Toronto/CMEDIA: Ontario’s 2.5 percent rent increase guideline for 2023 reportedly the maximum amount a landlord can increase is below current rates of inflation.
“As Ontario families face the rising cost of living, our government…capping the rent increase guideline below inflation at 2.5 percent…making it easier to build more houses and rental units to address the ongoing supply crisis,” said Steve Clark, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing in a news release.
Based on Ontario’s Consumer Price Index, the guideline is a measure of inflation calculated monthly by Statistics Canada using data that reflects economic conditions over the past year.
Although the recent inflation 2023 guideline would result in 5.3 percent, it is capped by the Ontario government to help protect tenants from significant rent increases.
Though the guideline applies to the vast majority of approximately 1.4 million rental households covered by the Residential Tenancies Act, it does not apply to rental units occupied for the first time after November 15, 2018, vacant residential units, community housing, long-term care homes, or commercial properties.
As rent increases are not automatic or mandatory, landlords are required to give tenants at least 90 days of written notice using the correct form before raising the rents.
Also at least 12 months must have passed since the first day of the tenancy or the last rent increase.
A tenant feeling an improper rent increase can apply to the Landlord and Tenant Board to request a correction.
#Ontario; #Ontario2023rentincreaseguideline
