Ontario’s standard lease becomes mandatory April 30

WHO PRACTICE LANDLORD/TENANT LAW AND OTHER AREAS OF LAW

Q: I am a small landlord in Ottawa, renting out a single-family home that I own. My lease documentation is pretty long because I make sure my tenants know how the house works; in other words, what needs to be turned on or turned off when during the year, and lots of details to keep them comfortable and avoid unnecessary service calls. I just heard that the provincial government is bringing in a mandatory standard lease. Will I have to use that lease? Will I still be able to include all the information I do now? A: The new standard lease will be mandatory for tenancies beginning on or after April 30, a little under three months from now. It will be applicable to all ordinary rental dwellings, but not to mobile home parks, land lease communities, care homes, social housing or member units in co-operative housing. (The new lease does apply to units in co-ops that are rented by tenants.)

The government believes the new standard lease is needed because some landlords use leases that include terms that run contrary to the Residential Tenancies Act (the RTA). Those terms are not enforceable ( because the RTA overrides them), but they can confuse tenants, and put pressure on tenants to do things that they are not required to do.

There will be electronic versions of the new lease. The paper copy of the lease now runs to seven pages, with six pages of notes explaining the law, for a total of 13 pages. The standard lease can be viewed by Google searching “Ontario standard lease.”

The new standard lease has spaces to fill in the necessary information, such as the names of the landlord and the tenant(s), the address of the rental unit, contact information for the landlord ( both for day-to-day communication and for emergencies), the start and end dates, and the rent.

Other sections address services and utilities, any rent discount, any deposit for keys (or remote entry devices or cards), smoking rules, tenant’s insurance, rules about making changes to the rental unit, obligations about maintenance and repairs, and rules about subletting and assignment.

There is a section that addresses additional terms, such as rules about the use of amenities, like a swimming pool. That section notes that any additional term cannot take away a right or responsibility under the RTA, and gives some examples of terms that would be unenforceable. Many of the sections refer to the notes that explain the relevant law. The notes run from A to U, and cover many legal issues that can arise in a residential tenancy.

You would be able to include your information as an extra term, or you could provide that information outside of the tenancy agreement.

At least for now, it will not be an offence for a landlord to use a different lease, and the different lease will be valid with two exceptions. As is the case now, any term that conflicts with the RTA will be overridden by the RTA. In addition, if the standard lease is not used, then once in their tenancy a tenant can call on the landlord to provide a tenancy agreement in the standard form. If the landlord does not do so, or if the tenant says they do not accept that agreement, then the tenant can end the tenancy regardless of its termination date.