Ottawa landlords: the Sept 21 RTA changes, priced in dollars

One date, two orders in council

Ontario named September 21, 2026 as the day a batch of Residential Tenancies Act changes took effect. That comes straight from two Orders in Council dated July 16, 2026: OIC 1114/2026 (Fighting Delays, Building Faster Act, 2025, Schedule 12) and OIC 1115/2026 (Helping Homebuyers, Protecting Tenants Act, 2023, Schedule 7). The orders name the sections and the date. They do not explain what the sections do, so the details below come from the Landlord and Tenant Board's own update as summarized by a landlord guide and a housing provider association. They agree on the N4 and N12 numbers. The arrears and late payment items below rest on the landlord guide alone, which cites the LTB's September 21 update, so treat those two as reported rather than confirmed. I am not a lawyer, so check anything you act on with a paralegal or a lawyer.

I sell houses. What I can do is put dollars on the changes for the person who owns one or two rentals in Ottawa.

The N4 clock got shorter: 14 days to 7

For an N4 notice for non-payment served on or after September 21, the tenant now has 7 days to pay before you can file with the LTB. It used to be 14. Notices served on or before September 20 keep the old 14 days.

What is a week worth? Take a $2,000 unit. Daily rent is 2,000 x 12 / 365 = $65.75. Seven days is 7 x 65.75 = about $460 of occupancy that no longer has to pass before you can even start the paperwork.

Be honest about what that is. It is not $460 you get back. The arrears are still owed either way. It is $460 less of exposure sitting in limbo before your file reaches the queue, and on a tenant who is going to leave anyway, the saving compounds with every month the hearing list is long. The guide also notes that a mailed notice adds five deemed days, so a mailed N4 needs 12 days, not 7. Hand delivery or another valid method is the faster route.

The N12 compensation month can now be avoided

If you give an N12 because you, a family member or a caregiver will move in, you normally owe the tenant one month of rent as compensation. The new rule says no compensation is owed when the termination date is at least 120 days after the notice, instead of the usual minimum of 60.

On the same $2,000 unit, that is $2,000 you can keep by giving 60 more days. The extra 60 days cost you time, not rent, because the tenant keeps paying through the notice period. If your plan is to move in next summer, this rewards planning early. If you need the unit in 75 days, you still owe the month.

Two catches I would not skip. The termination date still has to land on the last day of a rental period or the notice can be void. And the guide I read says the person moving in should normally take occupancy within 60 days of the termination date. Miss that and a tenant who files a bad faith application gets a rebuttable presumption in their favour. That presumption does not apply to a purchaser's use N12. Separately, the source I read says compensation for renovation evictions is unchanged, at three months of rent in a building of five or more units.

The arrears hearing now has a price of admission

Per that guide, for arrears applications filed on or after September 21, a tenant who wants to raise other issues at the hearing, such as repairs, has to pay half the claimed arrears to the landlord at least 7 days before it. Three months unpaid on that $2,000 unit is $6,000, so $3,000 lands with you before the hearing if the tenant wants to argue about anything else.

This matters to landlords because it blunts the stall. A tenant who is three months behind and also claims the furnace was broken used to turn a simple arrears file into a long one. Now the tenant has to bring half the money first. Do not count on it. A tenant who has the cash was probably not three months behind.

Persistent late payment has a number now too. The source defines it as rent more than 7 days late at least 3 times in any 6-month period, unless the payment went to another amount owed. If you have a repeat late payer, keep a dated log of when each payment actually cleared.

What did not change

Ontario floated ending the automatic switch from a fixed term lease to month to month and then pulled it out of Bill 60. It is not law. Mandatory evidence disclosure before hearings has no in force date. Old LTB forms are reportedly accepted until November 29 and rejected from November 30, so download the new ones rather than reusing a saved N4 or N12.

How I would use this

If you are holding a rental, update your own file: new forms, the 7 day N4 clock, a dated payment log, and a calendar reminder to serve any own-use N12 at least 120 days out. If the softness I wrote about in the Ottawa rental market post is hitting your unit, faster arrears handling matters more now, because a vacant month is the expensive outcome. The rent increase guideline piece covers the other side of that math, and tenant turnover in Ottawa shows why keeping a paying tenant is usually the cheaper path.

If you are thinking of selling a tenanted property, or buying one with a tenant in place, the notice length changes your timeline and your price. I would rather talk it through before you serve anything. Call or text me at 613-262-6545 or email fil@613realtor.ca. For the legal steps themselves, a paralegal or lawyer who handles LTB files is the right person.