Changing an Ontario Lease After Signing: What the Landlord, the Tenant, and Both Together Can Actually Change

A signed lease is not frozen, but it is not open either. Some changes belong to one side alone, some need both signatures, and a few are off the table no matter who signs.

I’m Arthur Zhao. Picture this exchange. Two people signed one lease for a one-year term. Eight months in, one of them is moving out. The one staying emails the landlord: “Can you take her off the lease?” The landlord writes back: “Easier if we just sign a new one.”

Both messages sound like paperwork. They are not the same kind of act, and neither is something one person can do alone. Taking a name off the lease, signing a fresh agreement, changing the rent along the way: each sits in a different place in Ontario’s rules, and the place depends on who is making the change. Until something is signed, the roommate who is leaving is still on the hook for the full rent with the other one.

So instead of walking through life events, this article sorts changes by role: what the landlord can change alone, what the tenant can change alone, what both can change together in writing, and what nobody can change even with every signature on the page. It assumes a lease on the Ontario Standard Form of Lease (2229E). The form itself is covered in a separate article; here the question is only what happens after the ink is dry.

1. What the landlord can change alone

Very little, and only through the Act’s own channels. The main one is rent.

A guideline rent increase. The landlord gives written notice on the Landlord and Tenant Board’s form (the N1 Notice of Rent Increase). Three conditions apply at once:

• at least 90 days’ written notice before the increase takes effect (RTA s.116(1)); an increase without that notice is void (s.116(4));
• at least 12 months since the tenant’s last increase in that unit, or since the unit was first rented to that tenant (s.119(1));
• no more than the year’s guideline, which the Board publishes each year (s.120(1); General Information, Part I).

Some newer units are not subject to the guideline, for example a unit in a building where no part was occupied for residential purposes on or before November 15, 2018 (General Information, Part I). Those units are carved out of the guideline cap (s.6.1(2)), but the 90-day notice and 12-month spacing still apply to them.

Above the guideline, only with a Board order. Without the tenant’s agreement, the landlord can go above the guideline only by applying to the Board under s.126: an extraordinary increase in municipal taxes and charges, eligible capital expenditures, or the cost of outside security services. Tenants can oppose the application, and the 90-day notice still applies (s.116(2)).

Reductions run the other way. The standard lease’s note to section 16 points out that the Act also requires some rent reductions without agreement, for instance when municipal property tax goes down by more than 2.49 per cent (General Information, Part I).

That is the whole list. The landlord cannot, alone, add a deposit, add a clause, shorten the term, or take a tenant off the lease.

2. What the tenant can change alone

The tenant also has only statutory moves, but more of them.

Give notice to end the tenancy. In a monthly tenancy, at least 60 days’ notice, ending on the last day of a rental period (s.44(2)). In a fixed term, at least 60 days before the end date in the lease, effective on that end date (s.44(4)). A tenant cannot, by notice alone, end a fixed term earlier than its stated end date.

Ask to assign. In an assignment, the new person takes the tenant’s place and the lease stays the same (General Information, Part P). The Act splits the request in two:

• a general request (“may I assign?”): the landlord may simply consent or refuse (s.95(2));
• a specific request naming a potential assignee: the landlord may consent, refuse that person, or refuse assignment altogether (s.95(3)), but may not arbitrarily or unreasonably refuse a particular assignee (s.95(5)).

If the landlord refuses a general request, refuses assignment altogether, or does not answer within 7 days after the request, the tenant may give a notice of termination under s.96 within 30 days after the date of the request (s.95(4)). The landlord may charge only reasonable out-of-pocket expenses for consenting (s.95(7)). After an assignment, the assignee answers for the period after it and the former tenant for the period before (s.95(8)).

Ask to sublet. A sublet needs the landlord’s consent, which the landlord may not arbitrarily or unreasonably withhold (s.97(1)-(2)). The original tenant stays liable to the landlord during the subtenancy (s.97(4)). If consent is withheld unreasonably, the tenant can apply to the Board within one year (s.98(1)-(2); LTB form A2).

Have a roommate. The landlord cannot prevent a tenant from having a roommate, as long as municipal occupancy standards are respected (General Information, Part Q). But a roommate the tenant brings in is an occupant, not a tenant. Putting that person’s name on the lease is not something the tenant can do alone.

3. What both can change together, in writing

According to the Ontario Standard Form of Lease (2229E, 2020/12), section 16 is short: “After this agreement is signed, it can be changed only if the landlord and tenant agree to the changes in writing.” That covers most real-world amendments. In the order they usually come up:

The term. When a fixed term ends and nothing new is signed, the tenancy is deemed renewed as a monthly tenancy on the same terms (s.38(1)); the tenant does not have to move out or sign anything to stay (General Information, Part C). Both sides can instead agree to a new fixed term or a new agreement, and changes to the rent still have to follow the Act (Part C). Switching a fixed term to month-to-month before it expires is not a channel the Act spells out; on my reading of section 16 it is an ordinary written amendment both sides sign.

Who is on the lease. The Act has no procedure and the Board has no form for adding a tenant to an existing lease or releasing one. It is a written amendment under section 16, or a new agreement. Until that is signed, section 17 keeps every tenant who signed responsible for all tenant obligations, including the full rent, unless the additional terms say otherwise.

Rent changes that need a Board form. Two kinds of agreed increase have their own rules:

• Above-guideline by agreement (s.121). Only if the landlord has done or undertakes to do a specified capital expenditure, or provides a new or additional service. It must be on the Board’s form (N10) setting out the new rent, the cancel right and the effective date. The cap is guideline + 3% of the previous lawful rent (s.121(3)). The tenant may cancel in writing within 5 days after signing (s.121(4)), and the agreement can take effect no earlier than 6 days after signing (s.121(5)). The 90-day notice does not apply (s.121(6)).
• Added parking or a prescribed service (s.123). If both agree the landlord will add a parking space or a prescribed service, facility, privilege, accommodation or thing, the rent can go up as prescribed, at any time, despite the 90-day and 12-month rules (s.123(1)-(2); s.119(2)). If the landlord later stops providing it by agreement, the rent comes down as prescribed (s.125).

Either agreement is void if it came from coercion, or from a false, incomplete or misleading representation by the landlord or the landlord’s agent (s.124).

Ending early. A landlord and tenant who agree to end the tenancy do not need a notice of termination (s.37(3)). The Board publishes the N11 Agreement to End the Tenancy for this.

One document that sometimes comes up here does not apply: OREA Form 420 amends the Agreement to Lease, the offer that comes before the lease is signed, not the signed lease itself.

4. What nobody can change, even with both signatures

This is the box people miss, because it overrides consent. According to the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006 (as consolidated on Ontario e-Laws), the Act applies despite any agreement or waiver to the contrary (s.3(1)), and a lease provision inconsistent with the Act is void (s.4(1)). Four places it bites after signing:

A new deposit. A landlord may require a rent deposit only on or before entering into the tenancy agreement (s.106(1)). After that, the only top-up allowed is when the lawful rent goes up, and only to bring the deposit to the new limit (s.106(3)), which is one rent period or one month’s rent, whichever is less (s.106(2)). The rent deposit is the only security deposit the Act allows (s.105(1)); damage or pet deposits, fees and penalties are prohibited (s.134(1)(a); General Information, Part H). A refundable key deposit is the separate exception the General Information describes.

An end date signed at the start. An agreement to terminate the tenancy is void if it was made at the time the lease was entered into, or as a condition of entering into it (s.37(5)); the same goes for a tenant’s notice given then (s.37(4)). There are limited exceptions for certain post-secondary student housing (s.37(6)-(7)).

The form’s fixed sections. The header of the standard lease says: “All sections of this agreement are mandatory and cannot be changed.” Changes go into writing alongside it, not into its printed sections.

Anything else inconsistent with the Act. Section 15 of the lease gives examples of void terms: no guests, no roommates or additional occupants, no pets (condominium rules aside), or deposits and fees the Act does not permit. Signing an amendment does not rescue them.

5. A plain written amendment vs an agreement on a Board form

6. Before anyone signs: a checklist by role

Use the group that matches your seat. Whatever you change, have a lawyer review the wording of any amendment before it is signed.