Bill 19 explained in plain English
Residential Tenancies Amendment Act (Rent Increase Guideline), 2012
Ontario legislature bill summary, status, timeline, sponsor, votes, and official sources.
At a glance
Official Legislative Assembly of Ontario snapshot for 40th Parliament, 1st Session. Representative vote breakdowns appear when the Assembly publishes an Ayes and Nays page for the bill.
Our plain-language take, written for civic education.
Source: By PoliticalData.ca
Bill 19 amends the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006, to cap annual rent increases at 2.5 per cent and mandate periodic reviews of the rent increase guideline.
This bill changes the law about how much a landlord can increase rent each year. It sets a maximum guideline for annual rent increases at 2.5 per cent. It also requires the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing to review how this rule is working every four years. The bill amends the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006.
- Amends the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006, to set a maximum rent increase guideline.
- Establishes that the annual rent increase guideline cannot be more than 2.5 per cent.
- Requires the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing to conduct a review of the operation of the rent increase guideline section every four years.
- Specifies how the rent increase guideline is determined, linking it to the Consumer Price Index for Ontario.
- Details the process for publishing the guideline and includes transitional provisions for the commencement date.
- Repeals subsections 120 (2), (3), (4), and (5) of the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006, and replaces them with new provisions.
- Names the Act as the Residential Tenancies Amendment Act (Rent Increase Guideline), 2012.
- Landlords in Ontario
- Tenants in Ontario
- The Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing
- Landlords are limited in how much they can increase rent annually, with the guideline not to exceed 2.5 per cent.
- The Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing has an obligation to initiate reviews of the rent increase guideline's operation every four years.
- The Act came into force on the day it received Royal Assent, which was June 19, 2012.
- The guideline is determined for each calendar year, based on the Consumer Price Index up to May of the previous year.
- The Minister must publish the guideline by August 31 of the preceding year.
- The Minister must initiate the first review of the section within four years after the commencement date, and subsequent reviews every four years thereafter.
- Sets a cap on potential rent increases for landlords, which could affect rental income.
- Does not introduce new taxes or fees but regulates the amount of rent increases.
- The bill text does not specify penalties for non-compliance with the rent increase guideline.
- The bill text does not specify penalties for landlords who exceed the rent increase guideline.
- The exact mechanism for how the Consumer Price Index is averaged and rounded is detailed but complex.
- The bill does not explicitly state what happens if the Minister fails to initiate the required reviews.
This Act is amended to change how the annual rent increase guideline is set and to require periodic reviews of its operation. Specifically, subsections 120 (2), (3), (4), and (5) are repealed and replaced.
Source: Section 1 of Bill 19
These specific subsections that relate to the rent increase guideline are removed and replaced with new text that sets a maximum guideline of 2.5 per cent and mandates reviews.
Source: Section 1 of Bill 19
Generated using AI from official bill text. Not legal advice. It is written by PoliticalData.ca for civic education, automatically checked and spot-reviewed before publishing.
Official textProcess Snapshot
Vote Summary
This bill does not have a published recorded division in the current official sources, so representative-by-representative vote counts are not shown.
No published representative vote breakdown
The current official sources do not publish a recorded division breakdown for this bill, so there is no representative-by-representative table to show.
Official sources
Status, sponsor, votes, and timeline on this page are drawn from these official legislative sources and public records. Each summary above is attributed to its own source.
How this data is sourced