Renting Out Your Cottage: When the Residential Tenancies Act Applies and When It Doesn’t
Weekly summer guests or one longer-term occupant? Before you pick, know what being a landlord under the RTA would mean, and what actually decides whether the Act reaches your cottage.
Is a cottage rental exempt from Ontario’s Residential Tenancies Act?
Not just because it is a cottage. Calling the property a cottage, or calling the agreement a seasonal lease, does not by itself take it outside the Act: s.3(1) applies the Act “despite any agreement or waiver to the contrary.” What s.5(a) looks at is how the accommodation is used: whether it is intended for the travelling or vacationing public, or occupied for a seasonal or temporary period, in one of the listed kinds of places, which include a cottage or cabin establishment and a vacation home. The Act does not say how long “seasonal” or “temporary” is.
Source: Residential Tenancies Act, 2006, S.O. 2006, c. 17, ss. 3(1) and 5(a) (Ontario e-Laws, consolidated from September 21, 2026)
I’m Arthur Zhao, a real estate broker in Toronto. Say you have just bought a cottage, or you are close to firming up an offer on one, and the plan is for rental income to cover part of what it costs to own. You are weighing two ways of doing that: list it for weekly stays through the summer, or find one person who will live there for a longer stretch.
On a spreadsheet those look like two pricing choices. Under Ontario law they can be two different regimes. One may sit outside the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006 (RTA). The other may put you inside it, as a landlord with everything that title carries. So this piece starts with what “inside” would mean for you, and only then gets to the wording that decides which side you are on.
If the RTA applies, this is what you take on
These are the rules that would govern the arrangement if the Act reaches your cottage. Each one is a section of the RTA, not a term you can negotiate away.
Ending the stay. Under s.37(1), “A tenancy may be terminated only in accordance with this Act.” The end date you agreed with the occupant is not, on its own, a way out. If a fixed term ends and has not been renewed or terminated, s.38(1) deems it renewed as a monthly tenancy on the same terms. The occupant who was meant to leave in spring can lawfully still be there the month after.
Repairs. Under s.20(1), the landlord is responsible for keeping the complex and the unit “in a good state of repair and fit for habitation” and for complying with health, safety, housing and maintenance standards. At a cottage used through the colder months, that is a real operating commitment. Under s.29(1), a tenant can apply to the Landlord and Tenant Board for an order that the landlord has breached s.20(1).
Getting in. Under s.25, you may enter only in accordance with s.26 or s.27. Without written notice, that means an emergency, the tenant’s consent at the time, or the narrower housekeeping and showing cases in s.26(2) and (3). Otherwise s.27 requires written notice at least 24 hours before entry, for a listed reason, stating the reason, the day, and a time between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.
Your agreement’s terms. Under s.4(1), a provision in a tenancy agreement that is inconsistent with the Act or the regulations is void. A clause saying the occupant must leave by a set date regardless, or that you can come and go freely, does not survive contact with the Act.
Your position as the owner
What section 5(a) actually says
The exemption reads in full: the Act does not apply to “living accommodation intended to be provided to the travelling or vacationing public or occupied for a seasonal or temporary period in a hotel, motel or motor hotel, resort, lodge, tourist camp, cottage or cabin establishment, inn, campground, trailer park, tourist home, bed and breakfast vacation establishment or vacation home.”
Three things are worth reading closely.
The word “or” in the middle. The accommodation can be intended for the travelling or vacationing public, or occupied for a seasonal or temporary period. The text gives two routes, not one.
The list of places. It names a “cottage or cabin establishment” and a “vacation home.” A privately owned cottage rented to holiday guests sits naturally next to those words. That is a reading of the wording, not a ruling.
What is missing. The Act gives no number of weeks or months for “seasonal” or “temporary.” Nothing in s.5(a) tells you where a long stay stops being one.
Why the name on the agreement doesn’t settle it
Two sections work together here.
Section 3(1) says the Act applies to rental units in residential complexes “despite any other Act and despite any agreement or waiver to the contrary.” If the facts bring a stay within the Act, a clause saying it is outside the Act does not move it back out.
Section 202(1) tells the Landlord and Tenant Board how to look at the facts. The Board “shall ascertain the real substance of all transactions and activities” and the good faith of the participants. In doing so it “may disregard the outward form of a transaction” and “may have regard to the pattern of activities relating to the residential complex or the rental unit.”
Put plainly: a document headed “Vacation Rental Agreement” is the outward form. Who stays, for how long, for what purpose, and how the place has been offered over time are closer to the substance.
⚠️The exemption can’t be agreed into existence. Section 3(1) applies the RTA “despite any agreement or waiver to the contrary.” If the facts bring a stay within the Act, a signed clause that says otherwise, even one the occupant was happy to sign, does not change that.
💡 My view: if the Board is told to look at the pattern of activities, then how your cottage is used and marketed over the year is likely to carry more weight than whatever title sits on the agreement. A place that is listed, booked and turned over week to week for holidays tells one story. The same place offered to one person as somewhere to live from autumn to spring tells a different one, even if the paperwork for both says “seasonal.” I would let the way the property is actually run, rather than the wording of the lease, guide how confident you are about the exemption.
Longer stays: the part the Act doesn’t answer
Weekly holiday guests fit the plain wording of s.5(a). One occupant staying through the winter as their main home is where the text runs out. Whether that is still “occupied for a seasonal or temporary period” is something the RTA does not directly say, and I am not going to guess how the Board would decide it.
What the Act does give you is a way to ask. Under s.9(1)(a), a landlord or a tenant may apply to the Board for an order determining “whether this Act or any provision of it applies to a particular rental unit or residential complex.” Under s.9(2), the Board makes findings and the appropriate order. When the Board looks at the facts, s.202(1) is the lens it uses: substance over form, and the pattern of activities.
If the answer matters to how you would run the arrangement, that application is the route the Act provides for getting one.
ℹ️Either side can ask. Section 9(1) lets a landlord or a tenant apply to the Landlord and Tenant Board to determine whether the Act applies. As the owner, you do not have to wait for the occupant to raise it.
One more layer: the township
Separate from the RTA, the municipality where the cottage sits may have its own rules on short-term rentals. Check with the local township before you list. (Tax treatment of cottage rental income is its own topic and is not covered here.)
Before you rent it out
Grouped by the kind of rental you are considering.
- ☐Describe the cottage in listings and in the agreement as vacation accommodation, and make sure the way it is actually used matches that description
- ☐Keep your booking calendar and listing history; the pattern of activities is something the Board may consider under s.202(1)(b)
- ☐Ask the local township whether short-term rentals there need a licence, registration or other approval
- ☐Ask the guest what the stay is for, and note the answer alongside the arrival and departure dates
- ☐Compare the arrangement with how the cottage has been listed and used so far
- ☐Read your agreement for clauses on leaving, entry or repairs that would be void under s.4(1) if the Act applied
- ☐Ask whether the cottage would be their home for those months
- ☐Work out how winter repairs and access would run if s.20(1) and ss.25–27 governed them
- ☐Note that a fixed term ending without renewal or termination becomes monthly under s.38(1)
- ☐Consider a s.9 application to the Board if you and the occupant both want an answer on whether the Act applies
Buying a Cottage in Ontario: Financing, Well & Septic, Water Access, and the Capital-Gains Trap →Renting an Unregistered Basement Unit in Ontario: Does the RTA Still Protect You If the Unit Is Illegal? →Renting Your House to Students in Ontario: Which Parts of the Residential Tenancies Act Actually Apply to You →Ontario Mortgage Guide →
Frequently Asked Questions
Does renting my cottage furnished change whether the RTA applies?
The wording of s.5(a) of the Residential Tenancies Act does not mention furniture. It turns on whether the accommodation is intended for the travelling or vacationing public, or occupied for a seasonal or temporary period, in one of the listed kinds of places. Under s.202(1), the Board looks at the real substance and the pattern of activities, so furnishing is one fact among others rather than a test of its own.
I still use the cottage myself on some weekends. Does that change anything?
Your own use between bookings is part of how the property is run, which s.202(1)(b) lets the Board consider as the pattern of activities. There is also a separate exemption in s.5(i) for accommodation where the occupant must share a bathroom or kitchen with the owner (or certain relatives) who lives in the building. Whether occasional weekend visits amount to living there, the Act does not say.
Can I rent the cottage by the month to someone who works remotely?
The Act does not define how long a “seasonal or temporary period” under s.5(a) can be, so a monthly arrangement is not decided by its length alone. Under s.202(1), what the stay actually is (its purpose and the pattern of use) matters more than what the agreement calls it. If you need certainty, s.9(1) lets either you or the occupant ask the Landlord and Tenant Board to decide.
What if I let someone who works for my business stay at the cottage?
The RTA has an employee-housing exemption in s.5(h), but its wording is narrow: the accommodation must be in a building or project used in whole or in part for non-residential purposes, and occupancy must depend on the person continuing to work for, or perform services related to, a business or enterprise carried out in that building or project. If the cottage is not part of where the business operates, that wording does not appear to reach it. That is a reading of the text, not a ruling.
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