How to fill out the Ontario Standard Lease

Ontario’s Standard Form of Lease is the government form that most residential landlords in the province have to use, and has been for most tenancies signed on or after April 30, 2018. Once both sides sign it, it’s the tenancy agreement. Most of it is facts you already have. The parts that cause trouble are the deposits, the extra terms you attach and the deadline for handing over a copy.

Let’s walk through it the way it actually happens. You’ve just approved a couple for a two bedroom apartment in Hamilton, and they’d like to move in on the first of next month. Before anyone gets keys, the lease has to be filled in, signed and in their hands.

Does the standard lease apply to this unit?

Almost certainly. Private rentals of every size use it, from a single condo to a building of 300 units. The exceptions are care homes, sites in mobile home parks and land lease communities, most social and supportive housing, co-operative housing and a short list of other special tenancies.

If you’re unsure, use it. Using the standard lease when you didn’t strictly need to costs you nothing, and skipping it when you did can cost you a month’s rent.

Here’s how that happens. Say a landlord uses an older lease of their own instead of the standard form. The tenant can ask in writing for the standard lease. If the landlord still hasn’t provided it 21 days later, the tenant can withhold one month’s rent. If the landlord provides it within 30 days of that, the tenant has to pay the rent back. If not, the tenant keeps it.

The 17 sections

With that settled, open the form. It has 17 numbered sections, and here’s what goes into each one for the Hamilton apartment.

Section	What goes in it
1. Parties	The landlord’s legal name and every tenant’s legal name.
2. Rental unit	The full address, unit number, parking spaces and whether it’s in a condominium.
3. Contact information	An address where the tenant can serve notices on the landlord, plus email if both sides agree to use it for notices.
4. Term	The start date, and whether it’s a fixed term, month to month or another period.
5. Rent	The rent, the day it’s due, what it covers and who to pay.
6. Services and utilities	Who pays for heat, electricity, water, parking, laundry and anything else.
7. Rent discounts	Any discount, such as one for paying on time.
8. Rent deposit	The amount, if you’re collecting one.
9. Key deposit	The amount, if you’re collecting one.
10. Smoking	Any rules about smoking in the unit or on the property.
11. Tenant’s insurance	Whether the tenant needs to carry insurance.
12. Changes to the unit	Whether the tenant can paint, install things or make other changes.
13. Maintenance and repairs	A reminder of each side’s duties. You fill in nothing new here.
14. Assignment and subletting	Standard rules on assigning and subletting.
15. Additional terms	Anything you’ve agreed beyond the form, attached as extra pages.
16. Changes to the agreement	Standard wording. Changes after signing need both sides to agree in writing.
17. Signatures	Every landlord and tenant signs and dates it.

Two of those sections need more care than the rest.

Rent and utilities

Be specific. “Utilities included” leads to arguments a year later. Name each one and say who pays it. If the tenant pays a utility to a provider directly, say so and note the account should be in their name from the start date.

Deposits

Ontario allows two deposits and only two.

A rent deposit can be no more than one month’s rent (or one rent period, if rent is paid weekly). It can only be applied to the last month of the tenancy, never to damage. You also owe the tenant interest on it every year, at the rent increase guideline rate.

A key deposit has to be refundable and can’t be more than it would cost to replace the keys or fobs.

Damage deposits, pet deposits and cleaning deposits aren’t allowed, whatever the tenant agrees to.

Additional terms that won’t hold up

With the form filled in, you’ll probably want to attach a few terms of your own in section 15. You can add terms, but any term that conflicts with the Residential Tenancies Act is void, even with the tenant’s signature on it. Common examples:

• A ban on pets. Condo rules can still restrict pets, but the lease itself can’t.
• Limits on guests or overnight visitors.
• Deposits, fees or penalties the Act doesn’t allow, such as a damage deposit or interest on late rent.
• Making the tenant responsible for repairs that are the landlord’s duty.
• Requiring post-dated cheques or automatic payments. You can offer them, and the tenant can choose them.

Terms that work well are the ones that explain how the home runs. Garbage days, how to book the elevator for a move, rules for shared laundry, snow clearing on a house.

The 21 day rule

Once the couple have signed, the clock starts. You have to give them a copy of the signed lease within 21 days.

A lease signed online and sent to everyone straight after signing takes care of this without anyone needing a reminder. Leasing software like Nodus by Tuze handles it for you: it prepares the Ontario Standard Lease from the home’s details and the approved applicants, each tenant signs from their own link, and everyone gets a copy as soon as the last person signs.

Move-in day

By the first of the month, the Hamilton lease is on the standard form, asks only for deposits the Act allows and has extra terms that will hold up, and the couple each have their own signed copy. When your next Ontario unit rents, most of this carries over. The form is the same, and the extra terms you’ve already checked can go straight onto the next lease, so the only new work is the details of that home.