One of the few reasons a landlord can evict a tenant under the Residential Tenancies Act is if the unit is required for the landlord’s own use. While the Act previously required a landlord to have a “good faith” basis for requiring possession, it has been amended to place further restrictions on evictions for the “landlord’s own use”.
Effective September 1, 2017, when a landlord ends a tenancy so that they, an immediate family member or a caregiver can use a rental unit, the landlord must:
- Provide one month’s rent to the tenant or offer “another rental unit acceptable to the tenant”; and
- Intend to occupy the unit for at least one year. An affidavit to this effect is required for the Landlord and Tenant Board to terminate the tenancy. If the landlord advertises, re-rents, converts or demolishes the unit within one year after the tenant vacates the rental unit, they will be considered to have acted in bad faith unless they can prove otherwise, and could face a fine of up to $25,000.
The new rules only permit a landlord who is an individual, not a corporation, to terminate a tenancy on the basis of the “landlord’s own use” exception. Notice requirements for the termination continue to apply.
The provisions referenced above can be found in sections 48, 55.1, 57, 72, 73.1, 83 and 233 of the Act. The statute amending the Act, which also extended rent control to all private rental units in Ontario, can be found here.