Ontario Tenant Act
If you are a landlord or a tenant, it is important that you know the laws that regulate rents in Ontario. These laws can be found in the Ontario Residential Tenancies Act, Canada. Know about regulations that apply to you according to the Ontario tenant act or Landlord and Tenant Act / Residential Tenancy Act below.
What is the Ontario Residential Tenancies Act?
The Ontario Residential Tenancies Act regulates the rental of residential property. According to the act, its purposes are “to provide protection for residential tenants from unlawful rent increases and unlawful evictions, to establish a framework for the regulation of residential rents, to balance the rights and responsibilities of residential landlord and tenant act and to provide for the adjudication of disputes and for other processes to informally resolve disputes”.
In other words, the tenancy act created to regulate and have control over residential renting, so everything fair for both sides and to have support when solving problems and disputes.
What does the Ontario Residential Tenancies Act cover?
The act has laws that regulate the tenancy agreement, the responsibilities of landlords, the responsibilities of tenants. And the security of tenure and termination of tenancies, the termination of occupancy and non-profit housing co-operatives; the assignment, subletting and unauthorized occupancy.
It also has rules relating to rent and regulations about suite meters and apportionment. Those are like utility costs, care homes, mobile home parks, and land lease communities, the Ontario landlord tenant act board, board proceedings, maintenance standards, and administration and enforcement.
Some basic aspects of the Ontario Residential Tenancy act are
- A landlord can’t discriminate a tenant because of his/her religion, disabilities, family status, age, sex, marital status, sexual orientation, race, place of origin, ethnic origin or family status. It means that your landlord cannot refuse to rent you a place because you are homosexual or Muslim.
- Once you move, the tenant has the right to a safe home, which must be in good repair and safe; to vital services, such as hot and cold water, electricity and fuel; to heat, so the landlord must provide heating at 20°C from September 1 to June 15; and to privacy, which means that your landlord cannot enter your home whenever he wants and he can only do it for specific reasons, like making repairs.
The tenant also has right to controlled rent increases, so rent can raise per year and within legal limits; to protection from unlawful eviction; to have children living in your home; and to have documents regarding the tenancy, like a written copy of your tenancy agreement or rent receipts.
If you visit the website of Service Ontario, you will be able to find the full Ontario Residential Tenancies Act, so you can check every part of it. You can read it at www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/06r17.
Ontario Residential Tenancies Website: https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/06r17
Ontario Landlord Tenant Act Toll-Free Number: 1-888-332-3234
Landlord and Tenant Act Board Customer Service number: 416-645-8080
Ontario Landlord and Tenant Act Board Address Details:
79 St Clair Ave E #212,
Toronto, ON M4T 1M6,
Canada.