How Do I Evict a Tenant? 2026 Ontario Guide

How to evict a tenant in Ontario 2026 guide

Short answer: You do not evict a tenant in Ontario by telling them to leave, changing the locks, or letting a lease expire. You serve the correct Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) notice for a legal ground, wait out its period, file an L1 or L2 application if the tenant does not leave or fix the problem, attend a hearing, get an eviction order, and — only if the tenant still does not leave — have the Court Enforcement Office (the Sheriff) enforce it. Every step has a form, a deadline, and a service rule. Miss one and the case is usually dismissed and you start over.

This guide is general information for Ontario landlords, not legal advice for a specific file. For a contested or high-arrears case, get a licensed paralegal or lawyer involved before you serve anything.

TL;DR — Key Points

  • Only the LTB can order an eviction, and only the Sheriff can enforce it. Lock changes, lockouts, utility shut-offs, and removing belongings are illegal self-help evictions.
  • A fixed-term lease ending is not a ground to evict. Tenancies continue month-to-month automatically — that proposed change was removed from Bill 60 and is not law.
  • N4 for non-payment is now 7 days for notices served on or after September 21, 2026 (down from 14), on the new N4 (2026/09) form. Old form versions are rejected after November 30, 2026.
  • Paying all arrears before you file the L1 voids the N4. Partial payment does not.
  • N12 own-use: 60 days plus one month’s compensation, or at least 120 days with no compensation — landlord’s own use only, not purchaser use. The named occupant must move in within 60 days of the termination date or bad faith is presumed.
  • Persistent late payment (N8) now has a definition: rent more than 7 days late, 3 or more times in 6 months.
  • L1 and L2 applications cost $186 through the Tribunals Ontario Portal or $201 by mail / ServiceOntario. File an L2 within 30 days after the termination date or the notice dies.
  • Order review deadline is now 15 days for orders issued on or after July 1, 2026.

Table of Contents

1. Security of tenancy: why there is no shortcut

Under the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006 (RTA), a tenant has security of tenancy. A tenancy ends only when the tenant gives proper notice, both sides agree in writing, the tenant abandons or is found to have abandoned the unit under the Board’s rules, or the LTB orders termination after a hearing.

That is why a notice is not an eviction. An N form tells the tenant the ground and the termination date, and in some cases gives them a chance to fix the problem and void the notice. If they do not leave, you still need an application, a hearing, and an order.

It is also why the end of a fixed term changes nothing on its own. When a fixed term ends, the tenancy continues month-to-month on the same terms. A proposal to end that automatic conversion was removed from Bill 60 before it passed, so do not serve a notice that says, in effect, “your lease is over, please leave.” There is no such ground.

2. Before you serve anything

Most dismissed cases fail on paperwork, not on the underlying problem. Before you serve:

  • Confirm the RTA applies. Most Toronto and GTA rentals are covered. Some arrangements are exempt — for example, a unit where the tenant shares a kitchen or bathroom with the owner, and short stays for travel or vacation. If you are unsure, check before you file.
  • Build the record first. Rent ledger month by month, dated photos, inspection notes, written complaints, and every message in writing. Verbal warnings do not carry weight at a hearing.
  • Try a documented fix where it fits. For noise, damage, or a first late payment, a clear written warning with dates and specifics often resolves the file — and if it does not, it becomes evidence for an N5 or N8. See our guide to handling tenant complaints and disputes.
  • Use the current form. The N4, N5, N6, N8, N12, N13, L1, L2, L9, L10 and T5 forms were replaced in 2026. Old versions are not accepted after November 30, 2026. Download the form from Tribunals Ontario on the day you prepare it.
  • Do not accept a side deal that waives RTA rights. A lease clause or separate agreement that contradicts the RTA is void — for example, a clause saying the tenant must leave at the end of the term, pay a damage deposit, or pay late fees. Ontario does not allow damage deposits or late-payment penalties; the only deposits permitted are a last-period rent deposit and a key deposit at actual cost.

Your day-to-day duties continue throughout — the duty to repair and maintain under section 20, vital services, and lawful entry on 24 hours’ written notice between 8 AM and 8 PM. See landlord responsibilities in Ontario and maintenance and repairs.

3. Choose the right notice form

  • N4 — rent not paid.
  • N5 — damage, substantial interference with reasonable enjoyment, or overcrowding.
  • N6 — illegal act in the unit or complex.
  • N7 — serious safety problem caused by the tenant or a guest.
  • N8 — persistent late payment, at the end of the term or period.
  • N12 — landlord, a family member, a caregiver, or a purchaser intends to live in the unit.
  • N13 — demolition, conversion to non-residential use, or repairs/renovations that require the unit to be empty.

One ground, one form. If a tenant both owes rent and has caused damage, you may need parallel processes — an N4 followed by an L1 for arrears, and an N5 followed by an L2 for the behaviour ground. Filing the wrong application for the notice you served gets the application dismissed.

4. N4 — non-payment of rent (now 7 days)

The N4 is the most common notice, and it changed on September 21, 2026.

  • You can serve an N4 the day after rent is due and unpaid.
  • For notices served on or after September 21, 2026, the termination date must be at least 7 days after service. Before that date it was 14 days for monthly and yearly tenancies. A notice served on or before September 20, 2026 under the old period stays valid.
  • Use the new N4 (2026/09) form. Count service correctly — mailing adds deemed-service days, which pushes the earliest termination and filing dates.
  • Voiding: if the tenant pays everything owed — the arrears on the notice plus any rent that has since come due — before you file the L1, the N4 is void and the tenancy continues. Partial payment reduces the balance; it does not void the notice.
  • After the termination date passes with money still owing, file the L1 the next day at the earliest. Filing on or before the termination date is premature.
  • At an arrears hearing on an application filed on or after September 21, 2026, a tenant who wants to raise other issues (for example, maintenance) under section 82 must first pay the landlord half the claimed arrears at least 7 days before the hearing.

If the tenant is still in the unit and you only want the money, an L9 may fit. If they have already moved out owing money, that is an L10, filed within one year of the date they moved out. What to do at move-out — inspections, deposits, and left-behind property — is covered in what to do when a tenant moves out.

5. N5, N6 and N7 — behaviour, illegal acts, safety

N5 (damage or interference): the first N5 gives 20 days’ notice and a 7-day window to correct the problem — stop the behaviour, repair the damage, or fix the overcrowding. Correcting it in time voids the notice. If the same problem happens again within 6 months, a second N5 gives 14 days with no voiding window. File the L2 after the period runs.

N6 (illegal act): notice periods are short because the ground is serious — 10 days for drug production or trafficking and certain other serious acts, 20 days for other illegal acts. There is no correction window. Document the facts carefully; do not rely on rumour.

N7 (serious safety): 10 days, no correction window, where the tenant or a guest has seriously impaired safety. Safety files need the strongest evidence — incident reports, photos, and any police or building reports you lawfully have.

For all three, keep the notice factual: who, what, when, and how it affected the unit or other tenants. General statements like “constant problems” fail at hearings.

6. N8 — persistent late payment

Since September 21, 2026, “persistently late” has an official definition in O. Reg. 516/06: rent received more than 7 days late, 3 or more times in any 6 months, unless the landlord applied that payment to another amount owed.

An N8 is served at the end of a term or rental period, with at least 60 days’ notice for a monthly tenancy ending on the last day of a period. Your rent ledger is the whole case — log the due date, the date each payment was actually received, and the amount, every month. Without that record, an N8 is very hard to prove.

7. N12 — landlord, family or purchaser use

  • Minimum notice is 60 days, and the termination date must be the last day of a rental period or the end of the fixed term. A notice that misses that boundary is void.
  • The intended occupant must be named and must genuinely intend to live in the unit for at least one year: the landlord, a spouse, child or parent of the landlord or a spouse, a caregiver, or — on a sale — the purchaser or their family member.
  • Compensation — two paths since September 21, 2026: give 60 days and pay one month’s rent compensation (or offer another acceptable unit) before the termination date, or give at least 120 days and no compensation is required. The 120-day no-compensation path is for a landlord’s own use only — it does not apply to a purchaser-use N12, which still requires compensation.
  • Move-in deadline: the named occupant must move in within 60 days of the termination date. If they do not, bad faith is presumed if the former tenant files a T5, and the landlord must rebut that presumption. This does not apply to purchaser-use N12s.
  • File the L2 within 30 days after the termination date if the tenant does not leave.

A bad-faith own-use eviction is expensive. A former tenant has up to one year to file a T5, and the Board can order rent differences, moving costs, and general compensation. Never use an N12 to remove a tenant so you can re-rent at a higher price.

8. N13 — demolition, conversion or major renovation

  • Minimum notice is 120 days, ending on the last day of a period or term, and vacant possession must be genuinely required — permits and plans should support that.
  • Compensation depends on the building and the ground: generally one month’s rent where the complex has fewer than five units (or for certain grounds), and three months where it has five or more units — confirm the amount for your ground before you serve.
  • A tenant who wants to return after repairs has a right of first refusal at the lawful rent, if they tell you in writing before they leave. Since September 21, 2026, landlords have added written-update duties for a returning tenant and must give 60 days’ notice when the unit is ready to reoccupy, and the T5 deadline for renovation bad-faith claims is longer. Keep a returning tenant informed in writing — silence creates liability.
  • File the L2 within 30 days after the termination date if needed.

Cosmetic work that can be done with the tenant in place does not support an N13. If the work does not require the unit to be empty, the notice will fail.

9. Serving the notice correctly

Service decides when your clock starts. Follow the LTB’s Rules and the Certificate of Service for the method you use:

  • Handing it to the tenant: deemed given that day.
  • Leaving it in the mailbox or where mail is ordinarily delivered: deemed given that day.
  • Courier: deemed given the next business day.
  • Mail: deemed given 5 days later — add those days before you set the termination date.
  • Email: only where the tenant has consented in writing to service by email (for example, in the Standard Form of Lease consent), deemed given the day sent.

Do not serve by text message or by taping a notice to the door — neither is a permitted method on its own. Fill out and keep the Certificate of Service immediately; you will need it for the application. The full renting process, from screening to lease, is in the steps to renting out your property.

10. Filing the L1 or L2 application

  • L1 follows an N4 (eviction plus arrears). L2 follows N5, N6, N7, N8, N12 and N13 notices, and is also used for other termination grounds.
  • Filing fee: $186 through the Tribunals Ontario Portal, $201 by mail, courier or ServiceOntario. If the Board orders in your favour, the order typically adds the filing fee to what the tenant owes.
  • L2 deadline: file within 30 days after the termination date on the notice. Miss it and the notice is spent — you must serve a fresh notice and start the period again.
  • Include the notice, the Certificate of Service, the lease, and an up-to-date rent ledger (for arrears). Update the ledger right before the hearing — arrears change every month the case waits.
  • Evidence: under the current Practice Direction, file and serve your evidence at least 7 days before the hearing, and responding evidence at least 5 days before. Bill 60’s separate mandatory evidence-disclosure timeline is not yet in force.

11. The hearing and the order

Hearings are generally held by video or phone. The adjudicator hears both sides, can attempt mediation, and can make a payment plan, delay or refuse eviction in limited circumstances, or order termination. The grounds for the Board to cancel or delay an eviction narrowed under the 2026 changes, but section 83 discretion still exists — a clean record, a genuine attempt to resolve the problem, and accurate paperwork matter.

If the Board orders eviction, the order sets a termination date — commonly at least 11 days after the order is issued for a standard arrears order, though the Board sets the date in each case. A tenant who pays everything required by an arrears order within the window the order sets can bring a motion to void it.

Reviews: a party has 15 days to request a review of an order issued on or after July 1, 2026 (it was 30 days before). Miss that window and the order stands, subject only to narrow extension rules.

12. Sheriff enforcement and after the tenant leaves

If the tenant does not leave by the date in the order, take the order to the Court Enforcement Office for the area where the unit is located. Only that office — the Sheriff — can enforce it.

  • You file the order, complete the Sheriff’s intake information (occupants, pets, risks), and pay the enforcement fee, which varies by office and distance. The Sheriff schedules the eviction and notifies the tenant.
  • On the day, you or your representative attend with a locksmith. The Sheriff gives the tenant a short time to leave, supervises the lock change, and hands possession back to you.
  • After a Sheriff eviction, the former tenant has 72 hours, between 8 AM and 8 PM, to arrange access to collect belongings left in the unit. Do not dispose of their property before that window and your obligations around it are clear.
  • Money still owing after they leave: an L10 within one year covers a former tenant’s arrears and damage amounts within the Board’s jurisdiction; larger or older money claims may belong in court. Get advice before you choose the forum.

13. What never to do

  • Never change the locks, remove doors, shut off heat, water or hydro, remove belongings, or enter to force a tenant out — even after an eviction order. Only the Sheriff enforces.
  • Never harass, threaten, or misrepresent a tenant’s rights to pressure them to leave. That supports a tenant T2 application and can undermine your own case.
  • Never charge late fees, damage deposits, or “eviction fees” in a lease. Those clauses are void, and amounts collected can be ordered repaid.
  • Never use an N12 or N13 in bad faith. The T5 consequences, including general compensation, far exceed any short-term gain.
  • Never backdate a notice, guess at service dates, or file before the termination date. Procedural errors are the single biggest cause of delay.

Maximum RTA offence fines also rose on July 1, 2026 — to $100,000 for an individual and $500,000 for a corporation. Illegal eviction is not a cost-saving strategy.

14. Realistic timeline and costs

Plan in months, not weeks. A straightforward arrears file is: N4 period (7 days, plus service time), filing, a wait for a hearing date that depends on the Board’s current scheduling, the order, and — if needed — Sheriff scheduling. Contested behaviour, own-use, and renovation files take longer, and a dismissed first attempt restarts the clock.

Known hard costs are modest — $186 to file online, plus the Sheriff’s fee if enforcement is needed. The real cost is time: unpaid rent while the process runs, and turnover after. That is why early, documented communication and a correct first filing are worth more than any shortcut. Budgeting for legal-process months is part of the maintenance and cash-flow planning in our maintenance guide.

Many Toronto owners hand this file to a manager. Typical long-term management in the GTA runs about 8–12% of rent plus a placement fee of 50–100% of one month’s rent; full-service short-term management typically runs 18–25%. A manager does not replace a paralegal at a contested hearing, but keeps the ledger, service, and evidence clean from day one. If you want a sense of what your unit could earn under proper management, see our Toronto condo income estimate or the Toronto management page.

15. Short-term guests are not tenants

A guest staying fewer than 28 consecutive nights in Toronto is generally not an RTA tenant, and the LTB eviction process above does not apply to a normal short stay. That lane has its own rules instead: you may only rent your principal residence, you must register with the City of Toronto ($390 per year), entire-unit rentals are capped at 180 nights per calendar year, and guests pay the 6% Municipal Accommodation Tax (back to 6% since August 1, 2026, after the temporary 8.5% rate) plus 13% HST. Do not let a short stay drift into a long occupancy without advice — the longer someone lives in a unit as their home, the more likely the RTA applies regardless of what the booking was called.

16. FAQ

Can I evict a tenant just because their lease ended?

No. In Ontario a fixed-term tenancy continues month-to-month automatically when the term ends. You need a legal ground, the correct N form, and — if the tenant does not leave — an LTB order.

How many days does an N4 give a tenant in 2026?

Seven days for an N4 served on or after September 21, 2026, down from 14 days. The tenant can void the N4 by paying all arrears, plus any rent that has since come due, before the landlord files the L1 application.

How much does it cost to file for eviction at the LTB?

An L1 or L2 application costs $186 through the Tribunals Ontario Portal or $201 by mail, courier or ServiceOntario. If the Board orders in the landlord’s favour, the filing fee is typically added to what the tenant owes. Sheriff enforcement, if needed, has a separate fee that varies by enforcement office.

Do I still have to pay one month’s compensation on an N12?

Only on the standard path: 60 days’ notice plus one month’s compensation. Since September 21, 2026, a landlord giving at least 120 days’ notice for their own use does not have to pay compensation or offer another unit. That option does not apply to a purchaser-use N12.

What counts as persistent late payment for an N8?

Since September 21, 2026, it means rent received more than 7 days late, 3 or more times in any 6-month period. Keep a ledger showing each due date and each actual payment date — that record is the evidence.

Can I change the locks if the tenant refuses to leave after an order?

No. Even with an eviction order, only the Court Enforcement Office (the Sheriff) can enforce it. Changing the locks yourself is an illegal eviction and can lead to fines, a tenant application against you, and an order letting the tenant back in.

Last updated October 2026. Rules and forms change — confirm the current form and notice period on Tribunals Ontario and the City of Toronto before you serve any notice.