Security deposit rules by province in Canada

This guide is for landlords and property managers renting homes in Canada. The short answer is that every province sets its own limit. Alberta, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island allow up to a month’s rent, Newfoundland and Labrador three quarters of a month, and British Columbia, Manitoba and Nova Scotia half a month. Ontario allows only a deposit toward the last month’s rent, and Quebec allows no deposit at all. The territories have their own rules, which this guide doesn’t cover.

The limits get the attention, but what trips up landlords more often is everything around them: where the money is held, how fast it has to go back and what happens if it doesn’t. So the table below covers both, and the sections after it explain what the differences mean in practice.

The rules at a glance

Province	Most you can collect	Return or claim within
British Columbia	Half a month’s rent, plus a pet damage deposit of up to half a month	15 days
Alberta	One month’s rent, including any pet deposit	10 days
Saskatchewan	One month’s rent, including any pet deposit	7 business days
Manitoba	Half a month’s rent, plus a pet damage deposit of up to one month	14 days
Ontario	No damage deposit. A rent deposit of up to one month, used for the last month	Applied to the last month’s rent
Quebec	No deposit of any kind, only the first month’s rent in advance	Not applicable
New Brunswick	One month’s rent (one week’s for a weekly tenancy)	Held by the province, not the landlord
Nova Scotia	Half a month’s rent	10 days
Prince Edward Island	One month’s rent (one week’s for a weekly tenancy)	15 days
Newfoundland and Labrador	Three quarters of a month’s rent (two weeks’ for a weekly tenancy)	10 days

“Return or claim within” means the landlord has that long after the tenant moves out to either return the deposit or start a claim against it, usually through the province’s tenancy office. Official sources: British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador. Saskatchewan’s Office of Residential Tenancies and Prince Edward Island’s Residential Tenancy Office have the details for those provinces.

Where you can’t take a deposit at all

Ontario and Quebec are the two provinces where a damage deposit isn’t allowed, and they’re also the two most common sources of mistakes for landlords who’ve rented elsewhere.

In Ontario, the only deposits allowed are a rent deposit of up to one month’s rent and a refundable key deposit. The rent deposit has to be used for the last month of the tenancy, not for damage, and the landlord has to pay interest on it every year at the same rate as the rent increase guideline. Damage is recovered after the fact, by agreement or through the Landlord and Tenant Board.

Quebec goes further. A landlord can’t require any deposit, including for damage, keys or pets, and can only ask for the first month’s rent in advance. Money collected anyway can be ordered returned by the Tribunal administratif du logement.

Half a month, three quarters or a full month

Everywhere else, a deposit is allowed and the difference is the limit. BC, Manitoba and Nova Scotia cap it at half a month’s rent. Newfoundland and Labrador allows three quarters. Alberta, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island allow a full month.

Pets are where the limits differ most. BC lets a landlord take a separate pet damage deposit of up to half a month’s rent on top of the security deposit. Manitoba allows a separate pet damage deposit of up to a full month’s rent, one per home however many pets there are, and none for a service animal. In Alberta and Saskatchewan, a pet deposit counts toward the one month limit, so the total can’t go over it. Non-refundable pet fees are a different thing, and some provinces, such as Manitoba, don’t allow them.

Holding the money

Most provinces expect the deposit to be kept apart from the landlord’s own money. Alberta and Newfoundland and Labrador require it to go into a trust or interest-bearing account within two banking days. New Brunswick goes further still: the landlord sends the deposit to the province within 15 days, and the province holds it until the tenancy ends.

Several provinces also require the landlord to pay the tenant interest on the deposit, at a rate set each year. The rate has been 0% in some provinces recently, but the obligation stays, so check the current rate where your home is before you return a deposit.

Getting it back, or keeping part of it

At the end of a tenancy, the landlord either returns the deposit, with any interest, or makes a claim against it, within the deadline in the table. What counts as a fair deduction is broadly the same everywhere: unpaid rent and damage beyond normal wear and tear, not the ordinary ageing of paint, carpet and fixtures.

The deadlines are short and they matter. In BC, a landlord who misses the 15 days without the tenant’s agreement or an order can be ordered to pay back double the deposit, and some other provinces have similar penalties.

The landlords who handle this well do two things at the start, not the end. They inspect the home with the tenant at move-in and write down its condition, with photos, which several provinces require. And they keep a record of the deposit itself: how much, when it was paid, where it’s held and the interest owed. A deduction you can show against a signed move-in report is much harder to dispute than one you can only describe.

If you rent in more than one province

For managers and owners with homes in more than one province, the safest habit is to never assume. Keep a one-page note for each province you rent in, with its limit, its pet rules, its deadline and where the money must be held, and check the official source each year, because interest rates and some rules change.

If you’re writing a lease in one of the provinces with a standard form, the details of the deposit go in it. Ontario’s standard lease, BC’s tenancy agreement and writing a lease in Alberta each go through where they belong.