Does a residential tenancy automatically transfer to the new owner when a rental property is sold in Ontario?

Yes. Under the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006, a change in the ownership of a rental property does not end the tenancy or require any special action to keep it going; the new owner automatically becomes the landlord under the existing lease, with the same rights and obligations the previous owner had. There is no separate transfer document needed for the tenancy itself to continue.

This means a buyer cannot treat a change of ownership as a clean slate that lets them set new terms, raise rent outside the normal rules, or end the tenancy without following the same process any other landlord would have to follow. It also means the buyer inherits whatever the tenancy actually looks like at the time of sale, including the rent being charged, any deposit held, and the tenant's rights under the existing arrangement. Because this transfer happens automatically by law rather than through anything the parties need to do, buyers of tenanted property should focus their due diligence on understanding exactly what tenancy they are stepping into, since the transfer itself is not something they can avoid or opt out of.