Managing your rental
Moving for work but keeping your Ontario home? Renting it out: getting it back with an N12, your principal residence and the CRA, and running it from away.
By the Tenant.ca teamUpdated 4 min read
In Ontario a tenancy does not end because a lease reaches its end date: section 38 of the Residential Tenancies Act renews it as a monthly tenancy on the same terms until it is ended under the Act. A one-year lease therefore does not hand your home back after a year. Plan as if the tenant may stay until you give notice on one of the grounds the Act allows.
Section 48 lets a landlord end a tenancy if the landlord in good faith requires the unit for at least one year of residential occupation by the landlord, the landlord's spouse, a child or parent of either of them, or a caregiver for one of them. The notice is the Board's Form N12.
The Canada Revenue Agency's folio on the principal residence says that when you convert your whole home to a rental, you are deemed to have sold it at fair market value and bought it back at the same amount. Instead, you can elect under subsection 45(2) of the Income Tax Act, by a signed letter filed with your return for the year the use changed, to defer that.
While the election is in force, the folio says the home can still qualify as your principal residence for up to four tax years even though you do not live in it. The election is rescinded if you claim capital cost allowance on the property.
The same folio says section 54.1 removes the four-year limit when all of these apply, which matters for longer postings:
Rent from your home is reported on the Canada Revenue Agency's Form T776, with the expenses the agency lets you deduct against it, such as property tax, insurance, interest, repairs and management fees. If the move takes you out of Canada and you become a non-resident, the rent is taxed differently: see the guide for non-resident owners.
This page is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. The Canada Revenue Agency's pages, checked on October 22, 2026, are the authority on how your rent is taxed, and an accountant can apply them to your own situation.
Moving away does not change your duties as the landlord. Section 20 still makes you responsible for repairs, section 27 still requires 24 hours' written notice before entering for most reasons, and a furnace, leak or lock problem still needs someone who can get there. Before you leave, decide who holds keys, who the tenant calls in an emergency and which trades you trust, and tell your insurer the home will be rented.
Tenant.ca finds the tenant, prepares the standard lease and then manages the tenancy: rent, repairs, inspections and the tenant's calls, with an owner portal you can check from anywhere. Management is $98 per month plus HST for a condo or apartment and from $148 per month plus HST for a house, and the first 60 days of the agreement are a trial period. When you are ready to move back, whether to give notice is always your decision.
