How to write a lease agreement?

A lease, or tenancy agreement, is the contract that lets a tenant occupy a rental unit in exchange for rent. In every province covered here it can be fixed term or periodic, and the province's Residential Tenancies Act applies to it whether it is written, oral or implied. The Act also overrides any term that conflicts with it, so a lease can add detail but cannot take away the tenant's rights.

In Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, PEI and Newfoundland and Labrador, yes, as long as it contains everything the Act requires, such as BC's 14 standard terms or Newfoundland and Labrador's statutory conditions. In Ontario, Manitoba and New Brunswick a written lease must be the government form, with your own terms added only where they are consistent with it. Nova Scotia lets your lease look different from Form P, but it must contain every Form P item.

Write it as a periodic tenancy: give the start date, say the tenancy runs month to month, and leave out an end date. Saskatchewan treats a written lease with no end date as monthly periodic, and in Nova Scotia a tenancy with no written lease defaults to month to month. Ending a monthly tenancy then follows the province's notice rules, not the lease, and in Ontario, Manitoba, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia the lease still has to follow the standard form.

Put the change in writing, refer to the original lease and its date, and have both sides sign or initial it. BC makes a change unenforceable unless it is in writing and initialled by both, Ontario requires changes to the standard lease to be agreed in writing, and New Brunswick and Nova Scotia count added terms only if they appear on both parties' copies. An addendum cannot change the mandatory terms or take away a tenant's rights, and you need the tenant's agreement to it.

Check your province's renewal rule first. In Manitoba you must offer a written fixed-term lease's renewal at least 3 months before it ends, and in Saskatchewan you serve a Two Month Notice of Intention saying whether you offer a new agreement and on what terms. In British Columbia (without a valid vacate clause), Ontario and PEI the lease carries on month to month anyway, so an extension is only needed if both sides want a new fixed term. See whether a landlord can refuse to renew a lease.

A letter alone often is not enough, because each province sets how much notice is needed and, for landlords, the reasons allowed and often an official form. Ontario landlords, for example, use Landlord and Tenant Board notices such as the N12. Include the address, the date the tenancy will end and your signature, and serve it the way your province allows. See how much notice a landlord has to give and how much notice a tenant gives.

Name the term or duty that was broken, describe what happened and when, and say what the tenant needs to do to fix it, keeping a dated copy. A warning letter is not an eviction notice: ending a tenancy for cause needs a reason your province's Act allows and the proper notice or form. In Alberta, breaking one of the tenant covenants the Act puts into every lease counts as a substantial breach. See how to evict a tenant for the steps.

Name the guarantor in the lease, set out what they are responsible for, and have them sign it along with the tenant. Manitoba requires the tenancy agreement to be in writing whenever the landlord requires a guarantor. For other provinces, check with your tenancy office, and keep in mind the guarantor's promise cannot take away any of the tenant's rights under the Act.

Rules differ a lot. Ontario voids a no-pet clause in a lease, while Alberta lets a landlord refuse pets and Saskatchewan allows no-pet rules. BC allows a pet damage deposit of up to half a month's rent, and New Brunswick's standard lease has a box for pet restrictions. See whether a landlord can refuse pets before adding any pet clause.

A sublet is between the tenant and a subtenant, but the landlord's consent usually comes first: Manitoba's Act requires the landlord's written consent (which cannot be unreasonably withheld), and Newfoundland and Labrador's statutory conditions say consent cannot be unreasonably withheld. Ontario's standard lease does not apply to subtenancies. See how to sublet an apartment for each province's rules.

No. In every province covered here the tenancy law applies whatever the lease says, and a clause in which the tenant waives a right under the Act is void. The standard terms or statutory conditions still apply even if they are missing from the lease. Leaving them out also breaks the rules in provinces that require them in a written lease, such as BC, Saskatchewan, PEI and Newfoundland and Labrador.

In the Acts and government pages we reviewed, we found no requirement that a residential lease be notarized. What they ask for instead is the government form or its required content where one is mandatory (Ontario, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador), a written agreement where the province requires one, signatures from both sides, and a copy to the tenant by the deadline in the table on this page where the province sets one.

If you are unsure about a particular lease, ask your province's tenancy office before you sign.

For most private tenancies, yes. Agreements entered into on or after April 30, 2018 must be on the Residential Tenancy Agreement (Standard Form of Lease), form 2229E, and agreements entered into on or after March 1, 2021 must use the version dated 2020/12. Both sides must sign it on or before the day the tenant is entitled to move in, and you can add terms only if they do not conflict with the form's mandatory terms, because a conflicting term is void. The form does not cover care homes, mobile home sites, land lease home sites, most social and supportive housing, co-operative housing or subtenancies.

A lease that skips the form is still valid, but the landlord is exposed: if the tenant demands a standard lease in writing and does not get one within 21 days, the tenant may withhold up to one month's rent, or end a fixed term on at least 60 days' written notice. See Ontario lease agreement basics for more.

Start with your province's form rule. Ontario, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick require the government's standard form, Manitoba requires its prescribed form for a written agreement, and Newfoundland and Labrador requires the content of its standard rental agreement, which landlords may customize. In Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan and PEI we found no mandatory government form, so you can draft your own, as long as it contains what the Act requires. Then fill in the basics: the names of the landlord and every tenant, the rental address, the start date, whether it is a fixed term or month to month, the rent and the day it is due, which utilities and services are included, and the deposit within your province's limit.

Add any extras, such as house rules, only if they fit the Act, because the Act generally prevails over a clause that conflicts with it. Both sides sign, and the tenant must get a copy, with deadlines of 10 to 21 days in the provinces that set one (New Brunswick sets no number of days). SQRFT advice: check the table at the top of this page for your province before you draft, and see the Ontario or British Columbia lease guide if that is where the rental is.