Renting Out Your Condo in Toronto: What Landlords Need to Know
Maybe you've upsized and kept the old unit, or your pre-con finally closed and you're not moving in. Either way, renting out your condo in Toronto turns you into a small business owner overnight, with a regulator, a tax filing, and a condo board all suddenly interested in your decisions. Here's the checklist that keeps first-time condo landlords out of trouble.
Before renting out your condo: check the building's rules
Your condo corporation's declaration and rules sit on top of provincial law. Before listing, confirm:
Whether rentals are permitted and any minimum lease term (many buildings ban short-term rentals outright)
Move-in procedures, elevator bookings, and deposits the corporation charges
Whether you must notify the corporation of the lease and tenant details (commonly required under the Condominium Act)
Any rules your tenant inherits: pets, amenities, parking, smoking
Your tenant is bound by the building's rules, but you stay responsible to the corporation for your unit. Give tenants the rules in writing on day one.
Use the standard lease, and paper it properly
Ontario requires the standard form lease for most residential tenancies. It covers rent, deposits (last month's rent and a refundable key deposit only, no damage deposits in Ontario), utilities, and any additional terms that don't conflict with the Residential Tenancies Act. Add a proper condo schedule covering rules acknowledgment, insurance requirements, and amenity access. The Ontario standard lease page has the current form.
Screening within the law
You can and should verify income, employment, credit, references, and rental history. You can't screen on protected grounds under Ontario's Human Rights Code: family status, citizenship, receipt of public assistance, and the rest. Practical screening that holds up:
A complete application with consent for a credit check
Income verification against the actual rent, applied consistently to every applicant
A conversation with a previous landlord, not just the current one (who may want them gone)
The same criteria, applied the same way, for everyone
Insurance and money details
Your homeowner-style condo policy doesn't fit a rental. You need a landlord policy covering the unit, liability, and ideally rent loss, and your lease should require tenants to carry their own contents and liability insurance. On the money side: rental income is taxable and gets reported annually, expenses (condo fees, interest, insurance, repairs) are generally deductible against it, and renting out a former principal residence has capital gains implications worth understanding before you start, not at sale time.
Tax rules depend on your situation. Confirm the details with your accountant before you list the unit.
Know the regime you're entering
Ontario tenancies are governed by the RTA, and ending one requires proper grounds and process through the Landlord and Tenant Board. Rent increases follow the annual guideline for most units (with an exemption for units first occupied after November 2018, a detail worth confirming for your specific unit). Short-term renting in Toronto is restricted to your principal residence with registration, so a pure investment condo generally can't be an Airbnb. Go in with realistic expectations: this is a long-term income business, not a flexible side hustle.
This isn't legal advice. The RTA has real teeth, so talk to a paralegal or lawyer when situations get complicated.
Common mistakes
Skipping the corporation's rental rules and hitting move-in day chaos
Collecting illegal deposits out of habit from other provinces
Pricing the unit off wishful thinking instead of current comparable rents
Forgetting deposit interest and guideline rules after the tenancy starts
Self-managing from a distance with no plan for 2 a.m. leaks
If you're deciding between renting out your unit or selling it, that's a real analysis with numbers on both sides. Reach out and we can run it together. More rental content is in my Renting category.
Rules current as of July 2026. Confirm current forms, guidelines, and bylaws before listing.
