have been cleaned up, and new regulation-making powers are now active, covering what counts as persistent late payment, conditions for setting aside consent eviction orders, and factors governing eviction postponement. Housing co-operatives are subject to parallel changes for member evictions.

Who this affects: residential landlords · residential tenants · housing co-operative members · housing co-operatives · Landlord and Tenant Board