On 21 September 2026, twenty-eight amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006 come into force plus seven to O. Reg. 516/06, from the Fighting Delays, Building Faster Act, 2025 and the Helping Homebuyers, Protecting Tenants Act, 2023. The biggest is that the N4 notice for non-payment drops from fourteen days to seven days for all tenancies. A tenant must now pay half the claimed arrears at least seven days before the hearing to raise their own issues, and the “satisfactory explanation” route is deleted. The Board’s power to postpone enforcement is capped, requiring compelling grounds on any ground other than an N12 or N13. The N12 notice period is not changing — 120 days is an optional trade for the compensation exemption, and only under section 48, never for a purchaser’s use. And the renoviction report requirement is still not proclaimed.
On 21 September 2026 — twenty days from the date on this page — twenty-eight separate amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006 come into force, along with seven to O. Reg. 516/06. I read every not-yet-in-force note in both consolidations rather than a summary of them, because most of what is being written about this date is about the one change that is not happening.
Start here, because the biggest one is being missed. The N4 notice period for non-payment of rent drops from fourteen days to seven days for monthly tenancies. That is a single sentence in section 59(1) and it halves the runway on every rent arrears file in Ontario. It is getting a fraction of the attention going to the N12 change, which is smaller and narrower than most coverage suggests.
Where all of this comes from
Two statutes are doing the work, and separating them matters because they behave differently.
| Statute | Assented | What it does on 21 September |
|---|---|---|
| Fighting Delays, Building Faster Act, 2025, S.O. 2025, c. 14, Sched. 12 (Bill 60) | 27 November 2025 | The eviction-process changes: N4 notice period, tenant issues at a hearing, setting aside an ex parte order, limits on postponing enforcement, and the N12 compensation exemption |
| Helping Homebuyers, Protecting Tenants Act, 2023, S.O. 2023, c. 10, Sched. 7 (Bill 97) | 8 June 2023 | The renoviction-adjacent changes: notification duties on a right of first refusal, a new bad faith presumption, and an extended limitation period |
O. Reg. 241/26, which supplies the detail, was made 16 July 2026, filed 21 July 2026 and published in The Ontario Gazette on 8 August 2026. Its own commencement clause sets sections 1 to 7 at the latest of 21 September 2026, the day the corresponding Schedule 12 section comes into force, and the day of filing.
1. The N4 drops to seven days
Current section 59(1):
“If a tenant fails to pay rent lawfully owing… the landlord may give the tenant notice of termination of the tenancy effective not earlier than, (a) the 7th day after the notice is given, in the case of a daily or weekly tenancy; and (b) the 14th day after the notice is given, in all other cases.”
Replacement text, in force 21 September:
“If a tenant fails to pay rent lawfully owing… the landlord may give the tenant notice of termination of the tenancy effective not earlier than the 7th day after the notice is given.”
The distinction between daily or weekly and everything else is deleted. Every tenancy in Ontario goes to seven days. For a tenant, the window to void an N4 by paying is halved. For a landlord, the L1 can be filed a week sooner.
2. A tenant must pay half the claimed arrears to raise issues at the hearing
This is the change with the largest practical effect on how hearings run, and it has two parts.
Section 82(1) currently lets a tenant raise any issue they could have raised in their own application if the tenant either complies with the notice requirements in subsection (2) or “provides an explanation satisfactory to the Board explaining why the tenant could not comply”. The replacement deletes that second limb entirely. Compliance becomes the only route.
Section 82(2) gains two new paragraphs:
“4. Unless the regulations provide otherwise, the tenant shall pay the following amounts to the landlord or, if the regulations so provide, into the Board: i. Half of any rent arrears that were claimed in the application when it was filed. ii. Such other amounts as may be prescribed.
5. The amounts specified in paragraph 4 shall be paid before the hearing and in accordance with any prescribed timelines.”
And the new section 8.3 of O. Reg. 516/06 sets that timeline: “the timeline for paying the amounts referred to in paragraph 4 of that subsection is no later than seven days before the hearing.”
Read the two together. From 21 September, a tenant facing an arrears application who wants to raise maintenance, harassment or any other issue at that hearing must pay half the arrears as claimed when the application was filed, at least seven days before the hearing, and there is no longer a “satisfactory explanation” route around it.
3. The Board’s power to delay enforcement is capped
Section 83(1)(b) — the Board’s discretion to postpone enforcement of an eviction order — gains the words “subject to any prescribed limitations or conditions” at the beginning. The new section 8.4 of O. Reg. 516/06 supplies the limits:
“The Board may order that the enforcement of an eviction order be postponed under clause 83 (1) (b) of the Act only if the landlord consents to the postponement or if the following conditions are satisfied: 1. In the case of an application… based on a notice of termination given under section 48, 49 or 50 of the Act, the Board is satisfied that it would not be unfair to the landlord or other tenants… 2. In the case of any other application…, the Board is satisfied that, i. it would not be unfair…, and ii. there are compelling grounds to postpone the enforcement.”
Note what that does. On an N12 or N13 eviction — sections 48, 49 and 50 — the test is the lower one. On everything else, including non-payment of rent, the tenant must additionally show “compelling grounds”. This is materially under-reported and it is the provision most likely to change outcomes at the sharp end.
4. Setting aside an ex parte order gets a prescribed test
Section 77(8)(b) currently allows the Board to set aside an order “if the Board is satisfied, having regard to all the circumstances, that it would not be unfair to do so.” From 21 September that becomes “if the prescribed circumstances, conditions or tests have been satisfied”.
The new section 8.2 of O. Reg. 516/06 keeps the not-unfair standard but carves something out of it:
“(2) For the purposes of making a determination under subsection (1), the Board shall not consider changes in the circumstances of the tenant that arose after the landlord and tenant entered into an agreement referred to in clause 77 (1) (a) of the Act or after the tenant gave a notice referred to in clause 77 (1) (b)…”
So a tenant who agreed to move out and whose situation then deteriorated cannot rely on the deterioration to set the order aside.
5. “Persistent” late payment finally gets a definition
The N8 ground — persistent failure to pay rent on the date it is due — has never been defined. New section 8.1 of O. Reg. 516/06 supplies one:
“a persistent failure to pay rent on the date it becomes due and payable includes circumstances in which a tenant has failed to pay rent within seven days of the date it becomes due and payable on at least three occasions within any six-month period…”
With a carve-out where the failure “was not solely attributable to the landlord applying a rent payment made during that six-month period to another amount owing by the tenant, including rent arrears.” And section 8.1(2) preserves the Board’s wider discretion: persistent failure “may arise in circumstances not set out in subsection (1)”.
So three late payments in six months is a floor, not a ceiling.
6. The N12 change — smaller and narrower than the coverage suggests
The N12 notice period is not changing. Section 48(2) still requires at least 60 days, ending on the last day of a period or term. There is no pending amendment note anywhere in section 48. Anyone telling you N12s now require 120 days has not read the section.
What actually changes is section 48.1, the compensation obligation, which gains a new subsection (2):
“The requirement to compensate a tenant or to offer the tenant another rental unit under subsection (1) does not apply if a landlord gives notice to a tenant under section 48 that meets the following criteria: 1. The notice is given on or after the day subsection 2(2) of Schedule 12 to the Fighting Delays, Building Faster Act, 2025 comes into force. 2. The date for termination specified in the notice is at least 120 days after the notice is given. 3. The date for termination specified in the notice is the day a period of the tenancy ends or, where the tenancy is for a fixed term, the end of the term.”
It is an opt-in trade: longer notice instead of a month’s rent. All three conditions are cumulative, and missing any one leaves the compensation payable.
And it does not apply to a purchaser’s own use. Section 49 and section 49.1 have no pending amendment note at all. A notice given on behalf of a purchaser still requires one month’s rent no matter how much notice is given — and section 49.1(2) keeps that obligation on the landlord who gives the notice, not on the purchaser. For anyone buying or selling a tenanted property, that is the sentence that matters.
I have written the N12 change up in full separately, including the affidavit requirement in section 72 and how it plays out on a tenanted sale.
7. A new bad faith presumption — that arrives empty
New section 57(6.1):
“if no person referred to in clause 48 (1) (a), (b), (c) or (d) occupied the rental unit within the prescribed period of time after the former tenant vacated… it is presumed, unless the contrary is proven on a balance of probabilities, that (a) the landlord gave the notice of termination under section 48 in bad faith; and (b) the rental unit was not occupied within a reasonable time…”
As at 1 September 2026 no such period has been prescribed. The enabling power, section 241.1(1) paragraph 3.2, is itself a Minister’s regulation that only comes into force on 21 September. O. Reg. 516/06 contains no reference to section 57 at all, and O. Reg. 517/06 has no amendments. Unless a Minister’s regulation is filed in the next twenty days, this presumption arrives as an empty shell. I will update this page when that changes.
The existing section 57(5) presumption — advertising the unit for rent or for sale, re-renting to someone else, demolishing or converting, at any time from the notice until one year after the tenant vacates — is unaffected and remains the operative one.
8. The largest new landlord liability: right of first refusal
Three provisions interlock here and together they create real exposure.
New section 53(2.1) requires a landlord, where a tenant has given notice of intent to return after repairs, to notify the tenant in writing “without delay” of the estimated date the unit will be ready, again whenever that estimate changes, and again once it is ready.
New section 53(2.2) requires the landlord to give the tenant “at least 60 days after the day the rental unit is ready for occupancy to exercise the right of first refusal”.
New section 57.1(1.1) then provides that a landlord who fails to comply with either “is deemed… to have failed to afford a former tenant a right of first refusal.”
A deemed failure unlocks the whole section 57(3) remedy menu — including general compensation “in an amount not exceeding the equivalent of 12 months of the last rent charged to the former tenant”, payable regardless of whether the tenant incurred any actual expense. A missed letter becomes a twelve-month exposure.
And the limitation period is being extended. Section 57.1(2) currently bars an application more than two years after the tenant vacated. The replacement bars it after “the later of… 1. The second anniversary of the day the former tenant vacated the rental unit. 2. The day that is six months after the day the repairs or renovations are completed.” On a stalled renovation that is effectively open-ended. A former tenant whose application was dismissed for lateness may also make a fresh one under the new subsection (4).
What is NOT happening on 21 September
The renoviction report requirement is still not in force. The replacement section 50(3), which would require a landlord giving an N13 to obtain a report from a qualified person, and the new section 50(3.1) voiding a non-compliant N13, both sit under “on a day to be named by proclamation” and have not been proclaimed. So does section 73(4) and the Minister’s power in section 241.1(1) paragraph 3.1 to prescribe who may write it.
This is the single most-written-about part of Bill 97, and any article saying the renoviction report requirement starts in September 2026 is wrong. What is arriving is the surrounding package: the section 53 notification duties, the section 57.1(1.1) deemed failure, and the extended limitation period.
Fines are not changing either — they already did. Section 238 has no pending note. The maxima went to $100,000 for an individual and $500,000 for a corporation on 1 July 2026, up from $50,000 and $250,000.
A mis-citation worth knowing about. The LTB’s own operational update of 30 June 2026 says “Maximum fines for offences under s.236 of the RTA have increased”. Section 236 is the attempts offence. The penalties are in section 238. Any article that copied the LTB’s wording has repeated the error, and a fair number have.
Do not confuse the section 238 prosecution fine with the section 57(3) paragraph 3 administrative fine, which is payable to the Board and capped at the greater of $10,000 and the Small Claims Court’s monetary jurisdiction. The LTB says so expressly: the increased maxima “do not apply to administrative fines, costs, or compensation that may be ordered by the LTB.”
What the LTB has actually published about September
Almost nothing, and that is worth knowing. Tribunals Ontario’s update of 30 June 2026 says:
“Some of the changes come into effect on July 1, 2026, and others, outlined in Bills 60 and 97, are to take effect in September 2026. Tribunals Ontario and the LTB will provide information as it becomes available.”
Twenty days out, that is the extent of it. There is no Government of Ontario news release, bulletin or backgrounder specifically announcing the September changes — I searched. There is an LTB page titled “Backgrounder: Upcoming Amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act”, but it is dated 1 September 2021 and concerns the 2020 amendments. It should not be cited for this.
What already changed on 1 July 2026
Since these are recent and are being conflated with the September set, the LTB lists them as:
- The deadline to request a review of an LTB order shortened from 30 days to 15 days
- Where a landlord is directed to serve an above-guideline increase order, the deadline dropped from 14 days to 7 days from issuance
- The certificate of service for AGI orders must be submitted no later than 5 days from the date of service
- Use of the LTB Payment Agreement Form is now mandatory for a repayment plan under section 206
- New rules allowing a tenant to install a window or portable air conditioner where conditions are met, and allowing a seasonal rent increase where electricity is included
- The increased maximum fines described above
What I would do before 21 September
- If you are serving an N4, know which rule applies. Served on or before 20 September, a monthly tenancy gets fourteen days. Served on or after 21 September, seven. Get the date on the notice right.
- If you are a tenant facing an arrears hearing, understand the half-payment rule. From 21 September, raising your own issues at that hearing requires paying half the claimed arrears at least seven days before it.
- If you are giving an N12 for your own use, do the arithmetic. One month’s rent against sixty extra days of notice. Both conditions on the termination date must also be met.
- If you are selling a tenanted property, do not assume the exemption applies. It does not. Section 49 is untouched and the compensation stays with the landlord who gives the notice.
- If you have a tenant with a right of first refusal, diarise it now. The new notification duties start on 21 September and a breach is deemed a failure to afford the right, which reaches twelve months of rent.
- Do not rely on anything you read about the renoviction report. It is not proclaimed.
What is not on this page
No case law. No prediction about how the Board will apply the new prescribed tests, because nobody knows yet and the LTB has published no guidance. And no claim about the section 57(6.1) presumption having teeth, because as at today the period it depends on has not been prescribed.
Own or manage a tenanted property in Etobicoke or the GTA?
If you are serving a notice in the next few weeks, the date on it decides which rule applies, and I would rather you got that right than found out at a hearing. Send me the situation and I will tell you plainly what the sections say and where you need a paralegal or a lawyer rather than an agent. If you are selling a tenanted unit, I will tell you what a purchaser can and cannot do before you list. No cost and no obligation.
connect@jatindua.com · 437-987-1925 · Book a free consultation
Confidential. Read personally and answered within 24 hours. I never share, sell or distribute your information.
Free tool — AI home value estimator
Instant Home Valuation
What’s your home
worth today?
Answer six quick questions and get an instant value range built from current Toronto & GTA sale data — property type, size, condition, lot and location all weighted the way a real pricing conversation weighs them. Takes about ninety seconds.
Reading recent GTA sale data…
Building your estimate
Estimated market value
—
$0–$0
Most likely value $0 · roughly $0 per square foot
What moved the number
Starting from the area baseline for your property type, here’s what each answer added or subtracted.
Market context
Recent local averages for comparison.
—
A range is a starting point.
A strategy is what sells.
This model doesn’t know that your neighbour’s identical semi went $80,000 over asking last month, or which two upgrades actually pay back in your area. That conversation is free and takes twenty minutes.
Frequently asked questions
What changes for landlords and tenants in Ontario on 21 September 2026?
Twenty-eight amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006 come into force that day, along with seven amendments to O. Reg. 516/06 made by O. Reg. 241/26. They come from Schedule 12 of the Fighting Delays, Building Faster Act, 2025 and Schedule 7 of the Helping Homebuyers, Protecting Tenants Act, 2023. The principal changes are the N4 notice period dropping to seven days, a requirement that a tenant pay half the claimed arrears before raising issues at a hearing, prescribed limits on postponing enforcement of an eviction order, a prescribed test for setting aside an ex parte order, a definition of persistent failure to pay rent, a compensation exemption for a 120-day N12 under section 48, a new bad faith presumption, and new notification duties around a right of first refusal.
Is the N4 notice period changing?
Yes, and this is the largest practical change. Section 59(1) currently allows a notice effective not earlier than the seventh day after it is given for a daily or weekly tenancy, and the fourteenth day in all other cases. From 21 September 2026 the replacement text reads simply that the notice may be effective not earlier than the seventh day after it is given. The distinction disappears and every tenancy goes to seven days.
Do tenants have to pay before they can raise issues at a hearing?
From 21 September 2026, yes, in an arrears application. New paragraph 4 of section 82(2) requires the tenant to pay half of any rent arrears that were claimed in the application when it was filed, plus any other prescribed amounts. New paragraph 5 requires payment before the hearing in accordance with prescribed timelines, and new section 8.3 of O. Reg. 516/06 sets that timeline at no later than seven days before the hearing. Separately, section 82(1) is amended to delete the alternative route of providing an explanation satisfactory to the Board.
Is the N12 notice period changing to 120 days?
No. Section 48(2) still requires a termination date at least sixty days after the notice is given, falling on the last day of a period of the tenancy or the end of a fixed term, and there is no pending amendment note anywhere in section 48. What changes is section 48.1, which gains a new subsection (2) exempting a landlord from the one month’s compensation where the notice is given on or after 21 September 2026, specifies a termination date at least 120 days after the notice, and that date falls at the end of a period or term. All three conditions are cumulative. It is an optional trade of longer notice for money, not a new minimum.
Does the 120-day compensation exemption apply when I am selling to a buyer who wants to move in?
No. Sections 49 and 49.1 carry no pending amendment note at all. A notice of termination given on behalf of a purchaser under section 49 still requires the landlord to compensate the tenant one month’s rent or offer another acceptable unit, regardless of how much notice is given. Section 49.1(2) also keeps that obligation on the landlord who gives the notice rather than transferring it to the purchaser.
Can the Board still delay an eviction?
Yes, but from 21 September 2026 within prescribed limits. Section 83(1)(b) is amended to begin with the words subject to any prescribed limitations or conditions, and new section 8.4 of O. Reg. 516/06 provides that the Board may postpone enforcement only if the landlord consents, or if the Board is satisfied it would not be unfair to the landlord or other tenants where the application is based on a notice under section 48, 49 or 50, and for any other application that it would not be unfair and that there are compelling grounds. So the higher test, requiring compelling grounds, applies to everything other than an N12 or N13.
What counts as persistent late payment of rent?
For the first time there is a definition. New section 8.1 of O. Reg. 516/06 provides that a persistent failure to pay rent on the date it becomes due includes circumstances in which a tenant has failed to pay within seven days of the due date on at least three occasions within any six-month period, with a carve-out where the failure was solely attributable to the landlord applying a rent payment to another amount owing. Subsection 8.1(2) preserves the Board’s wider discretion, so three occasions is a floor rather than a ceiling.
Is the renoviction report requirement starting in September 2026?
No, and this is the most common error in coverage of these changes. The replacement section 50(3), which would require a landlord giving an N13 to obtain a report from a qualified person, and the new section 50(3.1) voiding a non-compliant notice, both sit under a note that they come into force on a day to be named by proclamation, and they have not been proclaimed. Nor has section 73(4) or the Minister’s power to prescribe who may write the report. What does arrive on 21 September is the surrounding package: the section 53 notification duties, the deemed failure in section 57.1(1.1), and the extended limitation period in section 57.1(2).
What is the new right of first refusal exposure?
Three provisions interlock. New section 53(2.1) requires a landlord to notify the tenant in writing without delay of the estimated date the unit will be ready, again on any change, and again once it is ready. New section 53(2.2) requires at least sixty days after the unit is ready for the tenant to exercise the right. New section 57.1(1.1) deems a landlord who fails to comply with either to have failed to afford the right of first refusal, which unlocks the full section 57(3) remedy list including general compensation of up to twelve months of the last rent charged, payable whether or not the tenant incurred any actual expense.
Have the maximum fines under the Residential Tenancies Act changed?
They changed on 1 July 2026, not on 21 September. Section 238 now provides for a maximum fine of $100,000 for a person other than a corporation and $500,000 for a corporation, up from $50,000 and $250,000. Section 238 carries no pending amendment note. Note that the LTB’s own operational update of 30 June 2026 refers to fines under section 236, which is a mis-citation: section 236 is the attempts offence and the penalties are in section 238. Note also that these prosecution maxima are separate from the administrative fine the Board may order under paragraph 3 of section 57(3), which is capped at the greater of $10,000 and the monetary jurisdiction of the Small Claims Court.
Has the Landlord and Tenant Board published guidance on the September changes?
Not yet. Tribunals Ontario published an operational update on 30 June 2026 stating that some changes take effect on 1 July 2026 and others outlined in Bills 60 and 97 are to take effect in September 2026, and that Tribunals Ontario and the LTB will provide information as it becomes available. As at 1 September 2026 that remains the extent of it. There is an LTB page titled Backgrounder: Upcoming Amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act, but it is dated 1 September 2021 and concerns the 2020 amendments, so it should not be cited for these changes.
Related reading
- N12 compensation and the 120-day rule: what actually changes
- Your rental unit is listed for sale: showings, notice, and what a new owner can do
- Above-guideline rent increases in Ontario: the three grounds
- Do Ontario fixed-term leases become month-to-month?
Sources
Every figure on this page traces to one of these, and each was read on 1 September 2026. Primary sources only — statute, regulation, and the government or agency that administers the rule. Where I could not verify something from a primary source, the page says so instead of guessing.
- Residential Tenancies Act, 2006, S.O. 2006, c. 17. Government of Ontario e-Laws, consolidated text read 1 September 2026 through the e-Laws JSON API. Consolidation period from 1 July 2026; last amendment 2025, c. 14, Sched. 12. The consolidation carries twenty-eight not-yet-in-force amendment notes dated 21 September 2026, each in the form “Note: On September 21, 2026, the day named by order of the Lieutenant Governor in Council…” Accessed 1 September 2026.
- O. Reg. 516/06, General, under the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006. Government of Ontario e-Laws, consolidation period 21 July 2026, last amended by O. Reg. 241/26. Carries seven not-yet-in-force notes dated 21 September 2026, adding sections 8.1 to 8.4 and a new Part II.1. Accessed 1 September 2026.
- O. Reg. 241/26, amending O. Reg. 516/06. Government of Ontario e-Laws. Header states made 16 July 2026, filed 21 July 2026, published in The Ontario Gazette 8 August 2026. Section 9 sets commencement for sections 1 to 7 at the latest of 21 September 2026, the day the corresponding section of Schedule 12 to the Fighting Delays, Building Faster Act, 2025 comes into force, and the day the regulation is filed. New section 8.1 defines persistent failure to pay rent, 8.2 sets the test for setting aside an ex parte order, 8.3 sets the section 82 payment deadline at seven days before the hearing, and 8.4 limits postponement of enforcement. Accessed 1 September 2026.
- Fighting Delays, Building Faster Act, 2025, S.O. 2025, c. 14, Schedule 12. Government of Ontario e-Laws source law, assented to 27 November 2025. Schedule 12 amends the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006, including section 48.1 (compensation exemption for 120 days notice), section 59(1) (N4 notice period), section 82 (tenant issues at a hearing), section 77(8)(b) (setting aside an ex parte order) and section 83(1)(b) (postponement of enforcement). Accessed 1 September 2026.
- Helping Homebuyers, Protecting Tenants Act, 2023, S.O. 2023, c. 10, Schedule 7. Government of Ontario e-Laws source law, assented to 8 June 2023. Schedule 7 amends the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006, including new subsections 53(2.1) and (2.2) on notifying a tenant of the estimated ready date, new subsection 57(6.1) on the bad faith presumption, and new subsections 57.1(1.1) and (2) on deemed failure to afford a right of first refusal and the extended limitation period. Accessed 1 September 2026.
- LTB Operational Update: Legislative Changes at the Landlord and Tenant Board. Tribunals Ontario, 30 June 2026. States that some changes come into effect on 1 July 2026 and others outlined in Bills 60 and 97 are to take effect in September 2026, and that Tribunals Ontario and the LTB will provide information as it becomes available. Lists the 1 July changes including the review deadline shortening from thirty days to fifteen, and the increased maximum fines. Its reference to section 236 is a mis-citation; the penalties are in section 238. Accessed 1 September 2026.
About the author — Jatin Dua, Etobicoke real estate agent
I’m the Broker of Record at RE/MAX Quantum Realty, 799 The Queensway in Etobicoke. I write these pages the same way I work a file: read the primary source, quote it, date it, and say plainly where the source is silent or where two sources disagree. If a figure on this page has no citation beside it, that is a mistake and I want to hear about it.
I work with buyers, sellers, renters and investors across Etobicoke, Mimico, Humber Bay Shores, New Toronto, Long Branch, Alderwood and Stonegate–Queensway. connect@jatindua.com or 437-987-1925.