A lease is a rental agreement between a lessor (landlord) and a lessee or sublessee (tenant or subtenant) that defines the parties’ respective commitments concerning the rental of a dwelling and the services, accessories and dependences attached to the dwelling. A lease may be written or oral and have a fixed or indeterminate term (duration).
Written lease
A written lease must be drawn up using the lease form prescribed by the Régie du logement. Once a lease has been entered into, the lessor must give the lessee a copy signed by both parties, within the prescribed time period.
The lease form must be used for the rental of an apartment, a house, a room, an apartment in a building held in divided co-ownership (condominium), a mobile home or land for a mobile home.
Note
A room is not subject to the rules of the Régie if:
- No more than two rooms are rented or offered for rent in the principal residence of the lessor and the room has neither a separate entrance from the outside nor sanitary facilities separate from those used by the lessor
- It is situated in a hotel establishment
- It is located in a health and social services institution
Special leases
Special lease forms must be used for the following four types of rentals:
- Land intended for the installation of a mobile home
- A dwelling in a cooperative
- A dwelling in an educational institution
- A dwelling in low-rental housing
If special services are offered to seniors or persons with disabilities, Schedule 6 to the Lease: Services Offered to the Lessee by the Lessor must be completed.
Oral lease
An oral lease can have the same value as a written lease. The lessor must complete the form Mandatory Writing in the Case of an Oral Lease and give it to the lessee, within the prescribed time period.
Term (duration) of the lease
A lease may be entered into at any time of the year and for any length of time, provided the parties agree on the conditions and expiry date of the lease.
The lease may have a fixed or an indeterminate term. A fixed term lease begins on the date agreed upon by the lessor and the lessee and ends when the term expires. An indeterminate term lease begins on the date agreed upon by the lessor and the lessee and ends when the lessee terminates the lease or for another reason provided by law.
Rent
The lessor may require advance payment of the rent for the first payment period and even make this a condition for signing the lease. However, the lessor may not require a series of postdated cheques or any additional sum of money, such as a security deposit for the keys or the furniture supplied to the lessee.
Notice to a new lessee
Upon signing the lease, the lessor must complete Section G of the lease, “Notice to a New Lessee or a Sublessee”. This is the section where the lessor must indicate the lowest rent paid during the 12 months preceding the start of the lease or, where applicable, the rent fixed by the Régie for that period.
A new lessee who pays higher rent than the lowest rent paid during the 12 months preceding the start of the lease may apply to the Régie to fix the rent:
- Within 10 days after the lease is signed, if the lessor has completed Section G of the lease
- Within two months following the start of the lease, if the lessor has not completed Section G of the lease
- Within two months from the day the lessee discovers that the lessor has provided false information in Section G of the lease
Before taking legal recourse, the parties can try to reach an agreement.
The Régie cannot fix the rent if the lessor has indicated in Section F of the lease that the dwelling is subject to restrictions on the right to have the rent fixed and the lease modified by the Régie because it is located in:
- A housing cooperative
- A building erected within the previous five years
- A recycled building, that is, a building that underwent a change of destination within the previous five years
The Régie cannot fix the rent of a dwelling in low-rental housing unless the lessee has reason to believe that the rules of the Société d’habitation du Québec were not complied with for the fixing of rent.
Services and conditions
If there is a document stipulating the building by-laws, the lessor must give the lessee a copy of the document before the lease is signed. The by-laws are part of the lease.
If there are no building by-laws, all of the services offered to the lessee must be indicated in the lease, along with any other conditions, including any work or repairs to be carried out prior to delivery of the dwelling or during the term of the lease.
The lessor must also indicate in the lease whether the lessee has the right to have an animal or to smoke in the dwelling and whether he or she has access to the land on which the dwelling sits.
Language in which leases are written and notices are sent
All lease forms, building by-laws and notices must be written in French. However, the lessor and the lessee can agree to have these documents written in another language.
Personal information requested from a lessee
A lessor may ask a prospective lessee to provide his or her full current address and, with the lessee’s consent, may collect information in order to verify the lessee’s previous conduct and payment habits from his or her current lessor or a previous lessor.
However, a lessor cannot require a lessee to provide his or her social insurance number, health insurance number or driver’s licence number.
Credit check
To establish a prospective lessee’s payment habits, a lessor may, with the lessee’s consent, use the services of a personal information agent, commonly known as a “credit bureau”.
A lessor may also require a lessee to designate an endorser, in which case the name of the endorser must be indicated on the lease form. An endorser undertakes to pay the rent if the lessee fails to do so, for the term of the lease only, and is normally released from this undertaking at the end of the term, even if the lease is renewed automatically.
However, if a lease or an agreement stipulates that the undertaking also applies to the renewed lease, the endorser’s liability is renewed with the lease. There are special rules for terminating such undertakings.
Lessors and lessees of dwellings.
