Tenant Sublet Without Permission in Nova Scotia

No. Section 9B(1) of the Residential Tenancies Act says a tenant may assign, sublet or otherwise part with possession of the unit, subject to the landlord's consent. The standard form of lease repeats the same rule. If your tenant hands the unit to someone else, or lets another person take over the lease, without asking you first, that is a breach of the Act.

A sublet is when the tenant keeps the lease but lets another person live in the unit for part of the term. An assignment is when the tenant passes the rest of the lease to a new tenant. The Act covers both, and it also uses the wider words "otherwise part with possession". You can read the full text of section 9B in the Residential Tenancies Act. The version reviewed for this guide is the consolidation dated October 3, 2025, so check the current text before you act.

The breach matters because it is a listed ground for a landlord's notice to quit under section 10(7B)(a) of the Act. That is the route covered below. If you are earlier in the process and the tenant has only asked, read the tenant-side guide on breaking a lease and subletting in Nova Scotia to see what the tenant is told.

Your right to say no has a limit. Under section 9B(2), a landlord may not arbitrarily or unreasonably withhold consent. The Act does not list what counts as reasonable grounds, and no official page reviewed for this guide sets such a list. The only standard is "arbitrarily or unreasonably", so keep your reasons specific to the proposed occupant and put them in writing.

You also may not charge for giving consent unless you actually incurred expense. When you did, the most you can charge is $75.00, and only for expenses actually incurred in respect of the sublease or assignment. That cap comes from section 6(3) of the Act and section 2 of the Residential Tenancies Regulations. The standard lease also has a tick box for sublet expenses "not to exceed $75".

In practice, that means a flat "sublet fee" is not safe. Keep receipts for anything you paid, such as a reference check, so you can show the expense was real and stayed within $75.

Work through these steps in order. Do not change the locks or remove anyone yourself; the Act gives you notice-to-quit routes in section 10, and a lockout is not one of them.

1. Confirm the facts. Find out who is in the unit, since when, and whether the tenant ever asked you. Keep any messages, rent receipts and photos.
2. Decide whether you would consent. If the arrangement is acceptable, you can give consent now. If you would refuse, make sure the reason is not arbitrary or unreasonable.
3. Serve Form E. The Form E notice to quit covers a failure to get the landlord's consent to sublet, assign or part with possession. The notice may not take effect earlier than 15 days from the date it is given (30 days in a land-lease community).
4. Complete the notice properly. A notice to quit must be in writing, signed, describe the premises, state the day the tenancy ends, and be in the form the Director requires.
5. If the tenant does not leave, apply on Form J. The Form E page says you can file for a hearing using Form J to ask for an eviction order. The application fee is $31.15 under section 33 of the Regulations.

The Director is the first-instance authority, and a landlord's application must be filed within one year after the lease ends. For the wider eviction picture, see how to evict a tenant in Nova Scotia and landlord notices to end a tenancy.

A tenant who receives a notice to quit under this part of the Act may apply to the Director under section 13 for an order setting the notice aside (section 10(7D)). If the tenant applies, the Director decides whether the notice stands. You may need to show at the hearing that consent was never given and that the occupant is there because of the tenant's arrangement.

Keep your file tidy: the lease, any written request the tenant made, your reply, the signed notice, proof of how and when you served it, and anything that shows who is living in the unit.

Once you consent, the Act sets some rules that protect you.

• The original tenant stays liable. Under section 9B(4)(b) the tenant who sublets is still liable to you for breaches of the lease or the Act during the sublet.
• The sublet needs an end date. A sublet agreement must state the date it ends (section 9B(5)), and the subtenant must leave at the end of the sublet.
• No rent markup. A tenant who sublets may not charge the subtenant more rent than the landlord lawfully charges the tenant (section 9B(6)), for sublet agreements made on or after that subsection came into force.
• Assignments. On an assignment the lease continues on the same terms for the new tenant, and the former tenant stays liable for breaches relating to the period before the assignment (section 9B(3)).

The province's plain-language Ending a Tenancy guide says the subtenant pays rent to the original tenant, who stays responsible to you for the lease terms, the unit's condition and the rent. That is a guide, not statute text, so use the Act for anything that matters. Under the definition in section 2(j)(ii), a person occupying under a sublet or assignment is a "tenant" under the Act when you consented under section 9B.

Some questions landlords ask have no answer in the official sources reviewed for this guide. Where that is the case, do not assume either way; ask the Residential Tenancies Program.

• Security deposit on a sublet. The Act text reviewed has no sublet-specific deposit rule. The general deposit rules are in sections 12 and 12A; see the landlord security deposit guide for Nova Scotia.
• Rent paid by an unconsented subtenant. No official page reviewed says whether you may keep it.
• A roommate or guest who moved in. Section 9B uses the words "otherwise part with possession", but no official page reviewed says whether an extra occupant who is not a subtenant is covered. The same goes for whether an unconsented occupant who pays rent to the original tenant counts as a tenant under section 2(j)(i).
• Removing an unconsented occupant directly. Nothing reviewed gives a landlord a right to do this. Use the notice and Director process.

One more limit: in a public housing program, the standard lease says tenants are not permitted to sublet. That clause applies only where the unit is in such a program. For a related question, see can my tenant move someone in.

The forms you are most likely to need are Form E (notice to quit for breach of a statutory condition or of section 9B(1)) and Form J (application to the Director to resolve a dispute). Form P is the standard form of lease; the government's Form P page links to it, and the lease text sits in the Standard Form of Lease Regulations. Those regulations now read as amended to N.S. Reg. 120/2026, and the change was not identified in the sources reviewed, so confirm the current wording of any lease clause you rely on. For the full forms list, see the province's residential tenancy forms page, and for form wording, see landlord forms and required wording in Nova Scotia.

This guide explains the rules in general terms; for a specific case, ask the tribunal or a licensed legal professional.