Is it legal to rent a room in your house?

Alberta's Residential Tenancies Act does not apply to rooms in the landlord's own living quarters, if the landlord actually lives there. The Act does not use the words shared kitchen or bathroom; the test is a room in the living quarters where the landlord lives. If you do not live in the home, that exclusion does not help you, and the Act recognizes oral and implied agreements, so an unwritten deal can still be a tenancy.

You may ask for the names of the people living in your property. A person who is not a tenant and lives in a unit that is covered by the Act can be given a notice to vacate of at least 14 days, followed by a court order if they stay. The Act sets no maximum number of occupants, but the provincial housing standards treat a bedroom as overcrowded if it has under 3 square metres of floor area and 5.6 cubic metres of air space for each adult sleeping in it.

The Residential Tenancy Act does not apply to living accommodation where the tenant shares a bathroom or kitchen with the owner. If your renter has their own bathroom and kitchen, the Act can apply. It covers oral and implied agreements as well as written ones.

Where the Act applies, an occupant who is not on the agreement has no rights under it unless you and the tenant agree to add them. If the agreement does not ban additional occupants, the Branch's guideline says more occupants are implied to be allowed. An unreasonable number of occupants is a ground to end the tenancy, which the tenant can dispute. We found no provincial numeric occupancy standard.

Manitoba's Residential Tenancies Act has no exclusion for sharing a kitchen or bathroom with the owner. The Residential Tenancies Branch says it deals with written, oral or implied tenancy agreements, not shared accommodation, and describes shared accommodation as a home owner letting someone occupy a room in their house. It decides case by case, and the signs of a tenancy it lists are a lockable private room, a key to the main entrance, buying and cooking their own food, doing their own housekeeping and no family relationship with the owner.

A room in a boarding house counts as a rental unit only where five or more rooms are provided as living accommodation. If there is no tenancy, the Branch says the owner or the occupant may want to talk to a lawyer. Where the Act does apply, a tenant must not let so many people live there that health, safety or housing standards are broken, and the provincial public health standards set minimum floor areas per resident.

Saskatchewan's Residential Tenancies Act lists what it does not apply to, including living space rented with business premises under one agreement, hotels and similar stays under six consecutive months, shelters, hospitals and care homes, and life leases or leases of 20 years or more. We found no entry for renting a room in the owner's home, and no government page on roommates or owner-shared housing, so we can only say the Act lists no such exclusion. Ask the Office of Residential Tenancies about your set-up.

Where the Act applies, an unreasonable number of occupants is a ground for a notice to end the tenancy. A lease can set rent that varies with the number of occupants. We found no provincial occupancy standard.

The Residential Tenancies Act does not apply to living accommodation where the occupant must share a bathroom or kitchen with the owner, or the owner's spouse, child or parent (or the spouse's child or parent), who lives in the building. If your renter has their own bathroom and kitchen, the Act can apply even though you live in the house. Where the Act applies, Ontario bans application fees: you cannot charge a prospective tenant a fee to apply.

Where the Act applies, the standard lease says the landlord cannot stop the tenant from having a roommate as long as municipal occupancy by-laws are respected, and terms banning roommates, guests or additional occupants are void. You may give notice only if the number of people living there on a continuing basis breaks health, safety or housing standards, and the notice is void if the tenant reduces the number within 7 days.

New Brunswick's Residential Tenancies Act excludes living accommodation where the tenant is required to share a bathroom or kitchen, or both, with the landlord and the landlord lives in the building. Rooms in a boarding or lodging house are included in the Act. So a self-contained room, or a room in a house where you do not live, may fall inside it.

We found no rule on how a landlord removes an occupant who is not a tenant, and no general limit on the number of occupants in the Act. The tenant is responsible for damage and disturbance caused by people they let in. The Human Rights Commission says person-per-bedroom rules can have a discriminatory effect.

Nova Scotia's Residential Tenancies Act has no exclusion for sharing a kitchen or bathroom with the owner. Someone who occupies the premises and has paid or agreed to pay you rent is treated as being in a landlord and tenant relationship with you. The standard lease allows only the named tenants and occupants to live in the unit without the landlord's written consent.

A landlord cannot hold or dispose of a tenant's property except under a Director's order, and cannot bar a tenant's free access to the premises during the tenancy. We found no province-wide occupancy standard; municipal by-laws may set one.

We found no exclusion in PEI's Residential Tenancy Act or regulations for renting a room in the owner's home. The Act lets Cabinet prescribe which of its provisions apply to housing where the tenant shares a bathroom or kitchen with the owner, but we found no sign that this power has been used, so ask the Rental Office how your set-up is treated.

The Rental Office says a landlord cannot charge more rent because a new roommate moves in. An unreasonable number of occupants is a ground for a notice to end the tenancy, and the public health rules require at least 50 square feet of floor area and 400 cubic feet of space per occupant in any space used for sleeping. A tenant must give the owner the names of the people living in the unit if asked.

We found no exclusion in Newfoundland and Labrador's Residential Tenancies Act for sharing a kitchen or bathroom with the owner, so ask the Residential Tenancies Office how your set-up is treated. The government's Policy 1-002 says people who live in a unit but have not agreed to pay rent, including a spouse, children, other family or roommates, are occupants rather than tenants.

The standard rental agreement has a part for listing occupants who may live there besides the tenants. The Human Rights Commission says a limit on occupants per room or bedroom must be made in good faith and relate to a legitimate health and safety requirement, and can discriminate against families with several children or large extended families.