Agreeing to a Rent Increase for New Work or a New Service in Ontario: Reading Form N10 Box by Box, and Where s.121 Stops

One number in the top box, a description underneath, five printed rules and two signatures. Here is the section of the Residential Tenancies Act behind each part of the form.

I’m Arthur Zhao, a real estate broker with AZ Real Estate Partners in Toronto. Start with a form that is already filled in, and one figure in the box at the top of the first page: $2,102 a month, up from $2,000.

That figure is not arbitrary. If the 2026 guideline is the one that governs, $2,102 is the highest number the law allows in that box on a $2,000 rent. One dollar more and the form is asking for something section 121 of the Residential Tenancies Act does not permit, no matter what is promised underneath it.

Everything else on the two pages exists to justify that number, limit it, or let one side walk away from it. So instead of describing the rule in the abstract, this piece reads Form N10 the way you would hold it: box by box, from the address line to the signatures, with the part of the Act that sits behind each one. It explains how the rules work; it is not legal advice on any particular tenancy.

Before the boxes: what the form records

The title printed on Form N10 is “Agreement to Increase the Rent Above the Guideline,” and the word that matters is agreement. RTA s.121(1) lets a landlord and a tenant agree to an increase above the guideline only if the landlord (a) has carried out or undertakes to carry out a specified capital expenditure in exchange for the increase, or (b) has provided or undertakes to provide a new or additional service in exchange for it. Section 121(2) then requires the agreement to be in the form approved by the Board, and the Landlord and Tenant Board’s form for this is the N10.

This is one of several routes past the guideline, and they are not interchangeable. Section 120(1) bars increases above the guideline during a tenancy “except in accordance with section 126 or 127 or an agreement under section 121 or 123.” Section 126 is a landlord’s application to the Board for an above-guideline increase, a separate process this piece does not cover. Section 123 is a different agreement again, for adding things such as a parking space at an amount set by regulation; it does not use the N10.

The address line: does s.121 reach this unit at all?

The first thing the form asks for is the address of the rental unit, and the address answers a threshold question. Under RTA s.6.1, sections 120, 121 and 122 (among others) do not apply, on and after December 6, 2018, to a rental unit that meets the conditions in s.6.1(2) or (3):

• a unit in a building, mobile home park or land lease community no part of which was occupied for residential purposes on or before November 15, 2018, or a unit located entirely in an addition that meets the same test (s.6.1(2));
• a unit in a detached, semi-detached or row house that became a self-contained unit after November 15, 2018, where the house had no more than two residential units on or before that date, and either the owner lived in another unit of the house when the new unit was first occupied or the new unit was built in previously unfinished space (s.6.1(3)).

Two qualifications. Under s.6.1(4) and (5), the exemption does not apply to a tenancy whose agreement was entered into on or before November 15, 2018, but only for that tenancy. And under s.6.1(6), if the exemption is disputed at the Board, the onus is on the landlord to prove it applies.

For a unit that falls inside s.6.1, the Act switches off the s.120 guideline cap and switches off s.121 and the s.122 remedy in the same list, so the N10 route is not one the Act provides for that unit.

The “Your New Rent” box: what number can legally go there

This box has two blanks: the date the rent increases, and the total rent the tenant will pay from that date, per month, week or other period. The form asks for the new total, not the percentage, and s.121(2) requires the agreement to set out the new rent and the date it takes effect.

The ceiling. Section 121(3) says a landlord shall not increase the rent under this section by more than the guideline plus 3 per cent of the previous lawful rent charged. The form prints the same rule just below the box. According to the Government of Ontario (2026), the guideline is 2.1% for 2026 and 1.9% for 2027. On the 2026 guideline that makes the ceiling 5.1%; on the 2027 guideline, 4.9%.

Which year’s guideline. Section 120(2) fixes the guideline “in effect for each calendar year,” while s.121(3) simply says “the guideline.” If the form is signed in one calendar year and the increase takes effect in the next, the text does not say which year’s guideline the ceiling uses. That is a point to confirm with the LTB before relying on the higher figure.

The date blank. Under s.121(5), the agreement can come into force no earlier than six days after it is signed. The form puts it as “at least six calendar days after it is signed.” A date in this box that falls inside those six days does not fit the Act.

The ceiling worked on a $2,000 monthly rent

The “Details of the Work or New or Additional Service” box: what must be described

The form’s instruction in this box is short: “Provide details of the work or new or additional service. Also include the date the work was (or will be) completed or the service provided.” According to the Landlord and Tenant Board’s N10 Instructions (2015), the landlord fills this section in, and it should include:

• a description of the work that was or will be done;
• the item to be purchased, including brand or model number if appropriate;
• the installation work, and a description of any service that was or will be provided;
• the date the work was or will be completed, or the date the service was or will be provided.

Two points about the wording. First, the box accepts both past and future: s.121(1) covers work the landlord “has carried out or undertakes to carry out,” and a service the landlord “has provided or undertakes to provide,” and the form mirrors that with “has done (or will do).” Second, the Act’s phrase in s.121(1)(a) is “specified capital expenditure,” but neither the RTA nor O. Reg. 516/06 gives s.121 its own definition of it. The form itself uses the plainer words “capital work.”

“Important Information,” items 1 to 3: cancelling, the 12-month rule, and the notice it replaces

Page 2 opens with five numbered items. The first three each carry a rule from the Act.

Item 1, the cancellation right. Section 121(4) lets a tenant who signs cancel the agreement by written notice to the landlord within five days after signing; the form says “five calendar days.” Section 121(2) requires the agreement to set out this right. The same item repeats the six-day rule from s.121(5). Under O. Reg. 516/06 s.56, items 14 and 15, both the five-day cancellation period and the six-day period are time requirements the Board may not extend or shorten.

Item 2, twelve months. Section 119(1) allows a rent increase only if at least 12 months have passed since the tenant’s last increase in that unit, or since the unit was first rented to that tenant. Section 119(2) takes increases under s.123 out of that count; it says nothing about s.121, so an N10 increase is still subject to the 12-month rule. The N10 Instructions add one case: if the previous tenant assigned the unit to the current tenant within the 12 months before the increase date, the 12 months run from the previous tenant’s last increase.

Item 3, no separate notice. Section 121(6) says s.116, the rule requiring at least 90 days’ written notice of a rent increase, does not apply to an increase under s.121, and the form states that it takes the place of a Notice of Rent Increase. Section 121(7) goes further: a notice of rent increase given before the agreement becomes void when the agreement takes effect, if that notice was to take effect on or after the agreed increase date, and this applies even if the tenant was deemed to have accepted the notice under s.118.

“Important Information,” items 4 and 5: the remedy if the promise is not kept, and where to ask

Item 4 summarizes RTA s.122. A tenant or former tenant who signed an s.121 agreement may apply to the Board if (a) the landlord failed in whole or in part to carry out an undertaking under the agreement, (b) the agreement was based on work the landlord claimed to have done but did not do, or (c) it was based on services the landlord claimed to have provided but did not provide.

The deadline is in s.122(2): no application more than two years after the rent increase becomes effective. What the Board can do is in s.122(3): find that some or all of the increase above the guideline is invalid from the day it took effect, and order a rebate of the money owing. The wording reaches the portion above the guideline, not the whole increase.

Item 5 gives the LTB’s contact points: 416-645-8080, or toll-free 1-888-332-3234, and tribunalsontario.ca/ltb. The N10 Instructions note that the LTB’s Customer Service Officers can explain the Act and the Board’s processes but cannot give legal advice.

The signature block: what each side is agreeing to

The last part of the form states the bargain in one sentence: “By signing this form, the landlord agrees to do the work or provide the service described above and the tenant agrees to pay the new rent set out at the top of this form as of the date agreed to.” The two halves point back to the two boxes on page 1: the landlord’s side is the Details box, the tenant’s side is the Your New Rent box.

The N10 Instructions require both parties to print their first and last names, sign, date the form and include their phone numbers. Section 121(1) frames this as something a landlord and a tenant may agree to, so there is no version of the N10 that works on the landlord’s signature alone.

The signing date also matters beyond the paperwork: the five-day cancellation window in s.121(4) and the six-day minimum in s.121(5) are both counted from when the agreement is signed.

What the form does not print: void agreements, offences and the one-year clock

Three rules sit behind the N10 without appearing on it.

Void agreements. RTA s.124 says an agreement under s.121 is void if it was entered into as a result of coercion, or as a result of a false, incomplete or misleading representation by the landlord or the landlord’s agent.

An offence. Under s.233(g), a person who knowingly coerces a tenant to sign an agreement referred to in s.121 is guilty of an offence. Section 238 sets the maximum fines on conviction: $100,000 for an individual and $500,000 for a corporation.

The one-year clock. Section 136(2) deems a rent increase lawful unless an application putting its lawfulness in issue is made within one year after the increase was first charged, and O. Reg. 516/06 s.56, item 16, lists that one-year period among those the Board cannot extend or shorten. Section 136(3) keeps one door open: it does not take away a tenant’s right to apply under s.122 within that section’s two-year period. So s.124 makes a tainted agreement void, s.136(2) runs its own one-year clock on unchallenged increases, and s.122 keeps its two years; how those meet on a particular set of facts is a matter for the Board.