Managing your rental
Who fixes what in an Ontario rental: the landlord's duty to repair, the tenant's cleanliness and damage, entry for repairs, condos, and what the Board can order.
By the Tenant.ca teamUpdated 4 min read
Section 20 of the Residential Tenancies Act makes the landlord responsible for providing and maintaining the residential complex, including the rental unit, in a good state of repair and fit for habitation, and for complying with health, safety, housing and maintenance standards. It applies even if the tenant knew about the problem before signing the lease.
That covers the building, its systems and the appliances and fixtures the lease provides, and repairs from ordinary use. A lease term that tries to move this duty to the tenant does not change it: the standard lease says additional terms cannot take away a right or responsibility under the Act.
This page is general information, not legal advice. It reflects the Residential Tenancies Act, the province's pages and the Landlord and Tenant Board's forms as checked on October 19, 2026. If a tenancy is already in dispute, speak to a lawyer or licensed paralegal.
The Act gives the tenant two responsibilities for the unit's condition:
Read together, sections 20, 33 and 34 sort most repair questions:
Many municipalities have a property standards by-law that sets the minimum condition of housing, rented homes included, and the municipality enforces it. Where no municipal property standards by-law applies, section 224 of the Act applies the province's maintenance standards in Ontario Regulation 517/06 instead.
Heat is its own rule: when the landlord supplies it, Ontario Regulation 516/06 sets a minimum of 20°C from September 1 to June 15, and some cities, such as Toronto, set more.
To carry out a repair or replacement, a landlord may enter with written notice given at least 24 hours before, stating the reason, the day and a time between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. (section 27). In an emergency, or if the tenant agrees at the time, the landlord may enter without written notice (section 26).
The Act's route for a tenant is an application to the Landlord and Tenant Board for an order that the landlord breached section 20 (section 29), on the Board's Form T6, Tenant Application about Maintenance. If the Board agrees, section 30 lets it order the landlord to do specified repairs within a set time, order an abatement of rent, authorize the tenant's own repair and order the landlord to pay for it, or end the tenancy.
For the landlord, a record of each request, the date it came in and what was done is what matters if a dispute ever reaches the Board.
In a condominium, the Condominium Act splits the work: the corporation maintains the common elements and each owner maintains their own unit (section 90), and the corporation repairs units and common elements after damage (section 89). The declaration can change who does what (section 91), so check your corporation's declaration.
Your tenant deals with you, not the corporation. When the problem is in the common elements, such as a leak from another unit or a building system, report it to the condo's management in writing and keep your tenant informed while it is fixed.
For the owners we manage for, tenants send repair requests through their portal or to our team, we arrange the trades and the 24-hour entry notice, and every request and estimate is in your owner portal. You approve each repair estimate before work starts, except emergencies.
Management is $98 per month plus HST for a condo or apartment and $148 per month plus HST for a house, and the first 60 days of the agreement are a trial period.
