Commercial Tenancies Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. L.7

JurisdictionOntario

Commercial Tenancies Act

R.S.O. 1990, CHAPTER L.7

Consolidation Period: From December 8, 2022 to the e-Laws currency date.

Last amendment: 2021, c. 4, Sched. 11, s. 2.

CONTENTS

Definitions

1 In this Act,

“crops” means all sorts of grain, grass, hay, hops, fruits, pulse and other products of the soil; (“récoltes”)

“landlord” includes a person who is lessor, owner, the person giving or permitting the occupation of the premises in question, and these persons’ heirs and assigns and legal representatives, and in Parts II, III and IV also includes the person entitled to possession of the premises; (“locateur”)

“spouse” means a person,

(a) to whom the person is married, or

(b) with whom the person is living in a conjugal relationship outside marriage, if the two persons,

(i) have cohabited for at least one year,

(ii) are together the parents of a child, or

(iii) have together entered into a cohabitation agreement under section 53 of the Family Law Act; (“conjoint”)

“standing crops” means crops standing or growing on the demised premises; (“récoltes sur pied”)

“tenant” includes a person who is lessee, occupant, sub-tenant, under-tenant, and the person’s assigns and legal representatives. (“locataire”) R.S.O. 1990, c. L.7, s. 1; 1994, c. 2, s. 1; 1994, c. 4, s. 1; 1997, c. 24, s. 213 (1, 2); 1999, c. 6, s. 9 (1); 2005, c. 5, s. 10 (1, 2); 2020, c. 10, s. 1; 2020, c. 23, Sched. 2, s. 1; 2021, c. 4, Sched. 11, s. 2.

Section Amendments with date in force (d/m/y)

1994, c. 2, s. 1 - 31/05/1994; 1994, c. 4, s. 1 - 23/06/1994; 1997, c. 24, s. 213 (1, 2, 5) - 17/06/1998; 1999, c. 6, s. 9 (1) - 01/03/2000

2005, c. 5, s. 10 (1, 2) - 09/03/2005

2020, c. 10, s. 1 (1) - 18/06/2020; 2020, c. 10, s. 1 (2) - 01/09/2020

2020, c. 23, Sched. 2, s. 1 - 01/10/2020

2021, c. 4, Sched. 11, s. 2 - 19/04/2021

Application

2 This Act does not apply to tenancies and tenancy agreements to which the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006 applies. 1997, c. 24, s. 213 (3); 2006, c. 17, s. 247.

Section Amendments with date in force (d/m/y)

1997, c. 24, s. 213 (3) - 17/06/1998

2006, c. 17, s. 247 - 31/01/2007

Application, forfeited property etc.

2.1 This Act does not apply with respect to a property in which the Crown in right of Ontario has an interest if one of the following circumstances applies in respect of the property:

1. The property was forfeited to the Crown in right of Ontario under any Ontario statute or the Criminal Code (Canada).

2. Possession of the property has been or may be taken in the name of the Crown in right of Ontario under the Escheats Act, 2015.

3. The property is forfeited corporate property to which the Forfeited Corporate Property Act, 2015 applies. 2015, c. 38, Sched. 7, s. 46.

Section Amendments with date in force (d/m/y)

2015, c. 38, Sched. 7, s. 46 - 10/12/2016

PART I

Relation of landlord and tenant

3 The relation of landlord and tenant does not depend on tenure, and a reversion in the lessor is not necessary in order to create the relation of landlord and tenant, or to make applicable the incidents by law belonging to that relation; nor is it necessary, in order to give a landlord the right of distress, that there is an agreement for that purpose between the parties. R.S.O. 1990, c. L.7, s. 3.

Remedies available to assignees of reversion

4 All persons being grantees or assignees of the Queen, or of any person other than the Queen, and the heirs, executors, successors and assigns of every of them, shall have and enjoy like advantage against the lessees, their executors, administrators, and assigns, by entry for non-payment of the rent, or for doing of waste, or other forfeiture, and also shall have and enjoy all and every such like and the same advantage, benefit, and remedies, by action only, for the non-performance of other conditions, covenants, or agreements, contained and expressed in the indentures of their said leases, demises or grants against all and every of the said lessees and grantees, their executors, administrators, and assigns as the said lessors or grantors themselves, or their heirs or successors, might have had and enjoyed at any time or times. R.S.O. 1990, c. L.7, s. 4.

Lessee’s covenant to run with reversion

5 Rent reserved by a lease and the benefit of every covenant or provision therein contained, having reference to the subject-matter thereof, and on the lessee’s part to be observed or performed, and every condition of re-entry and other condition therein contained shall be annexed and incident to and shall go with the reversionary estate in the land or in any part thereof, immediately expectant on the term granted by the lease, despite severance of that reversionary estate, and shall be capable of being recovered, received, enforced and taken advantage of by any person from time to time entitled, subject to the term, to the income of the whole or any part, as the case may require, of the land leased. R.S.O. 1990, c. L.7, s. 5.

Grantee of reversion may enforce covenants

6 The benefit of every condition of re-entry or forfeiture for a breach of any covenant or condition contained in a lease shall extend to and be enforced and taken advantage of by the person from time to time entitled, subject to the term, to the income of the whole or any part, as the case may require, of the land leased, although that person became, by conveyance or otherwise, so entitled after the condition of re-entry or forfeiture had become enforceable. R.S.O. 1990, c. L.7, s. 6.

Action of covenant, etc., against assigns of grantors and lessors

7 All lessees and grantees of lands, tenements, rents, portions, or any other hereditaments for term of years, life or lives, their executors, administrators, and assigns shall and may have like action, advantage, and remedy against all and every person who shall have any gift or grant of the Queen, or of any other persons, of the reversion of the same lands, tenements and other hereditaments so let, or any parcel thereof, for any condition, covenant, or agreement, contained or expressed in the indentures of their leases as the same lessees or any of them, might and should have had against their said lessors, and grantors, their heirs, or successors. R.S.O. 1990, c. L.7, s. 7.

Lessor’s covenant to run with reversion

8 The obligation of a covenant entered into by a lessor with reference to the subject-matter of the lease shall, if and as far as the lessor has power to bind the reversionary estate immediately expectant on the term granted by the lease, be annexed and incident to and shall go with that reversionary estate, or the several parts thereof, despite severance of that reversionary estate, and may be taken advantage of and enforced by the person in whom the term is from time to time vested by conveyance, devolution in law, or otherwise, and, if and as far as the lessor has power to bind the person from time to time entitled to that reversionary estate, such obligation may be taken advantage of and enforced against any person so entitled. R.S.O. 1990, c. L.7, s. 8.

Apportionment of conditions on severance, etc.

9 Despite the severance by conveyance, surrender or otherwise, of the reversionary estate in any land comprised in a lease, and despite the avoidance or cessor in any other manner of the term granted by a lease as to part only of the land comprised therein, every condition or right of re-entry and every other condition contained in the lease shall be apportioned, and shall remain annexed to the severed parts of the reversionary estate as severed, and shall be in force with respect to the term whereon each severed part is reversionary, or the term in any land which has not been surrendered, or as to which the term has not been avoided or has not otherwise ceased, in like manner as if the land comprised in each severed part, or the land as to which the term remains subsisting, as the case may be, had alone originally been comprised in the lease. R.S.O. 1990, c. L.7, s. 9.

On subdemise title to leasehold reversion not to be required

10 (1) On a contract to grant a lease for a term of years to be derived out of a leasehold interest, with a leasehold reversion, the intended lessee does not have the right to call for the title to that reversion. R.S.O. 1990, c. L.7, s. 10 (1).

Saving

(2) This section applies only if and as far as the contrary intention is not expressed in the contract, and has effect subject to the terms of the contract and to the provisions therein contained. R.S.O. 1990, c. L.7, s. 10 (2).

Effect of lease where there is a deviation from terms of the power to demise

11 Where, in the intended exercise of any power of leasing, whether derived under a statute or under an instrument lawfully creating such power, a lease has been, or is hereafter granted that is, by reason of the non-observance or omission of some condition or restriction or by reason of any other deviation from the terms of such power, invalid as against the person entitled, after the determination of the interest of the person granting such lease, to the reversion, or against other the person who, subject to any lease lawfully granted under such power, would have been entitled to the land comprised in such lease, such lease, in case it was made in good faith and the lessee named therein, the lessee’s heirs, executors, administrators, or assigns have entered thereunder, shall be considered a contract for a grant at the request of the lessee, the lessee’s heirs, executors, administrators, or assigns of a valid lease under such power, to the like purport and effect as such invalid lease, except so far as any variation may be necessary in order to comply with the terms of such power, and all persons who would have been bound by a lease lawfully granted under such power are bound by such contract; but no lessee under any such invalid lease, the lessee’s heirs, executors, administrators, or assigns, are entitled by virtue of any...

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