Ontario's September 21 rule changes, and one claim going around that is simply wrong

01Three changes, one date

On September 21, 2026, the second wave of Bill 60 amendments to Ontario's Residential Tenancies Act comes into force, alongside a regulation that adds a deadline nobody had to meet before. The first wave already landed on July 1.

Three things change. The termination period on an N4 non-payment notice drops from fourteen days to seven. A person named in an N12 personal-use notice has to actually move in within sixty days, or the notice is presumed to have been given in bad faith. And the mandatory one month's compensation on a personal-use eviction falls away when a landlord gives at least 120 days' notice.

Two of those help a landlord move faster or spend less. The third creates a real, dated obligation that did not exist before, and it is the one most likely to cost someone who is not paying attention.

02The N4 drops to seven days

Today, an N4 for non-payment of rent has to specify a termination date at least fourteen days after the notice is given, except on daily or weekly tenancies, which have always been seven. From September 21, the seven-day period applies across the board.

The practical effect is that you can file an L1 application roughly a week sooner. Across a year of arrears files, that is a meaningful compression of the timeline.

What has not changed is more important than what has. The N4 is still voided if the tenant pays everything owing by the termination date. The shorter window does not make the notice harder to cure, it just gives the tenant less time to find the money. The Board also keeps its discretion under section 83 to refuse or delay an eviction, and that discretion is exactly where a rushed, sloppy notice gets punished.

• Serve a seven-day N4 before September 21 and the notice is defective. The old fourteen-day minimum still governs until then.
• The arrears figure and the rental period math on the form are unchanged. Only the termination date moves.
• Payment in full by the termination date still voids the notice, exactly as it does now.
• Section 83 relief from eviction is untouched.
• Deemed service still applies. Mail adds five days before the seven starts running.

TenantBay calculator

Pick the form, get the earliest lawful date

Almost every notice thrown out at the Landlord and Tenant Board is thrown out on a date, not on the facts. Two things move that date: mail adds five days before the clock even starts, and some forms have to land on the last day of a rental period.

The notice

Which form?

N4N5N6N7N8N12N13N1

Date you are giving the notice

How is it being delivered?

Handed to the tenantLeft in the mailboxCourier (next business day)Canada Post (adds 5 days)

This is a weekly or daily tenancy.

Earliest lawful termination date

Pick a form and a service date.

Notice periods are from the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006 and O. Reg. 516/06. This gives you the earliest date the Act allows. It does not tell you whether you have grounds, and it is not legal advice.

03The N12 now comes with a 60-day clock

This is the change that creates new exposure, and it runs in the opposite direction from the other two.

Under the new regulation, the person named in an N12, whether that is you, a family member, or a purchaser, has sixty days to occupy the unit. The clock starts on the termination date in the notice, or on the day the tenant actually moves out if that is later. Miss it, and the notice is presumed to have been given in bad faith.

That presumption is rebuttable. You can still show a genuine intention that was frustrated by something real: a closing that collapsed, a renovation that could not be permitted, a family circumstance that changed. But the burden has moved. Before, a tenant alleging bad faith had to build the case. Now, a missed deadline builds the first half of it for them.

The stakes are not trivial. Where the Board finds an N12 was given in bad faith it can order you to compensate the tenant for the rent difference they pay elsewhere for up to a year, their moving and storage costs, and a rent abatement. Separately from anything the tenant receives, it can order an administrative fine payable to the Board, capped at the monetary jurisdiction of the Small Claims Court, which rose to $50,000 on October 1, 2025.

04Compensation falls away at 120 days' notice

Today, a personal-use eviction under section 48 obliges you to pay the tenant one month's rent in compensation, or offer an acceptable alternative unit. From September 21 there is an exception: give at least 120 days' notice, with the termination date falling at the end of a rental period or fixed term, and the compensation requirement does not apply.

This is a straightforward trade the legislature is offering. Four months of certainty for the tenant, in exchange for one month's rent for you. On a $2,400 unit, planning four months ahead instead of two is worth $2,400.

It only pays if the notice is correct. A 120-day notice whose termination date lands mid-period does not qualify for the exception, and a landlord who withheld compensation on that basis is simply a landlord who did not pay compensation.

05What is not changing: fixed-term leases still roll over

A number of landlord-facing sites are currently saying that fixed-term leases will stop automatically converting to month-to-month on September 21. That is wrong, and acting on it would be a serious mistake.

The province floated ending Ontario's evergreen lease framework early in Bill 60's life and withdrew it within days, before second reading, after substantial pushback. Section 38 of the Residential Tenancies Act was never amended. When a fixed term ends, the tenancy continues month to month on the same terms, and a landlord cannot end it by simply declining to renew.

A landlord who tells a tenant their tenancy ends when the lease term expires is making a claim the Act does not support, and a tenant who moves out on that basis has been given bad information. Nothing about September 21 changes this.

06What already changed on July 1

The September wave is the second half of a rollout. If the first half passed you by, these have been in force since July 1, 2026 and are already governing files at the Board.

• Requests to review an LTB order must be filed within 15 days, down from 30
• Above-guideline increase documents must be served within 7 days rather than 14, with the certificate of service filed within 5 days after
• Repayment plans must use the Board's mandatory Payment Agreement Form under section 206, so informal side agreements no longer qualify
• Tenants may install a window or portable air conditioner on written notice where it is safe and non-damaging, and landlords may charge a seasonal amount for electricity where hydro is included in rent
• Maximum fines for offences under section 236 doubled, to $100,000 for an individual and $500,000 for a corporation

07What to do between now and September 21

• Diarize September 21 and do not serve a seven-day N4 before it. The old minimum governs until then.
• Audit any N12 you are considering. If the occupant cannot realistically move in within sixty days of the termination date, wait.
• For personal-use notices you can plan ahead, model the 120-day route. It is one month's rent.
• Re-check your lease renewal language and any tenant communication that implies a fixed term simply ends.
• Make sure your July 1 obligations are already in place, particularly the mandatory Payment Agreement Form.

08Keeping the dates provable

Every one of these changes is a date problem. When the notice was given, what termination date it specified, when the tenant actually vacated, when the occupant moved in. The new sixty-day rule in particular turns a record-keeping habit into a legal defence.

TenantBay keeps notices, leases, payments and tenancy history against the property they belong to, so the sequence is reconstructable months later without digging through email. That is the entire reason it matters here.