Fixed-term Lease Ending in Toronto: Renew, Continue or Seek Advice?

This is the single most common misunderstanding landlords bring to a fixed-term lease's expiry date, and it's worth stating as plainly as the Act does. Section 38 of the RTA provides that when a tenancy for a fixed term ends, it's deemed to be renewed as a month-to-month tenancy, on the same terms, if the parties haven't entered a new tenancy agreement and the tenant hasn't given notice to move out. Weekly-rent tenancies convert to week-to-week instead.

This is automatic. It doesn't require paperwork, it doesn't require the landlord's consent, and it isn't something a landlord can opt out of by writing "this lease will not renew" into the original agreement.

That means the date printed on a fixed-term lease is not a deadline the tenant has to meet. It's the point at which the tenancy shifts form, not the point at which it stops. A landlord expecting the unit back on that date, without having pursued one of the Act's actual grounds for ending a tenancy, is operating on a plan the law doesn't support.

Section 48 covers a landlord (or a purchaser, in some circumstances) ending a tenancy because the landlord, their spouse, a child, a parent, or someone providing care to one of those people intends to move into the unit and live there for at least a year. This has always required a specific form, the N12, and it now comes with a choice the landlord has to make deliberately.

As of September 21, 2026, a landlord serving an N12 has two options. The first is the longer-standing route: at least 60 days' notice, with the termination date falling on the last day of a rental period or the fixed term, plus one month's rent (or comparable compensation) paid to the tenant. The second is new: at least 120 days' notice, timed the same way, with no compensation requirement at all. Landlords choosing the faster, cheaper route trade it for a slower timeline; no version of N12's both fast and free.

A rebuttable presumption of bad faith attaches to N12 notices: if the named person doesn't actually move in within 60 days of the termination date or the tenant's actual move-out date, whichever is later, the notice is presumed to have been issued in bad faith unless the landlord can show otherwise. This exists because N12 has historically been the notice most often challenged as pretextual, used to clear a unit for re-renting at a higher rate rather than genuine family occupancy.

Section 50 covers ending a tenancy because the landlord needs the unit vacant to demolish it, undertake repairs or renovations so extensive that a permit is required and the work can't reasonably happen with the tenant in place, or convert it to non-residential use. This is the N13, and it carries its own notice period, compensation scale, and, since recent amendments, a stronger right of first refusal.

The minimum notice is 120 days. Compensation depends on the building's size: in a building with five or more units, the tenant is entitled to three months' rent or comparable alternate housing; in a smaller building, it's one month's rent or alternate housing. For tenants who own their own structure on a rented mobile home site, the notice period and compensation figures differ again.

The right-of-first-refusal provisions matter as much as the notice period itself for landlords planning a renovation project. A tenant who gives written notice of intent to return before vacating is entitled to move back into the unit once the work is done, at the rent that would have applied had they never left, subject only to lawful increases in the interim. The landlord now has an ongoing obligation to keep that tenant informed of expected completion timelines, notify them of delays, and give at least 60 days' notice once the unit is ready, starting the clock on the tenant's window to exercise that right.

Whether the ground is N12, N13, or something else entirely, the RTA doesn't let a notice, by itself, end a tenancy the tenant disputes. If the tenant doesn't move out voluntarily after a valid notice period, the landlord has to apply to the Landlord and Tenant Board for an order terminating the tenancy. Only once that order exists, and only through the Court Enforcement Office of the Superior Court of Justice (commonly called the Sheriff's Office), can the tenant actually be required to leave. The LTB itself doesn't carry out evictions, and a landlord who changes locks or removes belongings without going through this process is acting outside the law regardless of how solid the underlying notice was.

This is also where the September 21, 2026 changes touch a related, easily confused area. The N4 notice, used for non-payment of rent rather than for a fixed-term expiry, now requires only 7 days' notice instead of 14 for most tenancy types (daily and weekly tenancies already used 7 days). It's worth separating clearly from everything above: N4 is a non-payment remedy, not a way to end a tenancy because a fixed term expired, and it follows the same LTB-order-then-Sheriff-enforcement path as N12 and N13.