Ontario leases are built on a standard form, and then a schedule of extra terms is bolted onto the back of it. That schedule is where landlords put what they actually want, and it is the part almost nobody reads properly before signing.
Most of it is reasonable. Some of it is unenforceable. Knowing which is which before you sign saves an argument in February.
The rule that governs everything else
Section 4 of the Residential Tenancies Act says that a provision in a tenancy agreement inconsistent with the Act is void. Not voidable, not negotiable. Void, as though it had never been written.
A landlord cannot contract out of their obligations, and you cannot sign yours away even if you want to. If a clause conflicts with the Act, the Act wins, and it does not matter that you initialled it.
Two things follow from this, and they pull in opposite directions.
The first is reassuring: a startling number of clauses in circulation have no force. The second is a caution. Do not sign something unenforceable planning to ignore it later. If a clause matters enough to argue about, argue about it now, while you have leverage and goodwill. A tenancy that begins with a dispute over a void clause rarely recovers its tone.
What is actually included
The first thing to pin down, and the easiest to get wrong, because it is settled by a list rather than a sentence and lists are easy to skim.
Parking. How many spaces, and which ones, identified by number. "One parking space" is not enough in a building where one space is beside the elevator and another is a three-minute walk in the rain.
Whether parking is part of the rent or charged separately. This distinction is worth understanding. Where parking is included as a service with the unit, a landlord cannot simply withdraw it or start charging for it mid-tenancy, because that amounts to an increase in rent. Where it is a genuinely separate agreement, it can be treated separately. Have the lease say plainly which it is.
Storage lockers, identified the same way, by number.
Chattels and fixtures. The specific list of what stays: appliances, window coverings, light fixtures, shelving, garage remotes, air conditioners, anything in the shed. If a photograph in the listing showed something you are expecting to find there, get it named.
Appliances
Ask for a clause confirming that all appliances, and the heating, cooling, plumbing and electrical systems, are in good working order at the commencement of the lease. It is a standard request, most landlords agree to it without blinking, and it changes the conversation entirely if something turns out not to work in week one.
What happens when one breaks
Section 20 of the Act makes the landlord responsible for maintaining the unit in a good state of repair, including the appliances they supply. That obligation applies even if you knew about the problem before you moved in, and it cannot be signed away.
So a clause saying "tenant is responsible for appliance repair and servicing" is void. A dishwasher that dies of old age is the landlord's problem, not yours, whatever the schedule says.
The landlord pays
Normal wear and failure. A fridge compressor goes, the furnace stops, a tap seizes, the washer stops draining. Age and use are the landlord's risk, and that risk is priced into your rent.
You pay
Undue damage caused wilfully or negligently by you, someone living with you, or a guest. A cracked glass cooktop, a stovetop scorched dry, a drain blocked with something that should not have gone down it. Section 34 puts that squarely on the tenant.
Email, not a text and not a phone call, and keep the thread. Most repair disputes are not really about whose fault it was; they are about when the landlord was told. A dated email settles that question for you.
More on the process in Repairs and Maintenance.
Cleaning clauses
Under section 33 you are responsible for the ordinary cleanliness of the unit. That is the standard, and it is a reasonable one.
What you will often see in a schedule goes further: a requirement to have the carpets professionally cleaned on move-out, or to return the property in "professionally cleaned condition", sometimes with receipts. Enforcing that against a tenant who leaves a genuinely clean home is difficult, because the Act sets the standard at ordinary cleanliness and a lease cannot raise it.
In practice this rarely becomes a fight. Leave the place clean, take dated photographs of every room on the day you hand back the keys, and the question does not arise. The photographs are the whole defence.
Your last month's rent deposit is exactly that. It pays your last month's rent. It cannot be applied to cleaning or damage, and a clause saying otherwise does not change that. A landlord who believes you caused damage must apply to the Landlord and Tenant Board and prove it.
Alterations: hanging a television, hanging pictures
Most schedules contain a clause requiring written consent before any alteration, and define alteration broadly enough to cover a picture hook. Read literally, that is stricter than most landlords intend or enforce.
Picture hooks and small nails are ordinarily treated as normal use. Filling and touching up the holes on the way out is the courteous convention, and it costs an afternoon.
Wall-mounting a television is different, and it is worth asking about specifically before you sign rather than discovering the answer later. It means lag bolts into studs, a bracket, and often a hole cut for cables. Ask two questions: may I mount it, and what condition do you want the wall left in.
Painting, flooring, fixtures, shelving, anything structural, and anything involving plumbing or electrical need written consent every time. Get the answer by email, not in conversation on the driveway.
Improvements usually stay. Anything you affix to the property generally becomes part of it, and you are rarely entitled to compensation. Spend accordingly on a place you may leave in a year.
If the alterations clause is drafted absolutely, ask for it to be softened to something like "consent not to be unreasonably withheld", and ask for mounting a television to be permitted expressly. Landlords agree to this far more often than tenants expect, because the request tells them you intend to look after the place.
How the rent must be paid
Here is a clause that appears in a large share of Ontario schedules and has no force at all.
Section 108 says that neither a landlord nor a tenancy agreement shall require a tenant to provide post-dated cheques, or to permit automatic debiting of their bank account, automatic charging of a credit card, or any other form of automatic payment for rent.
You may agree to any of these voluntarily, and plenty of tenants prefer to. What cannot happen is being made to, as a condition of getting the keys.
In practice this is worth knowing rather than worth fighting over. Most people pay by automatic transfer because it is convenient. The clause matters in the narrower case where handing over twelve signed cheques makes you uncomfortable, or where you would rather keep control of the timing. You are entitled to say no and pay another way.
What a landlord can charge if a payment fails
The actual charge their financial institution applied, plus an administration charge capped at $20. That is the whole of it. Escalating late fees, daily interest, and flat penalties beyond that are not permitted.
Key and fob deposits
A landlord can ask for a deposit against keys, fobs, garage remotes and mail keys. Two conditions apply and both are frequently ignored.
It must be refundable, returned when you hand the keys back. A clause describing a key deposit as non-refundable, or as an administration fee, is not a key deposit.
It cannot exceed the actual replacement cost. If a fob costs the building $75 to reprogram, $75 is the ceiling. A $500 "key deposit" on a $75 fob is not one.
The wider point is that these are the only two deposits Ontario permits at the start of a tenancy: last month's rent, and a refundable key deposit. Damage deposits, security deposits, pet deposits and cleaning deposits do not exist here, whatever the schedule calls them.
Utilities and insurance before you get the keys
Nearly every schedule requires both, and both are usually conditions of handing over keys. Neither can be arranged on the morning of the move.
Open the utility accounts in your name, effective the first day of the lease. Check the schedule for exactly which ones are yours: hydro, gas, water, hot water tank rental, internet. Water and hot water tank rental are the two that catch people.
Buy tenant insurance and send the certificate before key handover. It covers your own contents, which the landlord's policy never does, and the liability portion is the part that actually matters. It costs roughly $20 to $30 a month. See Tenant Insurance.
Send both confirmations to me a few days early. Keys get held up over a missing insurance certificate more often than over anything else, usually on a Friday afternoon when nobody can be reached.
When the landlord can come in
Schedules often contain an entry clause drafted more broadly than the Act allows, along the lines of the landlord being permitted to enter "as required". The Act is specific, and the specifics are what apply.
Twenty-four hours' written notice for ordinary entry: repairs, inspections, contractors. The notice must state the reason and the time of entry, and entry must fall between 8am and 8pm.
No notice needed in an emergency, or where you agree at the time. A burst pipe does not wait a day.
Showings work differently. Once notice of termination has been given by either side, or an agreement to end the tenancy is in place, the landlord may show the unit to prospective tenants without the full twenty-four hours' written notice, provided they make reasonable efforts to tell you first and come between 8am and 8pm.
Most entry disputes are about courtesy rather than law. Agree a working convention early, ask to be told by email, and say plainly if a particular day does not suit. Almost every landlord will work with that. If entry is happening without notice and repeatedly, that is a substantive interference with your reasonable enjoyment, and it is worth a conversation with me before it becomes a pattern.
Renewal and extension
Worth understanding, because the Act is more generous here than most tenants realise and some schedules imply otherwise.
When a fixed term ends, the tenancy does not. It continues automatically as a month-to-month tenancy on the same terms unless you and the landlord sign a new agreement. You do not have to move, you do not have to sign anything, and a clause requiring you to vacate at the end of the term is void.
An option-to-renew clause typically sets a notice window, often 60 days, and may fix the increase at the guideline. Where you want to stay put for several years, that certainty is worth having. Where you may want to move, be careful that the clause does not commit you to a further term simply by staying quiet.
Breaking the lease early
Life changes. A job moves, a relationship ends, a parent gets ill. This is the clause that decides what that costs you, and it is one of the most expensive things tenants misunderstand.
Schedules commonly contain a fixed penalty: two months' rent, a flat fee, or a requirement that you keep paying until the end of the term regardless. What the Act actually entitles a landlord to is their real loss, and they have a duty to take reasonable steps to reduce it by re-renting the unit.
What that means in practice
If you leave four months early and the landlord re-rents after three weeks at the same rent, the loss is roughly three weeks of rent plus reasonable costs of re-renting. Not four months. A clause naming a fixed penalty regardless of the actual outcome does not survive contact with the Act.
The route that works properly
Assignment, or a mutual agreement to end the tenancy signed by both sides. Both are clean, both are documented, and both end the argument before it starts. Handing back the keys and hoping is the version that goes badly.
If you know in October that you will need to leave in February, that is a solvable problem. The same conversation in late January is a much more expensive one. There is no penalty for raising it early, and quite a lot of benefit.
See Ending an Existing Lease for the notice periods and the forms.
Assignment and subletting
The clause that matters most if your life changes mid-term, and the one most commonly drafted as a flat prohibition that the Act does not permit.
Assignment
You hand the whole tenancy to somebody else and step out permanently. They take on your lease, and your obligations end.
Subletting
Somebody occupies the unit for a defined period and you return afterwards. You remain the tenant and remain liable for the rent and for their conduct.
A landlord's consent is required for both. What a landlord cannot do is refuse arbitrarily or unreasonably, and a blanket "no assignment or subletting under any circumstances" clause does not survive contact with the Act. Where consent is refused unreasonably, you can apply to the Landlord and Tenant Board, and one of the remedies available is an order ending the tenancy.
Put the request in an email with the proposed person's full application attached, in the same shape as your own: employment letter, credit report, references. A landlord handed a complete, verifiable file usually says yes. A landlord handed a name and a phone number usually does not, and it is hard to argue that refusal was unreasonable.
See also Roommates and Joint Leases, which covers what happens when one person on a joint lease wants out.
Pets, smoking and guests
Pets
Section 14 makes "no pets" provisions void, and it is the best-known void clause in Ontario. That does not mean you can always keep one.
In a condominium the declaration and by-laws bind you as an occupant, and they are a separate instrument the Act does not void. A building that prohibits pets, or permits them only under a weight or breed limit, can enforce that against you whatever your lease says. Ask about the declaration specifically rather than relying on section 14.
A landlord can also pursue eviction where an animal genuinely causes damage, disturbance, or a documented allergic reaction.
Smoking
Different, and enforceable. There is no equivalent section protecting smoking, so a no-smoking clause is a valid term of the lease and can be enforced. Assume it means cannabis and vaping too, on the balcony as much as indoors.
Guest clauses attempting to limit overnight visitors, or requiring the landlord's permission for a guest, are not enforceable against your ordinary use of your own home. What a landlord can act on is a guest who has quietly become an occupant, which is a different question and is dealt with under assignment and subletting above. More detail in Pets, Smoking and Guests.
Use of premises
A short clause restricting the property to residential use by the named tenants. Usually unremarkable, and occasionally worth a question.
- Working from home is ordinary residential use. Running a business with clients and deliveries arriving is not, and needs to be raised.
- Short-term subletting, Airbnb and similar, is prohibited in essentially every lease, and separately by most condominium corporations and municipal by-laws. Do not.
- Occupancy limits phrased as a maximum number of people are generally not enforceable against a growing family. Human rights law protects family status.
If you are renting in a condominium
You are signing up to two sets of rules, not one. The lease binds you to the landlord, and the condominium's declaration, by-laws and rules bind you as an occupant of the building. The schedule will normally say so, and you will usually be asked to acknowledge the rules in writing.
Ask for a copy of the rules before you sign, not after. Not every landlord has one to hand, which is itself informative. They govern balconies, barbecues, noise hours, visitor parking, what may be stored on a locker floor, and often pets.
Book the elevator early. Most buildings require a moving booking, restrict it to certain hours and days, and take a refundable deposit against damage to the lift. Buildings fill up at the end of the month. Establish who books it and who pays the deposit, and get it in the schedule.
The pet point is the important one. Your landlord's "no pets" clause is void. The condominium corporation's pet restriction is a different instrument and can be enforced against you. If you have an animal, ask about the declaration specifically rather than relying on section 14.
Amenity access and fobs. Confirm you get the same access as an owner would to the gym, pool and party room, and that the fobs needed for it come with the unit.
Guarantors and co-signers
Where a tenant is new to the country, early in a career, or a student, a landlord will frequently ask for a guarantor, usually a parent. It is a normal request and it is often what makes a good application work. It is also a real obligation, and the person signing should read it rather than sign it in a car park.
Two points to carry away from the schedule. A guarantor is liable for the money, not merely vouching for character. And most guarantees are drafted to continue past the fixed term into the month-to-month tenancy that follows, which can mean years rather than one.
Guarantors and Co-Signers covers the difference between guaranteeing and co-signing, the two amendments worth asking for, and how the guarantor letter and the signature block on the Agreement to Lease fit together.
Lawn care, snow removal and the pool
This is the single most common source of friction in a leased house, and the law here is less tidy than either side would like.
Lawn care. Where you rent an entire house and are its only occupant, a clause making you responsible for cutting the grass is common and is generally treated as workable. Where the property is shared or has common grounds, it is the landlord's job.
Snow and ice. Harder to shift onto a tenant, and clauses attempting it are frequently found unenforceable. The maintenance standards put unsafe accumulations of ice and snow on the landlord, and a landlord retains liability if someone is injured on the walk. Many landlords now simply hire a service, which is the cleanest answer for everybody.
Pool, hot tub, sprinklers, septic. Almost always the landlord's, contracted to a specialist, and it should say so explicitly along with who pays for chemicals, openings and closings. Never accept responsibility for a pool you do not know how to run. The cost of getting it wrong is measured in thousands.
Whatever you agree, put it in the schedule in plain words: who does it, how often, and who pays. "Tenant responsible for grounds" is an argument waiting to happen. "Tenant to cut and trim the lawn between May and October; landlord to retain and pay for snow clearing of the driveway and walkway" is not.
Before you sign
- Read the schedule, not just the standard form. The standard form is largely fixed; the schedule is where the negotiating happens.
- Get parking spaces, lockers and included chattels named specifically, by number where they have one.
- Ask for the appliances and systems to be confirmed in good working order at commencement.
- Ask expressly about wall-mounting a television if you own one.
- Check what a key or fob deposit is actually for, and that it is refundable.
- Look at the early termination clause before you need it, not after.
- In a condominium, ask for the rules and sort out the elevator booking before moving day.
- Pin down lawn, snow and pool in specific words, including who pays.
- Query anything that looks like it shifts a landlord's repair obligation onto you. It is probably void, and it is better removed than argued about later.
- Send me anything you are unsure about before you sign. It takes me ten minutes and it is much easier than fixing it afterwards.
This is a plain-language summary of how these clauses usually work, checked in July 2026, and not a substitute for advice on your particular lease. Where a clause is unusual or a lot of money turns on it, a community legal clinic will look at it at no cost.