The provincial guideline caps most increases without a landlord ever applying to the Landlord and Tenant Board. Whether it applies to your unit is a separate question, and the answer turns on a single date.
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Enter your current monthly rent and the year the increase takes effect. The estimate updates instantly — no email required.
This checks the guideline math only. Whether your unit is exempt, and whether the notice you received was valid, are the questions actually worth confirming.
The short version — the calculator above does the actual math for you.
The Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing sets the guideline each year under section 120 of the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006 — tied to the change in Ontario's Consumer Price Index and capped at 2.5%. It's 1.9% for 2027 and was 2.1% for 2026.
It does not apply to a unit first occupied for residential purposes after 15 November 2018. New buildings, new additions, and newly converted units sit outside the guideline entirely, and rent in those units can rise by any amount the landlord and tenant agree to (or that survives an Above Guideline Increase application, in the rarer cases where one applies to an exempt unit's later increases).
Notice and frequency apply whether or not the unit is guideline-capped.
Whatever the amount, a landlord must give 90 days' written notice on the Board's prescribed form, and can raise the rent only once in any 12-month period. Under section 116(4) of the Act, an increase taken without proper notice is void outright — the landlord has to serve a fresh notice and wait out the 90 days again before any increase can take effect.
A landlord can also apply to the Board for an above-guideline increase, for things like eligible capital expenditures, extraordinary utility increases, or security services — but that requires an order, not just a letter. An increase above the guideline taken without an order is simply void, and rent paid on the strength of it can potentially be recovered.
Say your rent is $2,000 a month and your landlord gives proper notice of a guideline increase taking effect in 2027:
The same $2,000 rent under the 2026 guideline (2.1%) rises by $42.00 to $2,042.00 — a larger dollar increase than the 2027 example above, because 2026's rate is the higher of the two; run your own rent and year in the calculator above.
It is the maximum percentage a landlord can raise most rents by in a year without applying to the Landlord and Tenant Board. It is 1.9% for 2027 and was 2.1% for 2026.
No. Units first occupied for residential purposes after 15 November 2018 are exempt, along with most new additions and conversions. In those units the increase is not capped by the guideline.
Ninety days in writing, on the form prescribed by the Landlord and Tenant Board, and no more than one increase in any twelve-month period.
Only with an above-guideline increase order from the Board, granted for things like eligible capital expenditures or a significant municipal tax increase, or where the unit is exempt from the guideline. An unauthorised above-guideline increase is void.
The increase is void. Under section 116(4) of the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006, the landlord has to give a fresh 90-day notice before any increase can take effect, even if the amount itself would otherwise be within the guideline.
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