Landlord and Tenant Law questions answered for tenants and landlords by Ottawa lawyer Michael Thiele.
In Ontario, tenants are entitled to receive a receipt for rent that they pay. This is true even if their rent is paid by cheque, electronic transfer, or other instrument that would appear to be its own receipt. The landlord's obligation to provide a receipt is set out in section 109 of the Ontario Residential Tenancies Act. That section provides:
109. RECEIPT FOR PAYMENT ---(1) A landlord shall provide free of charge to a tenant or former tenant, on request, a receipt for the payment of any rent, rent deposit, arrears of rent or any other amount paid to the landlord.
(2) FORMER TENANT--Subsection (1) applies to a request by a former tenant only if the request is made within 12 months after the tenancy terminated.
The obvious use of a rent receipt is that it allows a tenant to prove that the rent has been paid. However, that is not the only reason that a tenant may request a rent receipt. There are certain tax credits available to some tenants that may only be claimed with a proper rent receipt. Further, a tenant may need the receipt to prove payment of rent to other agencies or in other court proceedings. It is for this reason that the law very clearly requires a landlord to provide a receipt when requested to provide one.
While the obligation to provide a receipt is clear it is not always clear what a receipt needs to contain. Many landlords buy a generic receipt book at Staples and simply fill in the spaces provided in that book. For the most part, receipts like this do not meet the legal requirements imposed by the Residential Tenancies Act.
Aside from the section 109 requirements, the Regulations to the Residential Tenancies Act spell out the details of what a valid rent receipt must contain. Section 9 of Ontario regulation 516/06 states that a document constitutes a receipt for the purposes of section 109 of the Residential Tenancies Act if it includes, at a minimum, a) the address of the rental unit to which the receipt applies; b) the name of the tenants to whom the receipt applies; c) the amount and date for each payment received for any rent, rent deposit, arrears of rent, or any other amount paid to the landlord and shall specify what the payment was for; d) the name of the landlord of the rental unit; and e) the signature of the landlord or the landlord's authorized agent.
As you can see from this section of the regulation the standard receipt from a generic blank receipt book will not constitute a receipt. By the wording of the regulation any document that a landlord provides to a tenant that does not include the mandatory information will not legally be considered to be a receipt. Accordingly, a landlord who provides such a document is contravening the law when the tenant makes a request for a rent receipt.
I've pasted into this article a blank rent receipt that I have prepared which, if you compare it to the section 109 requirements and the section 9 requirements of the regulation, meets the mandatory requirements of the law.
Posted by Michael K. E. Thiele at 16:35Thank you for your post. As a tenant, can I request that I be provided a receipt following payment of each months' rent? If my landlord agreed to provide a receipt, but would only do so every 6 months to show payment for 6 months, or at the end of my lease to show payment for the full 12 month period, is this legal? Or do I have a right to a monthly receipt following payment of rent each month? Reply Delete
Hi: You have a right to monthly receipt and you are entitled to that receipt at time of payment. This is especially important if you pay cash. Guard your receipts if you pay cash as the presumption about whether rent is paid or not generally goes against a tenant if a receipt can not be produced.
Michael K. E. Thiele
www.ottawalawyers.com Delete
hello sir,
I wanted to know if rent receipt could be used as a document for address proof for health card in Ontario toronto Delete
Please tell me if a landlord is required to supply a rent receipt if requested dated the day they receive rent? I paid January 2019 rent in Dec.2018 and received the rent receipt Jan. 24 but and was dated Jan. 24. Delete
Hi: The receipt must indicate the date of the payment received. In the blog article click the section 9 link to O.Reg. 516/06. Take a look at section 9 (c) that section provides the legal requirement to indicate the date of the payment received.
Michael K.E. Thiele
www.ottawalawyers.com Delete
My daughter is getting ready to file her income tax and has asked her ex-Landlord several time for rental receipts without a response from him. She lived in his basement apartment from January 1 2018 to January 31, 2019. For approximately the last 3 months she was there their communication were less than amiable. He broke up with his girlfriend and she moved out, he almost immediately started complaining about their water usage and told them he wanted to raise the rent without giving proper notice. I have two questions:
1) Can she claim the rent paid on her 2018 income tax without the receipts?
2) What action can she take to get the receipts from him since he is not responding?
Thanks. Delete
Hi: For tax questions you will need to speak with her tax preparer or accountant. I don't know if CRA will accept a claim for rent paid where there is no receipt. I doubt it, but don't have a legal basis for saying that.
To get receipts from a landlord who is ignoring you she can 1) file an application to the LTB--as a former tenant she has one year to do so--which I think will be 1 year from the date receipts were required. or 2) she can make a complaint to the Housing Enforcement Unit (HEU)--the number is on the LTB website--and it pops up in a google search. The HEU can charge the landlord as the failure to provide receipts is an offence under the RTA.
Michael K. E. Thiele Delete
Hi Michael, my tenant has asked for monthly rent receipts. Would a forward of their e transfer payment along with all the details you mention including a signature via email (no attachment) back to the tenant suffice as a receipt. Just trying to think of a practical and efficient way to get this to them. Thanks kindly in advance. Delete
Forwarding the etransfer but also including the required information (see article) would be fine. There is no specific format that is required. Delete
Thanks so much!! DeleteMichael, I have a question. A friend was renting an apartment for 3 years and gave the LL notice to move out. The LL sued my friend, claiming damaged for smoke, claiming they had to repaint & clean the carpets. She is a smoker, but the LL knew this at the time of rental. What should she do? Reply Delete
Hi: I'll start with stating the obvious. If your friend has been sued then she needs to file a statement of defence to the claim that she received. Presumably this is in the Ontario Small Claims Court? If so, she will have received instructions with the claim. She can also find the Defence form and a guide on how to fill it out by searching/googling Ontario Small Claims Court forms.
On the merits of this claim. I don't have enough information from what you have provided to explore all possible defences. Your friend should see about consulting with a lawyer if even just for an hour to get some ideas on how to defend. My starting point in a meeting like that would be to first look at the lease. I would have a specific interest on any smoking clauses in the lease (i.e. was smoking prohibited?).
Aside from that I would then focus on the legal requirements imposed on a tenant under the Residential Tenancies Act (RTA). Under the RTA a tenant has a duty to maintain a rental unit to a standard of ordinary cleanliness. Was the unit up to this "standard" at the time that your friend moved out. If so, then the landlord has no claim.
After three years it is reasonable to expect that the landlord would have to have carpets professionally steam cleaned whether there was a smoker in the apartment or not. Query if there is anything extra about this steam cleaning. It would be worthwhile to look at the invoice from the carpet cleaning company. Query as well, did you friend get the unit with cleaned carpets three years before or is this the first time they've been cleaned in many years?
With respect to painting it is important to realize that painted interior walls are considered to have a useful life (i.e. the paint job has a useful life) of 10 years under the regulations to the RTA. While it isn't a hard and fast rule, 10 years as a guide is very helpful in determining or apportioning responsibility. You know that the paint job in your friend's apartment was at least 3 years old meaning that the landlord already got 3 years of value out of the paint job. If the paint job was brand new when your friend moved in, and the landlord proves that she ruined the paint job by her conduct, then the most the landlord could get towards a new paint job is 70%. If the paint job was not new when your friend moved in then it will be important to get the age of the paint job. Your friend could also plead in her defence that the paint job was old, damaged, etc. (if it was of course), to highlight that a paint job was needed regardless of anything she did.
Painting to deal with "smoke" is perhaps one way to go about it. The other way, of course, is get out a bucket, some TSP, and wash the walls. It is at this point that you begin to get a sense of how serious the smoking was. Are the walls coated in nicotine and smoke residue? When pictures were taken off the wall was there an outline of the picture because the rest of the wall was covered in smoke residue? Even if there was, this does not necessarily make your friend liable for the cost of cleaning or covering the smoke. However, asking these questions begins to get at the heart of the "ordinary cleanliness" question. Was this apartment left in a reasonable condition given that the tenant was a smoker? Or was the condition of the place exceedingly dirty even in the context of a smoker? Begin to answer that question and I think you will have a sense of how a court might go on this.
There is, as you say, another argument and that is that the landlord knew your friend was a smoker when he rented to her. By not prohibiting smoking the apartment building he had to know that dealing with smoke residue on walls and throughout the unit was something that would have to be dealt with and that it would be expected as part of ordinary wear and tear. That is, in my opinion, a strong argument against this claim.
Good luck to your friend.
Michael K. E. Thiele
www.ottawalawyers.com
Michael, thank you for this blog and taking the time to write these very useful posts. I moved into an apartment 13 months ago. Although it wasn't included in the (generic) lease, the landlord promised to replace the old leaky fridge before I moved in (I have emails that attest to this). They even claimed they had already ordered the fridge before I moved in. To make a long story short, 13 months and multiple email exchanges later, still no fridge. After agreeing to some of the landlord's illegal demands like threatening to rip up our lease agreement after we had signed it if I didn't provide them with post-dated cheques, and demanding I pay a deposit for the house keys, this is the last straw. More than a year later, the landlord keeps changing the story on the fridge and won't tell me when it will be delivered. What are my options at this point? Reply Delete
Hi Digbeu: If the fridge does not work then you could proceed on the basis that the landlord has not repaired the fridge. Repair and maintenance applications are done under a T6 application before the Ontario Landlord and Tenant Board. On the other hand, if the fridge is working but it is just old, then the landlord does not have an obligation to replace it under the repair and maintenance obligation. The promise to you goes to heart of the contractual arrangement between you and the landlord. The emails you have, promising a new fridge, are great evidence of that. You should take a look at the T2 application with the Landlord and Tenant Board. It is a tenant's rights application. You can ask for a rent abatement for 12 months for having to put up with the old fridge and you can ask for an ongoing abatement until the fridge is replaced and an order requiring the landlord to replace it.
Michael K. E. Thiele Delete
Thank you for your blog. I need your help. I've been living with my roommate who was* my friend for 4 months. She has seasonal depression so the winter is here and she wants to kick me out. We currently live in a 2 bedroom but she asked the landlord to switch to a one bedroom unit and signed for that new place. I am no where on any lease other than our Facebook conversations that I'm living with her. She is giving me one month notice to move out. Is that legal? Should I not get 2 months? please help, And thank you Delete
