In Ontario your fixed-term lease already became month to month

01What actually happens on the last day of the term

Nothing. That is the honest answer, and it surprises landlords who have rented anywhere else in North America.

Section 38 of the Residential Tenancies Act says that when a fixed term ends and neither side has ended the tenancy under the Act, it is deemed to continue on the same terms as a periodic tenancy. Which period depends on how rent is paid: monthly rent rolls to a monthly tenancy, weekly rent to a weekly one. For almost every residential lease in Ontario that means month to month. The tenant does not have to move, does not have to re-sign, and does not have to ask.

So there is no renewal decision to make. You can offer a new fixed term if you want one, and a tenant can decline it and simply stay monthly. Declining is not a breach of anything.

02The rule survived a serious attempt to change it

If you saw headlines in late 2025 suggesting this was ending, you saw the beginning of a story that stopped three days later.

Bill 60 was introduced on October 23, 2025 and floated consulting on alternatives to Ontario's security of tenure framework, which is what makes the automatic rollover work. On October 26, after substantial pushback, the government said it would not proceed. The provision never reached second reading and section 38 was never amended.

Bill 60 did change plenty of other things, and some of those land on September 21, 2026. This is not one of them. Anything you read claiming fixed terms stop converting on that date is wrong.

03What each side has to do to actually end it

The asymmetry is the point. A tenant can end a monthly tenancy for no reason at all with 60 days' notice. You cannot. You need a ground the Act recognises, the correct form, and a termination date that survives arithmetic.

A tenant generally cannot break a fixed term early either. The routes out are narrow and specific: you agree to end it on Form N11, the tenancy is assigned or sublet, you failed to provide the standard lease after a written demand, or the tenant is leaving a situation of domestic or sexual violence. A tenant can also apply to the Board to end a tenancy early where a landlord has breached their own obligations, which is a decision for the Board rather than something that happens automatically.

04Where the money question actually lands

TenantBay calculator

What can you actually raise the rent to?

Three rules decide every Ontario rent increase: the guideline for the year the increase takes effect, 90 days of written notice on Form N1, and 12 months since the last increase. Miss any one of them and the increase is void.

Your tenancy

Current monthly rent$Last increase, or the day the tenancy startedWhichever came later.

How will you deliver the N1?

By handCourier (next business day)Mail (+5 days)

This unit was first occupied after November 15, 2018, so it is exempt from the guideline cap.

What the law allows

Put in the rent and the date of the last increase. You will get the maximum lawful rent, the earliest date it can take effect, and the day the notice has to be out the door.

General information about the Residential Tenancies Act, not legal advice. Confirm the guideline and the current N1 form with the Landlord and Tenant Board before you serve anything.

05So is a fixed term worth signing at all?

Yes, for one specific reason: during a fixed term the tenant cannot end the tenancy at will. That is real certainty for the length of the term, and it is the only thing the term actually buys you.

What it does not buy is an exit. At the end you are in the same position you would have been in with a monthly tenancy from the start.

So sign a term where the certainty matters, in a market where turnover is expensive or the unit is hard to fill in a given season. Do not sign one believing it gives you a decision point at the end, because it does not.

• Set the rent you are willing to live with for a year, because you cannot raise it mid-term
• Diarize the 12-month increase window from the start of the tenancy, not from the end of the term
• Keep the deposit topped up and the annual interest settled, because the rollover does not reset any of that
• Stop using the word renewal in tenant communication, because it implies a decision neither of you has

06The part that quietly gets expensive

Rollovers are where records go stale. The lease in the folder says the term ended in 2023, the rent on it is two increases out of date, and the deposit has never been touched. Then something goes wrong and the file you hand over is three years behind reality.

TenantBay carries the tenancy rather than the document: current rent, rent history, last increase date, deposit balance, and the executed lease all on one record that keeps going when the term does. The increase window opens on its own, and the year-end totals come out of the same place.