N12 notice in Ontario: when you, your family or a buyer moves in

What is an N12?

The N12 is the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) form called "Notice to End your Tenancy Because the Landlord, a Purchaser or a Family Member Requires the Rental Unit". It has two reasons (LTB N12 instructions):

• Reason 1, your own use: you, your spouse, a child or parent of either of you, or a caregiver for one of them will live there for at least one year (section 48 of the Residential Tenancies Act). Only an individual landlord can use it, never a corporation.
• Reason 2, a buyer's use: you've signed an agreement to sell, and the buyer or the same family members will live there. It works only for a condo unit or a building with no more than three residential units (section 49).

Notice period: how to pick the termination date

Use the current form (version 2026/09): the LTB stops accepting earlier versions on November 30, 2026. Then pick a date that meets all of these:

• At least 60 days after you give the notice. Don't count the day you give it.
• On the last day of a rental period, or the last day of a fixed-term lease. If rent is due on the 1st, the date is the last day of a month.
• Add time for delivery: one business day by courier, five days by mail or Xpresspost. Hand it to the tenant, leave it in their mailbox or slide it under the door. Taping it to the door doesn't count.
• The LTB's example: given by hand on August 1, the earliest date is September 30. Mailed on August 1, it's October 31.
• The tenant can leave sooner by giving you at least 10 days' written notice.

Compensation: one month's rent, or nothing with 120 days' notice

You must pay the tenant one month's rent, or offer another unit they accept, no later than the termination date (sections 48.1, 49.1 and 55.1). Taking the unit back without paying is an offence under the Act.

What changed on September 21, 2026: for your own use, no compensation is owed if the notice was given on or after that day and the termination date is at least 120 days away (still the last day of a rental period). It's a trade: four months' notice instead of two, and no month's rent.

It doesn't apply to a buyer's N12. The LTB says the change "does not apply to N12 notices served for purchaser's own use". On a sale you, the seller, pay the one month's rent; it "does not become an obligation of the purchaser" (section 49.1).

If the tenant doesn't move out

1. File an L2 (Application to End a Tenancy and Evict a Tenant) with a copy of the N12 and a Certificate of Service. You can file right after giving the notice, and no later than 30 days after the termination date.
2. File the sworn declaration of the person moving in. The LTB can't evict without it (section 72).
3. Wait for a hearing. The LTB says most applications other than unpaid rent are being scheduled within 5–7 months. The tenant can stay until there's an order, and the LTB can look at your past N12s when it decides whether you're acting in good faith.
4. Pay the compensation by the termination date either way. Paying late or not at all hands the tenant an argument at the hearing.

Bad faith: what happens if no one moves in

If you served an N12 and the person named didn't move in within a reasonable time, the former tenant can apply to the LTB within one year of moving out (section 57). The Board can order you to pay up to 12 months' rent as compensation, their higher rent for a year, moving and storage costs, and a fine of up to the greater of $10,000 and the Small Claims Court limit. Knowingly getting a unit back with a bad-faith notice is also an offence, with fines up to $100,000 for a person and $500,000 for a corporation (sections 233 and 238).

For an own-use N12, the Act presumes bad faith if, from the day you give the notice until one year after the tenant leaves, you:

• advertise the unit for rent, or rent it to someone else;
• advertise the unit or the building for sale;
• demolish it, or take steps to use it for something other than housing.

Planning to sell? Don't use an own-use N12

Listing the home for sale within a year of the tenant leaving is one of the things that makes the LTB presume an own-use N12 was in bad faith. If the real plan is to sell, pick one of these instead:

• Sell it tenanted. The lease carries on with the buyer, which suits investors. See selling a house with tenants.
• Serve a buyer's N12 after a firm sale to a buyer who'll live there (a condo, or 3 units or fewer). You pay one month's rent and give 60 days; set the closing date with the LTB's timeline in mind.
• Agree on a move-out date with an N11, often with a payment. The cash for keys calculator shows the most you can offer and still come out ahead.
• Moving back in for real? Live there at least the year you declared before you list it.

When you can't use an N12

• The owner and landlord is a corporation.
• The building was converted to a condo, or is about to be, and the tenant lived there at the time.
• The property was severed or subdivided and the tenant lived there when that was approved (section 56).
• It's an equity co-op, unless it has four or fewer units or you or your family lived there before.
• For a buyer's N12: the building has four or more units, or there's no signed agreement of purchase and sale yet.
• The real reason is a renovation, demolition or conversion: that's an N13 notice, with 120 days' notice.

Selling or re-renting with a flat fee MLS® listing

Whichever way it ends, we can list the home on the MLS® System and realtor.ca for a flat fee, through Robin Hood Realty Limited, Brokerage: for sale, tenanted or empty, or for rent once you're ready for a new tenant. Showing requests come straight to you, so you set the times and give your tenant the 24 hours' written notice they're owed.

This page is general information, not legal advice. Before you serve an N12 or set a closing date, talk to a real estate lawyer or a licensed paralegal.

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