Can my attorney for personal care give notice on my apartment lease?

This question involves a crossover between personal care and financial/property matters, and the answer depends on how the situation is framed.

An attorney for personal care in Ontario has authority over personal care decisions, including decisions about where you live. If you are moving from your apartment into a long-term care home or another housing arrangement because you can no longer live independently, your attorney for personal care may be involved in the decision to make that move.

However, the actual act of giving notice to terminate a residential tenancy is a legal and financial transaction — and that falls under the authority of an attorney for property, not an attorney for personal care. Ontario's Residential Tenancies Act governs tenancy termination, and a landlord will need an appropriate legal authority (your attorney for property) to accept a notice of termination from a substitute decision-maker.

This is one of the reasons Ontario law separates the two types of power of attorney — and why many estate plans appoint the same person to both roles, or coordinate the two attorneys closely. If you have two different attorneys serving in each role, they will need to work together on housing transitions.

If you have only a personal care POA and no property POA, and your tenant is incapacitated, the Public Guardian and Trustee would need to be involved to handle the tenancy termination.