Landlord Rights & Responsibilities

Short answer: no. Despite what many landlords and renters believe landlords cannot stop a tenant in Ontario from having pets. That’s according to section 14 of the Residential Tenancies Act.
 
While you might have come across leases with a ‘no pets’ clause, these are neither legal nor enforceable by law. Similarly, practices such as landlords charging a ‘pet deposit’ to cover any damage by pets are similarly not legal. Nor can a landlord legally refuse to rent properties to anybody with a pet.
 
That does not mean that your pets have free rein. Landlords can still be protected under the law if they have an allergy to your pet or your pet causes harassment to the landlord or other tenants by excessive barking, aggression, or damage to the property. In such cases, landlords can ask you to move out of the property. By the same token, tenants too are protected against pets owned by the landlord. While landlords cannot legally ban you from having a pet, they can regulate where your pet goes to the bathroom or gets walked. 
 
Tenants who own pets, however, have to abide by provincial and municipal by-laws that place restrictions on pet ownership by those renting property. These can be very specific. For example, London’s Animal Control bylaw says that you cannot have more than five cats in one home or apartment unit as well as separate rules for reptiles and birds. Another rule designed for dogs required that all dogs be registered for dog licenses and limits the number of dogs allowed in a home or apartment unit to three.

The law is quite clear on this. Ontario’s Residential Tenancies Act requires landlords to keep the property in good condition and repair items that go through normal wear and tear such as plumbing, HVAC, electrical systems, large appliances such as stoves and laundry machines, windows, locks, flooring and common areas such as lobbies, pools, gyms, and patios. Landlords are supposed to keep such items in good working order. Although the law makes it the landlord’s responsibility to repair such items, it does not exactly specify a timeframe within which to effect such repairs. The Act simply states that landlords have to be reasonable about the time they take to effect repairs.
 
However, landlords are not supposed to repair tenants’ own belongings such as furniture and electronics nor insure them against theft or damage. That is covered by tenant insurance. Landlords are also not liable to repair items that are damaged by the tenant’s own negligence or malice, even if those damages take place in a common area. Refusal by tenants to effect such repairs can be grounds for eviction.
 
But what if the landlord refuses to repair or maintain items he or she is supposed to?  If the landlord refuses to effect repairs within a reasonable time or has a history of refusing to keep up their end of the bargain, you can ask a city building inspector to come and look at the problem. Keep the reports that the inspector gives you. It’s generally a bad idea to refuse to pay rent in such cases since the landlord can legally begin eviction proceedings against tenants who refuse to pay rent. In such cases, tenants can go to the Landlord and Tenant Board which can order a landlord to do either one of the following: compensate the tenant, temporarily reduce the rent, order the landlord to repair or replace the item, reimburse the tenant to repair the item themselves or allow the tenant to break the lease early if the tenant wants to or if the property is deemed to be unsafe.

Negotiating rent hikes can be a complicated matter. In Ontario, the frequency with which a landlord can increase the rent is limited to only once every 12 months for as long as you remain in that property. However, before effecting a rent hike, the landlord has to give you notice of at least 90 days. If not, you are not obligated to pay the increase, but you still, have to pay the rent that you were before the hike.
 
How much a landlord can hike the rent each time is limited by the provincial government. In Ontario, rental hikes have been capped at 2.5 percent for 2023. This cap applies to most of the approximately 1.4 million rental households in the province that are covered by the Residential Tenancies Act and cover any increases in rent between January and December 2023. Any hike above the 2.5 percent mark cannot go into effect unless approved by the Landlord and Tenant Board. Such hikes above the cap can be approved by the board only in certain circumstances such as after the completion of eligible capital work on the property. Tenants who feel that their rent has been improperly raised can apply to the Landlord and Tenant Board to request a correction.
 
The cap does not apply in the cases of rental units occupied for the first time after November 15, 2018, vacant residential units, community housing, long-term care homes, or commercial properties.