Rental deposit
Ontario, Canada
In plain language
Ontario regulates residential security deposits under the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006, SO 2006, c 17, administered by Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) and decided by Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB). We name the route and the body; we are not stating this province’s caps, deadlines or interest rates because we could not verify them in this review cycle.
Who is covered
Tenants of residential premises in Ontario.
What you get
Return of the deposit to the extent the landlord cannot justify keeping it, plus — in the provinces that prohibit damage deposits outright — recovery of a deposit that was never lawfully collectable.
Where claims go wrong
Authority
Sources
Where a figure is indexed, converted or published by a regulator rather than fixed in the instrument, the provenance is recorded separately. Anything marked as a modelled estimate is exactly that — a model, not a statutory number.
What it imposes
Each of these is a refusal this regime lets a counterparty attempt, paired with the answer to it. Reading them before you write is worth more than any amount of polish on the letter itself.
The landlord points to the tenancy agreement and to the fact that the tenant paid the deposit willingly.
What answers it
Where the legislation prohibits a deposit, agreeing to pay it does not make it lawful and does not waive the right to get it back. A term in a tenancy agreement cannot contract out of a statutory prohibition. The money is recoverable as an unlawful charge, without any need to argue about the condition of the unit.
The landlord charges for cleaning, carpet wear, scuffed paint or tired fittings and treats the deposit as a refurbishment fund.
What answers it
Fair wear and tear from ordinary use is not a recoverable loss in any of the regimes this product covers — a deduction must reflect damage or a breach beyond ordinary use, must be evidenced, and must be reduced for the age and remaining life of the item. Ask for the invoice, the check-in and check-out evidence, and the calculation.
The landlord asserts damage and expects the tenant to disprove it, often without a check-in inventory.
What answers it
It is the party seeking to keep the money who must justify keeping it. Where there is no dated check-in record to compare against, an adjudicator has nothing to measure the alleged damage from, and the deduction generally fails on that ground alone.
Documents
The same claim type elsewhere
Other rights in the same countries
The engine runs every regime that could apply at once and reconciles them, rather than making you guess which page to read.
Not a law firm. Not legal advice. You send it yourself. This page describes a law; it is not advice about your situation and no outcome is promised.