Your Tenant Moved Out and Left a Pet Behind: What an Ontario Landlord Can and Cannot Do
A cat is crying inside a unit and the tenant has gone quiet. Ontario’s animal welfare law and the Residential Tenancies Act both reach this moment, and they ask very different things of you.
Does the RTA’s 30-day rule for property left in an abandoned unit apply to a tenant’s pet?
The Residential Tenancies Act mentions animals in only two places: s.14 voids no-pet clauses and s.76 sets the test for eviction applications based on an animal. Sections 41 and 42, including the 30-day disposal period in s.42(3), speak of “property” and never say whether a pet is property. The rule that clearly does apply is the Provincial Animal Welfare Services Act, 2019: s.15 bars any person from causing an animal to be in distress and bars an owner or custodian from permitting it, and an individual’s first conviction for either can carry a fine of up to $130,000, up to two years in jail, or both.
Source: Residential Tenancies Act, 2006, ss. 14, 41, 42, 76; Provincial Animal Welfare Services Act, 2019, ss. 1(1), 15, 49 (Ontario e-Laws, 2026)
I’m Arthur Zhao, a Toronto real estate Broker. Picture the call: a neighbour says there has been meowing behind your tenant’s door since the weekend. This month’s rent hasn’t arrived, your texts go unanswered, and nobody has seen the tenant come or go. You can’t yet tell whether the tenant is gone for good or simply away.
That uncertainty matters, because the Residential Tenancies Act treats a unit as abandoned only in limited circumstances, and its disposal rules were not written with a living animal in mind. Ontario’s animal welfare statute, on the other hand, is written entirely around the animal. This piece starts there, with what that statute requires and who can enforce it, and then works back to what the tenancy rules do and do not settle.
What the PAWS Act means by “distress”
The Provincial Animal Welfare Services Act, 2019 (the PAWS Act) defines distress in s.1(1) as the state of being (a) in need of proper care, water, food or shelter; (b) injured, sick, in pain or suffering; or (c) abused or subject to undue physical or psychological hardship, privation or neglect. Critical distress is distress that requires immediate intervention to prevent serious injury or to preserve life.
Two features of the definition matter for a landlord. First, clause (a) is about need: a cat without water or food in a closed unit can fit it before anyone has harmed the animal. Second, the Act defines “place” to include any land or building, so a rental unit is squarely within the places its enforcement powers reach.
Section 15: three duties, three different subjects
Section 15 is where the duties sit, and each subsection names a different person:
- s.15(1): no person shall cause an animal to be in distress.
- s.15(2): no owner or custodian of an animal shall permit the animal to be in distress.
- s.15(3): no person shall knowingly or recklessly cause an animal to be exposed to an undue risk of distress.
According to the PAWS Act (2019, current e-Laws consolidation), contravening s.15(1) or s.15(2) is a major offence under s.49(2); an individual’s first conviction carries a fine of up to $130,000, imprisonment of up to two years, or both (s.49(4)). Contravening s.15(3) is a minor offence under s.49(1); an individual’s first conviction carries up to $75,000, up to six months, or both (s.49(3)).
The Act does not give “custodian” a general definition. Section 1(4) only says that where an owner or custodian is a minor, the parents or guardians are deemed to be the owner or custodian. So whether a landlord who has never touched the animal is a custodian, or becomes one by stepping in, is not answered in the text.
What a PAWS animal welfare inspector can do
The Act gives provincial animal welfare inspectors a set of powers that line up closely with the situation behind that door:
- Entry with consent or a warrant (s.28). An inspector who believes on reasonable grounds that an animal in distress is in a place may enter and search with the occupier’s consent. A justice may also issue a warrant; an application to enter a place used as a dwelling must say so (s.28(3)).
- Entry without a warrant (s.29). Tied to critical distress, with a separate, narrower rule for dwellings (see the note below).
- Orders to the owner or custodian (s.30). If the inspector can promptly find the owner or custodian, the inspector may order them to take the action needed to relieve the distress, which can include veterinary examination and treatment at the owner’s or custodian’s expense.
- Removal (s.31). Among other grounds, an inspector may remove the animal and take possession of it if the animal is in distress and the owner or custodian is not present and cannot be found promptly, or if the animal is in critical distress.
- Relieving distress on the spot (s.33). An inspector lawfully in a place may take reasonable steps, including providing necessaries.
- Forfeiture (s.36). If the Chief Animal Welfare Inspector has the animal in care and no one is identified as its owner or custodian within the prescribed period, the animal is forfeited to the Crown.
- Appeals (s.38). An owner or custodian may appeal orders, removal decisions, decisions to keep an animal in care, and statements of account to the Animal Care Review Board.
Put together, the statute already contemplates an animal whose owner cannot be found, and it routes that animal into the Chief Animal Welfare Inspector’s care rather than leaving its fate to whoever holds the keys.
⚠️Inspectors and homes: PAWS Act s.29(1) lets an inspector enter without a warrant when an animal is believed to be in critical distress, but that subsection expressly excludes a place, or part of a place, used as a dwelling. For a dwelling, s.29(2) allows warrantless entry only if the inspector also believes the time needed to get a warrant may result in serious injury or death to the animal. Otherwise entry to a home runs through consent or a warrant under s.28. A rental unit someone may still be living in is a dwelling question, which is one more reason the abandonment facts matter.
Then the RTA: abandonment under section 42
According to the Residential Tenancies Act (2006), s.42 is the provision that matches a tenant who has disappeared. Before it applies, the unit has to be abandoned, and s.2(3) sets a floor: a tenant has not abandoned a unit if the tenant is not in arrears of rent. Silence alone, with rent paid, is not abandonment.
If the landlord believes the unit has been abandoned, s.42(1) opens two routes: (a) obtain an order terminating the tenancy under s.79, or (b) give notice to the tenant and to the Landlord and Tenant Board of the intention to dispose of the property. From there:
- s.42(2) allows unsafe or unhygienic items to be disposed of immediately. Nothing in that subsection refers to animals, and it would be a stretch to read a living cat as an “item” under it.
- s.42(3) allows other items to be sold, kept or otherwise disposed of once 30 days have passed after the order or the notice.
- s.42(4) and (5): if the tenant gives notice within those 30 days that they intend to remove property, they may do so, and the landlord must make it available at a reasonable time and at a location close to the unit.
- s.42(7): if the tenant claims sold property within six months, the landlord pays over the sale proceeds less reasonable expenses and arrears.
- s.42(8): subject to (5) and (7), a landlord who disposes of property in accordance with the section is not liable to any person.
If a pet were treated as property under s.42, those 30 days would run while the PAWS duties above continue to apply. Section 42 does not mention the PAWS Act, and the PAWS Act does not carve out tenancy procedures. The protection in s.42(8) is about liability for disposing of property under the RTA; it says nothing about the condition an animal is kept in while the clock runs.
When the tenant left on notice: section 41
The cat-behind-the-door call is an abandonment story, but some landlords meet the same question after a tenancy ends in the ordinary way. Section 41(1) covers a unit vacated under (a) a notice of termination by either side, (b) an agreement to terminate, (c) s.93(2), or (d) a Board order terminating the tenancy or evicting the tenant. In those cases the landlord may sell, keep or otherwise dispose of property left in the unit or the complex.
Two limits apply after an eviction order is enforced: the landlord may not dispose of the tenant’s property for 72 hours (s.41(2)) and must make it available for retrieval close to the unit during prescribed hours within that window (s.41(3)). Section 41(5) lets landlord and tenant agree to different terms for disposing of the tenant’s property. If a pet counts as property for these purposes, a move-out agreement that names the animal could be one way to settle in advance who takes it; the Act itself does not say whether s.41 reaches animals at all.
Two statutes, side by side
Taking the cat in: owner and custodian, conditionally
Suppose the landlord does not wait for an inspector and instead feeds the cat daily, or takes it home. Two texts become relevant, and neither answers the question outright.
Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 349. The chapter defines OWNER as a person who possesses, harbours or has custody of an animal. A landlord in Toronto who houses the cat could fall within that definition, and if so, the chapter’s duties on owners would follow. Separately, §349-6 requires every person who keeps an animal in the city to provide adequate and appropriate care, listing food, potable water, shelter and veterinary care a reasonably prudent person would consider necessary to relieve distress.
PAWS Act s.15(2). With no general definition of custodian, a landlord who has taken the animal into their care could be treated as its custodian, which would bring the duty not to permit distress, and the order and cost provisions aimed at owners and custodians, onto the landlord. That is an inference from the wording, not something the statute states.
Neither text makes stepping in unlawful. They do mean that once a landlord takes on the animal’s care, the landlord may be the person those duties attach to.
💡 My view: the first thing I would want a landlord to do on day one is build a record. Photograph the animal, its food and water, and the unit, with the time visible. Write down when you were told, by whom, and when you first entered or arranged help. Keep every message you send the former tenant, and every reply. The PAWS Act sends orders (s.30), statements of account (s.35) and appeal rights (s.38) to the owner or custodian, and Toronto’s by-law turns on who possesses, harbours or has custody. Who held that role, and from when, is exactly the kind of fact that can be argued about weeks later, and a same-day record is far harder to dispute than anyone’s memory.
Costs: what section 42(6) covers and where the Act goes quiet
Section 42(6) lets a landlord require the tenant to pay arrears of rent and reasonable out-of-pocket expenses incurred in moving, storing or securing the tenant’s property before allowing the tenant to remove it. It is a condition on retrieval: it works when the tenant comes back within the s.42(4) window. Section 42(7) adds a set-off against sale proceeds if the tenant claims sold property within six months.
The subsections do not say what happens to a landlord’s outlay when nobody comes back, and they do not mention food, litter or veterinary bills. Whether those could ever count as costs of storing or securing property depends first on whether a pet is property under s.42, which the Act leaves open.
On the PAWS side, s.35 allows the Chief Animal Welfare Inspector to serve a statement of account on the owner or custodian for costs of relieving distress, removal and care, and the person served is liable for the stated amount subject to an appeal under s.38. For recovering your own spending from a former tenant, speak with a lawyer or licensed paralegal about your specific facts.
If you find an animal in a unit the tenant may have left
These are actions, not legal conclusions. Where the facts are unclear, get advice before acting on the property question.
- ☐Try the former tenant on every channel you have, including any emergency contact they gave you.
- ☐Report an animal that appears to be in distress to the provincial animal welfare enforcement system so a PAWS inspector can assess it.
- ☐Ask a lawyer or licensed paralegal how s.42 applies before you dispose of anything left in the unit.
- ☐Photograph the animal, its food and water, and the unit, with time stamps.
- ☐Write down who told you, when, and what you did next.
- ☐Keep copies of every message to and from the former tenant.
- ☐Record the date of any s.42(1)(b) notice to the tenant and the Board, or of a s.79 application.
- ☐Treating the unit as abandoned while rent is paid up; s.2(3) says it is not.
- ☐Entering outside the RTA entry rules in ss.25 to 27 while the tenancy may still be running.
- ☐Reading s.42(2) on unsafe or unhygienic items as covering a living animal.
A Tenant Left Their Stuff Behind in Ontario: When You Can Toss It, and When Tossing It Is Illegal →When a Sole Tenant Dies: What Ontario Landlords Must Actually Do (and Why It Isn’t an N14) →Your Tenant Charges an EV on Your Hydro Bill: What an Ontario Landlord Can and Can’t Do →First-Time Renter Guide →
Frequently Asked Questions
My lease had a no-pets clause. Does that change anything?
No. Section 14 of Ontario’s Residential Tenancies Act makes a lease provision prohibiting animals in or about the residential complex void, so it does not change how the animal or its care is handled.
Can I go into the unit if I’m not sure the tenant has actually left?
Under RTA s.25, a landlord may enter only under s.26 or s.27. Section 26 allows entry without written notice in an emergency or with the tenant’s consent at the time of entry, and s.27 allows entry on 24 hours’ written notice for listed reasons, between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. The Act does not define “emergency”, so whether an animal in distress qualifies depends on the facts, and a lawyer or paralegal can assess yours.
Who can take the animal if I can’t reach the tenant?
Under the PAWS Act, an animal welfare inspector may remove an animal in distress when its owner or custodian is not present and cannot be found promptly (s.31). Once it is in the Chief Animal Welfare Inspector’s care, the animal is forfeited to the Crown if no one is identified as its owner or custodian within the prescribed period (s.36).
What if the tenant left fish or a reptile, not a cat or dog?
The PAWS Act’s definition of distress in s.1(1) refers to “an animal” and does not list species, so on its wording it is not limited to cats and dogs. The exceptions in s.15(4) refer to activities permitted under wildlife and fisheries legislation and to agricultural animal care; whether any of them could reach an aquarium or terrarium in a rental unit is a question for a lawyer.
Is any of this different outside Toronto?
The PAWS Act and the Residential Tenancies Act are provincial statutes, so their rules apply across Ontario. Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 349, including its definition of owner, applies only in Toronto; other municipalities have their own animal by-laws, which need to be checked separately.
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