Month-to-month tenants not allowed to sublet

A: Most likely, the landlord is correct that you are not able to sublet your unit for a year so that you can hold onto the apartment while you are out of the country to take a job. You would only be entitled to sublet if you are in a lease term that extends more than a year from when you start the sublet.

You don’t say whether you are on a month-to-month tenancy or subject to a specific lease term. After their first lease term — of say 12 months — most Ontario tenancies renew automatically as month-to-month tenancies. During a month-to-month tenancy, the tenancy continually renews every month unless the tenant chooses to end their tenancy on at least 60 days’ notice, or the landlord gives a notice of termination for a proper ground under the Residential Tenancies Act (RTA).

Rather than renewing as a month-to-month tenancy, landlords and tenants can agree to renew lease terms for further fixed periods of time. Doing so locks both parties into that fixed term; the tenant cannot choose to terminate the tenancy during the renewal period and the landlord cannot terminate the tenancy for no-fault grounds during the renewal period. It is very rare to renew the lease term for more than a year.

Sublets and assignments are designed for situations where tenants are locked into fixedlease terms, and the tenant’s circumstances have changed so that they do not need the rental unit for the whole of the fixed term.

In an assignment, the current tenant transfers the rental unit to a new tenant and does not retain any right to come back. In that case, the current tenant (the assignor) is relieved of their obligation to pay the rent or to pay for any damages done by the assignee. The landlord has the option of whether or not to agree to allow the tenant to assign. If the landlord refuses, the tenant can end the lease on short notice, even though the lease term has not expired.

In a sublet, the current tenant transfers the rental unit to a new tenant temporarily. But the current tenant continues to be responsible for the rental unit, including for any damages to the unit or any unpaid rent. If you are on a month-to-month tenancy, the most you can sublet is the rest of the month you are in. (For example, on March 2 you could seek to sublet the tenancy until March 30, returning to the unit on March 31.) That interpretation of the RTA is established in the decisions of the Landlord and Tenant Board, and in the LTB’S Interpretation Guideline 21.