Can a landlord change a lease agreement?

Not without the tenant's agreement. In every province covered here, a signed lease changes only by agreement, except for the changes the law itself allows, mainly rent increases with proper notice. Get any agreed change in writing: BC makes an unwritten or uninitialled change unenforceable, and Ontario's standard lease requires changes to be agreed in writing.

Only with your agreement, or through a route the law sets out. Those routes are narrow: a legal rent increase, a service change some provinces allow, or a tribunal or Director's order. New Brunswick is the main exception, where a landlord can change terms other than rent after a tenant has stayed five or more consecutive years, on three months' written notice. Changes to the rent during a fixed term follow separate rules, covered in whether a landlord can raise the rent anytime.

No. A landlord cannot change lease terms alone, with or without notice, outside the routes the law allows, and those routes all come with written notice. Rent increases need advance written notice in every province covered here, New Brunswick's change for long tenancies needs three months' written notice, and Nova Scotia's rule changes need four months' notice before the anniversary date. See how much a landlord can increase rent for the notice periods.

Ask for the proposed change in writing and take time to read it. You do not have to agree, and you should keep paying rent on the existing terms. If you do agree, make sure the change is written down and signed or initialled by both of you. If the landlord tries to impose it anyway, contact your province's tenancy office, such as BC's Residential Tenancy Branch, which takes disputes when a landlord changes terms without consent.

Yes, as long as the change does not touch the terms the law makes mandatory and does not take away your rights under the Act. BC's standard terms, Saskatchewan's standard conditions and PEI's Division 4 provisions cannot be changed even by agreement, and an agreement to give up a right under the Act is void everywhere covered here. Put the change in writing and have both sides sign or initial it.

The same rule applies: terms change only by agreement or through a route the law allows, such as a rent increase with proper notice. A month-to-month tenancy is not an opening to rewrite the lease. In Nova Scotia a periodic lease renews automatically when no notice is given, and a landlord can give notice to quit only on the grounds the Act lists.

No. In British Columbia, Ontario, New Brunswick and PEI, a sale does not end a tenancy by itself, and the buyer takes over as your landlord under the same agreement and the same rules on changing it. Check your province's tenancy office for the rule where you live. In Ontario, the Act says lease covenants run with the land, and in PEI a new landlord must tell the tenant in writing its name, address for service and the deposit it holds. See what to do if your landlord is selling the house.

It depends on the province. Alberta lets a landlord add or change rules during the tenancy only with the tenants' written consent. Manitoba and Saskatchewan allow new rules that are in writing, made known to the tenant and reasonable, and the tenant can ask the tribunal to rule on them, while Nova Scotia allows rule changes on four months' notice before the anniversary date. In Newfoundland and Labrador, the standard agreement ties the tenant to rules given at signing and copies of any amendments.

Not freely. Manitoba bars a landlord from reducing a service included in the rent without the Residential Tenancies Branch's approval, Nova Scotia requires proper rent increase notice or the Director's permission, and Newfoundland and Labrador treats taking away a service or benefit as a rent increase. BC allows a landlord to restrict or withdraw a non-essential service or facility under the Act's conditions, and PEI allows service changes only as its Act sets out. Ask your tenancy office before accepting a cut.

No more than with one. An oral tenancy is still covered by the Act in every province covered here (most also cover implied ones), and in Manitoba, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia it is treated as including the standard form's terms. The landlord still needs the tenant's agreement to change terms, must follow the Act's rent increase rules, and can end the tenancy only with the notice the law allows and, outside Newfoundland and Labrador, only for a reason the law allows. See whether you can be evicted without a lease.

We found no government amendment form in the sources we reviewed, so a short written document that both sides sign is the usual way. What the law asks for differs a little: Alberta says changes should be in writing and signed by both, BC and Manitoba say initialled by both (in BC an unwritten or uninitialled change cannot be enforced), and Ontario requires the change to be agreed in writing. In New Brunswick an addition must appear on both originals and cannot change a right or duty under the Act or the standard form, and in Nova Scotia an extra term is void unless it appears on both parties' copies.

SQRFT's advice: name the landlord, the tenants and the address, give the date of the original lease, quote the clause being changed and the exact new wording, say when the change starts, then have everyone sign and date it and keep a copy each. An amendment cannot change or remove the standard terms or contradict the Act, and a rent change still has to follow the rent increase rules.

Not on its own. We found no rule in the Acts we reviewed that lets a landlord remove a tenant's name alone, and the rules we reviewed treat a signed lease as something that is normally changed by agreement, so taking a name off in practice would mean the landlord and everyone on the lease agreeing in writing, usually through a signed amendment or a new lease. That is SQRFT's reading of the rules on this page, not a separate statutory rule.

A landlord who wants a tenant gone has to use one of the notice grounds and the process that goes with it, as set out in what reasons a landlord can evict you for. If you are the one who wants out, ask in writing and see how to get out of a lease agreement.

Not a whole signed lease at will. A tenancy ends by agreement or in the ways the Act allows, such as a notice on a permitted ground followed by the province's process; Ontario says a tenancy can end only in accordance with the Act, and New Brunswick says a landlord cannot simply end a fixed term early. What can be void is an individual clause. A term that conflicts with the Act is void in Ontario, Manitoba, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador, cannot be enforced in BC and Saskatchewan, and in New Brunswick any alteration of the standard form is void. In Alberta the Act prevails over a conflicting term, and a tenant's waiver of rights under it is void.

The rules we reviewed speak of the individual clause being void or unenforceable and do not say the whole lease falls with it; if you are unsure how a void clause affects the rest of your lease, ask your tenancy office. We found no rule on a landlord cancelling a lease before the tenant moves in, so ask your province's tenancy office about that case.