Ontario rent-increase rules, explained

The guideline

The Ontario rent-increase guideline is the ordinary cap on how much a landlord can raise the rent for the same tenant in a year, for most private residential units covered by the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006. Ontario has set the guideline at 2.1% for 2026 and 1.9% for 2027. The percentage that applies is the one for the year the increase takes effect.

The 12-month rule

Under s. 119 of the Act, at least 12 months must ordinarily have elapsed since the tenant's last rent increase before another increase can take effect for the same tenant. If there has been no prior increase, the 12 months is measured from the date the unit was first rented to that tenant.

The 90-day notice rule

Section 116 requires at least 90 days' written notice of a rent increase, on a form approved by the LTB. A rent increase given without the required notice is void, and a new, correct notice is required before the increase can take effect. The 12-month rule and the 90-day notice rule are separate, and both must be met.

Controlled units and the post-15 November 2018 question

The ordinary guideline applies to most private residential units covered by the RTA. The exemption people usually have in mind turns on whether the unit was first occupied for residential purposes after 15 November 2018 within the meaning of the Act. That is a statutory fact about occupancy. It is not the construction date, not the date a building permit issued, not the date the property changed hands, and not the date the current lease was signed, although any of those can sit close to the operative date.

The practical consequence is that neither party should treat the exemption as settled by the age of the building. A landlord asserting it should expect to point to evidence of when the unit was first occupied for residential purposes; a tenant who doubts it can raise the question at the Board, which decides disputes. Where the position is genuinely unclear, the honest answer is that exemption cannot be verified - and the calculator on this site is built to say exactly that rather than to guess.

A guideline-exempt unit is still regulated. The once-every-12-months interval and the 90 days' written notice on an approved form continue to apply.

What evidence actually settles each question

• The lawful rent. The tenancy agreement, plus every valid notice of increase since, plus any order changing the rent. The amount the tenant has been paying is evidence but not proof.
• The last increase date. The previous notice and the date the increased rent first became payable.
• The notice date. A dated copy of the notice and a record of how it was given. Timing arguments are usually won or lost on this record.
• Exemption. Evidence of first occupancy for residential purposes, not building records alone.
• Any above-guideline amount. The Board's order. Not the application, and not correspondence about it.

Forms: N1 and N2, and the ones this guide only names

Form N1 is the ordinary notice for a guideline-controlled unit. Form N2 is used where the unit is partially exempt from the Act's rent-increase rules, for example certain units listed in s. 6. Confirm the form matches the unit's status before serving, and use the current version from the Tribunals Ontario site rather than a saved copy.

Two further forms are worth naming so you know they exist and can investigate them separately. Form N3 is used for an increase in a care home or where the rent covers services and meals. Form N10 is an agreement to increase the rent above the guideline in exchange for a specified capital expenditure or an added service. Both carry their own conditions and neither is covered here or modelled by the calculator.

Above-guideline increases

Section 126 allows a landlord to apply to the Board for an increase above the guideline in defined categories only: an extraordinary increase in municipal taxes and charges, eligible capital expenditures, and operating costs for security services. Ordinary maintenance, routine repairs and general cost inflation are not a route to an above-guideline increase.

An application is a request, not an entitlement. Until the Board makes an order, only the ordinary guideline amount may be charged. The commonly quoted limit of 3% above the guideline in any year is a genuine constraint, but it is not universal: there are exceptions, and where a larger justified amount cannot be taken in one year it can be carried into later years, so a single order can produce above-guideline increases across more than one year. Read the order rather than a summary of the rule.

A verification workflow

1. Identify the effective date of the proposed increase and take the guideline for that year from Ontario's published guideline page.
2. Establish the lawful rent from the agreement and the history of valid increases, and use that as the base.
3. Check the 12-month interval from the last increase, or from the start of the tenancy where there has been none.
4. Check that the notice was given at least 90 days before the effective date, and confirm how and when it was given.
5. Confirm the unit's status on first-occupancy evidence, and if it cannot be confirmed, treat it as unresolved rather than exempt.
6. Confirm the form and its current version, and check the notice is complete on its face.
7. If an above-guideline amount appears, ask for the order. Where there is no order, the ordinary guideline governs.
8. Where anything does not reconcile, raise it in writing before the effective date and take advice from a lawyer, licensed paralegal or a tenant duty counsel service.

What this guide does not cover

Care-home service charges, social housing turnover rules, rent reductions, illegal-charge applications and the July 2026 seasonal air-conditioning increase are separate regimes with their own rules and are not covered here. Follow the official sources below for those.