The lease term is ending, do I have to go?

It was almost a year ago when you signed that lease, and you are happily settled into your home. But as the days pass and it starts to get closer to the end of that year term in your lease, do you know what happens next?

The short answer is: Nothing.

The problem is, that some renters – and even some landlords – don’t know that. Some believe that when the term is over, the tenant has to move out. But that’s not true in Ontario.

Typically, with few exceptions, a lease doesn’t have an expiration date. The term stated in the lease has nothing to do with when it ends. A lease doesn’t have to stipulate a year. It can stipulate six months, two years, a duration of weeks if the rental is weekly, or it can have no time period at all.

The time frame in the lease is simply one condition that is contractually binding, just like the rental price and other expectations and inclusions.

The reason for a time period in a lease is to state the landlord’s expectation of a minimum rental period, and the tenant’s commitment and right to rent through to the end of that rental period – as a minimum. If it is a one-year lease, the tenant is obligated and permitted to remain as a tenant for a minimum of one year. If it is a six-month lease, the tenant is obligated and permitted to stay a mimimum of six months.

At the end of that time period, the landlord and tenant have satisfied that time commitment. The day after the term ends, the same rules apply to the tenancy, week-to-week for weekly rentals, and month-to-month for monthly rentals.

The difference

The only thing that does change after the term has been satisfied is the right to leave or to evict.

As an example, for a one-year lease, if a tenant wants to move once they’ve lived in the apartment 12 months, they can give proper notice (in Ontaro it’s 60 days for monthly, 28 days for weekly).

A tenant can leave at the one year mark and not stay for a thirteenth month. Or they can continue to stay for as many more months and years as suits them.

The landlord can evict a tenant at any time, even during the first year when the lease term is still active – but only for cause, like non-payment of rent or violations of the lease. They cannot evict a tenant on grounds of personal use, as a vacant possession condition for a sale of the property or to perform extensive renovations. After the year period, a landlord does have these additional eviction grounds.

A lease term is protection for both the landlord and the tenant. It offers both stability and commitment. Some landlords and some tenants choose to re-sign leases annually – but this isn’t obligatory. The terms of the original lease – except for the term length, and the price of rent, which is allowed to be increased annually as per provincial regulations – continue for as long as the tenant remains.

Some people choose to re-sign a lease term for the security of continued tenancy that it offers,but it isn’t necessary. And it certainly isn’t necessary to move!