Listing Your Rental With an Agent: The Six Blanks That Decide What You Pay in Ontario
Your listing agreement for lease arrives pre-filled. Here is which blanks the law shapes, which ones are pure negotiation, and which two can follow you for years.
Is a listing agreement for lease just permission to advertise my unit?
No. Under the Trust in Real Estate Services Act (TRESA) it is a representation agreement: O. Reg. 567/05 s.13.5(2) counts a listing agreement as a seller representation agreement, and s.13.4 dictates what it must set out, from the expiry date to how commission is calculated. On top of that, the OREA lease forms give the brokerage the exclusive and irrevocable right to act as your agent for the whole Listing Period. In practice that means two things: the brokerage (or a named representative) owes you representation, not just marketing, and for the dates you write in, you have handed this one brokerage a right that the printed form gives you no clause to take back on your own.
Source: O. Reg. 567/05 (General) ss.13.4 and 13.5 under the Trust in Real Estate Services Act, 2002, Ontario e-Laws (current 2026); OREA Forms 210 and 272, Listing Agreement – Authority to Offer for Lease
I am Arthur Zhao. Picture this: it is nine at night, an e-signature link lands in a landlord’s inbox, and the listing agreement inside is already filled in. Dates, a commission figure, a share for the tenant’s agent, a number of holdover days, a fraction of rent for any renewal, a percentage if the tenant ever buys. Six blanks, all completed by someone else, all waiting for initials.
The fair question is not “is this normal?” but “which of these did the law decide, and which did my agent decide?” The short answer: Ontario law controls the shape of almost every blank and the number in almost none of them. Below I go through the form in the order you will meet each blank, using the wording of the OREA lease listing forms and the TRESA rules behind them.
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Blank 1 — MLS® or Exclusive: the first initials you give
Before the property address, the form asks you to initial one of two choices: a Multiple Listing Service® agreement or an Exclusive listing agreement. That initial decides where the listing lives, not what you owe. OREA’s explanatory notes on the form are careful here: listing on MLS® “may result in more offers being received, but this is not a guarantee.”
Two things this box does not change: the brokerage’s right is exclusive in both cases (the authority clause is the same printed text under either choice), and the commission clause is the same. If you are offered an Exclusive listing, ask what marketing will actually happen, because the box itself promises none.
Blank 2 — Start date, expiry date, and the initials next to the expiry
This is the one blank where the regulation is unusually specific about layout. O. Reg. 567/05 s.13.4(1) requires a written agreement with a seller to set out, clearly and prominently, the date it takes effect and the date it expires; the expiry date must be displayed prominently on the first page, and you must initial next to it. Section 13.4(2) adds that the agreement may contain only one expiry date.
The OREA forms build this in: the Listing Period runs from a start time you fill in to “11:59 p.m.” on the expiry day, with an initials box right there. The form also states that the length of the Listing Period is negotiable between you and the brokerage, and that an MLS® listing “may be subject to minimum requirements of the real estate board.” The length is a business term; the single expiry date and your initials beside it are legal requirements. Once both sides sign, s.13.7 requires that you be given a copy immediately.
Blank 3 — Total commission and the co-operating brokerage’s share
TRESA s.36(1) sets the form commission can take: an agreed amount, a percentage of the rental price, or a combination of both. Section 36(2) allows a sliding series of percentages that step down as the rent rises. What the Act does not do is set a rate. OREA’s explanatory notes on Form 210 say commission “may not be set by law, any government authority, or a real estate Board/Association but is fully negotiable.” Practice varies from brokerage to brokerage; the form simply leaves a blank.
Read the next blank as part of the same sentence. The co-operating brokerage’s commission (the tenant’s agent, if there is one) is paid by the listing brokerage out of the total, not on top of it. Three printed lines around these blanks matter:
- The total commission stays payable to the listing brokerage even if there is no co-operating brokerage.
- All commission is payable plus applicable taxes.
- It is due on the earlier of the tenant’s occupancy or the signing of the lease, and it is owed for a valid offer to lease obtained during the Listing Period “from any source whatsoever,” including a tenant you find yourself.
The regulation also requires the agreement to explain how commission to any other brokerage is determined, and any circumstance in which the amounts can change (s.13.4(1)1.ii and iii). If the pre-filled numbers do not tell you that, ask before you initial.
⚠️A pitch that is not allowed: “List it at $X; anything the tenant pays above that is my fee.” TRESA s.36(3) prohibits any registrant from requesting or entering into remuneration based on the difference between the listed rental price and the actual rental price, and bars them from keeping commission computed that way. The rent in the form is set “at the Landlord’s personal request,” and the commission must be an amount, a percentage, or both.
Blank 4 — The holdover days
The Holdover Period is a number of days after the Listing Period ends. If, within those days, you agree to a lease with anyone who was “introduced to the Property from any source whatsoever during the Listing Period or shown the Property during the Listing Period,” the commission is still owed. The definitions clause widens “anyone” to include that person’s spouse, heirs, successors, and related or affiliated corporations.
Two printed limits keep this from doubling up. If you lease under a new written commission agreement with another registered brokerage, your liability to the first brokerage is reduced by what you pay under the new one. And separately, if a signed deal falls through because of your default or neglect, the commission is still payable, on the earliest of occupancy, lease signing, or the date the tenancy was set to start.
The form puts no number in this blank. How many days are reasonable is a negotiation between you and the brokerage, not a rule.
Blank 5 — The further commission if the tenant renews or extends
This blank has no counterpart in the sale listing (OREA Form 200 has neither this clause nor the next). It reads: if a lease the listing brokerage arranges contains an option to extend or renew, you agree to notify the brokerage when the option is exercised and to pay, upon “said option or any future option,” a further commission of a blank amount “of the total rent for the term of such lease extension or renewal.” It is due on the earlier of signing the extension or renewal or the date it begins.
Notice the wording: “any future option.” The printed text does not cap how many renewals it covers. Notice also what the form does not address: a tenancy that simply carries on month to month in Ontario is not mentioned. If that difference matters to you, it is worth a real estate lawyer’s reading before you sign rather than after.
Blank 6 — The commission if your tenant buys the property
The last money blank: if a tenant the listing brokerage placed makes an offer to purchase the property “during the tenancy period or any renewal of the tenancy agreement,” you agree to pay a blank percentage “of the sale price of the Property” or a blank fixed amount.
The trigger is the tenant’s offer during the tenancy or any renewal, not the Listing Period. A tenancy that starts in the last week of a three-month listing and is renewed twice can keep this clause alive long after anyone remembers the listing.
💡 My own read: the two blanks landlords skim fastest, the renewal commission and the tenant-purchase commission, are the only ones that can stretch a payment obligation years past the day the listing ends. The headline rate is paid once, on move-in or lease signing. Blanks 5 and 6 are paid later, sometimes much later, and TRESA s.36 regulates only the form of commission (an amount, a percentage, or both, and no net-listing arrangement), not how far into the future it may reach. That is why I would read those two blanks word by word before the first one.
Who is actually representing you: Form 210 or Form 272
If you want out before the expiry date
Section 13.4(1)1.vii of the regulation asks the agreement to set out its termination terms, “if any.” The OREA lease listing forms have none: there is no clause that lets you end an exclusive and irrevocable authority on your own. What exists is a separate form, OREA Form 214, Cancellation of Listing Agreement – Authority to Offer for Lease, which works only by mutual consent. (Forms 212 and 213 cover amendments, extensions and suspensions.)
Form 214 releases both sides with one exception: if you later lease to anyone who was introduced to or shown the property while the agreement was in effect, and you agree to that lease within the original Listing Period or the Holdover Period, you must notify the brokerage immediately and pay the commission from the original agreement, reduced by anything you pay another brokerage under a new written agreement. The cancellation has no effect until it is signed by the brokerage’s Broker of Record or Manager.
Separately, TRESA s.33(1) prohibits any registrant from inducing you to break an agreement in order to sign another. If another agent encourages you to walk away from your current agreement so you can sign with them, that is exactly what s.33(1) prohibits.
🚨Signing a second brokerage before the first one expires: near the top of Forms 210 and 272 you initial a warranty that you are not party to any other listing agreement or agreement to pay commission to another brokerage for leasing the property. TRESA s.33(3) says a brokerage that knows the property is under another unexpired listing cannot claim remuneration from the seller unless the seller agrees in writing. (The regulation defines selling as disposing of an interest in real estate, and the Act’s definition of real estate includes leasehold interests, so a landlord appears to fall within “seller” here.) That protection lasts only until you sign. A second agreement that includes a written promise to pay, while the first exclusive authority is still running, can leave you facing two commission claims on one rental, and that risk sits with you, not with either agent.
Before you initial: the blanks by type
Sorted by what kind of blank it is, so you can read the form once for dates, once for money, and once for your initials.
- ☐Find the expiry date on page one and confirm it is the only expiry date anywhere in the agreement.
- ☐Count the holdover days and write down the last day they cover.
- ☐Note that commission falls due on occupancy or lease signing, whichever comes first.
- ☐Diarize the renewal date of any lease the brokerage arranges, because the further commission is due on signing or start of a renewal.
- ☐Read total commission and the co-operating share together; the share comes out of the total.
- ☐Add applicable taxes to every commission figure.
- ☐Read the renewal blank to see whether it is a fraction of the renewal-term rent, and how many renewals it covers.
- ☐Read the tenant-purchase blank as a percentage of the sale price or a fixed sum.
- ☐Ask how any amount can change, as s.13.4(1)1.iii requires the agreement to say.
- ☐Initial MLS® or Exclusive, not both.
- ☐Initial beside the expiry date.
- ☐Initial the statement that you are not party to any other listing or commission agreement only if it is true.
- ☐Initial the commission clause and Schedule A, and keep the copy you are owed under s.13.7.
- Trust in Real Estate Services Act, 2002, S.O. 2002, c. 30, Sched. C — ss.1(1), 33, 36 (Ontario e-Laws, current 2026)
- O. Reg. 567/05 (General) — ss.1(1), 13.4, 13.5, 13.7, 22, 22.0.1, 22.0.4 (Ontario e-Laws, current 2026)
- OREA Form 210, Listing Agreement – Landlord Representation Agreement – Authority to Offer for Lease (Forms Explained edition)
- OREA Form 272, Listing Agreement – Landlord Designated Representation Agreement – Authority to Offer for Lease (Forms Explained edition)
- OREA Form 214, Cancellation of Listing Agreement – Authority to Offer for Lease
How to Get Out of a Listing Agreement in Ontario: 3 Legal Ways to Cancel →Changing Your Ontario Listing Mid-Term: Price Drops, Extensions and Suspensions →Separate Agents Selling Vs Renting →First-Time Renter Guide →
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I make the listing period as long as I want, or put in two expiry dates?
The length is negotiable between you and the brokerage, though the form notes an MLS® listing may be subject to the real estate board’s minimum requirements. What is not negotiable is the number of expiry dates: O. Reg. 567/05 s.13.4(2) allows only one, and s.13.4(1) requires it on the first page with your initials beside it.
What is the difference between OREA Form 210 and Form 272 for a landlord?
Under Form 210 the brokerage itself represents you; under Form 272 a named designated representative represents you and the brokerage provides services but not representation, as s.13.4(1)1.v of O. Reg. 567/05 requires the form to state. The commission, holdover, renewal and tenant-purchase clauses are the same printed text in both. The practical difference shows up when the same brokerage also works for the tenant.
Can I cancel my rental listing early, and does the holdover still apply?
Only by agreement: the forms have no termination clause, and cancellation uses OREA Form 214, which both sides sign and the brokerage’s Broker of Record or Manager must approve. Form 214 keeps one obligation alive: if you lease to someone introduced to or shown the property during the agreement, within the original Listing Period or Holdover Period, you owe the original commission, reduced by any amount paid to a new brokerage under a written agreement.
If my tenant has no agent, does the listing brokerage still get the full commission?
Yes, as the forms are printed. Clause 2 of Forms 210 and 272 says the total commission is payable to the listing brokerage even if there is no co-operating brokerage, for example when the tenant is self-represented. OREA’s notes on the form say any case where the total commission is not charged is identified on a schedule to the agreement, so if you have negotiated otherwise, look for it there.
What does Ontario law require a listing agreement to include?
O. Reg. 567/05 s.13.4(1) lists seven items: the start and expiry dates, how commission (including any other brokerage’s share) is calculated, when those amounts can change, how commission is paid, the services provided, the designated representative details where applicable, and any termination terms. The duty is on the brokerage, which may not enter the agreement unless these are met. If something is missing, ask for it before you sign; if you have already signed, a real estate lawyer can tell you what that means for your agreement.
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