How much notice do I have to give before raising the rent in Ontario?
Nothing about a rent increase is retroactive and nothing about it is quick. Two separate clocks have to clear before a new rent can begin, and the one most owners miss is the one that started before they thought about it.
The short answer
Robin Patel, a REALTOR® in the Greater Toronto Area, explains that an Ontario landlord must give a tenant 90 days written notice of a rent increase on the Landlord and Tenant Board form, and the increase cannot take effect until at least twelve months after the last one. Notice served late simply moves the date.
Written forSmall landlords in the GTA — including anyone who has just bought a property with a tenant in it, or who rents out a basement unit — who want to raise the rent and need to know when they can actually do it.
The short version
- A rent increase requires written notice on the Landlord and Tenant Board prescribed form. A text message, a verbal conversation, or an email sent without prior written agreement to receive notices electronically is not service.
- The notice must be given at least 90 days before the day the increase takes effect, and the increase must begin on the first day of a rental period.
- A separate rule requires at least twelve months between increases, counted from the last increase or from the start of the tenancy.
- Serving late does not void the increase. It moves the earliest date on which the new rent can begin, which is why the date is set by arithmetic rather than by intention.
- Counting back 90 days from 1 January means serving in early October, so a January start is no longer available for 2027.
What the notice has to be, and what does not count
A rent increase in Ontario is not something a landlord announces. It is something a landlord serves, on the form the Landlord and Tenant Board prescribes for it, and the form is not optional. An increase communicated any other way has not been given.
This is where most of the avoidable trouble sits. A text message does not do it. A conversation in the driveway does not do it. An email does not do it either, unless the tenant has already agreed in writing to receive notices electronically — and that agreement has to exist before the notice is sent, not after.
The consequence of getting this wrong is not a smaller increase. It is no increase at all, because there was never a valid notice to start the clock. A landlord who believes the rent went up in March and a tenant who was never properly served are describing two different tenancies, and the Board will recognise only one of them.
A rent increase in Ontario is not something a landlord announces. It is something a landlord serves
Ninety days, counted properly
The notice has to be given at least ninety days before the day the increase takes effect. That is the first clock, and it runs backwards from the date you want, not forwards from the date you decided.
There is a second constraint sitting on top of it that catches people who have done the arithmetic correctly. The increase must begin on the first day of a rental period. For an ordinary month-to-month tenancy that means the first of a month, so a date ninety-one days out that happens to fall mid-month is not available — the increase waits for the first of the following month instead.
Put those two together and the earliest possible date is usually further out than a landlord expects. Serving notice today does not produce a new rent in three months; it produces a new rent on the first day of the first rental period that is at least ninety days away.
it runs backwards from the date you want, not forwards from the date you decided
The twelve-month clock runs separately
Clearing ninety days is necessary and it is not sufficient. At least twelve months must also have passed since the last rent increase, or since the tenancy began if there has not been one yet.
These two periods are measured from different events and they do not substitute for one another. A landlord can be well past ninety days and still too early, because the twelve months have not run. The question is never just how much notice was given — it is whether both clocks have cleared on the day the new rent is supposed to start.
Which means the date of the last increase is a fact worth having in writing rather than in memory. It is also the single most useful thing to ask a seller for when a tenanted property is being bought, because the buyer inherits that date along with everything else.
Clearing ninety days is necessary and it is not sufficient.
What a late notice actually costs
A notice served late is not void. It does not forfeit the increase and it does not have to be withdrawn. What it does is move the earliest date the new rent can begin, and that is the whole of the penalty.
The arithmetic is unforgiving in one direction only. Counting ninety days back from 1 January puts service in the first days of October. For an increase intended to take effect on 1 January 2027, that moment has passed — a notice served now reaches its ninetieth day in the second half of January, and the increase then waits for the first day of the next rental period after that.
So the practical reading for a small landlord is simple. The January date is gone for this year, the increase itself is not, and the only thing still being decided is which month it starts in. Serving promptly is what keeps that from slipping again.
A notice served late is not void.
Written by
Robin PatelSalesperson · The Agency Toronto
Updated
Published
Read in your language
A machine translation, not Robin’s words. For anything that decides money, ask him in Gujarati or Hindi directly.
