Sample compressed Ontario Standard Lease Agreement (Canada)

Compressed MS-Word-editable and field-fillable version of the
Ontario Standard Residential Tenancy Agreement (SRTA)
for Landlords, Property Managers and Realtors
in Ontario, Canada
   

Ontario's Updated Residential Tenancy Agreement (Standard Form of Lease)

  

Starting April 30, 2018, landlords of most private residential rental units, from individual landlords to property management companies and realtors who assist landlords in placing tenants, were required by law to use the standard Residential Tenancy Agreement template for all new residential rental property tenancies.

 

The standard lease applies to most residential tenancies in Ontario, including:

   - single and semi-detached houses

   - apartment buildings

   - condominiums

   - secondary units (for example, basement apartments)

 

Starting March 01, 2021, the SRTA was updated to incorporate changes to the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006 (RTA) made by Bill 184 in July 2020. There were also some changes to the body of the text. More notable changes included:

 

  • Removed is the requirement to inform new tenants about electricity consumption

  • Rent control guidelines do not apply to newly constructed rental units after November 15, 2018

  • P.O. Box field has been added to the landlord’s address

  • Ontario logo has changed

  • LTB contact info changed

  • Landlord fines increased

  • Clarification that a person who rents the whole rental unit from a tenant is not a “guest” (to address Airbnb and similar rental situations)

  • A document titled, “Guide to the Standard Lease” is referenced in multiple human languages and points to a website for the document

 

 

Issues

The SRTA file is unnecessarily large - 14 pages and 1.5 MB Adobe Acrobat .pdf file

     · It has some notable data entry limitations

     · It's inflexible in accommodating various types of data input

     · You can't combine your Appendix B clauses directly to the SLA to create a single file

     · Some users report they can’t save the filled-in fields, which means typing in the same fields

                (eg. owner contact info, etc.) with every lease.

      · SLA destroys many more trees than necessary and unnessarily incurs more energy and waste costs

 

 

Defence Against Bad Tenants

Providing a strong legal and robust rental agreement to a tenant applicant, to review before they send in their application, can contribute enormously to weeding out bad tenants. Professional tenants and those tenants with a bad disposition are looking for lazy or poorly-informed landlords. A strong rental agreement often encourages a bad tenant to look elsewhere for easier landlord targets.

 

A strong tenancy agreement is much more than a qualification tool. It can reduce miscommunications, manage tenant expectations, be a major deterrent against frivolous claims of every kind, control operating costs, reduce potential insurance claims, establish responsibility and possibly culpability in the event of a catastrophic event, minimize potential police, fire and other claims, and create an overall better landlord-tenant relationship.

 

 

"Missing" Clauses

There are many 'missing' clauses that add to the length of this document. My 77 clauses adds 9 pages to the SRTA for a total of 23 pages!  Missing' clauses that should be of concern to Ontario landlords include:

    · Occupants who aren’t lease signatories

     · Joint and several tenancy

     · Use of tenants’ personal information

     · Death of tenant

     · Apartment abandonment

     · Utility accounts access permission

     · Photograph permission

     · Last month interest versus top-off

     · Credit reporting permission

     · Guarantor obligations

     · Short-term sublet (e.g. AirBnB)

     · Tenant bankruptcy

     · Other tenants’ right of quiet enjoyment

     · Energy conservation

     · Parking lot rules

     · Laundry room rules

     · Garbage/recycling

     · PIPEDA tenant permissions

     · And More

 

 

Aztech Realty - Chris Seepe video presentation on teh Ontario Standard Lease Agreement
(Runtime: about 2 hours,
16 minutes
1.2 GB download)

 
Standard Lease Agreement Presentation
(2-hour video)

 

This two-hour video is a recording of a presentation I did on Ontario's mandatory Standard Residential Tenancy Agreement (SRTA), which is now required for most residential tenancies. The presentation discusses details each of the 72 (now currently 77) clauses that I feel are 'missing' from the SRTA and which form my Appendix B of the SRTA.  

 

 

Date: April 11, 2018

 

 

  
 
   
The Solution
MS-Word 100% Editable S.R.T.A. File with Fillable Fields		  
   
After weeks of trial and error and exhaustive proofreading and editing, I created a fully-editable Microsoft Word fillable form that compresses the SRTA down to 5.75 pages (half the original document's size) without changing any content and removing only "dead space". Adding my own 77 clauses creates a total of 11.5 pages. 		 

Sample compressed Ontario Standard Lease Agreement (Canada)
Sample of SLA
Editable, Field-Fillable Word Version and Appendix B


Landlording in Ontario (Canada) book table of contents
Listing of 'missing'
topics in the SLA
●

Add your standard fillable content (or delete the fillable field and enter your non-changing information (landlord address, contact, etc.), then protect the document so that your fixed fields can’t be changed.

Every word and punctuation mark of the original 14-page SRTA government form is captured.

●

Removed massive amount of ‘dead’ space and tightly compressed the text..

Final MS-Word file size is about 240 KB (excluding the foreign language jpg image) versus the Acrobat pdf SRTA’s 1,500 KB (1.5 MB))

Superfast to send as an email attachment or download from a website
●

Each field expands infinitely as you type to accommodate any length of characters including adding another line in real time

All page numbers change automatically if you add enough text to cause another page to be added

Increase spacing and font size of fields or the whole document to your requirements for greater readability (at the expense of more paper use per agreementt 
●

Every fillable field is separately named

Every fillable field name is bolded to quickly find the fillable fields

Use the TAB key to quickly move from field to field
●

All the data entered into the fillable fields of a protected document are saved
●

Some SRTA fields request additional details. A couple of these fields have been filled in with anticiapted information. These additions can be deleted with one keystroke if desired
●

Force individual formatting control of fillable fields (eg date = yyyy mm dd) if you wish. This is not implemented in this SRTA version in order to maintain maximum flexibility for you
●

This SRTA document includes 77 fully-editable additional legal clauses for an Appendix B
  - Covers a wide variety of landlording concerns
  - Compressed down to 6.5 pages
  - Anything found in the standard SRTA is not duplicated in the Appendix B
  - Some items in the standard SRTA appear ambiguous or only provide partial (usually tenant-biased) details.

         This Appendix B clarifies these and/or expands on responsibilities and obligations

    
●

The Appendix B clauses are all completely editable.
  - A list of 'missing' topics can be found here
  - A sample of the actual clauses is here  

  - Updated with PIPEDA tenant permissions
●

A 20-point, fillable field tenant qualification checklist table is also included. 
●

Note: There is one inexplicable limitation: each fillable field can be automatically "tabbed'" to when in the document is in unprotected mode but when it is protected so that only fillable fields can be changed, tabbing stops at check boxes. This is a known error of Microsoft Word which remains uncorrected. The quick workaround is to click the text immediately to the right of the checkbox and the cursor will jump to the next fillable field.
   
●

Separate Guarantor Agreement included: A guarantor is not a tenant. A guarantor cannot be the subject of an LTB claim. This is why there is no provision for a guarantor in the SRTA. A separate, completely editable 2-page MS-Word Guarantor Agreement is included.
   
●

Separate Parking Space Rental Agreement included: Separating out the parking space from the lease means the parking space is not subject to the RTA or rent controls (NOT COURT TESTED). You can then pass on to the tenants the true costs of maintaining your parking lot such as unexpected extra salting charges.
   
●

Tenancy Application Form included: Tenant permissions are required for a number of privacy concerns including collecting tenant information from social media, calling previous landlords for referrals, contacting past employers, taking photographs inside a unit, security video surveillance, and the ongoing enforcement of the rental/lease agreement. This field-fillable tenant application in Word format addresses all those concerns and more.

 

Disclaimer

This document has not been reviewed or approved by the Ministry of Housing or vetted before the Landlord and Tenant Board tribunal. Every letter and punctuation mark in the official .pdf version of the Ontario Standard Residential Tenancy Agreement (Standard Form of Lease) (SRTA) has been retained in this Word version -- ONLY the formatting has been edited. It is my understanding that copyright protection applies to the content (text) of a form, but cannot be applied to the formatting of one. The fee charged for this Word-version SRTA is strictly for this reformatting service - nothing else. You may not share this legal viewpoint, in which case you should stay with the government's .pdf document. The SRTA document was also created using Ontario taxpayers' money so the question arises whether the SRTA document belongs to the public. In any event, if you choose to use this Word version of the SRTA you must obtain your own expert legal advice as to whether removing spaces (that is, formatting) constitutes a change to the document or is grounds for copyright infringement. This is an "as-is" product to be used at your own risk.

Indemnification, License & Terms of Use
By purchasing this compressed version of the  Ontario Standard Residential Tenancy Agreement (Standard Form of Lease) (SRTA) along with the Appendix B clauses and the separate Guarantor Agreement (collectively the 'Lease') you understand and agree that the Lease is provided “as is” without any warranty of any kind, and that Christopher Seepe and Aztech Realty Inc. are not legal or financial experts. You warrant and agree that you shall indemnify the aforementioned parties and hold them completely harmless from any and all responsibility of any and every kind that might arise from your use of this Lease in whole or in part. You further understand that you will use this Lease for only the limited-use license you were granted by the terms of your purchase and you agree to not copy this Lease in any form or give it to any other person or entity or otherwise allow it to be copied by any other person or entity except for your personal backup use. A password-protected version may be posted online. If you disagree with any part of this Disclaimer and License then you should not purchase this product.

 

 

PRICING

 

MS-Word Standard Residential Tenancy Agreement with Appendix B Clauses

 

Includes

Separate Parking Space Rental Agreement

Separate Guarantor Agreement

Tenancy Application Form

 

  
  One property owner managing an unlimited number of rental units that they directly own under one company or individual name One property manager managing properties for multiple owners up to 249 rental units One property manager managing properties for multiple owners totalling 250 or more rental units
     
  $125.00 + HST = $141.25 $199.00 + HST  = $224.87 $299.00 + HST  = $337.87
       
 


   

 

HOW TO PURCHASE

 

MS-Word Standard Lease with Appendix B Clauses and separate Guarantor Agreement

 

    
  ● Please send an email to me cseepe@aztechrealty.com that you will be sending payment for the Standard Lease, the type of licence you want, your full name, company name and phone number.

  
  ●

Then send an etransfer (Interac) for the amount for the type of license you wish to obtain 

 

  
   

     Sorry, no credit cards, purchase orders or cheques at this time

 

  
  ●

Send payment to email address:   cseepe@aztechrealty.com and mobile (416) 525-1558

 

  
  ●

Use the password:    standardlease  (one word, no spaces) so I can accept the payment

 

  
  ●

When I accept payment, Interac will send you a confirmation including my comment that payment has been received

 

  
  ●

I will then send the MS-Word documents to you via email as an attachment. Please ensure that I have your email address as part of your Interac payment or otherwise send me a separate email stating that you've sent payment.

 

  
       

Landlording in Ontario real estate book by Christopher Seepe		   The Landlording in Ontario book is a superset of all the material taught in the course. The book can be purchased online here: www.landlordingbook.com    

  The Dark Side of Residential Landlording book is a a no-nonsense, in-the-trenches, irreverent, occasionally contemptuous, sometimes funny, decade-long deeply-researched, mostly firsthand  account of the exploitation, perils, pain, trials, tribulations, maltreatment, uncommon risks of, and sometimes deliberate abuses against, residential landlords everywhere. You’ll learn who the culprits are and the remedies and safeguards you can employ to protect yourself against them. Purchase online here: www.darksidebook.com    

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