The N4 and N12 Forms: An Ontario Landlord's Guide to Eviction Notices

Introduction & Business Mindset

Hey there everybody, and welcome back to another episode here for Ontario Landlords. Today we’re going to again be discussing forms — a couple of forms in particular — but really it all comes back to what we say a lot here, that being a landlord is owning a business and you should treat it as such. We’ve had a client recently who has stated she wants her house back because of her financial situation.

She’s trying to sell it and is struggling with doing so because of the tenant being in place. Landlords, once we start to rent out — even if it was previously your home, or if you bought it as a rental property from the beginning — it is an income-producing property. It is no longer your home. It is that tenant’s home. Yes, it is your property, yes you own it, they are paying rent to stay there, but it is their home, and there are things we have to do properly. There are rules that exist that may not seem fair at the time — maybe they’ll change in the future, maybe they won’t — but being a landlord is still a profitable investment. It’s one of the best in the world. Personally, I’m biased, but where else can you buy something for 20% down, have somebody else pay it off, and it appreciates the whole time you own it, more or less. So today the forms we’re going to be discussing are the N4, which starts the eviction process for non-payment of rent, how it works, and some of the common mistakes seen when landlords choose to fill these out themselves. We’re going to be talking today with Mr. Robert Di Lisi — I’m sure you’ve heard that name on here before — with Stonegate Legal Services.

He’s who you should be reaching out to so he can help you through this process if you’re already behind a bit on rent — there’s no point letting it build up into more cost. I was speaking to a gentleman in my office today, another story here — he was talking to me about a neighbor of his who chose not to use him as the realtor to lease out his property. That was a couple years ago; he saved a little commission and rented it out himself. Now, talking to the gentleman in my office, he told him the tenant hasn’t paid rent in several months. He filled out an N4 and sent it to the board, but it got rejected, and now he has to start all over again — several more months. And now he doesn’t want to spend a couple thousand dollars on hiring a paralegal because he doesn’t want to invest more money — yet if he had done it properly from the beginning, or had a chance to make a better choice, he wouldn’t be as far behind as he is. Anyways, without further ado, let’s bring in Mr. Robert Di Lisi so we can talk about the N4. How are you today, my man?

Hey Kevin, how are you doing? Thanks for having me on again. I’m excited to talk about these forms.

Yeah, lots of fun, right? These are the two most common forms people use most of the time, and the two that are maybe sometimes most misunderstood about how they work and how they need to be filled out.

N4 Form Basics & Timing

I’ll answer some of the things I hear a lot. One question I get asked a lot is: when do I serve the N4? The N4 is served the day after rent is due. And something I tell landlords is, remember, this is a business — so if they say “oh, I’m going to pay, I’m going to pay,” you should still be sending out the N4, because there’s a notice period.

Common N4 Form Mistakes

If you hand-deliver it, you’re looking at a 14-day notice from when you serve it. So if you don’t serve it on the second day and you wait a week, you’re adding more time to the notice period. Now if you decide to mail the notice, you have to add five days onto the notice period. So again, if they owe money and you’re delaying sending out the notice, you’re not doing anyone any favors — remember, as a business, you send out these forms immediately. The N4 is the most common of all the forms, because it’s for non-payment of rent — but it’s also where a lot of mistakes are made.

Some of the mistakes: for example, not mentioning all the tenants — you have to mention all the tenants on the notice — the address of the property, you have to identify the address properly. An example would be 55 Front Street, which is a condominium — well, what unit is it? You need to identify the unit. Another thing would be the amount owing — you need to know the amount owing. And last but not least, the termination date of the notice. Remember, depending on how you’re serving it, you need to keep that in mind, and the way you would best know that is by looking at the Certificate of Service. Now, a lot of people ask if email is an acceptable form of service — it depends on the Ontario Standard Lease, it’s built in there. However, what we’ve seen a few times is adjudicators don’t like that it’s part of the lease — the argument is that they’re signing it with the lease. So even if you have it on there as email, I would still mail it, just to make sure there are no problems, because to get to the board you’re looking at four to six months. The next problem I see a lot on the N4 is the calculation of the rental period — you need to understand when the rent term starts and ends. A perfect example: let’s say it starts on the 15th, that means the 14th would be the termination. I see a lot of people putting 15th to 15th — if you’re doing that, you’re risking the adjudicator throwing it out. Last but not least, on the bottom of the N4 it says who is giving this notice — landlord or representative. If you put representative, that doesn’t mean for real estate agents. I see a lot of real estate agents filling this out as representatives — if you do that, you’re risking it being dismissed. And to confirm, on the bottom it says LSUC, that’s Law Society of Upper Canada, so it’s important you understand who the representative is. That would be for the N4 — the most common mistakes I’ve seen. Any questions on that?

I was going to say, if a landlord fills this out, can anybody deliver it?

Service Methods & Requirements

Technically, yes, but I would still say the landlord does it. Let’s say he’s not in the country and has someone that’s going to do it — just make sure you outline who that person is handing the notice to the tenant on the certificate, for example your property management company. You are allowed to serve notices, you’re just not allowed to represent at the board.

Correct — what we do is have all our landlords fill this out, sign it with our assistance, and then whether we’re the ones handing it out or emailing it, depending on that, we have an email consent form they sign on top of the lease, just to make sure that’s there. But we are not the representative — it is the landlord in our case signing it, we’re just the ones helping get it out to them. So you mentioned the dates — the 21st, the end of the month — a lot of times people double-check the dates, whether it’s the 30th. Simplest mistakes like that are made and will turn it around, making you start from scratch all over again, and you’re already months behind when dealing with something like rent.

Right — can I mention something else about the N4, if you don’t mind? A lot of people think that when they fill out the N4, that’s all they have to do. You still need to, after the notice period, take it to the board.

Post-Notice Requirements

And just because it goes to the board, it doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed to be heard — it means you have a guaranteed hearing date. But you’re not guaranteed to be heard, because if there isn’t enough time, they’ll adjourn or postpone the matter another three, four, or five months depending on their schedule. That’s why these have to be done accurately — you just mentioned a client who tried to do the forms themselves, and you’re just wasting time, and then trying to recover the money is a whole other headache. Again, as a business, it’s not good when a single-family home has one tenant not paying rent — it’s a lot different when you get into multifamily, where at least you’re not having one person not pay; you might have a few other units at least helping facilitate that cost, so it’s not a hundred percent coming out of your pocket, because the mortgage company doesn’t care if you’re getting your rent or not — they want to make sure you’re still paying your bill. So this is a joke I make to people: when you own property, it’s a business, so pretend sometimes you work for Donald Trump — if you worked for Donald Trump and didn’t do the forms when you were supposed to, what would happen? You’d get fired. So treat it like a business, make sure you’re on time with the notices. A lot of times people say, well, if I send them a notice, they’re going to stop paying rent, they’re going to get upset — you have to start something, you can’t keep letting this go.

Yeah, we had a tenant who was waiting on a parent’s death, an inheritance I guess, and the landlord allowed several months to go by waiting on this, and like you said, time was wasted — the tenant had been good so far, and now several months behind, they can’t wait anymore, they have to at least do something so the tenant knows what’s going on and that it has to happen, but they were delayed and being as nice as they could — we’re housing providers at the end of the day, we want everybody to have a great place to live, a home, a roof over their head, but things can only be done so far with whatever story. Anyway, you have to be diligent but you also have to have a heart in situations like this. So the N4 for non-payment of rent — after the notice period, you still have more to do with starting the process and getting to the date. That’s the N4 — remember, make sure it’s filled out properly. You should be bringing in the professionals at Stonegate Legal Services to make sure they’re handling this — the one number too many people concentrate on isn’t the correct number, what they’re going to spend or save, when really what you should concentrate on is what you’re going to net. We talk about the cash for keys situation, which everybody hates, or this situation of getting a professional involved — it is way better to spend a little bit of money so it doesn’t cost you more, and you end up netting more this way than going at it alone and possibly making mistakes. So the other form we said we’d talk about today is the N12, which is when you’re moving yourself in, or a family member, or you’ve sold the property and the new buyer intends to take over as their primary residence.

N12 Form Overview

So that everybody’s aware — as we said, once you’ve rented out your home, it is no longer your home, even if it was your primary residence. This is the form, the N12, that you have to proceed with to let the tenant know you’ll be moving back in — and here’s the process for it. You can’t just send them a text, you can’t just say over the phone “hey, we’re going to be selling our home in 90 days, we’d like you to move out.” You need to have a buyer already with this form, or you need to be moving back in yourself or a family member. Rob, what do you have to say about the N12? You did say something, but I’m going to correct you in a second.

So it’s not necessarily blood relative — there’s more to that. The N12 is going to be another common form — it is for landlord’s personal use, a purchaser, a family member, or even a caregiver. Again, these are legal notices, so the tenant’s information has to be correct, the address has to be correct, and the termination date is a minimum 60 days’ notice. And when I say minimum 60 days, it’s from the end of the rental period. So today being January 24th…

N12 Notice Periods & Compensation

…end of March would be 60 days. Now it also depends how you’re serving it — because January 24th, if we send it by mail, add on five days from today, that would be the 29th, still in that period. But if we waited until the 28th and mailed it, they wouldn’t be getting it until February, which changes the termination date. This is a very common mistake I see landlords make — when you send out the notice, you have to be very careful with that 60 days’ notice, because it’s minimum 60 days’ notice. That’s number one. Number two, you said something about blood relative — it’s not necessarily blood relative. If you look at the N12 form, it says me, my parent, my spouse, my spouse’s child, my child, or spouse’s parent. It doesn’t say uncle, it doesn’t say cousin, it doesn’t say brother, it doesn’t say sister, even though that is blood relative. So if people ask who can move in for personal use, these are the only people. You can’t say I’m going to get my cousin to move in — it has to be arm’s length.

Another mistake I see a lot on the N12: it is a minimum 60 days’ notice, and it comes with one month’s rent compensation. That is mandatory — in fact, on the second page, first paragraph, it even tells you it’s a 60 days’ notice and you must give the one month’s rent. That one month’s rent is not conditional on them moving out — it must be given regardless of whether they move out or not, because if you go to the board, the first question they’ll ask is whether the compensation was given to the tenant. If you say no, your file is done. If you say yes, but it was given five days after the termination date, it’s still not valid under legislation — it must be paid on or before the termination date. I don’t suggest anyone wait until the last day; you should try to give that compensation immediately.

Legal Requirements & Risks

The last thing people need to know is that on the N12, second page, fourth paragraph, it tells the tenant they do not have to move out if they do not agree with the notice — meaning they have the right to an adjudication. That means the landlord now has to proceed with taking the matter to the Landlord and Tenant Board to be heard and get an eviction. To get a hearing on an N12 right now, being conservative, you’re looking at six to eight months, and then a minimum 30 to 60 days to get the order, and then the person moving in must move in for one year. So you’re almost looking at two years before you can re-rent the home or sell the property. Now if it’s going to be a buyer moving in, this creates another problem, because in the agreement of purchase and sale, if you guarantee vacant possession and the tenant doesn’t move out and you wait for a hearing, you’re going to be in breach of contract, which can cost the seller thousands of dollars while hoping the tenant moves out. And sometimes you’ll be forced into a cash-for-keys situation, but now the tenant can be in a position to extort you, because they know you have a closing, so they’ll ask for an exorbitant amount knowing you’re in a situation where you have to pay them. The last thing I’ll mention is that these notices have to be served by either the landlord or a legal representative — again, not real estate agents, they cannot do this and are not licensed to. These are the most common things we see with the N12. Anything else you can think of?

No — I’m also going to say one of the things I hear is people convert 30, 60, 90 days into one, two, three months, and it’s not actually, because when you think about how many days are in February, normally 28, that is not 30 days. So whenever that’s involved, you have to account for the 31-day months on either side, January, March, and so on — and that’s why it’s minimum 60 days’ notice.

Right, and February is a funny month, you’ve got to be careful with the days there. Last thing, if you don’t mind — I sometimes hear landlords using the N12 as a way to illegally evict tenants, and you have to be extremely careful. Remember, these are legal forms — once you commit to an N12, which is a legal form, and you’ve now served it…

Corporate Owner Considerations

…if you change your mind, that N12 doesn’t disappear. So if the tenant moves out, they’re still relying on this N12, which could create problems if the landlord then tries to re-rent it or sell it — it becomes bad faith. Sadly, there are some landlords out there who do things in bad faith, trying to cut a corner, maybe because they don’t know the right way to do it — that’s one of the reasons we’re doing this, to make sure people have the right information so they can make the right decisions. One thing a client talked to us about once, Rob — you may remember this, a few years ago — was about a corporation owning the property, but the landlord saying his mother was going to be moving in to be closer to everything, everything legitimate on that end. Problem was, the corporation doesn’t have a mother — it’s an entity, right, it cannot have a sibling, a spouse, or a child.

That’s correct — I’m glad you brought that up, Kevin, I forgot to mention it, but you’re right — a corporation cannot serve an N12 unless it’s for a buyer that is not a corporation, because then that buyer would be moving in as their new primary residence. Hope that was enough information for everybody. These are the two most common forms, as we said, that get served. If you have any questions about anything, please reach out to myself or Rob at Stonegate Legal Services to make sure you’re getting the proper advice and guidance for your specific situation. And if you can’t find these forms, they’re easily found on the LTB website, but if you go to cresi.ca in our resource section, you can link through from there as well, because CRESI is about being your complete solution — whether that’s pointing you in the right direction or helping you ourselves. We’re definitely here to make sure you’re getting the right information and guidance you need. Thanks so much for listening, Rob, as always, thanks for being our brains.

Thank you for having me here, and we will definitely talk to everybody soon. Bye for now.

Legal Disclaimer

Please remember, while we are professionals, this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. The advice shared may not apply to your unique situation. Always seek personalized advice from a qualified professional before making any investment decisions. Hey everybody, thanks so much for joining us this week.

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