Bill 60's seven-day eviction clock starts September 21 — here's what changes

Ontario's Bill 60 — the Fighting Delays, Building Faster Act — passed back in November 2025, but its rental-law changes arrived in stages. The first wave landed on July 1, 2026. The second, and the one renters will feel most directly, takes effect September 21, 2026: the grace period after a missed rent payment drops from 14 days to 7.

If you rent — or you're a small landlord — here's what actually changes, what already changed in July, and what's still up in the air.

The seven-day N4

When rent goes unpaid, a landlord's first move is an N4 notice. Today, the tenant has 14 days to pay the arrears in full and void the notice before the landlord can file for eviction at the Landlord and Tenant Board. For any N4 served on or after September 21, 2026, that window shrinks to 7 days.

The practical effect: a rent payment that clears a week late — a delayed paycheque, a bounced e-transfer, a mid-move mixup — can now put you inside filing territory instead of comfortably outside it. Paying the arrears still voids the notice; you just have half the time to do it.

One wrinkle worth knowing on both sides: a 7-day N4 served before September 21 is void. Until that date, the 14-day timeline is still the law.

Own-use evictions: the 120-day trade

The second big September change touches the N12 — the "landlord's own use" notice. Today a landlord must pay one month's rent in compensation on every N12, regardless of notice length. From September 21, that compensation is waived when the landlord gives 120 days' notice or more.

Expect long-notice N12s to become the default. If one lands in your mailbox this fall, the good-faith requirements haven't changed — the named person still has to actually move in and stay — so our guide to what an own-use eviction requires applies in full.

What already changed on July 1

The first wave is easy to have missed over the summer:

• The window to request a review of an LTB order dropped from 30 days to 15. If you get an order you think is wrong, the clock is half as long as it used to be.
• Repayment plans filed with the Board must now use the LTB's official Payment Agreement Form — an informal email deal no longer counts.
• Tenants gained an explicit right to install a window or portable air conditioner with written notice, if it's safe (landlords can charge a seasonal hydro amount where electricity is included). That pairs with the cooling rules we covered in Ontario's cooling requirements.
• Maximum fines for offences like bad-faith evictions doubled, to $100,000 for individuals and $500,000 for corporations.

What's still not in force

Bill 60's most controversial procedural change — requiring tenants to pay 50% of the claimed arrears before raising maintenance and other issues at a non-payment hearing — has no confirmed effective date as of this writing.

And one change you may have heard about isn't happening: an early proposal to stop fixed-term leases from automatically converting to month-to-month was walked back during the bill's passage. When your lease term ends, your tenancy still continues month-to-month on the same terms — you don't have to re-sign or move out. Some landlord-focused summaries online still describe the old proposal as if it passed, so be wary of that claim.

The theme of Bill 60 is speed. Every deadline that got shorter — 14 days to 7, 30 days to 15 — shifts the advantage to whoever has their paperwork ready first.

What this means in practice

For renters, the margin for a late payment is about to get thin. Set rent to go out early, keep proof of every payment, and if an N4 arrives, treat the date on it as a hard deadline. For small landlords, the new timelines only help if your notices are valid — a defective notice still resets everything, and eviction orders are increasingly easy for anyone to check, as we covered when LTB orders became a public download.

This is general information, not legal advice. For a live dispute, Ontario's community legal clinics, the LTB's own resources, or a paralegal are the places to start.

Check the building's record

A landlord's track record matters more when timelines are this tight. Before you sign — or while you dispute — pull the building's orders and violations, skim its bylaw investigations, and set up monitoring on your address so a new order, permit, or listing shows up in your inbox instead of surprising you.