Above-guideline increases: run the number before you spend the weekend

01What an AGI is, and what it is not

An above-guideline increase is an application to the Landlord and Tenant Board under section 126 of the Act to raise rent by more than the annual guideline. There are three grounds: eligible capital expenditures, an extraordinary increase in municipal taxes and charges, and the cost of security services.

It is not a way to pass a renovation bill through to tenants. The Board does not look at what you spent and divide it by twelve. It looks at whether the work qualifies, spreads it over the useful life the regulation assigns to that class of work, splits it across every unit the work benefits, and then applies a hard cap.

02The arithmetic that decides it

Here is a realistic example. A six unit building needs a new roof. The roof costs $60,000, the regulation assigns roofing a useful life measured in decades, and the average rent is $1,800.

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Would an above-guideline increase actually be worth it?

An AGI spreads eligible spend over the useful life of the work, splits it across every unit the work benefits, and caps the result at 3% of the rent a year. Run your own numbers before you commit to the application.

The work

Eligible capital spend$Roof, boiler, windows, structural work. Not cosmetic upgrades and not routine repairs.Units in the complexThe cost is shared across every unit the work benefits, not just the vacant one.Useful life in yearsSet by regulation for each class of work. A roof is commonly 15 to 25 years.Current monthly rent for one unit$

What the Board could approve

Fill in the spend, the unit count, and one unit's rent. You will see the percentage the work justifies, and how much of it the 3% cap actually lets you take.

Based on section 126 of the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006 and O. Reg. 516/06. Useful life is set by regulation for each class of work, so treat the field below as an estimate and check the schedule before filing. Not legal advice.

03Where most small landlords land

04What actually qualifies

And the exclusions, which are where most applications die: work that is substantially cosmetic, work that is routine or ordinary, and work that became necessary because the landlord did not keep up with maintenance obligations in the first place.

You also need the paper. Itemised invoices, proof of payment, and evidence tying the work to the units it benefits. Where the expenditure is claimed as necessary for structural integrity, health, safety or a vital service, expect to need a professional report saying so.

• Work necessary to protect or restore the physical integrity of the complex
• Work needed to comply with health, safety or maintenance standards
• Work that provides access for people with disabilities
• Work that promotes energy or water conservation
• Work that maintains or improves security

05What is proposed, and what is not law

Bill 82, the Protecting Renters from Unfair Above Guideline Rent Increases Act, 2026, would have added engineering report requirements, excluded prestige and luxury work explicitly, and let the Board dismiss applications causing undue hardship. It lost its second reading vote on March 26, 2026.

It is not law and there is no in-force date to plan around. It is worth knowing about because the direction of travel on AGIs has been one way for several years, and a capital plan built on a decade of AGI recovery is a plan with political risk in it.

06Keep the invoices where the building is

An AGI application is a documentation exercise more than a legal one. The work that makes it survivable happens years earlier, when the invoice arrives and somebody decides where to put it.

In TenantBay, expenses attach to the property, with the vendor, the date, the amount and the file. That is the same record that feeds the year-end statement and the CRA T776 package, so the filing you already have to do is also the filing that supports an application if you ever make one. Two jobs, one habit.