Ontario Maintenance and Housing Standards: What Landlords Must Provide

Ontario law requires landlords to keep rental properties in a good state of repair and fit for habitation — understanding these obligations prevents LTB maintenance orders and rent abatements.

Property Management in Ontario

Ontario law requires landlords to keep rental properties in a good state of repair and fit for habitation — understanding these obligations prevents LTB maintenance orders and rent abatements.

Ontario's Residential Tenancies Act states that every landlord shall maintain a residential complex, including the rental units in it, in a good state of repair and fit for habitation and for complying with health, safety, housing and maintenance standards.

Key Responsibilities and Best Practices

Heat is the most frequently enforced standard. Landlords must maintain a rental unit at a temperature of at least 20°C from September 1 to June 15 of the following year. A tenant can apply to the LTB for an order to repair heating, an abatement of rent while the issue persists, and potentially a requirement for the landlord to provide alternative housing.

Plumbing standards require that all supplied water systems be maintained in good working order, that drains be functional, and that hot water be available at an appropriate temperature. A rental unit without functioning hot water is not fit for habitation and exposes the landlord to an immediate LTB application.

How D&D Property Management Helps

Pest infestation is a maintenance obligation. While tenants are responsible for maintaining cleanliness, infestations that originate from building-wide conditions or from natural pest pressure from adjacent units or the exterior are the landlord's responsibility to address. A professional pest control treatment is generally required.

Appliance maintenance obligations depend on what's included in the lease. Appliances supplied as part of the tenancy — refrigerator, stove, washer, dryer — must be maintained in good working order. Landlords who supply appliances and fail to repair or replace them when they fail are in breach of their maintenance obligation.

Devon Moore, Operations Lead Co-Founder & Operations Lead — D&D Property Management

Devon Moore is the co-founder and Operations Lead at D&D Property Management, managing rental properties across Kitchener-Waterloo, Cambridge, Guelph and Waterloo Region.