At a glance
Whether you need a room rental agreement in Ontario or the government’s standard lease comes down to one question: must the roomer share a kitchen or bathroom with you (or your immediate family) living in the same building?
YES → the Act does not apply
Section 5(i) of the Residential Tenancies Act switches the tenancy law off entirely: no standard lease, no Landlord and Tenant Board. Your written room rental agreement is the only protection either side has.
NO → ordinary tenancy
A self-contained unit, or sharing with other tenants rather than with you, is a full tenancy - the standard lease has been required for agreements signed since April 30, 2018.
Template sites sell one generic room-rental PDF for both situations. They are legally different situations, and one document cannot serve both. This guide walks the test first, then the document each answer leads to.
Dates and figures below were verified against the Government of Ontario, e-Laws and Tribunals Ontario in August 2026.
Does the Residential Tenancies Act apply when you rent out a room?
It applies unless the occupant is required to share a bathroom or kitchen with the owner or the owner’s close family, and that person lives in the building. That one clause is the whole test. The rent, the room, the length of the arrangement and the wording of your lease change nothing about it.
Residential Tenancies Act, 2006, s. 5(i)
“This Act does not apply with respect to … living accommodation whose occupant or occupants are required to share a bathroom or kitchen facility with the owner, the owner’s spouse, child or parent or the spouse’s child or parent, and where the owner, spouse, child or parent lives in the building in which the living accommodation is located.”
Read on Ontario e-Laws. Consolidation period beginning July 1, 2026; e-Laws currency date August 14, 2026.
Three things must all be true before the exemption applies:
- 1 The sharing is required. The occupant has no kitchen or bathroom of their own and must use yours.
- 2 The sharing is with the owner or close family. The owner, the owner’s spouse, child or parent, or the spouse’s child or parent. Sharing with another tenant does not count.
- 3 That person lives in the building. Owning the house is not enough; the owner or the relative has to live in it.
Act does not apply
- You live in the house and rent a bedroom; there is one kitchen and everyone uses it.
- You rent a room in a house where your parent lives, and the roomer shares that bathroom.
- The room has a bar fridge and a microwave but no kitchen of its own, and the only full bathroom is the family’s. Likely exempt - though whether partial cooking facilities defeat “required to share a kitchen” is exactly the kind of question the Board decides on the facts of the case.
No standard lease. Write a room rental agreement.
Act applies
- A basement unit in your house with its own kitchen and bathroom - even rented to a friend, verbally, below market. Informality changes nothing; a self-contained unit is a full tenancy.
- Three rooms rented in a house you do not live in; the roomers share a kitchen with each other.
- You own the property but live somewhere else, even next door.
Ordinary tenancy. The standard lease is required.
The same test reaches further than the RTA
Section 21(1) of the Ontario Human Rights Code says the right to equal treatment in housing is not infringed where the accommodation is in a dwelling the owner or their family lives in and the occupant must share a bathroom or kitchen with them. So the same shared-facility fact that ends RTA coverage also lifts the Code’s housing-discrimination rule for that selection. Two separate statutes draw the line to much the same effect, though not in identical words - the Code says “family of the owner” where the Act enumerates spouse, child and parent - and that convergence is a fair signal the arrangement really is different in kind.
If the Act applies, the standard lease is the required document
Then a downloaded room-rental template is the wrong document, whatever the site selling it says. O. Reg. 9/18 prescribes the standard lease for essentially every covered tenancy signed since April 30, 2018, and the exceptions the government lists - care homes, mobile home sites, most social and co-op housing - do not include a rented room.
| Generic room rental template | Ontario standard lease | |
|---|---|---|
| Legal status for a covered tenancy | Does not meet the prescribed form requirement | The prescribed form |
| Terms that contradict the Act | Common, and void when they do | Mandatory terms are already compliant |
| Deposits | Often asks for a damage deposit Ontario does not allow | Rent deposit and key deposit sections with the legal limits |
| If the tenant demands the right form | You are exposed to the withholding remedy below | Nothing to demand |
What using the wrong form actually costs
Under s. 12.1 of the Act, a tenant on a non-compliant agreement may demand the standard lease in writing, once during the tenancy. If 21 days pass with no compliance, the tenant may withhold rent up to a maximum of one month’s rent, and you can only require that money back if you comply within 30 days of the first withheld payment. The tenancy itself stays valid either way - the loss is one-sided.
The rest of the Act comes with it. The only security deposit an Ontario landlord may collect is a rent deposit, and it cannot exceed the lesser of one rent period and one month (ss. 105 and 106). For most covered units the annual guideline is the most a landlord can raise the rent without the Board’s approval: 2.1% for 2026 and 1.9% for 2027, on the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing guideline page as updated June 23, 2026. Our guide to how the rent increase guideline is applied walks the notice timing.
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Answer plain questions and download the official 2229E form as a filled PDF.
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If you are exempt, what a room rental agreement must contain
No law requires a written agreement once s. 5(i) applies, and that is precisely why you want one. The Act’s defaults - notice periods, deposit limits, repair duties, the Board - all switch off with it. Whatever the two of you write down becomes the entire rulebook, and anything you leave out is an argument later.
Put all eight in writing
- Parties and the room. Full legal names, the address, and which room is being rented.
- Term. Start date, and whether it runs month to month or ends on a fixed date.
- Rent. Amount, due date, payment method, and what happens if it is late.
- Deposits. The Act’s deposit limits do not reach an exempt arrangement, so state the amount, what it secures, and exactly when it comes back.
- What is shared, and the house rules. Kitchen, bathroom, laundry, parking, guests, quiet hours, smoking, pets.
- Utilities and services. Who pays for what, and whether internet and heat are included.
- How it ends. How much notice each side gives, in writing, and to what address. The Act’s 60-day and 28-day rules do not apply, but an ongoing room rental is still a contract, and at common law ending one takes reasonable notice. Writing the period down is what stops “reasonable” from becoming the argument.
- Where a dispute goes. Say plainly that the Landlord and Tenant Board does not have jurisdiction and the agreement is enforced in court.
Do not reach for this document because it is shorter. If the room is a covered tenancy, a room rental agreement gives you a weaker position than the standard lease does, not a stronger one.
Rooming houses, boarders and student rentals
A room in a rooming or boarding house is a rental unit under the Act. The Landlord and Tenant Board says so directly in its Guide to the Residential Tenancies Act, updated July 2026: a rental unit can be an apartment, a house, or a room in a rooming or boarding house. The exemption only helps when the owner or their close family shares the kitchen or bathroom and lives in the building.
Renting several rooms
Municipal licensing is separate from the Act and applies whether or not you are exempt. Toronto defines a multi-tenant house as a building where four or more rooms are rented to separate people, and its city-wide licensing framework took effect March 31, 2024. Other municipalities set their own rules. Check yours before you advertise.
Renting to students
Being a student changes nothing. Section 5(g) exempts accommodation an educational institution provides to its own students or staff, and only when further conditions are met. A private landlord renting a room near a campus is on the ordinary test: shared kitchen or bathroom with the owner, or the Act applies.
How a room rental ends
Two completely different exits. A covered tenancy can be terminated only in accordance with the Act (s. 37), which means an agreement to end it, the tenant’s own notice, or an order from the Board. An exempt arrangement ends the way the written agreement says it ends, and a court, not the Board, hears it if that goes wrong.
In practice, ending an exempt room rental means written notice with a clear move-out date, served the way the agreement says and kept as evidence. If the agreement is silent, give a period a court would consider reasonable - a month is the common benchmark for a monthly arrangement. A roomer who refuses to leave is a contract dispute for the courts, and self-help - changing the locks, removing belongings - invites exactly the litigation the written agreement was meant to prevent. Think this through before anyone moves in, because the Act’s machinery will not be there to fall back on.
| Act applies | Exempt under s. 5(i) | |
|---|---|---|
| Tenant’s notice | 60 days for a monthly or fixed-term tenancy, 28 days daily or weekly (s. 44) | Whatever the agreement requires, and reasonable notice at common law if it is silent |
| Landlord ending it | A signed agreement to end it (Form N11) or the tenant leaving voluntarily; otherwise a Board notice and then a Board order before anyone has to move out | The agreement’s own terms; the Act’s notice forms do not apply |
| Where a dispute is heard | Landlord and Tenant Board | Court |
| Rules that apply by default | The whole Act, whatever the lease says | Only what the parties wrote down |
The Board’s reach is defined by the Act itself: it has exclusive jurisdiction over applications under this Act (s. 168(2)). Where the Act does not apply there is no application to bring, so the forum is a court. The Board takes the same route for the other people the Act leaves out - its Interpretation Guideline 21 says an occupant or an unauthorized subtenant must seek any rights they have in a court. If your arrangement is covered, our guide to ending a tenancy in Ontario covers the notice forms and the Board process.
Exempt is not lawless
Losing RTA coverage removes the Board’s process, not the contract. The agreement still binds both sides and a court still enforces it. And the exemption is not a lever you can pull later: it describes how the arrangement was set up, not something an owner creates mid-stream. Moving into your own rental property and starting to share the kitchen with a sitting tenant does not strip that tenant of a tenancy that already exists. The edge cases - sharing that starts partway through, an owner who is sometimes present, a relative who moves out - turn on facts, and they are worth a lawyer’s hour before you act on an exemption.
When the Act does apply, it also sets what you owe the tenant while they live there. Our guide to a landlord’s responsibilities under the Act covers repairs, entry and vital services.