How do you become a landlord?

A home you own or control that you can legally rent out, the time or money to manage it, and a working knowledge of your province's tenancy law. You also need room in your budget for empty months and repairs, insurance that covers a rental, and a simple system for records and taxes. The legal duties start the day the tenancy does.

Day to day, being a landlord means collecting rent and giving receipts where your province requires them, dealing with repairs quickly, giving written notice before you enter, and keeping records of everything. Raise the rent and end a tenancy only on your province's notice rules, and return the deposit on time. Put anything important in writing. For the first steps, see how to rent out your house.

A private landlord is an individual who rents out a home they own, rather than a company. The tenancy law treats you the same as a large landlord: the same deposit limits, notice rules and repair duties apply. Start with the steps in how to rent out your house, and ask your city whether it requires a licence or registration for rentals.

Most people start with one rental, learn the rules and the costs, and add more once the first one runs smoothly. Each unit needs its own lease, deposit records and inspection reports, and the rules can differ if your properties are in different provinces. Keep separate records for each property so your tax filing stays simple, and consider a property manager once the workload grows.

You become a landlord the day a tenancy starts. How long it takes to get there depends mostly on how ready the home is and how quickly you find the right tenant. Build in time for repairs, your lender and insurer, advertising, showings and screening before the move-in date you advertise.

If you sublet your own rental with your landlord's consent, you take on a landlord's role toward the person who moves in, while staying responsible to your own landlord (see how to sublet an apartment). Managing rentals for owners is another route, but property management can be a regulated business, so check the licensing rules in your province first.

Know your province's rules and follow them. Answer repair requests quickly, give proper written notice before you enter, give receipts, and return the deposit on time with any interest owed. Put agreements and notices in writing, and treat every applicant the same way. Good tenants tend to stay longer, which saves you empty months.

Price the rental right from the start with the SQRFT rent estimator, keep empty months short by screening well and keeping good tenants, and fix small problems before they become big ones. Track every expense, because deductible costs lower the tax on your rental income (see our landlord tax guide). Remember that rent can only go up on your province's schedule and, in six of the provinces covered here, usually within a yearly limit.

A real estate investor buys property for a return, which may come from rent, from selling at a higher price, or both. A landlord is whoever rents a home to a tenant and carries the duties under the tenancy law. Many investors are landlords too, and hiring a property manager does not take the rental outside the tenancy rules.

Yes. Rental income is taxable and goes on your income tax return, and reasonable costs of earning it can usually be deducted. Keep receipts, a record of each rent payment and your leases. For your own situation, ask an accountant or the Canada Revenue Agency.

Insurance meant for a rented home, which usually covers the building and your liability as the owner. A policy for a home you live in may not cover it once it is rented, so tell your insurer before the tenant moves in. Your policy does not cover the tenant's belongings, and in most provinces covered here you can require the tenant to carry their own insurance. Manitoba is the exception for liability insurance (see is tenant insurance mandatory).

For an ordinary long-term rental, we found no provincial landlord registry or licence in the nine provinces covered here. The rules that do exist are narrower: Alberta says anyone other than the owner or the owner's employee who negotiates or approves a lease or collects or holds rent must be a property manager licensed by the Real Estate Council of Alberta, and a Saskatchewan landlord who does not live in the province and has no office there must file a power of attorney with the Office of Residential Tenancies. The provincial registration or licensing rules we found in British Columbia, Nova Scotia and PEI are for short-term rentals only. Cities can add their own rules: Toronto requires owners of apartment buildings with three or more storeys and ten or more units to register and requires a licence for multi-tenant houses, and Halifax's by-law R-400 required rental housing to be registered from April 1, 2024 (we could not confirm the current registry details). We did not check other cities, so check with your municipality before you rent out a place.

First find out whether your city requires one, because we found no provincial licence for ordinary long-term landlords. If your city does require a licence or registration, the city is the office that enforces it, so ask its bylaw or licensing department. Disputes about rent, repairs, deposits and notices go to your province's tenancy office, and we found no rule that this depends on the landlord holding a municipal licence. For health or safety problems, a public health inspector may also be able to help (Alberta's guidance names Alberta Health Services), so ask your tenancy office what applies where you live.