A Hamilton landlord called me in the spring, convinced that once his tenant’s one-year lease ran out in the summer, the tenant would have to move. He had read that Bill 60 was ending automatic month-to-month renewals. He had already lined up a new tenant at a higher rent and was picturing a clean handover on the lease anniversary.
I had to tell him the lease was going to keep rolling. His tenant was not going anywhere just because the fixed term ended, and the higher-rent plan was off the table. He was not happy with me, but he was a lot happier than he would have been after filing paperwork that went nowhere at the Landlord and Tenant Board.
This is the single most misunderstood part of the Ontario fixed term lease rules right now, and Bill 60 made the confusion worse. So let me lay out what the law actually says.
What Bill 60 proposed, and what it dropped
Bill 60, the Fighting Delays, Building Faster Act, received Royal Assent on November 27, 2025. When the government first introduced it in October, one of the loudest talking points was a plan to revisit “security of tenure.” In plain terms, the province floated the idea of letting a fixed-term lease simply end at its expiry date, with the tenant required to leave. No more automatic conversion to month-to-month.
That idea did not survive. After heavy pushback from tenant groups and opposition parties, the government announced it would not proceed with consultations on ending the evergreen framework before the bill’s second reading. The proposal was pulled.
So the headline that scared some tenants and excited some landlords never became law. When a fixed-term lease ends in Ontario, it still converts automatically to a month-to-month tenancy on the same terms. The tenant keeps the right to stay as long as they follow the lease and the Residential Tenancies Act. That has not changed, and under Bill 60 it is not changing.
What a fixed-term lease actually gets you
Landlords sometimes think a one-year lease is a guarantee the tenant leaves after a year. It is not. It never was.
A fixed term does three useful things. It locks the tenant in for the term, so they cannot give 60 days notice and walk in month three without consequences. It sets the rent for that period. And it gives you a clean date to plan a rent increase around, using proper notice.
What it does not do is create an exit. At the end of the term, the tenant decides whether to stay. If they stay, you are in a month-to-month tenancy and you need a legal reason under the RTA to end it. A landlord who signs fixed-term leases expecting easy turnover at renewal is going to be disappointed every time.
The N12 wrinkle worth knowing
Bill 60 does include a change aimed at fixed terms. If a landlord serves an N12 for their own use or a purchaser’s use, gives at least 120 days notice, and sets the termination date on the last day of the fixed term, the usual one month of compensation would not apply.
Read that carefully before you rely on it. That change is not in force yet. Right now you still owe one month of rent as compensation on every N12, and the termination date still cannot land before the end of the fixed term. More on the timing next, because it matters.
Bill 60 is not live yet
Here is the part almost nobody is saying clearly. As of the start of July 2026, the Residential Tenancies Act changes in Bill 60 are not in force.
Royal Assent is not the same as being law you can act on. Most of the RTA sections in Bill 60 come into force only on a day named by the Lieutenant Governor in Council, and no such proclamation order has been made. Some property management blogs have posted July 1, 2026 or September 21, 2026 as the start date. Those dates are not official. Tribunals Ontario still lists the amendments as not yet in force.
What that means for you today: the N4 notice period is still 14 days, not 7. The window to request a review of an LTB decision is still 30 days, not 15. N12 compensation is still required. Tenants can still raise issues at a non-payment hearing without paying half the arrears first. If you file paperwork on the new timelines before they are proclaimed, you risk voiding it and starting over.
The 2026 rent increase guideline is confirmed at 2.1%, and it applies to most units first occupied before November 15, 2018. Units first occupied after that date are still exempt from the guideline.
A Hamilton example
We took over management of a fourplex in Ward 3, near Barton and Ottawa, where the previous owner had every unit on a fixed-term lease and believed that meant he could reset rents each year. Two of the four tenants were paying well under market. The building’s two-bedroom units were renting at roughly $1,450 while comparable Ward 3 two-bedrooms were closer to $1,992.
He wanted us to move the under-market tenants out at renewal. We could not, and we told him so on day one. Those leases were converting to month-to-month, and neither tenant was breaking any rule. What we could do was apply the lawful 2.1% increase with proper N1 notice, keep the units in good repair so the tenants stayed, and bring the two vacant-on-turnover units up to market when tenants left on their own. Eighteen months later the building’s income is up, nobody was pushed out illegally, and the owner has zero LTB exposure. Slower than he wanted. Also legal, which is the only kind of income that counts.
How we handle fixed-term leases at Found Spaces
Our Hamilton property management team runs more than 600 units across Hamilton and the surrounding area, and we write every lease on the Ontario standard lease form. We collect last month’s rent as a deposit, which is permitted, and we never call anything a damage deposit, because no such thing exists in Ontario law. We track every lease anniversary so rent increases go out on time and on the correct amount. And we do not act on Bill 60 timelines until they are actually proclaimed.
That last point saves owners real money. The landlords getting burned this year are the ones acting on rules that have not started yet.
Where this leaves you
If you own rental property in Hamilton and you have been treating a fixed-term lease as a countdown to vacancy, it is worth a second look at how your leases and notices are set up. The rules are more settled than the headlines suggest, and the changes that are coming are not live yet.
If you want a set of eyes on your leases before your next renewal, or you are dealing with a tenancy that needs LTB and eviction support, reach out. Happy to talk through your specific situation, no pressure either way.
Kate Mackay is the founder and CEO of Found Spaces Property Management, managing over 600 rental units across Hamilton, Stoney Creek, Ancaster, Dundas, and the greater Hamilton area. She built Found Spaces from the ground up starting in 2017 and specializes in full-service property management for residential landlords and real estate investors.
