At a glance
There is exactly one lawful way to evict a tenant in Ontario: give the tenant the correct written notice, wait out the notice period, ask the Landlord and Tenant Board for an eviction order, and let the Sheriff carry it out. A landlord shall not recover possession any other way - no lock changes, no self-help, and nothing about it is immediate.
1. Give notice
On the official form for your reason: 7 to 120 days
2. File your case
With the Landlord and Tenant Board, if the tenant stays
3. Hearing, then order
The Board decides. This is the longest wait
4. The Sheriff
The only one allowed to change the locks
14 days
The notice period for unpaid rent in a monthly tenancy - and the tenant can cancel the notice by paying up
$186
The fee to file an eviction case with the Board online, $201 by mail or in person
$100,000
The maximum fine for evicting someone illegally, doubled from $50,000 on July 1, 2026
When can a landlord evict a tenant in Ontario?
Only for a reason the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006 lists. Section 37 says a tenancy may be terminated only in accordance with the Act, and Ontario has no no-cause eviction: a landlord cannot end a tenancy because they changed their mind, because the tenant is difficult, or because the lease term ran out. Tenants have what the LTB calls security of tenancy, and every ground below has its own form and its own notice period.
The grounds split into two groups, and the difference matters more than landlords expect. One group is about something the tenant did. The other is about what the landlord wants to do with the unit, and it costs money.
Grounds based on the tenant’s conduct
- Rent not paid
- Undue damage to the unit or the building
- Substantially interfering with the landlord’s or another tenant’s reasonable enjoyment
- Too many people living in the unit for health and safety standards
- An illegal act, including drug production or trafficking
- Seriously impairing someone’s safety
- Interfering with a landlord who lives in the same building of three or fewer units
- Persistently paying rent late
Several of these can be cancelled by the tenant fixing the problem.
Grounds based on the landlord’s plans
- The landlord, their spouse, child, parent or caregiver will live in the unit for at least a year
- A purchaser of a complex with three or fewer units, or their close family, will live in it
- A purchaser of a condominium unit, or their close family, will live in it, whatever the size of the complex
- The unit will be demolished
- The unit needs repairs or renovations extensive enough to require a building permit and an empty unit
- The unit will be converted to a non-residential use
These require compensation to the tenant, and the tenant cannot cure them.
Your lease, filled and ready to sign - free
Answer plain questions and download the official 2229E form as a filled PDF.
Fill the Ontario standard leaseWhich eviction notice do I serve: N4, N5, N6, N7, N8, N12 or N13?
Match the form to the ground, not to how serious the situation feels - the wrong form starts no clock and you begin again. The whole picker is one table, from the LTB brochure How a Landlord Can End a Tenancy (July 2026); the forms live on the LTB forms page.
Scroll the table sideways on a narrow screen. Notice periods run from the day the tenant is considered to have received the notice, not the day you signed it.
| Form | Use it when | Notice period | Can the tenant cancel it? | Then file |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| N4 | Rent has not been paid | 14 days, or 7 days for a daily or weekly tenancy | Yes. Under section 59 the notice is void if the tenant pays the arrears plus any rent that has since come due, at any time before the day the landlord applies to the LTB | L1, no filing deadline |
| N5 | Undue damage, overcrowding, or substantial interference with others | 20 days for a first notice. A second N5 needs 14 days, and only for new conduct more than 7 days and less than 6 months after the first | Yes, within 7 days of a first notice: repair, pay the repair cost, reduce the occupants, or stop the behaviour. A second notice cannot be voided | L2, within 30 days of the termination date |
| N6 | An illegal act, or misrepresenting income in a rent-geared-to-income unit | 20 days, or 10 days for illegal drug production or trafficking | No | L2, within 30 days of the termination date |
| N7 | Wilful serious damage, serious impairment of someone’s safety, or interference where the landlord lives in the same building of three or fewer units | 10 days | No | L2, within 30 days of the termination date |
| N8 | Persistent late payment, and other end-of-term grounds such as subsidised housing or employment ending | 60 days, or 28 days for a daily or weekly tenancy, ending on the last day of the term or rental period | No | L2, within 30 days of the termination date |
| N11 | Landlord and tenant both agree to end the tenancy | Whatever date both sign for | Not applicable, it is an agreement rather than a notice | L3, within 30 days of the agreed date |
| N12 | The landlord or their close family will live in the unit for at least one year, or a purchaser will: either of a complex with three or fewer units, or of a condominium unit whatever the size of the complex | 60 days, ending on the last day of the term or rental period | No. One month’s rent, or another rental unit the tenant accepts, is due no later than the termination date | L2 with an affidavit, within 30 days of the termination date |
| N13 | Demolition, conversion to a non-residential use, or repairs needing a building permit and an empty unit | 120 days, ending on the last day of the term or rental period. One year where the tenant owns a mobile home on the site | No. Compensation is always owed, and what it costs turns on the ground, the size of the complex, and whether the tenant intends to come back | L2, within 30 days of the termination date |
Four N12 traps that end applications early
- The one month’s rent compensation is due by the termination date, not after the tenant leaves and not after the hearing. Section 83 bars the LTB from issuing an eviction order until it has been paid.
- The sworn affidavit from the person who intends to move in must be filed at the same time as the L2. Section 71.1 says the Board shall refuse to accept the application otherwise.
- The same section makes you disclose every notice you gave under sections 48, 49 or 50 in the previous two years, and refuses the filing if you do not.
- A landlord’s own-use N12 needs an individual landlord and individual ownership: section 48(5) shuts a corporation out of this ground entirely. The one-year occupancy promise binds the landlord side only; the purchaser ground in section 49 sets no minimum stay.
Bad faith is also expensive. On an own-use notice under section 48, advertising or re-renting the unit between the day you give the notice and a year after the tenant leaves presumes bad faith unless you disprove it. That presumption is section 48 only: a purchaser’s-own-use notice can still be attacked as bad faith, but the former tenant carries the ordinary burden. Either way the LTB can order up to twelve months’ rent in general compensation on top of the tenant’s increased rent and moving costs.
What an N13 actually costs
N13 compensation is the rule most often stated wrongly, because there are three different answers. Demolition and conversion are priced one way. A renovation where the tenant gives written notice that they intend to move back in is priced quite differently: you owe the rent for the period the unit is actually out of use, capped, not a flat month or three.
| The situation | Complex with fewer than 5 units | Complex with 5 units or more |
|---|---|---|
| Demolition, or conversion to a non-residential use | One month’s rent, or another unit the tenant accepts | Three months’ rent, or another unit the tenant accepts |
| Repairs, and the tenant gives written notice they intend to return | The rent the tenant would have paid while the work runs, to a maximum of one month’s rent | The rent the tenant would have paid while the work runs, to a maximum of three months’ rent |
| Repairs, and the tenant is not coming back | One month’s rent, or another unit the tenant accepts | Three months’ rent, or another unit the tenant accepts |
A mobile home site or a land lease community is its own case: one year’s rent or $3,000, whichever is less. A tenant who wants to come back after a renovation has to say so in writing before moving out, and they return at a rent no higher than you could lawfully have charged had the tenancy never been interrupted. The amounts come from section 52 for demolition and conversion and section 54 for repairs.
What is scheduled to change on 21 September 2026
Schedule 12 of the Fighting Delays, Building Faster Act, 2025 repeals and replaces section 59(1), making the N4 notice period a flat 7 days for every tenancy type rather than 14 days for monthly and yearly tenancies. The same Schedule adds a subsection removing the one month’s rent N12 compensation where the landlord gives at least 120 days’ notice. Read the scope carefully: that waiver amends section 48.1, the landlord’s own-use ground, and nothing else. A purchaser’s-own-use notice still owes compensation under section 49.1 however much notice you give, and section 83(4) blocks the eviction order until it is paid. The LTB confirmed in its operational update of 30 June 2026 that further changes take effect in September 2026. Everything on this page states the law as it stands in August 2026; check the notice period before you serve after that date.
How do I serve the notice so it is not void?
Three rules. Use a delivery method the LTB accepts, from its brochure on serving documents. Count the notice period from the day the notice is considered received, not the day you sent it. And fill the form completely - section 43 requires the unit, the termination date, a signature and the reasons, and a wrong date or amount cannot be fixed except by a fresh notice and a fresh clock.
| How you deliver it | When it counts as received |
|---|---|
| Handed to the tenant in person | The same day |
| Left in the mailbox, or where mail is ordinarily delivered if there is no mailbox | The same day |
| Courier | The next day, or the next non-holiday day |
| Regular mail | Five days after mailing |
| Fax to a home or business fax | The date on the fax confirmation |
| The day you send it, but only if the tenant has agreed in writing to accept documents by email |
The LTB Rules also let you slide the notice under the door or put it through a mail slot while the tenant is still in possession of the unit. The Board publishes no separate deemed-receipt day for that method, so treat the safe methods above as the ones you can prove.
Mailing an N4 is the most common way a landlord loses two weeks. Post it on the 1st and the tenant is considered to have received it on the 6th, so the earliest termination date is the 20th, not the 15th.
What voids a notice
The LTB puts it plainly: if a landlord leaves out required information the notice may be void, and an application built on an incomplete or incorrect notice may be dismissed.
- The wrong form for the ground, or a letter or text message instead of the LTB form
- A termination date that is too early once the deemed-receipt rule above is applied
- An N8, N12 or N13 whose termination date is not the last day of a rental period or term
- An N4 that claims anything other than rent. The LTB warns that NSF and administration charges, separately billed utility arrears, and a rent deposit will each likely invalidate the notice; they can still be pursued in the application itself, just not on the notice. Damage costs are not rent arrears at all and belong in an L2
- An N5 or N6 with no details: the LTB needs dates, events and specifics, not "the tenant is disruptive"
- An email sent without the tenant’s written agreement to accept documents by email
- An N12 where the compensation was not paid by the termination date
How do I file with the LTB and what happens at the hearing?
After the notice period expires and the tenant has not left, you file an application: an L1 for unpaid rent, an L2 for every other ground. Filing through the Tribunals Ontario Portal costs $186, and $201 by any other method. The LTB then schedules a hearing and issues an order. Nothing happens to the tenancy until that order exists.
- 1 File on time. An L1 for unpaid rent has no filing deadline. Every L2 must be filed within 30 days of the termination date in the notice, and a missed deadline means serving a new notice.
- 2 Build the evidence with the application. The rent ledger, the notice, proof of how and when you served it, photographs, repair invoices, and the affidavit for an N12. The LTB decides on what is in front of it.
- 3 Attend the hearing. The LTB holds hearings by video conference, by telephone, in writing, or in person. The landlord has to prove the case; the tenant gets to explain why they should not be evicted.
- 4 Expect discretion. Even where the landlord proves the ground, section 83 requires the LTB to consider all the circumstances, and it can refuse the eviction or delay it. A payment plan, a conditional order, or a mediated settlement is a common outcome.
- 5 Send the order to the Sheriff if the tenant stays. An eviction order can only be enforced by the Court Enforcement Office of the Superior Court of Justice. The LTB does not enforce its own orders, and neither do you. Under section 81 the order expires six months after it takes effect if it has not been filed with the Sheriff by then.
"If a tenant doesn’t leave the rental unit by the termination date in the eviction order, a landlord cannot personally enforce the order (remove a tenant from a rental unit or change the locks)."
Landlord and Tenant Board, How a Landlord Can End a Tenancy, July 2026
How long does an eviction really take right now?
Plan in months. The Board’s own performance indicators for 2024–25 and annual report tell the story, and the Sheriff’s enforcement fees come after all of it:
46%
of English-language cases met the LTB’s own 90-day filing-to-order standard in 2024–25. French: 27%.
41,465
cases still open at March 31, 2025, of 87,993 received that year. Better than the backlog peak, nowhere near the weeks-long pre-2020 Board.
$75 + $240
Sheriff’s filing fee plus each enforcement attempt, in a queue separate from the LTB’s.
And the order gives you back the unit, not the money. An arrears order is a debt you still have to collect, at your own cost, from a tenant who has already shown they cannot or will not pay. Experienced landlords plan the economics around possession and treat anything recovered as a bonus - which is why the next option exists.
Should I offer cash for keys instead?
Sometimes the cheapest eviction is the one you buy. “Cash for keys” is an ordinary, lawful agreement: the tenant signs a Form N11, Agreement to End the Tenancy, and the landlord pays them to go. The math is not sentimental: a $2,200 unit sitting unpaid for five months of queue is $11,000 you will almost certainly never see. A tenant who leaves in three weeks for a fraction of that is often the better deal.
Paper it on the N11
A signed N11 with a date, plus a short written agreement stating the amount and that it is paid on vacant possession. Not a text-message promise.
Pay at the door, not before
The payment changes hands when the unit is empty and the keys are back. Money paid up front buys a promise, not possession.
Keep the L3 in reserve
If the tenant signs the N11 and stays anyway, the agreement is enforceable: file an L3 with the Board within 30 days of the agreed date, without serving a new notice.
One line to respect: an offer is lawful, pressure is not. The tenant can say no to any amount. Make the offer once, in writing, and let the arithmetic do the persuading.
How do I evict a tenant immediately in Ontario?
You cannot. Ontario has no immediate eviction and no emergency route that skips the Landlord and Tenant Board, not even where a tenant has damaged the unit or put someone in danger. The fastest the statute goes is a 10-day notice, and a 10-day notice is still only a notice: the tenant does not have to leave, and you cannot remove them without an order.
If speed is the whole question, these are the shortest lawful notice periods available:
N7 · 10 days
Serious impairment of safety, wilful serious damage, or interference where you live in the same building of three or fewer units
N6 · 10 days
An illegal act involving the production of an illegal drug, trafficking, or possession for the purpose of trafficking
N4 · 7 or 14 days
Unpaid rent: 7 days on a daily or weekly tenancy, 14 days otherwise, and the tenant can cancel it by paying
Even on the shortest of these, the notice period is a floor, not the timeline: the filing, the hearing wait measured above, the order and the Sheriff all still follow. One thing to know about the N4 in particular - paying the arrears plus any rent since due voids it right up to the day you file, and a later payment can still discontinue the application or void the order. It is the one notice a tenant can undo at almost any stage. Two weeks of notice plus a hearing plus an order plus the Sheriff is not a same-week answer, and no service, paralegal, or notice template shortens it. Anyone promising an immediate eviction in Ontario is describing something the Act does not allow.
How do I evict a tenant in Ontario without a written lease?
Exactly the same way. The Act defines a tenancy agreement as a written, oral or implied agreement, so a handshake tenancy carries the same grounds, forms and LTB process. What the missing lease removes is your evidence: the rent amount, the due date and the rental period become one person’s word against another’s, and an N4 naming the wrong rent is void.
One narrow exception is worth checking before any of this: section 5 of the Act excludes accommodation where the occupant shares a kitchen or bathroom with the owner, or the owner’s spouse, child or parent, and that person lives in the building. Those arrangements fall outside the Act and outside the LTB entirely, so none of the N-forms apply to them.
The standard lease is not optional either
Ontario requires the Residential Tenancy Agreement (Standard Form of Lease), form 2229E, for most residential tenancies first entered into on or after 30 April 2018. A tenant who never got one can ask for it in writing; if the landlord does not provide it within 21 days, the tenant may withhold one month’s rent, and if it is still not provided 30 days after that, the tenant may keep the withheld month. Care homes, mobile home sites, most social housing and co-operative housing are exempt.
Can a landlord end a month-to-month tenancy in Ontario?
Only on one of the grounds in the Act. A month-to-month tenancy is not weaker than a fixed term, and "I want the unit back at the end of the month" is not a reason the LTB recognises. In practice a landlord ending a month-to-month tenancy is serving an N12, an N13, or an N8 on a specific end-of-term ground, or signing an N11 that the tenant agrees to.
The same answer covers the question landlords usually phrase as breaking a lease. When a fixed term expires, the tenancy does not end: section 38 deems it renewed as a monthly tenancy on the same terms and conditions if rent was paid monthly, or week to week if it was paid weekly. Nothing has to be signed for that to happen, and the expiry of the term is not a ground for eviction.
If you want the unit back, plan around the calendar
N8, N12 and N13 termination dates must land on the last day of a rental period or term. On a tenancy that runs the 1st to the last day of the month, a 60-day N12 served on 5 September cannot terminate on 4 November: the earliest lawful date is 30 November. Serving before the 1st of the month, rather than after it, is often what saves a full rental period.
What should a landlord never do?
Never take possession yourself. Self-help eviction is not a grey area in Ontario, it is an offence prosecuted under the Provincial Offences Act, and it is the single fastest way to turn a winnable case into a fine and a tenant application against you.
Changing the locks
Section 24 forbids altering the locking system without giving the tenant replacement keys. Only the Court Enforcement Office can lock a tenant out, and only under an eviction order.
Cutting off a vital service
Section 21 bars a landlord from withholding or deliberately interfering with a vital service: hot or cold water, fuel, electricity, gas, and heat. The Act leaves the heating season to the regulation, which prescribes 1 September to 15 June.
Pressuring the tenant out
Section 23 says a landlord shall not harass, obstruct, coerce, threaten or interfere with a tenant, and section 40 abolished seizing a tenant’s property for unpaid rent.
Ontario says the price plainly. Section 238 of the Act now sets the maximum fine on conviction at $100,000 for an individual and $500,000 for a corporation, double the old $50,000 and $250,000 since the increase came into force on 1 July 2026, and ontario.ca confirms the same figures as of 2 July 2026. Complaints go to the province’s Rental Housing Enforcement Unit, which can investigate and lay charges, while the LTB deals with the tenancy itself.
Official Ontario sources used in this guide
- How a Landlord Can End a Tenancy, Landlord and Tenant Board, last updated July 2026
- How to Serve a Landlord or Tenant with Documents, Landlord and Tenant Board
- LTB forms and forms, filing and fees, Tribunals Ontario
- Renting in Ontario: your rights, Government of Ontario, updated 2 July 2026
- The Residential Tenancies Act, 2006 on Ontario e-Laws, consolidation in force from 1 July 2026
Keep reading
Raising the rent instead of ending the tenancy
The Ontario rent increase guideline, the N1 notice, and the 12-month rule
What the law asks of a landlord day to day
Repairs, entry, vital services and the duties that prevent most disputes
Or start from the free Ontario standard lease, or browse every Ontario tenancy guide.