The N13 Ends the Tenancy — Not the Right to Demolish

An N13 ends the tenancy. It does not give you permission to tear the building down. Working backward from a stalled wrecking ball through every gate a landlord must clear — and every protection a tenant holds.

I am Arthur Zhao. Here is a scene I have watched play out more than once. A landlord owns a small apartment building, decides to redevelop, serves every tenant an N13 notice for demolition, waits out the full notice period, pays what he believes is owed, and watches the last unit empty out. The contractor is booked. Then the City refuses to issue the demolition permit — and he is left holding an empty building he is not legally allowed to tear down.

Nothing he did to end the tenancies was necessarily wrong. The problem is that ending the tenancies was only half of the law. This article works backward from that stalled wrecking ball to show every gate that should have been cleared first — and, read from the other side, exactly what protection a tenant standing in that building can rely on. It is general information, not legal advice.

The gate that actually stopped him: a municipal permit

The wrecking ball stopped at a gate the landlord did not know existed. In Toronto, you cannot demolish or convert a residential rental property that contains six or more dwelling units without a Rental Housing Demolition and Conversion Permit. That requirement lives in Chapter 667 of the Toronto Municipal Code: § 667-3 prohibits demolition without the permit, § 667-4 prohibits conversion without it, and § 667-2 sets the threshold — the chapter does not apply to a property with fewer than six dwelling units, which is another way of saying it bites at six. This gate is entirely separate from anything the landlord did with his tenants. It is the City deciding whether the rental housing is allowed to disappear at all.

Where the City gets that power

The City does not invent this power on its own — the province hands it over. Section 99.1 of the Municipal Act, 2001 lets a local municipality prohibit and regulate both the demolition and the conversion of residential rental properties. Section 99.1(2) spells out what that includes: prohibiting demolition without a permit, prohibiting conversion without a permit, and — the part landlords underestimate — imposing conditions as a requirement of obtaining the permit. Toronto’s version of the identical power sits in s. 111 of the City of Toronto Act, 2006. Under Chapter 667 those conditions can include replacing the rental units at similar rents, providing tenant relocation assistance, and giving displaced tenants a right to return to the replacement building (§ 667-15). So the municipal gate is not a simple yes or no — a yes can come attached to obligations that reshape the entire project.

The part he did do — and why it was only half

Everything the landlord did with the N13 lives in a completely different statute: the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006. Under s. 50(1) a landlord may give notice of termination where they require possession to demolish the unit, to convert it to a non-residential use, or to carry out repairs or renovations so extensive that they need a building permit and vacant possession. The termination date must be at least 120 days after the notice, and it must fall at the end of a tenancy period or fixed term (s. 50(2)). Do all of that perfectly and you have lawfully ended the tenancy — nothing more. The RTA is silent on whether the building itself may be demolished; that question belongs entirely to the municipal by-law above.

What you owe the tenants depends on the building’s size

If it is renovation rather than demolition, another layer appears

Not every redevelopment is a teardown. If the plan is repairs or renovations extensive enough to need a building permit and vacant possession, s. 53 of the RTA gives the tenant a right of first refusal — the right to move back in at a similar rent once the work is done. But that right is conditional: it exists only if the tenant gives the landlord written notice before vacating that they intend to return (s. 53(2)). Compensation splits on that same notice. If the tenant does not give notice and the complex has at least five units, the landlord owes three months’ rent (s. 54(1)). If the tenant does give notice, compensation is the rent for the lesser of three months and the actual period the unit is under repair or renovation (s. 54(2)). For complexes with fewer than five units in a renovation, different rules apply — check the current text rather than assume a figure.

The third thing people confuse: demolition control is its own regime

There is a separate mechanism that sounds like the by-law above but is not: demolition control under s. 33 of the Planning Act. Where a municipality has a maintenance-and-occupancy (property standards) by-law in force, it may designate a demolition control area in which demolishing any residential property — not just rental — requires a demolition permit issued by council. A refusal or a delay may be appealed to the Tribunal, whose decision is final, and where a building permit for the replacement building has already been issued, council shall issue the demolition permit (s. 33(6), subject to (7)). This regime is about controlling the teardown of housing generally; it is not rental-specific and does not turn on the six-unit rental threshold. Keep the two apart — one project can touch both.

Read from both sides

For a landlord, the takeaway is that clearing the tenants is necessary but not sufficient — you must independently clear the municipal permit, and you should assume conditions will attach. For a tenant, the very same provisions are a shield: an N13 is not a demolition order, the compensation floor at a mid-size building is three months rather than one, and in a renovation your right to return survives so long as you put your intention in writing before you move out. Both readings come from the same short list of sections. None of this substitutes for advice on your specific building — get case-specific legal advice, and confirm the permit requirements directly with your municipality’s planning or building department, because thresholds and by-laws differ from city to city.