Ontario Repairs and Maintenance Rules 2026

Repairs and maintenance in Ontario run on a province-specific workflow. The Residential Tenancies Act, 2006 and the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) set what a landlord must maintain, what a tenant is responsible for, and what a tenant can do when a repair goes unaddressed. This 2026 guide gives landlords and property managers the practical framework — anchored to the stable rules, so a maintenance backlog never turns into a tenant application at the LTB.

The law and tribunal to build around

For Ontario, anchor every maintenance policy to the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006 and the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB). Multi-province portfolios get into trouble when a team copies a repair clause or standard from another jurisdiction — Ontario, Québec, and BC each frame the obligation differently, and a rule that is correct in one province can fall short in another.

The first operating rule is to put the province name at the top of every maintenance checklist. The second is to separate business judgment (how you prioritize and schedule a fix) from legal procedure (the standard the Act holds you to and the tenant's remedy if it slips).

Who is responsible for what

The stable Ontario rules to build around:

The landlord must maintain the unit in a good state of repair and fit for habitation, meeting applicable health, safety, and housing standards.
That obligation applies regardless of whether the tenant knew of a problem before renting — a pre-existing defect the tenant saw at move-in is still the landlord's to fix.
The tenant must keep the unit reasonably clean.
The tenant is responsible for damage beyond normal wear — that is, damage they, their guests, or others they permit cause, as distinct from ordinary aging of the unit.
When repairs go unaddressed, the tenant's remedy is an application to the LTB.

Pest control: the landlord's job, with the tenant's cooperation

Pests are a repair like any other in Ontario — and one of the most disputed. Keeping the building reasonably free of rodents, cockroaches, bed bugs and other vermin is part of the landlord's duty to keep the unit fit for habitation and in line with the applicable maintenance standards. Where a municipality has a property standards by-law (Toronto, Ottawa, Hamilton and most large cities do), that by-law sets the standard; elsewhere the provincial Maintenance Standards regulation (O. Reg. 517/06) applies, and it requires the complex to be kept reasonably free of pests.

What that means for operators:

The landlord arranges and pays for treatment. A lease clause that pushes pest control onto the tenant does not override the Act. Charging a tenant is only defensible when you can show they caused the infestation — rarely provable for bed bugs or cockroaches, which travel between units.
Use a licensed exterminator. Structural pest control in Ontario is regulated under the Pesticides Act; keep the operator's licence number and the treatment report on the ticket.
Entry still needs notice. Treatment is work in the unit, so outside an emergency it takes 24 hours' written notice with the reason, date and a time between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. — see our Ontario landlord entry rules.
Treat the building, not the unit. Bed bugs and cockroaches spread through walls and shared spaces; inspect the adjacent units — beside, above and below — before closing the ticket.
The tenant's side is preparation and access. Tenants must keep the unit reasonably clean and let the work happen. Hand them the exterminator's prep sheet in writing, and log refused entry or skipped preparation with dates — that record is what counts if the matter reaches the LTB.
An untreated infestation is a T6 waiting to happen. A tenant can file a T6 (Tenant Application about Maintenance) and ask for a rent abatement or an order to treat. A dated trail of reports, notices, treatments and follow-up inspections is the defence.

For the full operating workflow — response times, treatment cadence and an inspection checklist — see Pest control protocols for property managers.

Running repairs as a ticketing discipline

Treat every reported issue as a ticket with a clock on it. Log the report with a date, classify it (health/safety versus cosmetic), assign it, and record when work is scheduled and completed. The landlord's duty does not wait for the tenant to have flagged the issue at move-in, so "they knew about it" is not a defence — the ticket exists to prove you acted, not to argue you were excused.

For managers, the practical file should carry the intake date, the standard the issue engages, the vendor or staff assigned, dated before-and-after photos, and the completion record. That trail is what distinguishes normal wear (yours to fix) from tenant-caused damage (theirs), and turns a maintenance decision into defensible evidence at the LTB.

Common mistakes

Avoid treating a defect as the tenant's problem because they saw it before renting, letting health-and-safety tickets sit without a completion record, charging a tenant for ordinary wear as if it were damage, or having no dated trail when a repair is disputed. Each of these can surface as a tenant application at the LTB.

Managing this in software

Your system should timestamp every repair request, tag it against the applicable standard, hold assignment and completion dates, and store before-and-after photos on the ticket. Separate normal-wear items from tenant-caused damage in the record so charge-backs are defensible, and calendar open health-and-safety tickets so nothing ages out silently. Treat an unresolved repair as a compliance risk with a running clock, not just a work order in a queue.

How Proprietio helps

Proprietio turns every tenant report into a tracked work order with a timestamp and a paper trail, so repair duties are met on time and the record is there if a dispute reaches the tribunal. See how on your portfolio — free rental audit.

Sources

Ontario — Landlord and Tenant Board; O. Reg. 517/06, Maintenance Standards. Confirm the current maintenance obligations, applicable standards (including your municipality's property standards by-law), and tenant remedies on the official LTB pages before acting.

⚠️ This is general information, not legal advice. Residential tenancy is provincial — verify with the named tribunal or a local lawyer before acting.