Residential Lease Agreement

- For most users, the standard agreement has all the terms required to create a legally binding agreement.
- You may need to use a comprehensive agreement if you require clauses dealing with:

• home business use;
• the tenant having a guarantor;
• whether property is furnished or not; and
• use of a property manager.

- Tenants must pay rent for the entire length of the lease if they leave early. If you have a month-to-month or year-to-year lease, the tenant must give one rental period of notice in most jurisdictions. Some jurisdictions also allow a tenant to end a fixed term lease early by providing notice to the landlord.
- If the landlord is able to re-rent the property before the end of the lease, the tenant's liability for not paying the rent might be reduced by a court.

Fixed Term: A fixed term lease ends on a specific date. The conditions of the lease, including rent, cannot be changed unless the lease specifies. The lease will likely become a month-to-month lease after the term expires, depending on the laws of your jurisdiction.

Month to Month and Year to Year: Renews automatically every month or year until the tenant or landlord terminates the lease. These types of leases offer greater flexibility to both the tenant and the landlord to break the lease, evict the tenant, change the terms, and raise the rent.

Your tenant may wish to begin moving some items in early to ease the moving process. If you want to allow early possession, it's important to include this in the lease.

Different provinces/territories have different rules and regulations for rental and lease agreements. This Rental/Lease Agreement has been created based on the province/territory you selected.

The landlord owns the rental property and allows the tenant to use the property in exchange for rent payments

Put the contact details that the tenant will use to communicate with the landlord.

The property manager, if there is one at all, deals with the tenant and manages the rental property on behalf of the Landlord in return for a fee.

Put the contact details that the tenant will use to communicate with the landlord.

- Tenants sign the Lease and are responsible for paying rent.
- An occupant is any adult who lives on the property but has not signed the lease. Any children/minors living on the property will also be considered an occupant.

An occupant is anyone staying in the property who has not signed the lease, including children.

Only tenants and occupants may reside in the rental property. You should list anyone who will live on the property.

A guarantor is a 3rd party who agrees to compensate the Landlord for any losses should the Tenant fail to pay rent or otherwise break the Lease. For this reason, a guarantor cannot be one of the tenants.

A guarantor agrees to pay for the rent and any damages should the tenant fail to pay. This may be required by the landlord for a tenant with poor credit, or for a student who cannot get a rental property on their own.

Vaping is often an alternative to smoking. It involves heating liquid into an inhalable, flavored vapor with an e-cigarette or other vaporizer. Although the risk for property damage is much lower than smoking, vaping may result in lingering odors or residue.

The property must be zoned for home-based businesses and permit the type of business that the tenant wants to operate. Some municipalities require that the tenant obtain a business permit.

Furnishings are furniture, appliances, and other movable items, such as curtains or carpets, that add comfort and convenience to the home.

- An option to purchase gives a tenant the ability to purchase the property at any time during the Lease terms for a previously agreed upon price.
- An option to purchase helps protect the parties from real estate market fluctuations, allows tenants to purchase the home when their credit and finances are in a stronger position, and may enable the landlord to charge a higher rate of rent.

- An option to purchase gives the tenant a certain amount of time to exercise the option to purchase the property. Generally the tenant will pay an option fee for the option to purchase the property. If the tenant takes advantage of the option, the tenant’s option fee will go towards the purchase price of the property.
- If the tenant does not take advantage of the option, the Landlord will get to keep the fee and neither party will have any rights or claims against each other concerning the option.

The tenant should be allowed no less than 30 days to close the purchase after the option has been exercised. Since disclosure documents are usually provided within 15 days of exercise, the tenant will be left with 15 days to review those documents.

Utilities are sometimes included in the rent. You may want to include utilities if rentals in your neighbourhood typically include them, or if your building has a master meter. There will be a separate utilities step where you can indicate exactly which utilities will be included in the rent.

- A partial rent payment is a lower rent payment for a first part of the lease, if the lease does not start exactly at the start of a payment period.
- For example, if a monthly lease starts in the middle of the month, the first month's rent might be a partial rent payment of only half of the rent.

No, you can only specify a number of days equal to or greater than your province’s legally required minimum.

In Ontario, the Landlord may collect up to one rental period's rent as a rental deposit for the last rental period of the Lease. (e.g. If it is a monthly lease, the amount is the monthly rent. If it is a weekly lease, the amount is the weekly rent.) However, this deposit is not a damage deposit, as any form or security/damage deposit is not allowed. The rental deposit may only be applied to the last month's rent.

A key deposit is a refundable deposit paid by the tenant to the landlord to cover the cost of replacing keys, or other entry devices, that are not returned to the landlord at the end of the tenancy.

- A security deposit is a sum of money the tenant pays to the Landlord to guarantee that the tenant will fulfill their obligations under the lease.
- The Landlord holds the security deposit in trust for the term of the lease to ensure the tenant doesn't default on the terms or otherwise damage the property (normal wear and tear excluded). If the tenant damages the property or fails to pay rent, the Landlord is entitled to recover the amount owing from that security deposit.

- Depending upon your province, the Landlord may require a security deposit to ensure that the tenant doesn’t damage the property, fail to pay rent, or otherwise break the lease agreement.
- The Landlord cannot use the security deposit to cover property damage caused by normal “wear and tear.”

Disclosing the name and address of the bank that is holding the deposit helps provide clarity and is typically optional in most jurisdictions.

The landlord can keep the pet deposit if damage caused by the pet, such as carpet stains or scratches on hardwood floors, is found during the move-out inspection that was not present during the move-in inspection.

Utilities include services like water, electricity, and heat. In contrast, maintenance includes activities such as yard work and snow removal.

A notice provides advanced warning of events such as the landlord entering the premises, rent increase, or eviction. Landlords are often legally required to provide notice to tenants.

Fixtures and heating include any item that has been bolted, nailed, screwed, wired, or attached to the property in such a way that removing it could cause damage, as well as the plumbing, range, heating apparatus, and electric and gas equipment. The tenant will be responsible for maintaining fixtures in good repair, including repairing damage caused by their and their visitors' actions.

The tenant's cheque will be refused if their bank account does not have sufficient funds.

This is a grace period before late payment fees are charged. A grace period is mandatory in some provinces/territories, but most our customers allow five days. If rent is paid during the grace period, the late charge will not apply.

This is a fee for late rent payments. Late charge fees should be reasonable given the damages or costs imposed on a landlord as a result of late payment. The limit on late charges varies from province to province, but most our customers charge twenty-five dollars per late payment.

- The landlord usually does not have the right to enter the property unless there is an emergency such as a fire or gas leak. As long as the landlord gives proper notice (as required by statute), the tenant cannot refuse entry to the landlord.
- Typically, a written 24 to 48 hours' notice containing the time and purpose of the entry is considered as reasonable notice by the landlord to enter the property outside of emergencies.

In addition to being a fair practice, most jurisdictions have a minimum notice period required by law. The lease can specify a notice period longer than the legal minimum, but it cannot specify a period shorter than the legal minimum.

If the landlord or tenant tries to end the lease agreement for a reason other than tenant not paying rent or violating one of the lease terms, this is terminating the lease without cause.

Landlord improvements are upgrades to the property completed by the landlord, usually before the tenant moves in. They can include small to large improvements, from a fresh coat of paint to complex renovations of the property.

Specify the work to be done, including the quality of materials and workmanship, as well as when the work needs to be completed.

Signing incentives are bonuses the landlord gives to the tenant, typically for signing a fixed term lease. They may include a free month's rent, or a rent reduction for the initial months of the fixed term tenancy. If the tenant breaches the lease, these incentives may have to be paid back to the landlord.

Specify the work to be done, including the quality of materials and workmanship, as well as when the work needs to be completed.

A notice provides advanced warning of events such as the landlord entering the premises, rent increase, or eviction. Landlords are often legally required to provide notice to tenants.

- Mediation is a method of resolving disputes where a neutral 3rd party mediator will attempt to facilitate an agreement between the landlord and tenant. The parties are not bound by the mediator’s decision.
- Arbitration, on the other hand, involves a neutral 3rd party who will resolve the dispute and the parties are bound by the arbitrator’s decision.

An Assignment is when the lease is transferred to a new tenant. Note that in many lease agreements, the tenant may still be liable for rent or damages. In contrast, a sublease is when the original lease continues between the landlord and the tenant, but the tenant gives another person the right to occupy the property. The tenant is still responsible for the rent and condition of the property.

- The landlord can demand a reasonable re-rent charge to recover their lost rental income and costs associated with finding a new tenant if the tenant breaks the lease. This is usually only charged when the term is six months or more.
- Note that a re-rent charge is not permitted in certain jurisdictions, consult your local laws to ensure a re-rent charge is permitted.

An inspection report is used to protect the landlord and the tenant by providing a written record of damage to the property at move-in and move-out.

You should include an additional clause if there are any terms or issues unique to your situation that have not been addressed in the questionnaire.

In order to reduce confusion, write your clauses with plain language and limit them to one paragraph in length. Also, use any predefined terms such as Tenant, Property, Landlord, etc. in your clauses.