# Repaying interest on last month's rent



## Newby1983 (Apr 9, 2015)

Hi everyone, I know there's a requirement in Ontario that landlords must give tenants interest accumulated on their last month's rent. I wanted to know what is a customary practice and amount? In my case tenants never had a rent increase during their tenure.


----------



## Davis (Nov 11, 2014)

You'll find the right answer at the website of the Landlord and Tenant Board. As a landlord, you should become really familiar with this site. Any answer you get here on CMF you can take with a grain of salt.


----------



## Mukhang pera (Feb 26, 2016)

The Landlord & Tenant Board site offers this:

Does a landlord have to pay interest on a rent deposit?

The landlord must pay the tenant interest on the rent deposit every 12 months. The percent interest is the same as the rent increase guideline that is in effect when the interest payment is due. The guideline is set each year by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

If the landlord does not pay the interest owed to the tenant when it is due, the tenant can:

deduct the interest from a future rent payment, or
file a Tenant Application for a Rebate
Instead of paying the tenant the interest, the landlord can reduce the amount needed to update the rent deposit (so that it equals the current rent) by the amount of interest owed.

Here's the link: http://www.sjto.gov.on.ca/ltb/faqs/#faq4

But then, as Davis suggests, coming from this site, none of the foregoing is likely worth a pinch of **** ****. In fact, be leery of clicking on the link I provided. It might be a link to some malware and I'll be able to take over your computer and your life. Or, it is a link to a kiddie porn site that will in a nanosecond fill your hard drive with images of indescribable depravity. Before you can destroy the incriminating evidence on your hard drive, the law will be at your door, battering ram at the ready, making what they call a "hard entry" (instead of the more genteel "knock and announce" type) and things will only go downhill from there.

As is implied in Davis' post, CMF exists solely to provide a vehicle for a lively exchange of invective, misinformation and lies. Be warned.


----------



## Mukhang pera (Feb 26, 2016)

Update,

My sister in Ontario is a long-term L/L. I put the question to her in an email today, I got a reply with this info.:


Each year, the Ontario government announces the province’s rent increase guideline for the following year.
Ontario’s annual Rent Increase Guideline is based on the Ontario Consumer Price Index (CPI), which is a measure of inflation calculated monthly by Statistics Canada. The rate of allowable rent increases for 2016 will be 2.0 per cent.
The guideline is the maximum amount that most landlords can increase a tenant’s rent during the year without making an application to the Landlord and Tenant Board. It is based on the CPI, which is regarded as an objective, reliable measure of inflation, charting the change in the price all goods and services in the provincial economy.
In most cases, the rent for a unit can be increased if at least 12 months have passed since the tenant first moved in, or since his or her last rent increase. The tenant must be given proper written notice of the rental increase at least 90 days before the rent increase takes effect.
The 2016 guideline applies to rent increases between January 1 and December 31, 2016.

GUIDELINE AND RENT DEPOSITS
A landlord can collect a rent deposit from a new tenant on or before the start of a new tenancy. The rent deposit can only be used as the rent payment for the last month or week before the tenant moves out. The landlord must pay the tenant interest on the rent deposit every year. Under the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006, the interest rate is the same as the rent increase guideline.

Below is the url she sent to support the above. So, it would appear that interest paid this year must be calculated at 2%. My sister said that last year the rate was 1.6%. It also appears that the interest is to be paid annually, and I am not sure that has been done in the case of Newby1983.

http://www.sjto.gov.on.ca/documents/ltb/Brochures/2016 Rent Increase Guideline (EN).pdf

As an aside, my sis says the Board's website is not all that user friendly and you can look around for awhile before coming up the information such as the foregoing.

So, Newby, the foregoing is hereby submitted, to be taken with a grain of salt, unless your physician/dietician, say salt is contraindicated.


----------



## Charlie (May 20, 2011)

Mukhang pera said:


> As an aside, my sis says the Board's website is not all that user friendly and you can look around for awhile before coming up the information such as the foregoing.
> .


Got to agree with that. I looked for a quick link and couldn't find one.

For BC, the calculator is here: https://www.rto.gov.bc.ca/content/calculator/calculator.aspx

Similar ones for PEI and other provinces came up on the google. But not Ontario.


----------



## Newby1983 (Apr 9, 2015)

Mukhang pera said:


> Update,
> 
> My sister in Ontario is a long-term L/L. I put the question to her in an email today, I got a reply with this info.:
> 
> ...


Appreciate the info.


----------

