‘A brand new day for tenants:' Toronto's rental bylaw takes effect next week. Here is what you need to know

CTV News

4 days ago

Posters from Toronto's ad campaign notifying citizens of the new rental bylaw. (Credit: City of Toronto)
A new Toronto bylaw to protect tenants from what Mayor Olivia Chow is calling 'bogus' renovictions officially goes into effect next week.
The bylaw, which was overwhelmingly approved by Toronto City Council in November, would work to combat what Chow says are 'bad faith' evictions by putting the onus on landlords to prove why a unit needs to be emptied while renovations take place.
'Every time I'm out in the streets I hear of tenants being evicted for bogus excuses,' Chow said during a press conference at Toronto City Hall on Friday highlighting the new bylaw.
'Well actually, the real reason for the eviction in some cases is that the landlord can then find new tenants and raise the rent significantly.'
The new bylaw comes into effect on July 31.
Here is what you need to know about renovictions and how the city is hoping to combat them:
What is a 'renoviction?'
There are two types of evictions in Ontario - behavior and no fault. Behaviour evictions are for things like failing to pay rent or following the terms of a lease.
But a landlord can evict a tenant for two other main reasons - if they want to move themselves or a member of their immediate family into the property, or if they want to renovate the property.
Renovating the property often gives the landlord the opportunity to significantly hike what they charge tenants beyond what is allowed under Ontario's rent control legislation, many tenant advocates argue.
That legislation otherwise applies to most rental units in Ontario with the exception of newer units that were occupied for the first time after 2018.
In 2025, the maximum that landlords were allowed to increase rent without seeking an exemption from the province for an above guideline increase was 2.5 per cent.
Chow said that 'too often landlords try to take advantage of tenants who may not fully understand their legal rights.'
She said that in some cases landlords are held accountable for unnecessary evictions and can face significant fines but in many other cases get away with it.
'For many tenants, this renoviction bylaw will prevent them from being wrongfully, illegally evicted from their homes,' Chow said.
'A brand new day for tenants,' city officials say
Under the new bylaw, landlords 'will have to prove' that the unit needs to be empty for any potential renovations.
They would do so by applying for a rental renovation licence at city hall, with that application having to be submitted within seven days of giving formal notice to tenants. As part of that process, they will be expected submit a report 'from a qualified person identifying that the renovation or maintenance work is so extensive that the tenant must leave the unit,' as well as a plan to either compensate the tenant or provide them with alternate accommodations during the renovations.
They would also have to provide moving allowances to impacted tenants and agree to provide them with some form of 'severance compensation' in cases where they choose not to return to the unit after the work is complete.
The city will also charge landlords a $700 application fee to cover its administrative costs.
'What's fair is if a landlord really does need to take out all the walls and change all the HVAC than that's fair that you would have to leave your apartment,' Coun. Paula Fletcher explained.
'For such a long time it's been very unfair and stacked against tenants.'
But Fletcher said if a landlord just wants 'to get a tenant out in order to raise the rent and you don't need to do those things then that's unfair.'
Under the previous system, all landlords had to do in order to evict a tenant for renovations was issue them what is called a N13 notice, provide them adequate notice and provide them with a right of first refusal to move back in once the renovations are complete.
If the tenant wanted to fight the eviction, they would have to take their case to Ontario's Landlord Tenant Board.
'There you are wondering what you're going to do next, trying to fight the landlord tenant board by yourself, well the rescue is here,' Fletcher said to tenants.
To landlords Fletcher said, 'the renovictions bylaw means that fairness will be the very baseline of everything that happens. You will have to prove that you really need that apartment empty.'
What does a renoviction look like?
Around Toronto there is 'story after story of people being illegally, unlawfully evicted to no fault of their own,' said Michael Cuadra the Co-Chair of the Western Chapter of Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN).
Yaroslava Montenegro, the Executive Director of the Federation of Metro Tenants, discussed her family's near-renoviction story as part of the bylaw announcement today.
'During the pandemic my parent's landlord demanded to remodel the upstairs plumbing through our washroom ceiling. My father at the time was in the ICU trying to survive COVID, my mother barely survived at home,' she said.
When the landlord came back later with an eviction notice, Montenegro and her mother had no choice but to let the renovation happen.
'By the time that we let them in to avoid the eviction, my father had passed. We pleaded with the landlord to postpone the construction as he had passed just a day or two earlier but they went ahead anyway.'
'July 31 marks four years and a day since my father passed. It also marks when the renoviction bylaw comes into effect. I think there's some poetic justice in that.'
Montenegro praised her building's tenancy organization who she said, 'fought tooth and nail to keep people housed in our building because we were not the only ones dealing with this issue.'
Not everyone every renter has that same support network, as CP24 covered back in July 2024.
Some of the high, or rather low lights, including two renovictions back-to-back, trying to navigate Toronto's notorious housing market, and a 72-year-old senior citizen having to come out of retirement to pay their rent.
Are you currently facing a renoviction and are hopeful this new bylaw could help you? CTV News Toronto wants to hear from you.
Email us at [e-mail] with your name, general location and phone number in case we want to follow up. Your comments may be used in a CTV News story.