CN Tower framed between brick apartment towers in downtown Toronto at sunset

Ontario Rental Rules Change September 21, 2026

October 07, 2026•18 min read

On 21 September 2026, the second proclaimed wave of Ontario’s Bill 60 rental amendments takes effect. Two traps are already showing up in landlord forums and secondary guides: serving a 7-day N4 before that date (the current published LTB form still says 14 days for monthly rent), and treating a 120-day N12 as a free pass to skip compensation on every “I need the unit” file. This page is for Toronto, East York, North York, and Etobicoke investor landlords who want the Ontario rental rules change September 21 2026 in statute language, not blog consensus.

Last updated: 25 August 2026
Reviewed by: Oliver Subak, Principal, Property Management Partners

Want a second set of eyes on which notice you can serve this week, and which file has to wait until 21 September? Book a free discovery call: https://propertymanagmentgta.com/discovery-call-page.

What the 21 September 2026 wave actually is

Bill 60, the Fighting Delays, Building Faster Act, 2025, S.O. 2025, c. 14, amends the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006 in Schedule 12. Those amendments do not all start on one day. The province named dates by Order in Council.

1 July 2026 already happened. Order in Council 616/2026 put Schedule 12 sections 1, 11 and 13 in force that day (Board-approved notice form; 15-day review; related regulation power). Tribunals Ontario’s 30 June 2026 operational update lists the July process items (review window, Payment Agreement form, window/portable A/C rules, doubled maximum fines, faster AGI service). That page says other changes “are to take effect in September 2026.” It does not itemize N4, N12, or fixed-term leases.

21 September 2026 is the next named date, from two later orders:

OIC 618/2026 (ordered 16 April 2026) names 21 September for Schedule 12 s. 2, 4 and 14. In the enacted bill, s. 2 is the new RTA 48.1(2) 120-day own-use compensation exception; s. 4 is the new RTA 59(1) 7-day non-payment notice; s. 14 is a transition-regulation power.
OIC 1114/2026 (approved 16 July 2026; published 30 July 2026) names 21 September for Schedule 12 s. 3, 5 to 8, 10 and 12. That cluster includes the 50% arrears pay-in (s. 6 → RTA 82), the persistent-late regulation hook, and limits on set-aside / relief from eviction.

A third 21 September cluster exists, but it is Bill 97, not Bill 60: OIC 1115/2026 (and earlier OIC 617) for renovation / right-of-first-refusal notice rules. Do not fold those into “the N4/N12 change.”

The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing’s 27 April 2026 stakeholder memo (ADM David McLean) already listed the 120-day personal-use path and the 14-to-7 N4 change for 21 September. Remaining items were still TBD on that date: before OIC 1114 and 1115 were made.

At Property Management Partners, 21 September is a notice-calendar problem for investor-owned houses, walk-ups, investor condos, and multiplexes. You remain the landlord under Ontario law. A manager’s job, when you want one, is to serve the form that still exists on the day you serve it.

Four things every Greater Toronto Area landlord should know before 21 September

A 7-day N4 served before 21 September can void the file. Notices given under the old RTA 59(1) stay on the old clock. The LTB N4 PDF published on 25 August 2026 is still v. 01/04/2022 and still tells landlords to give 14 days when rent is paid by the month or year.
The 60-day N12 plus compensation path is not repealed. 120 days is an optional longer own-use route that removes the s. 48.1 duty. It is not the new minimum, and it is not every N12.
Current LTB forms have not been rewritten for 21 September. The forms index still lists the same N4 and N12 instruction + PDF links. Do not treat the PDF in your downloads folder as already updated.
Fixed-term leases have not been shown to stop converting to month-to-month. Some guides state that conversion ends on 21 September. Enacted Bill 60 Schedule 12 contains no such section. Name that as a conflict; do not plan a clean vacant possession at term-end on the strength of a blog.

Three-storey brick walk-up apartment on a Toronto street corner with a condo tower behind it

Jargon fence: N4, N12, 48.1, L1, OIC

Form N4. LTB Notice to End your Tenancy Early for Non-payment of Rent. It is a notice. It is not an eviction order, a lock change, or a sheriff’s file. The current N4 “WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW” block says the tenant does not have to move out and that the landlord may apply to the Board after the termination date.

Form N12. LTB Notice to End your Tenancy Because the Landlord, a Purchaser or a Family Member Requires the Rental Unit. Reason 1 is landlord / spouse / child / parent / caregiver (RTA s. 48 own use). Reason 2 is purchaser and the purchaser’s family (RTA s. 49). Those are different sections.

RTA 48.1, the duty to compensate (usually one month’s rent) or offer another acceptable unit on a qualifying own-use ending. New 48.1(2) (Bill 60 Sch. 12 s. 2) turns that duty off only when the statutory 120-day own-use conditions are met.

Form L1, the landlord’s application to the LTB after an N4, if rent is still unpaid past the termination date. The N4 does not do this work by itself.

Order in Council (OIC), the cabinet instrument that names the in-force day. Blog dates are not a substitute. For this wave: OIC 618 (N4 / own-use N12 exception) and OIC 1114 (50% pay-in and related Board rules).

50% arrears pay-in, at an L1 hearing based on an N4, the Board will hear the tenant’s other issues only if the tenant has paid half of the rent arrears claimed in the application when it was filed, plus the other s. 82 conditions. Proclaimed 21 September 2026, not 1 July.

60-day N12 vs 120-day own-use N12 (a list, not a table)

These are two lawful tracks after 21 September. They are not the same notice.

60-day path (still exists)

Still the statutory minimum on the current N12 PDF (v. 01/04/2022): termination at least 60 days after the notice is given.
Termination still falls on the last day of a rental period, or, if the tenancy is fixed-term, not earlier than the end of the term.
The landlord must pay one month’s rent in compensation by the termination date or offer another acceptable rental unit. The published N12 still says “must.”
Available for the N12 reasons the form already lists, including purchaser-use (Reason 2), which is not inside the new 48.1(2) waiver.

120-day own-use path (new optional exception)

Written into new RTA 48.1(2) for a notice given under section 48 (landlord own use / Reason 1).
The notice must be given on or after 21 September 2026 (the day Sch. 12 s. 2 comes into force).
The termination date must be at least 120 days after the notice is given.
The termination date must fall on the last day of a rental period or, if fixed-term, the end of the term.
If those conditions are met, the duty to compensate or offer another unit does not apply.
Does not cover purchaser-use (s. 49 / N12 Reason 2).
Does not cover N13 renovations. N13 compensation and the Bill 97 notice package are a different file.

If you need the unit for a purchaser, or you are serving an N13, do not borrow the 120-day waiver from an own-use paragraph you read online.

Red-brick Toronto multiplex with white porch and balcony on an East York residential street

What this page is not (scope fence)

Not legal advice. Contested good-faith N12s, assignments, care homes, social housing, and files already at the Board belong with the LTB, a lawyer, or a licensed paralegal.
Not a Property Management Partners fee menu. No management percentages or package prices appear here. See book a discovery call for how full-service investor management is scoped.
Not condo-board / condominium-corporation management. Property Management Partners is investor-first residential management, not board or common-element management.
Not this week’s rent-increase / N1 guide. Guideline percentages and how to fill an N1 are a different post and a different form (Ontario rent increase guideline 2026). This page stays on the 21 September notice rules.
Not a rewrite of every RTA rule. Persistent-late payment will be “determined in accordance with the regulations, if any.” O. Reg. 241/26’s published example (unpaid more than 7 days after the due date on at least three occasions in any six-month period) is an inclusive example, not a hard three-strike slogan. Stay light until you read the live regulation the week you file.
Not “Bill 60 ends security of tenure.” That claim is the main secondary-source conflict. It is not in the enacted Schedule 12 text read for this draft.

The fixed-term rumour (name the conflict)

Some secondary guides: notably OntarioLandlord: state as fact that on 21 September “fixed-term leases will no longer automatically convert to month-to-month.” Other pages (Found Spaces, Nihang Law, RentZen) say the government dropped the security-of-tenure / “lease simply ends” proposal and that evergreen conversion is unchanged.

What the official text shows: enacted Bill 60 Schedule 12 contains no section that ends auto-conversion. OIC 618 and OIC 1114 do not proclaim one. Until a consolidated RTA section or an LTB form says otherwise, conversion has not been shown to change. Do not promise yourself, a buyer, or a lender a vacant unit on the last day of the term.

If you are selling an occupied rental, that is still an N12 (purchaser-use) or an agreed ending, not a term-expiry eviction. Talk through the file on a discovery call, or start with investor questions on the Property Management Partners FAQ.

Failure modes landlords get wrong

These void or weaken a file more often than “I used the wrong year on the calendar.”

Serving a 7-day N4 before 21 September 2026. The old 14-day monthly rule still governs notices given before that day. An early 7-day notice can be defective.
Treating the N4 as an eviction. The tenant does not have to move on the N4. Changing locks, removing property, or “self-helping” after day 7 (or day 14) is a different, and serious: problem. The legal next step is usually an L1 after the termination date, if rent is still unpaid.
Recycling the v. 01/04/2022 PDF after 21 September without checking whether LTB issued a new one. The form on your laptop is not the statute. Pull the live file from Tribunals Ontario’s LTB forms page the morning you serve.
Skipping compensation on a 60-day N12. The 120-day exception is optional and narrow. A 60-day own-use notice still carries the s. 48.1 duty unless a different statutory exception already applied.
Applying the 120-day waiver to purchaser-use or to an N13. 48.1(2) is written for notice under section 48. Reason 2 and renovation files are not that section.
Planning around “the lease just ends” on 21 September. That is the rumour. It is not in Schedule 12.
Dating the 50% arrears pay-in to 1 July 2026. OIC 1114 names 21 September. Applications made before that day stay on old s. 82 even if the hearing is later.
No proof of service when the tenant says they never received the notice.
A termination date that is not the last day of the rental period (or, on a fixed term, not the end of the term) on an N12.

Absentee owners feel these failures hardest: by the time someone flags a void N4 or an unpaid N12 compensation, the next lawful window can be another full notice period away.

Short subsection: the 50% arrears pay-in (21 September, not 1 July)

Bill 60 Schedule 12 s. 6 re-enacts RTA 82. At an L1 hearing based on an N4, the Board permits the tenant to raise other issues only if the tenant complies with 82(2), including paying half of any rent arrears claimed in the application when it was filed, before the hearing and according to any prescribed timelines.

Proclamation: OIC 1114/2026, 21 September 2026. Secondary pages that put this on 1 July, that say it is already live, or that say it has no date, conflict with that order.

Transition: new 82(4) to (5) keep the old s. 82 on applications made before the day s. 6 comes into force, even if the hearing sits after 21 September. File date controls, not hearing date.

This is a hearing rule, not a reason to serve a short N4. It does not turn an N4 into an eviction.

Process sequence: what to do before 21 September, and the morning the rules start

Date the file, not the rumour. Ask one question first: will this notice be given before 21 September, or on/after that day? Service date, not the termination date, is what sorts old rules from new ones on the N4 and on the 120-day N12 exception.
Classify the notice. Arrears → N4. Landlord or family moving in → N12 Reason 1 (s. 48). Purchaser needs the unit → N12 Reason 2 (s. 49). Demolition / conversion / repairs so extensive the unit will be vacant → N13. Do not mix the compensation rules.
Pull the current LTB PDF from tribunalsontario.ca/ltb/forms. Do not reuse a 2022 to 2025 download without opening the live file.
If it is an N4 before 21 September: use the 14-day monthly/yearly period the current form still prints (7 days only if rent is paid by the day or week). Write a termination date that is not earlier than the statute allows. Serve by an allowed method. Keep proof. The tenant may pay and void the notice; that is the point of an N4.
If it is an N4 on or after 21 September: the new s. 59(1) lets the termination date be not earlier than the 7th day after the notice is given. Confirm the live form that morning. Still a notice, not an eviction. If rent remains unpaid after the termination date, the usual next step is an L1.
If it is an own-use N12: choose the track on purpose. 60 days + compensation or another acceptable unit, or 120 days and no s. 48.1 duty, if every 48.1(2) condition is met and the notice is given on/after 21 September. Do not skip the cheque on a 60-day notice because you “heard compensation is gone.”
If it is purchaser-use or N13: budget compensation (and, for N13, the Bill 97 written-notice / 60-day re-occupy package) as a separate file. The 120-day own-use waiver does not travel.
Serve and prove service. Follow the form instructions. Mail adds deemed-service days: build buffer.
Do not treat term-end as vacant possession. Unless the tenant has given a valid notice, agreed to end, or the Board has ordered it, a fixed term that expires is still the conversion the Act already provides, unless and until a proclaimed section says otherwise.
If you manage from another city or country, assign who signs as landlord or representative and where the original notice and proof of service are filed.

Modern mid-rise condo with light brick and glass balconies in North York, Toronto

Related September 21 items that are not the N4 / N12 spine

Bill 97 (Helping Homebuyers, Protecting Tenants Act, 2023) tightens renovation communication: written estimated-completion / change / unit-ready notices, at least 60 days to re-occupy, and a longer window to apply if the landlord fails those notices. OIC 1115 and OIC 617 put pieces of that package on 21 September. The separate “qualified report must accompany the N13” item is not shown as a 21 September item in the April MMAH memo. Do not use this paragraph as an N13 how-to.

Persistent-late payment and the prescribed limits on postponing eviction enforcement also sit in the OIC 1114 / O. Reg. 241/26 cluster. They are real. They are easy to over-quote from a blog’s “three-strike N8” headline. Read the regulation when you have that file.

Who should book a discovery call, and who should not (yet)

Book a call if you own investor residential doors in Toronto, East York, North York, or Etobicoke; you have an arrears file or an own-use / sale file sitting across 21 September; you serve notices from out of town; or you want N4 / N12 calendars inside full-service management: discovery call. How Property Management Partners works: Property Management Partners FAQ. Local pages: Toronto, North York, Etobicoke.

Do not book expecting a fee quote here: we do not publish rate cards in educational posts. Do not treat this as LTB representation on a contested N12 good-faith hearing or a lockout.

Consult-led plan if you want it handled

On a discovery call we map each door’s notice type, last service date, and whether the file must stay on the old 14-day / 60-day + compensation rules or can use the 21 September tracks; we confirm N4 vs N12 Reason 1 vs Reason 2 vs N13; and, if you proceed under book a discovery call: fold notice service into the absentee-owner operating loop. Either way: a valid notice beats a rushed one.

Local pages (HTTP-confirmed on this domain): Toronto property management, North York property management, Etobicoke property management, and investor services.

For related investor questions (not the 2026 dates), see the Property Management Partners FAQ. For Form N5 depth, see Ontario Form N5 2026. For Toronto renovation licences after an N13, see Toronto rental renovation licence.

FAQ

What changes for Ontario landlords on September 21, 2026?

Two Bill 60 clusters take effect on 21 September 2026. OIC 618/2026 brings in the 7-day N4 (new RTA 59(1)) and the optional 120-day own-use N12 path that turns off the s. 48.1 compensation duty (new RTA 48.1(2)). OIC 1114/2026 brings in the 50% arrears pay-in at certain L1 hearings and related Board rules. A separate Bill 97 package (renovation / right-of-first-refusal notices) also uses that date. Fixed-term auto-conversion to month-to-month has not been shown to change in enacted Schedule 12.

Is the N4 notice period still 14 days or 7 days, and can I serve a 7-day N4 before September 21?

Until 21 September 2026, use the rules on the current LTB N4 (v. 01/04/2022): 14 days if rent is paid by the month or year, 7 days if paid by the day or week. Serving a 7-day N4 on a monthly tenancy before 21 September can make the notice defective. On or after 21 September, new RTA 59(1) allows a termination date not earlier than the 7th day after the notice is given. An N4 remains a notice, not an eviction. Confirm the live PDF the morning you serve.

Do I still need to pay one month’s N12 compensation after September 21, 2026?

Often, yes. The 60-day N12 plus one month’s compensation (or another acceptable unit) still exists. The new exception applies only if you give a section 48 own-use notice on or after 21 September, the termination date is at least 120 days later, and that date is the last day of a rental period or the end of a fixed term. It does not apply to purchaser-use N12s or to N13s. The current N12 PDF still says the landlord must compensate.

Can my landlord evict me (or can I end a tenancy) just because a fixed-term lease ended?

Not on the strength of 21 September 2026. Some guides say fixed-term leases will stop converting to month-to-month that day. Other guides say the government dropped that proposal. Enacted Bill 60 Schedule 12 has no section ending auto-conversion, and the 21 September orders do not proclaim one. Conversion has not been shown to change. A landlord who wants the unit for their own use still needs a valid N12 (and, on the 60-day track, compensation). A tenant who wants to leave still needs a valid tenant notice or an agreement to end.

If a tenant wants to raise repairs at a non-payment hearing, do they now have to pay 50% of the arrears first?

Starting 21 September 2026, not 1 July: new RTA 82 (Bill 60 Sch. 12 s. 6; OIC 1114/2026) says the Board permits tenant issues at an L1 hearing based on an N4 only if the tenant complies with 82(2), including paying half of the rent arrears claimed in the application when it was filed. Applications filed before 21 September stay on the old s. 82 even if the hearing is later. This is a hearing rule. It does not replace a valid N4.

Do the current LTB N4 and N12 forms already show the September 21 rules?

No. As of 25 August 2026 the LTB forms index still lists the existing N4 and N12, and both PDFs are still v. 01/04/2022. The N4 still prints the 14-day monthly period. The N12 still prints 60 days and says the landlord must compensate or offer another unit. Re-download from Tribunals Ontario immediately before you serve anything on or after 21 September.