Ontario Standard Lease (2026): What It Must Say, and the Clauses That Don't Count

This article provides general information about Ontario's standard lease as of October 2026 and is not legal advice. It was researched from the primary texts, read on 30 October 2026: the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006, S.O. 2006, c. 17 (consolidation from 21 September 2026), O. Reg. 9/18 and O. Reg. 516/06 under that Act, O. Reg. 290/98 under the Human Rights Code, and the government's Residential Tenancy Agreement (Standard Form of Lease), form 2229E dated 2020/12. No lawyer reviewed it. A licensed Ontario lawyer or paralegal can advise on your own lease.

The Ontario standard lease is fourteen pages long, and the landlord is not allowed to change a word of the first seven. Sections 1 to 17 are fixed government text with blanks and checkboxes. Pages 8 to 13 are an appendix of general information. So when a landlord hands you a lease with house rules attached, nearly everything that is actually theirs sits in one place: an attachment to Section 15, "Additional Terms".

That attachment is where a lease agreement in Ontario goes wrong. Clauses banning pets, charging late fees or taking a damage deposit are still common, and the Residential Tenancies Act voids every one of them. They stay printed on the page; they just cannot be enforced.

This guide reads the lease the way the law does: from the bottom layer up, then through the clauses with a red pencil. For how disputes over a lease reach a hearing, our guide to the Landlord and Tenant Board in Ontario covers the tribunal itself.

The Ontario standard lease in six lines

Most private residential leases in Ontario signed since 30 April 2018 have to be on the government form, and any extra term that conflicts with the Act or the form is void.

• Who must use it: most private landlords, for tenancies entered into on or after 30 April 2018 (O. Reg. 9/18, s. 2). Since 1 March 2021 the required version is form 2229E dated 2020/12, published in the province's Central Forms Repository.
• What can change: nothing in Sections 1 to 17. The landlord fills in blanks and ticks boxes, and anything extra goes in a Section 15 attachment.
• What an added clause can do: only what the Act allows. A term that is inconsistent with the Act or with a mandatory section is void (RTA s. 4; O. Reg. 9/18, s. 4).
• If you never got one: you can demand it in writing once. After 21 days you may withhold up to one month's rent, and a fixed-term tenant gains a way out on 60 days' notice (RTA ss. 12.1, 47.0.1).
• If the lease is not on the form: the tenancy is still valid (s. 12.1 (11)), and so is a tenancy agreed orally.
• If the form and the Act disagree: the Act wins. The form dates from December 2020, and the Act has changed since, including on 1 July 2026.

Three layers, and the bottom one always wins

An Ontario lease is three layers stacked on each other: the Act, then the seventeen mandatory sections of the form, then the additional terms. Where two layers conflict, the lower one wins.

The bottom layer is the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006. Section 3 says it applies "despite any agreement or waiver to the contrary", so no signature can sign a right away. Section 4 makes the consequence precise: a provision in a tenancy agreement that is inconsistent with the Act or the regulations is void. Only the provision. The rest of the lease keeps binding both sides.

The middle layer is the form itself. The form states it plainly: "All sections of this agreement are mandatory and cannot be changed." Community Legal Education Ontario puts it in practical terms: landlords and tenants cannot change or cross out any part of the form, only fill in the blanks and checkboxes.

The top layer is Section 15. The regulation allows additional terms "only if those terms are not inconsistent with the mandatory terms", and voids any that are (O. Reg. 9/18, s. 4, para. 2). So an added clause has to clear two layers, not one.

Two practical rules follow from the form. Additional terms belong in the attachment when you sign. After that, Section 16 allows changes only if the landlord and tenant both agree in writing, so a landlord cannot add new rules on their own. And unless the additional terms say otherwise, Section 17 makes each tenant responsible for all tenant obligations, including the full rent, which matters to roommates who assume they each owe a share.

Who has to use the Ontario standard lease, and who doesn't

The form covers almost every private rental the Act governs. The exceptions are care homes, mobile home and land lease sites, social and other subsidized housing, and anything the Act doesn't cover at all.

O. Reg. 9/18 defines the class by listing what is left out:

• Care homes, and sites in mobile home parks or land lease communities.
• Homes for special care and supported group living residences (RTA s. 6 (1)).
• Social, public and non-profit housing listed in RTA s. 7 (1), which includes non-member units in a housing co-operative, government-owned housing, and housing run by a religious institution as a charity.
• Units from certain affordable housing programs (O. Reg. 516/06, s. 6), and any unit where rent is geared to income because of public funding.

Two more groups never reach the form because the Act itself does not apply: member units in a housing co-operative, and accommodation where you share a kitchen or bathroom with the owner, or the owner's spouse, child or parent, who lives in the building (RTA s. 5 (c), (i)). A sublet is also outside the requirement (O. Reg. 9/18, s. 5).

Consider a Brampton homeowner renting out a basement apartment for $1,850 a month. If the basement has its own kitchen and bathroom, it is an ordinary rental unit and the standard lease applies, even though the owner lives upstairs. If the tenant shares the owner's kitchen, the Act does not apply, there is no standard lease, and a dispute over the agreement is ordinary contract law for the courts, usually Small Claims Court in Ontario for amounts within its limit, not the Board.

Timing matters as well. A tenancy entered into before 30 April 2018 never needs the form, even after it rolls over month to month (RTA s. 12.1 (3)). And the form has to be signed by both sides on or before the day the tenant is entitled to move in (s. 12.1 (2)).

Section 15: the only page the landlord gets to write

Section 15 lets a landlord and tenant agree to extra terms in an attachment, written plainly and in at least 10-point type if typed. Any term that takes away a right under the Act is void.

The Ontario standard lease gives two examples of legitimate additional terms: requiring the landlord to make changes to the unit before move-in, and rules for using common spaces and amenities. It then lists, on its own face, four kinds of term that are void: no pets (with an exception for condo rules), no guests, roommates or additional occupants, deposits, fees or penalties the Act does not permit, and making the tenant pay for repairs that are the landlord's responsibility. It ends with a line many tenants skip: "The landlord and tenant may want to get legal advice before agreeing to any additional terms."

You also do not have to accept additional terms at all. CLEO's guidance is direct: you do not have to agree to them unless you want to. In a tight market that is cold comfort, which is why the more useful question is which ones would hold up if it ever came to it. The checker below runs the red pencil over sixteen terms that turn up in real Ontario leases.

Struck through: the clauses the Act voids

Ten of the sixteen common terms above are void. They fall into four groups: money the Act doesn't allow, rules about home life, attempts to rewrite how a tenancy ends, and shifting repairs onto the tenant.

Money the Act does not allow

The Act allows one security deposit: a rent deposit of no more than one month's rent, applied to the last rental period (ss. 105 (1), 106 (2), (10)). A damage deposit, a pet deposit, a non-refundable key fee and a daily late fee are all amounts section 134 forbids a landlord to collect, and requiring post-dated cheques or automatic payments is barred by section 108. The charges O. Reg. 516/06 does permit are narrow: a refundable key deposit up to the expected replacement cost, the direct cost of extra or replacement keys, and for a bounced cheque the bank's NSF charge plus an administration charge of up to $20 (s. 17).

Say you are renting a Mississauga one-bedroom at $2,400 a month and the attachment asks for first month, last month, a $1,000 damage deposit and a $50-a-day late fee. The first month's rent is simply rent. The last month's is a lawful rent deposit, and your landlord owes you interest on it every year at the rent increase guideline in effect when the payment falls due (s. 106 (6)). For a deposit taken this autumn, the first payment falls due in 2027, when the guideline is 1.9%, so $45.60.

The $1,000 and the late fee are void. If you pay them anyway, you can apply to the Board for an order that the money be repaid (s. 135 (1)), within one year of when it was collected (s. 135 (4)). The form's own appendix says the same about any deposit beyond last month's rent and a key deposit. Our guide to tenant rights in Ontario covers deposit interest and the 12-month window in more detail.

Rules about your home life

A no-pets clause is void by name (s. 14), although a condominium's own rules can restrict pets, and a landlord can still apply to end a tenancy where an animal has substantially interfered with others' reasonable enjoyment, causes a serious allergic reaction, or is of an inherently dangerous species (s. 76). Damage an animal causes is treated like any other undue damage (s. 62). Limits on guests and bans on roommates fail for the reasons in the form's Appendix Q: a landlord cannot stop guests, require notice of them or charge for them, and cannot prevent a roommate if municipal occupancy by-laws are respected.

The newest void clause is a ban on air conditioners. Since 1 July 2026, section 36.1 lets a tenant install a window or portable unit where the landlord does not supply air conditioning, after written notice, if it is installed safely and does no damage. A landlord can prohibit one only in circumstances a regulation prescribes.

Attempts to rewrite how the tenancy ends

Some landlords ask a new tenant to sign an agreement to end the tenancy, the Board's N11 form, at the same time as the lease, dated for the end of the term. Section 37 (5) makes that agreement void, and section 37 (4) does the same to a tenant's notice given at signing, with narrow exceptions for some post-secondary student housing. Acceleration clauses, which make the rest of the term's rent due on any breach, are void by name too (s. 15). And a flat ban on subletting contradicts Section 14 of the form: consent is needed, but a landlord cannot arbitrarily or unreasonably withhold it for a proposed subtenant (s. 97 (2)) or a proposed assignee (s. 95 (5)). A landlord can refuse assignment in general, but the tenant can then give notice to end the tenancy (s. 95 (4)).

Repairs

Section 20 puts repair and maintenance on the landlord, "even if the tenant was aware of a state of non-repair" when they signed. A clause handing all repairs to the tenant is void. What the tenant does owe is the cost of undue damage caused wilfully or negligently by the tenant, another occupant or a guest (s. 34), which Section 13 of the form repeats.

Left standing, and left in pencil

A void clause list is only half the picture. Several common terms are perfectly lawful, and a few depend on how they are written and applied.

Terms that stand include a no-smoking rule, which the form expects in Section 10 and its Appendix S; a requirement to carry tenant liability insurance and show proof (Section 11); an agreement to follow the condominium's rules, which is how a pet restriction can lawfully reach a condo tenant (Section 2); and a discount of up to 2% for paying on time, which does not change the lawful rent (RTA s. 111 (2)).

Three come back with a pencil mark rather than a stamp, the first two of them in the checker above:

• "No nails in the walls." Section 12 lets a tenant hang decorative items, subject to reasonable restrictions in Section 15. Asking for removable hooks is more likely reasonable than forbidding pictures altogether.
• "Rent rises 5% every year." For most units the yearly increase is capped at the guideline. Units in a building or addition that no one lived in on or before 15 November 2018, and some newer second units in houses, are exempt from the cap (s. 6.1), but every unit still needs 90 days' written notice and 12 months between increases (ss. 116, 119), so an automatic escalator cannot run by itself.
• "No short-term rentals." The form's Appendix Q says a person renting the whole unit is not a guest, and subletting needs consent (s. 97). A term like this is consistent with that, but it cannot be stretched into a ban on ordinary guests.

The form is from December 2020. The Act has moved since

The Ontario standard lease in use today is dated 2020/12, and its appendix calls itself "not intended as legal advice". Where it has fallen behind, the Act in force is what counts.

Two changes that took effect on 1 July 2026 are not reflected in the form most landlords will hand you this year. The Landlord and Tenant Board's operational update of 30 June 2026 lists both.

Neither change makes an old lease invalid, and the government still requires the 2020/12 form (O. Reg. 9/18, s. 3). It does mean the appendix should be read as a summary, not as the rules. When a line in the form and the Act seem to disagree, the Government of Ontario's guide to the standard lease and the Act itself are the place to check.

No standard lease? The written demand and what it starts

If your landlord did not use the Ontario standard lease, you can demand one in writing, once. That demand starts up to four clocks, and the chart shows how they overlap.

The rules are in section 12.1. The demand has to be in writing, and you can make it once during the tenancy. If 21 days pass without a signed standard lease from the landlord, you may withhold rent that falls due after that, up to one month's rent in total. The landlord can recover that money only by providing the lease within 30 days of the first withheld payment, and if they do, you owe it even if you decide not to sign. Separately, section 47.0.1 lets a tenant on a fixed term or a yearly tenancy end it on 60 days' notice, ending on the last day of a rental period, as long as the notice is given within 30 days after the lease arrives (or at any point after the 21 days if it never does).

Consider a tenant in Hamilton who agreed a one-year lease by text message in August, paid first and last, and moved in on 1 September with nothing else in writing. The tenancy is real: the Act defines a tenancy agreement as written, oral or implied. A short, dated letter asking for a signed standard lease starts the clock. If the landlord produces one within three weeks, the tenant can sign it, or decline it and leave on 60 days' notice. If the landlord produces nothing, the first rent that falls due after the 21 days can be withheld, up to one month's rent in total, and the tenant can give notice on the Board's form, which our N9 form guide walks through box by box.

A request like this is not a demand letter in the money-claim sense that our demand letter guide covers, but the same habits help: date it, keep a copy, and keep proof of how and when it was delivered.

A separate rule sits beside this one. Every written lease has to give the landlord's legal name and address for notices, and the landlord has to give you a signed copy within 21 days of you signing (s. 12 (1), (2)). Until they do, your obligation to pay rent is suspended, but unlike the section 12.1 remedy, the rent becomes payable again as soon as the landlord complies (s. 12 (4), (5)).

Rental applications in Ontario: what comes before the lease

A landlord can ask for credit references, rental history and a credit check, and income information only alongside those. A guarantor may be required. An application fee may not.

The rules for screening come from O. Reg. 290/98 under the Human Rights Code. A landlord may request credit references, rental history and permission for a credit check, and may refuse an applicant on that basis. Income information may be requested only together with those, and weighed only together with them, unless income information is all the landlord manages to obtain (s. 1 (3), (4), (5)). A landlord may require a guarantee for the rent, and may take a rent deposit on or before entering the tenancy agreement (RTA s. 106 (1)). None of that authorizes refusing someone on a protected ground, including receipt of public assistance (O. Reg. 290/98, s. 4). Our tenant rights guide explains why minimum-income cut-offs have been found to breach the Code.

Three money rules apply before you ever sign. An application fee is a fee from a prospective tenant, which section 134 forbids. A rent deposit paid with an application has to be repaid if you are not given vacant possession, unless you agree to take a different unit (s. 107). And a prospective tenant can apply to the Board to recover money collected unlawfully, just as a tenant can (s. 135 (2)).

When the term ends, the tenancy doesn't

A fixed-term lease that runs out without a new agreement or a valid notice becomes a monthly tenancy on the same terms. No one has to sign anything.

Section 38 deems the lease renewed month to month, and Section 4 of the Ontario standard lease says so in a note: the tenant does not have to move out at the end of the term. The landlord can end the tenancy only on the grounds and notices the Act sets out (s. 37 (1)), which our guide to eviction notices in Ontario explains form by form. A tenant who wants to leave gives 60 days' notice for a monthly or fixed-term tenancy, timed to the end of a rental period or the term.

Rent changes after the term follow the same rules as during it: 90 days' written notice, 12 months between increases, and the guideline cap where it applies. A new fixed term can be signed if both sides want one, but the landlord cannot make it a condition of staying.

When it helps to talk to a lawyer or paralegal

A lease is worth a professional read when the Section 15 attachment is long, when money has already changed hands that should not have, or when the unit sits near one of the exemptions. Many tenants and small landlords get advice in these situations:

• The attachment runs to several pages or includes clauses about deposits, repairs, guests or ending the tenancy.
• You have already paid a damage deposit, key money or late fees and want them back within the one-year limit.
• The unit is unusual: a basement apartment in the owner's house, a condo with its own rules, a room in shared housing, or a live-work space.
• You were asked to sign an N11 or a notice to leave at the same time as the lease.
• You are a landlord drafting additional terms for the first time and want them to survive a Board hearing.

Licensed paralegals can represent landlords and tenants at the Board, and our guide to hiring a landlord and tenant paralegal in Ontario compares the two routes. For what a review usually costs, see how much a lawyer costs in Ontario, and before you hire anyone, a quick lawyer lookup in Ontario confirms they are licensed.

How Olanur helps

We built Olanur so a tenant or landlord with a lease question can describe it once and be matched with a verified lawyer or licensed paralegal who handles residential tenancies, without phoning around. Matching is free. Lawyers and paralegals on our platform offer document reviews of a lease before you sign it, and landlord and tenant consultations and Board applications once there is a dispute, including over illegal charges.

If your question is about the document itself, start with our contracts and document review page. If it has already turned into a dispute, our landlord and tenant lawyer page is the faster route.

Frequently asked questions

Before you sign

If a lease is on the table this week, it can help to read it in the order the law does. Check that it is the 2020/12 Ontario standard lease and that Sections 1 to 17 are untouched. Then read the Section 15 attachment line by line against the checker above, and set aside anything about deposits, fees, pets, guests, repairs or ending the tenancy. If you have already signed, the void lines are not your problem to fix: they simply cannot be enforced, and money collected under them can be recovered within a year.

If you would rather have someone read it with you, Olanur can match you with a lawyer or paralegal for a lease review for free.