Ontario’s N4 Notice Changed September 21: What Landlords and Tenants Need to Know
Ontario changed the N4 timeline
If you rent or own a rental home in Ontario, this is worth knowing now. For an N4 notice given on or after September 21, 2026, the termination date must be at least seven days after the notice is given. Before that date, the timeline was different for monthly and annual tenancies.
The N4 is the Notice to End your Tenancy Early for Non-payment of Rent. The Landlord and Tenant Board has issued an updated form.
An N4 is not an eviction order
This is the part people need to keep straight. An N4 does not itself remove a tenant or authorize a lockout. It gives notice of the rent arrears and a termination date. If the tenant pays all arrears shown in the notice, plus any rent that became due by the payment date, before the landlord files an L1 application, the N4 is void.
If the rent is not paid and the tenant has not moved out, a landlord may apply to the LTB using an L1 application no earlier than the day after the N4 termination date. The LTB process, any hearing and any enforceable order remain separate steps.
There is another important hearing change
For rent-arrears applications filed on or after September 21, a tenant who wants to raise other issues at the hearing, such as maintenance or tenant-rights concerns, must pay the landlord at least half of the arrears claimed at least seven days before the hearing. That payment must go directly to the landlord, not into LTB trust, and the tenant should keep a receipt.
What to do with this update
Landlords should stop using old timing assumptions and use the current N4 form and instructions. Tenants should read the notice carefully, keep records of every payment and get advice quickly if the amount, service or tenancy situation is disputed.
Every tenancy has facts that matter: whether the Residential Tenancies Act applies, the rent ledger, the service date and method, and the current form. A notice is not a substitute for a proper process. For a disputed or complicated file, speak with a qualified Ontario lawyer or licensed paralegal.
