The 24-hour entry notice, and the three words that make it valid

01When entry is allowed

Section 27 of the Residential Tenancies Act lets a landlord enter a rental unit between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. after giving the tenant at least 24 hours of written notice. The notice must state the reason, the date, and a time of entry.

There are narrow exceptions where notice is not required: an emergency, the tenant consenting at the time of entry, cleaning where the tenancy agreement specifically schedules it, and showing the unit after a notice of termination has been given, subject to its own conditions.

Most disputes at the Landlord and Tenant Board come from landlords stretching those exceptions rather than just sending the notice. Sending the notice is free.

02What a valid notice contains

A compliant entry notice is short and specific. Vague language is the most common reason a tenant successfully challenges an entry, and vague usually means the time.

• The tenant's name and the full unit address
• The specific reason for entry: a named repair, an inspection, a showing, a contractor visit
• The exact date of entry
• A specific time window inside 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., such as 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
• Your name, or your agent's, and a way to reach you
• The date the notice was actually delivered

03The mistakes that void it

• Counting the 24 hours from when the notice was written rather than delivered
• Giving a full-day window instead of a specific block
• Reusing one notice for several entries spread across a week
• Listing a reason as vague as maintenance with no detail
• Sending it only through a channel the tenant has not agreed to
• Entering at 7:45 a.m. because the contractor arrived early

04What it costs when you skip it

A tenant can file a T2 application for substantial interference with reasonable enjoyment if a landlord enters without proper notice. Remedies include a rent abatement, an order restricting future entries, and in serious cases a fine. Repeat violations are treated more seriously.

If you cannot produce a copy of the notice and a record of how it was delivered, the Board generally accepts the tenant's account. That is the operational risk here. It is not the law that fails landlords, it is the paper trail.

05Stop writing them from scratch

The fix is not legal knowledge. It is a template, a delivery log, and one place the signed copy lives. Almost every defect above comes from writing a notice quickly, in a hurry, in a text box that does not prompt you for a time.

In TenantBay, entry notices sit in the Visits module alongside the tenant record, so the reason, the date, the time window and the delivery timestamp all attach to the unit and the tenant. When a question comes up months later, the history is already there instead of buried in a personal inbox.