Rent Increase Rules in Ontario: What Landlords Can and Can’t Do

Residential rent increases in Ontario are not left entirely to a landlord’s discretion. The Residential Tenancies Act layers a set of timing, notice, and amount rules on top of whatever a lease says, and those rules generally can’t be waived just because a tenant signed an agreement that says otherwise. Understanding the basic mechanism — rather than memorizing a single number — is the most useful way to approach this topic, because the actual cap changes every year.

At a high level, three things generally need to line up before an increase is valid for most units: the increase has to come at least 12 months after the tenancy began or after the last increase, the landlord has to give proper written notice far enough in advance, and the amount has to fall within whatever ceiling applies to that specific unit — a ceiling that depends heavily on when the building was first occupied. Missing any one of those three generally means the increase doesn’t take effect as proposed.

This framework applies to residential tenancies covered by the Act. It does not apply to commercial leases, which follow their own negotiated rent review terms rather than a provincial formula — see our commercial lease insights hub for that side of things. For the basics of what a residential lease generally covers more broadly, our lease agreement guide is a useful starting point.

Each year, the Ontario government publishes a rent increase guideline — a single percentage that represents the maximum amount by which rent can generally be increased for units subject to the guideline, without the landlord needing special approval. The guideline is calculated using a formula tied to inflation and is announced well before it takes effect, typically covering increases that occur during the following calendar year.

Because the percentage changes annually, this guide intentionally doesn’t quote a specific figure — whatever number applied last year, or the year before, is not necessarily what applies now. The reliable way to find the current guideline is to check the province’s official published rate for the relevant calendar year before assuming any particular percentage applies to your situation.

It’s also worth understanding what the guideline is not. It is not a minimum increase a landlord is entitled to, and it is not an increase that happens automatically — a landlord still has to take the active step of giving proper notice for any increase, even one that falls comfortably within the guideline. A tenant whose rent has never been increased, even after several years, hasn’t lost any protection; the increase simply has to go through the same notice process whenever the landlord decides to apply it.

Before a rent increase can take effect, a landlord generally has to give the tenant at least 90 days’ written notice. That notice typically needs to be given using the province’s official notice of rent increase form, which sets out the current rent, the proposed new rent, and the specific date the increase is meant to begin.

The 90-day period runs from when the notice is actually given, not from when the landlord decides to send it, and it has to land on a date that lines up with the tenant’s rental period — for example, a monthly tenancy’s increase date generally needs to align with the start of a rental month. A notice that is served late, uses the wrong form, or gets the effective date wrong generally doesn’t take effect as written, which can mean the landlord has to start the notice period over from scratch.

Sometimes a landlord believes a larger increase than the guideline allows is justified — for example, because of major capital repairs or renovations, a significant jump in municipal property taxes, or a steep increase in costs for security services provided to the building. In those situations, for units still subject to the guideline, the landlord generally can’t simply impose the higher amount unilaterally.

Instead, the landlord generally has to apply to the Landlord and Tenant Board for an above-guideline increase, supplying evidence to justify the request. The Board reviews the application, and tenants are generally entitled to respond and raise objections before any decision is made. Even if approved, an above-guideline increase is often phased in over multiple years rather than applied all at once, and there are limits on how much of certain costs can be passed through to tenants.

This process exists precisely because the guideline is meant to be the default ceiling, not a number a landlord can simply exceed by deciding it feels justified. A rent increase above the guideline that was never approved by the Board is generally not enforceable.

Not every residential rental unit in Ontario is subject to the guideline cap. The most significant exemption applies to most private residential units first occupied for residential purposes after November 15, 2018 — these are generally exempt from the guideline, meaning the landlord can propose a rent increase of any amount, subject to the same 12-month minimum and 90-day notice requirements that apply to every tenancy.

Other categories can also fall outside the standard guideline framework, including some social housing, certain non-profit and co-operative housing, and specific types of short-term or seasonal accommodations. Because exemptions depend on building type and occupancy date rather than anything visible on the surface of a lease, it’s easy for a tenant to assume the guideline applies when it actually doesn’t, or vice versa.

If an increase notice looks unusually large, confirming whether the unit falls into an exempt category — rather than assuming either that the guideline must apply or that it definitely doesn’t — is generally the most useful first step before raising a concern.

The occupancy-date distinction can also matter inside a single building. A unit that was previously occupied before November 15, 2018 and then stood vacant before being rented out again generally doesn’t reset to “newly occupied” just because the tenancy changed hands — the exemption generally turns on when the unit was first occupied for residential purposes, not on when the current tenant moved in. This is a detail that’s easy to get wrong without checking the building’s history directly.

A few practices come up often enough to be worth naming directly. A landlord generally can’t increase rent more than once in a 12-month period for the same tenancy, even if the first increase was small. A landlord generally can’t skip the 90-day written notice period by relying on a verbal conversation or an informal email, even if the tenant seems to agree at the time. And a landlord generally can’t charge an above-guideline amount on a guideline-covered unit without having actually obtained Board approval first.

It’s also worth noting that a lease clause purporting to pre-authorize automatic annual increases at a fixed rate, without following the normal notice process each time, doesn’t generally override these statutory requirements. The notice step still generally has to happen for each individual increase.

For a broader look at what else a residential lease typically covers, see our lease agreement guide, and for what to check before a tenancy even begins, our lease review checklist covers the practical steps. If you’re unsure how a specific notice or increase applies to your situation, our contact page and tools section may also be useful starting points.