An N5 gives you 20 days on its face and 7 days to make it disappear. Fix the damage, stop the conduct or reduce the occupants within seven days and sections 62(3), 64(3) and 67(3) void it.
A second N5 within six months is different: 14 days, and no fix window at all.
What is an N5 notice in Ontario?
It is the Board’s combined notice for three complaints: disturbing people, damaging property, and overcrowding. Its full title is Notice to End your Tenancy for Interfering with Others, Damage or Overcrowding, and the LTB’s own N5 instructions describe giving it as “the first step in evicting a tenant for the above reasons.”
What makes the N5 different from most termination notices is that it is a voidable notice. The Board’s landlord brochure explains the concept plainly: a tenant can prevent the tenancy from ending “by stopping the behaviour referred to in the notice, or by doing what the notice requests,” and “the landlord cannot apply to the LTB to evict a tenant based on a void notice.”
So an N5 is really two deadlines in one envelope. The big number on page one — usually 20 days — is the termination date. The number that actually decides your tenancy is seven.
What are the three reasons for an N5?
Substantial interference, undue damage, and too many occupants. Each has its own section of the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006, and each has its own definition of what “fixing it” means.
| Reason | What the RTA requires | What voids it within 7 days | Section |
|---|---|---|---|
| Substantial interference | Conduct that substantially interferes with the reasonable enjoyment of the complex by the landlord or another tenant, or with another lawful right or interest | Stop the conduct or activity, or correct the omission | s.64 |
| Damage | Wilfully or negligently causing undue damage to the unit or complex | Repair or replace it, or pay the reasonable cost — or make arrangements satisfactory to the landlord | s.62 |
| Overcrowding | The number of people living there on a continuing basis breaches health, safety or housing standards required by law | Sufficiently reduce the number of occupants | s.67 |
Three words in that table do a lot of work. Substantially — ordinary living noise is not the test. Undue — section 34 makes tenants responsible for repairing undue damage caused wilfully or negligently, which is a much narrower thing than ordinary wear. And required by law — on an overcrowding N5, the LTB’s instructions tell landlords to name the specific law or by-law setting the maximum and the number it allows. A landlord’s own house rule is not a standard required by law.
The notice also has to tell you exactly what to do. The N5 instructions are explicit: on a first notice the landlord “must also clearly provide what the tenant must do to void the notice,” and must describe what happened with dates, times and who was affected. A vague N5 that just says “noise complaints” is not doing what the form requires.
How does the seven-day fix window work?
It runs from when you receive the notice, not from the termination date. Section 64(3) is typical of the three: the notice “is void if the tenant, within seven days after receiving the notice, stops the conduct or activity or corrects the omission.”
Section 70 then does something useful for you. It bars a landlord from applying to the Board on a section 62, 64 or 67 notice “before the seven-day remedy period specified in the notice expires.” The LTB’s N5 instructions say the same from the landlord’s side — the earliest they can apply is the 8th day.
On a damage N5, section 62(3) gives you a second route that people often miss: as well as repairing, replacing or paying the reasonable cost, you can void the notice by making “arrangements satisfactory to the landlord” to do so. That is a written payment arrangement, agreed inside the seven days. Get it in writing and keep it.
What changes on a second N5 within six months?
Everything that protects you. Section 68 is the further-contravention provision, and it converts the N5 from a warning into a live eviction.
| First N5 in six months | Second N5 in six months | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum termination date | 20th day after the notice is given | 14th day after the notice is given |
| Right to void by fixing | Yes — seven days | No |
| When the landlord can apply | Not before the 7-day remedy period expires | As soon as the notice is given |
| Your remaining defence | Void it, or dispute at the hearing | Dispute at the hearing only |
| Authority | ss.62, 64, 67; s.70 | s.68(1), (2); LTB N5 instructions |
The timing is narrower than most people assume. Section 68(1) requires the new incident to occur more than seven days but less than six months after the first notice was given. Something that happens inside the first seven days is part of the first notice, not a fresh one. Something at seven months is not a second N5 at all.
The grounds can also shift between the two notices. Section 68(1) allows the second notice where the new conduct would ground a notice under sections 60, 61, 62, 64 or 67 — so a first N5 for damage can be followed by a second N5 for interference. The one carve-out is serious drug-related illegal activity under clause 61(2)(a), which goes down its own track.
When is it an N7 instead of an N5?
When the landlord thinks they can prove something worse. The N7 covers three situations with 10-day termination dates and no fix window at all: wilful damage or grossly non-residential use under section 63, substantial interference with a resident landlord in a building of three or fewer units under section 65, and acts seriously impairing someone’s safety under section 66.
The LTB’s N5 instructions tell landlords directly that the N7 “cannot be voided and it has a shorter notice period,” and that if they are unsure whether they can prove the damage was deliberate, “you should use the Form N5.” That is the trade the landlord is making, and it cuts both ways: the Board’s landlord brochure says a landlord on a wilful-damage N7 “must prove at the hearing that the person who caused the damage did so wilfully — if the landlord cannot prove that the damage was wilful, the application will be dismissed.”
Two other consequences follow an N7. Section 80(2) lets the Board make an eviction order effective earlier than the notice’s termination date in some section 63 and 66 cases, and section 84 requires the Board to ask the Sheriff to expedite enforcement. An N7 is a genuinely faster instrument.
What happens if it goes to a hearing?
Your landlord files an L2 — $201, or $186 through the Tribunals Ontario Portal on the Board’s current fee schedule — and there is a deadline. Section 69(2) says an application may not be made later than 30 days after the termination date in the notice, and the N5 instructions repeat it. Unlike an N4, an N5 goes stale.
At the hearing the Board does not simply check the boxes. Section 83(2) requires it to review the circumstances and consider refusing the eviction or postponing enforcement before granting anything, and section 83(3) requires refusal where the landlord is in serious breach of their own obligations, or where the real reason for the application is that you complained to a government authority, tried to enforce your legal rights, or are organising a tenants’ association.
Bring evidence. The LTB asks for documents at least seven business days before the hearing, or five for responding evidence, and reminds parties that an item “does not automatically become evidence once it has been given to the LTB” — the adjudicator decides what to accept. Photographs with dates, repair invoices, texts and the written arrangement you made inside the seven days all matter more than argument.
The takeaway
Treat a first N5 as a seven-day repair order with a 20-day headline, and treat a second N5 as an eviction application that has already started. The Act is unusually generous on the first notice: fix it, document that you fixed it, and the notice is legally dead. The six months that follow are the part to be careful about, because that is the window in which the same landlord can serve again with no fix window and a two-week clock.
Not sure whether your N5 is worth fighting or fixing?
Send me the notice and a short account of what happened. I will tell you which of the three grounds it actually engages, whether the seven-day window is still open, and what the notice is missing. If you are a landlord, I will tell you whether yours would survive a hearing. No pitch, no obligation.
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Frequently asked questions
How do I void an N5 notice in Ontario?
By fixing the problem within seven days of receiving the notice. Sections 62(3), 64(3) and 67(3) of the Residential Tenancies Act each void the notice if the tenant, within seven days, repairs or pays the reasonable cost of repairing the damage, stops the conduct complained of, or reduces the number of occupants. On a damage N5, section 62(3) also accepts arrangements satisfactory to the landlord. Once voided, the landlord cannot apply to the Board on that notice.
How many days does an N5 give you?
A first N5 must give a termination date not earlier than the 20th day after the notice is given, under sections 62(2), 64(2) and 67(2). A second N5 within six months gives at least 14 days under section 68(2). The LTB’s N5 instructions add five calendar days if the notice is mailed and one business day if it is couriered. Inside the 20 days sits a separate 7-day window to fix the problem.
What happens if I get a second N5 within six months?
The seven-day fix disappears. Section 68 lets a landlord give a further notice if new grounds arise more than seven days but less than six months after the first notice, and section 68(2) sets the termination date at not earlier than the 14th day. The LTB’s N5 instructions state that on a second N5 the tenant cannot void the notice and the landlord can apply to the Board as soon as the notice is given. You can still dispute it at the hearing.
Can a landlord evict me straight away for damage in Ontario?
Not without a Board order. For deliberate damage a landlord may use an N7 under section 63, which has a 10-day termination date and no fix window, and section 84 has the Board ask the Sheriff to expedite enforcement. But the landlord still has to apply, and the LTB’s brochure notes the landlord must prove the damage was wilful or the application will be dismissed. Section 39 bars recovering possession without an order.
Sources
- Residential Tenancies Act, 2006, S.O. 2006, c. 17 (e-Laws). Sections 34, 39, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 80, 83 and 84. Consolidation current from 1 July 2026; accessed 23 August 2026.
- Landlord and Tenant Board — Form N5 Instructions (PDF). The three reasons, the 20-day and 14-day termination dates, the seven-day void rules, the loss of the void right on a second notice, service methods and the 30-day filing deadline. Dated 30 November 2015; accessed 23 August 2026.
- Landlord and Tenant Board — How a Landlord Can End a Tenancy. Voiding a notice, the effect of an incomplete or incorrect notice, the first-versus-second N5 table, and the burden of proving wilful damage on an N7. Last updated July 2026.
- Landlord and Tenant Board — Forms, filing and fees. Current L2 filing fee of $201, or $186 through the Tribunals Ontario Portal, and the N5 and N7 form descriptions. Accessed 23 August 2026.
- Landlord and Tenant Board — Application and hearing process. Evidence deadlines of seven business days, five days for responding evidence, and how the adjudicator decides what to admit.
- Landlord and Tenant Board — A Guide to the Residential Tenancies Act. The list of conduct-based grounds for eviction, including damage, overcrowding and disturbing the enjoyment of other tenants.
Related reading
- Your LTB hearing: what actually happens
- What your landlord must actually repair in Ontario
- The Ontario LTB forms guide — which form does what
About the author — Jatin Dua, Etobicoke real estate agent
I am Jatin Dua, a licensed Realtor with RE/MAX Quantum Realty, working out of 799 The Queensway in Etobicoke. I write about Ontario tenancy rules because they shape what a property is worth to a buyer, what a seller can deliver on closing and what an investor can actually do with a unit. Everything on this page is checked against the statute, the regulations and the Landlord and Tenant Board’s own published material rather than against what people say online.
N5 disputes are usually about evidence rather than law — who did what, on which date, and whether anyone wrote it down at the time. That is worth knowing before the seven days run out rather than after.
Reach me at connect@jatindua.com or 437-987-1925.