Your landlord filed for an above-guideline increase — check the building's record first

If your building's owner has applied for an above-guideline increase (AGI), you'll get a notice of hearing and a pile of paperwork about work the landlord says was done. The temptation is to treat it as a done deal. It isn't — the Landlord and Tenant Board has to be satisfied the work qualifies, and much of what it looks at is already sitting in public Toronto records you can pull today.

This is general information, not legal advice. For advice on your own tenancy, talk to a legal clinic or a licensed paralegal.

What an AGI actually is

Ontario's guideline is the maximum most landlords can raise rent without Board approval — 2.1% for 2026 and 1.9% for 2027. An AGI is the exception. Under the Residential Tenancies Act, a landlord can apply for more on three grounds:

• Capital expenditures — significant renovations, repairs, replacements or new additions.
• Extraordinary increases in municipal taxes and charges — meaning an increase greater than the guideline plus half the guideline again.
• Security services — new or more expensive security at the complex.

For capital expenditures and security costs, the Board cannot allow more than 3% above the guideline in any one year. So in 2026 the practical ceiling on a capex AGI is 5.1%. If the landlord justifies more than that, the balance is carried into the following two 12-month periods at up to 3% above guideline each — which is why AGIs often show up as a three-year staircase rather than one jump. There is no 3% cap on the municipal-taxes ground.

The four tests capital work has to pass

This is where the public record earns its keep. A capital expenditure has to be all of the following:

• Significant, not routine. It must have an expected benefit of at least five years. Ordinary work, regular maintenance, work that's substantially cosmetic, and work meant to raise the building's prestige or luxury level don't count.
• Eligible. It has to be necessary to protect or restore the building's physical integrity, to maintain health, safety or housing standards, to keep plumbing, heating, mechanical, electrical, ventilation or air-conditioning systems working, to provide accessibility, to promote energy or water conservation, or to maintain or improve security.
• Actually needed. If something was replaced that didn't need replacing, it usually isn't eligible — unless it was for accessibility, conservation or security.
• Recent and paid for. The work has to be completed within an 18-month window ending 90 days before the first requested rent increase, and paid in full before the application was filed.

Real, recent, necessary, and paid for. Three of those four leave a trail in Toronto's permit and enforcement records — before you ever walk into a hearing.

What to pull before the hearing

Start with the permit history. Significant structural, mechanical, plumbing, electrical and HVAC work generally requires a building permit. Search the address in permit history and compare what was permitted, and when it closed, against what the landlord is claiming. A permit issued and closed inside that 18-month window supports the claim. A claim for major mechanical work with no corresponding permit at all is a fair question to ask. So is a claim dated outside the window.

Then pull the enforcement record. The Board can consider existing serious breaches of health, safety or housing standards, or of the landlord's obligation to maintain and repair the building. If it finds serious maintenance problems, it can dismiss the application for the affected units, or order that the increase not take effect until the work is finished. Open orders and violations and the bylaw investigation record are exactly the kind of evidence that goes to that point. Our explainer on what an open work order means walks through how to read them.

Check the elevators specifically. The RTA has a special rule: where a landlord hasn't completed ordered elevator repairs, the Board may not be able to order an above-guideline increase at all.

Add the building's score. RentSafeTO evaluates registered apartment buildings and publishes the results. A weak evaluation, or a pattern of the same deficiencies recurring, is context the Board is allowed to hear. Look up the building report card and see RentSafeTO scores explained for what counts as a red flag.

Procedural points worth knowing

• You don't pay the increase until it's ordered. The landlord has to have served proper notices of rent increase, but the higher amount isn't owed unless the Board approves it.
• You can inspect the landlord's evidence. Tenants are generally entitled to view the invoices and proof of payment filed with the application — the notice of hearing explains how.
• Timelines got shorter on July 1, 2026. The window to request a review of a Board order dropped from 30 days to 15 days. Related AGI deadlines tightened too: where a landlord is directed to serve an AGI order, they now have 7 days instead of 14, and must file the certificate of service within 5 days of serving. Further changes under Bills 60 and 97 were slated to take effect in September 2026 — worth confirming the current rules on Tribunals Ontario's site before you file anything.
• New tenants are protected from it. An increase in an AGI order can't be charged to someone who moved in after the landlord's filing deadline, which is 90 days before the first requested increase.
• Maintenance is its own application. If the problem is that things are broken rather than that the increase is wrong, a T6 is the separate route — and it can't be filed more than a year after the item was fixed.

Neighbours make the difference

An AGI hearing covers every affected unit, and tenants who organize, appoint a spokesperson and show up with documents do materially better than tenants who each turn up alone. Pull the records once and share them.

Check any Toronto address

Pull the permit history, orders and violations and the building report card for your building, or start from the full property snapshot. If an application is live, monitor the address so new permits and orders land in your inbox while the file is open. For the guideline itself and the current notice rules, see Ontario's 2027 rent guideline explained and always confirm against the Province's official page, since the figure resets every year.