Commercial Tenant Eviction and Landlord Remedies in Ontario

One of the most important things to understand about commercial tenancies in Ontario is that the Residential Tenancies Act — and the Landlord and Tenant Board process that comes with it — generally does not apply to them at all. Commercial leases are instead governed by the lease contract itself, general common law principles, and the Commercial Tenancies Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. L.7. This is covered briefly in our overview of how Ontario commercial leases work, and it has a direct, practical consequence worth spelling out clearly here: a commercial landlord doesn’t need to apply to a tribunal and wait for an order before acting on a tenant’s default.

In a residential tenancy, a landlord must apply to the Board, obtain an eviction order, and — if the tenant still doesn’t leave — have the Sheriff enforce it. None of that applies to a commercial lease. Instead, a commercial landlord’s remedies come directly from what the lease itself says, layered on top of the general remedies the Commercial Tenancies Act and common law make available. This makes the lease document itself the single most important source of what can happen following a default, far more so than it would be in a residential context.

That doesn’t mean a commercial tenant has no protection at all. General contract law principles still apply, courts can still intervene where a landlord oversteps what the lease or the law actually permits, and a commercial tenant facing a disputed default can still go to court to challenge how a landlord has acted. What’s different is that there’s no built-in tribunal process the landlord has to use first — the tenant’s recourse, if any, typically comes after the landlord has already acted, rather than as a required step beforehand.

Distress is one of the more distinctive remedies available to a commercial landlord, and it has no real equivalent in residential tenancy law. It allows a landlord to seize certain goods found on the leased premises — generally belonging to the tenant — to recover unpaid rent, without needing to go to court first to get permission to do so. This remedy has roots in old common law and is also addressed in the Commercial Tenancies Act.

Distress isn’t unlimited, however. Certain categories of property are generally exempt from seizure, and the landlord (or more commonly, a bailiff acting on the landlord’s behalf) needs to follow specific procedural steps for the seizure and any subsequent sale of the goods to be valid. A seizure carried out improperly, or against exempt property, can itself expose the landlord to liability, so this remedy is usually exercised carefully rather than casually.

Where the lease includes a right of re-entry on default — as most commercial leases do — the landlord can generally end the lease and retake possession of the premises directly, without first obtaining a court order. This is often called re-entry and forfeiture: the lease is forfeited due to the tenant’s default, and the landlord re-enters to take back the space.

The key legal limit on this remedy is the requirement that re-entry be carried out peacefully, without a breach of the peace. If the tenant is present and actively resists, or if retaking possession would require force, a landlord generally cannot simply force their way in — doing so can expose the landlord to liability, even where the underlying default was real. For this reason, many landlords time re-entry for when the premises are unoccupied, such as overnight or over a weekend, and some still choose to obtain a court order confirming the right to possession before or instead of self-help re-entry, particularly where a dispute over the default itself seems likely.

Once a lease has been validly forfeited and the landlord has re-entered, the tenant generally loses the right to occupy or use the space. Whether a tenant can ever have the lease reinstated afterward — sometimes called relief from forfeiture — depends heavily on the specific circumstances and isn’t something that happens automatically.

Separate from distress and re-entry, a commercial landlord can also sue a defaulting tenant through the courts for unpaid rent and other losses flowing from the breach. This remedy isn’t mutually exclusive with the others — a landlord might re-enter and retake the space while also suing for rent that accrued before re-entry, and in some cases for damages tied to re-leasing the space afterward, depending on what the lease and general damages principles allow.

Where a personal guarantee was signed by the business owner, a landlord pursuing arrears may also be able to claim against the guarantor personally, not just against the corporate tenant. This can mean personal exposure for the owner that continues even after the business itself has closed or been dissolved, depending on how broadly the guarantee was drafted.

None of these remedies are automatic the moment a payment is late — they’re triggered by whatever the specific lease defines as a default, and by whatever notice or cure period the lease requires before the landlord can act. Commonly listed defaults include non-payment of rent beyond a grace period, insolvency or bankruptcy of the tenant, abandonment of the premises, or an uncured breach of another material lease term.

Because the trigger and the required process are both set by the lease rather than by a uniform statute, two tenants in similar financial difficulty could face very different timelines and procedures depending on how their individual leases were drafted. This is part of why reviewing default and remedy clauses closely before signing — not just focusing on rent and term length — matters so much in a commercial lease.

Notice requirements also vary widely. Some leases allow a landlord to act the moment rent is a single day late, while others build in a grace period of several days along with a requirement to deliver written notice before any remedy can be exercised. A tenant who understands exactly how much notice, if any, the lease requires is in a far better position to respond to a cash-flow problem before it escalates into a full default under the lease’s own terms.

For anyone used to residential tenancy rules, the commercial framework can come as a genuine surprise. A residential landlord cannot change the locks, seize belongings, or retake possession without going through the Landlord and Tenant Board and, ultimately, the Sheriff. A commercial landlord, by contrast, can often act directly — through distress, re-entry, or both — relying only on the lease and general law, with no tribunal involvement required at all.

This is exactly why commercial tenants benefit from reading the default and remedies sections of a lease as carefully as the rent provisions, ideally before signing. If a dispute does arise over whether a default actually occurred, or whether a remedy was exercised properly, our guide on commercial lease disputes in Ontario covers how these disagreements are generally approached, and the commercial leases hub has further related guides. This article provides general information about how these remedies typically work in Ontario — it isn’t legal advice about any specific lease or situation.