Questionnaire

The City of Ottawa is considering a by-law to help protect tenants from unlawful evictions due to renovations or repair (also known as “renovictions”). Input from this questionnaire will help inform the development of this by-law.

Background: 

How are evictions regulated? In Ontario, the Residential Tenancies Act regulates the relationship between landlords and tenants, including when and how evictions from rental units can occur. The legislation authorizes evictions in situations where landlords need to make repairs to rental units and the scope of work to be done may require a building permit and requires the unit to be vacated. In all cases, evictions must follow legislated process, including a requirement for the landlord to provide a notice of termination of tenancy to the tenant, referred to as an N13 Notice, where termination of tenancy is for renovations or repairs.  When an N13 notice is issued by a landlord, tenants have legislated rights.  

What are “renovictions”?  The term “renovictions” refers to evictions that occur when a landlord undertakes renovations to a rental property and replaces the evicted tenant with one who would pay higher rents after the renovations are completed, failing to meet the legislated requirements to let the tenant move back in.  These evictions are associated with a concern that the landlord is undertaking the eviction in bad faith to terminate the tenancy illegally.  

Bad faith actions are not always the case, however, as properties could require legitimate renovations after multiple years or decades of rental use, and these legitimate renovations may require vacancy of the unit.  

We want to hear from you on this important issue. This questionnaire will take up to 15 minutes to complete and will remain open until Friday October 31. Your input is valuable, and your responses will help shape policy recommendations that will be before Committee and Council in the Spring 2026.