Leases, Screening & Managing Tenants
Schedule B Lease Clauses in Ontario: Which Additional Terms Are Enforceable
A signed Schedule B clause isn't automatically enforceable in Ontario — it's void the moment it conflicts with the Residential Tenancies Act, no matter what the tenant agreed to in writing.
A landlord can add extra terms to Ontario’s Standard Lease through Schedule B, but any clause that conflicts with the Residential Tenancies Act is void the moment it’s written — regardless of whether the tenant signed it, initialled it, or never objected. The RTA sets a floor of tenant protections that Schedule B can supplement but never remove, which is why some of the most common “standard” landlord clauses don’t actually hold up if a tenant challenges them.
What Schedule B Is, and Why It Can’t Override the RTA
Schedule B is where a landlord adds terms beyond the Ontario Standard Lease’s built-in provisions — but it functions as an addition to the RTA’s baseline, not a way around it.
The Ontario Standard Lease is the mandatory form for private residential tenancies, and the Residential Tenancies Act sets the rules underneath it. A landlord and a tenant can agree to additional terms that supplement those rules — clarifying who pays for utilities, for example — but neither party can use a signed clause to contract out of a right or obligation the RTA already assigns. That’s true even when a clause looks reasonable on its face, was copied from another landlord’s lease, or came from an agent’s template.
The Test: How to Tell If an Additional Clause Will Actually Hold Up
The test is simple: does the clause take away a tenant right or shift a landlord’s statutory responsibility onto the tenant? If yes, it’s void, no matter how it’s worded or how enthusiastically the tenant agreed to it.
Clauses tend to fail this test in a few recurring ways: restricting who may occupy the unit, making the tenant’s own contents insurance mandatory, capping a fee or charging a deposit above what the RTA allows, or reassigning a landlord’s maintenance or liability obligation to the tenant. Clauses that pass the test are usually ones that simply restate an existing rule, add administrative clarity (who’s on the lease, how utilities are billed), or record something the tenant is doing anyway.
Common Schedule B Clauses: Enforceable or Void, and Why
The table below covers the clause types landlords most often add to Schedule B, sorted by whether they survive a challenge.
| Schedule B clause | Enforceable? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Only the named tenants may occupy the unit | Void | Leaseholders can add occupants, roommates, and guests without landlord permission |
| Tenant must pay by one specific method (e.g., post-dated cheques only) | Void as written | A landlord can request a payment method but can’t require one over the tenant’s objection |
| Tenant must carry liability insurance | Enforceable if agreed in the lease | The Ontario Standard Lease expressly lets the parties agree the tenant will carry liability insurance; where it’s a term of the lease the tenant must comply, and non-compliance can support an LTB application |
| Tenant must carry contents insurance | Void as a requirement | Contents coverage protects the tenant’s own belongings — a landlord can request it, and ask for written confirmation if the tenant declines, but can’t mandate it |
| No smoking anywhere in the unit | Enforceable if agreed in the lease | Smoking isn’t governed by the RTA, so a no-smoking term agreed at signing (the Standard Lease has a spot for it) is a valid contractual term. What a landlord can’t do is impose a new smoking ban on a sitting tenant who didn’t agree to one — that needs the tenant’s agreement, or an N5 where smoking causes damage or substantial interference |
| No pets, or tenant indemnifies the landlord for any pet damage | Void | The RTA overrides no-pet clauses; ordinary wear and tear from a pet isn’t chargeable damage |
| Tenant must pay for professional carpet cleaning at move-out | Void as a requirement | A tenant can agree voluntarily, but the legal standard is “reasonably clean,” not “professionally cleaned” |
| Tenant handles all snow removal and lawn care | Void as a blanket lease clause | Exterior maintenance is the landlord’s responsibility under the RTA unless the tenant takes it on through a separate, standalone agreement |
| Tenant covers minor appliance or plumbing repair costs | Void | Maintaining and repairing landlord-owned systems and appliances is the landlord’s statutory responsibility |
| Refundable key or fob deposit priced above the item’s actual replacement cost | Void above replacement cost | A landlord may recover only the real cost of replacing a lost item — anything more is treated as an illegal deposit |
| Landlord isn’t liable for any injury on the property | Void | A landlord can’t contract out of liability for a reasonably safe, maintained property |
| Real estate commission owed if the tenant later buys the property | Doesn’t belong in a lease | That’s a brokerage/listing matter, not a residential tenancy term |
| Tenant responsible for fines the condo corporation levies for the tenant’s own bylaw violations | Enforceable | This tracks the tenant’s own conduct rather than shifting a landlord duty |
| Utilities are the tenant’s responsibility and transferred to the tenant’s name | Enforceable | A normal cost allocation the RTA doesn’t prohibit |
| No alterations to the unit without the landlord’s written permission | Enforceable | Reasonable, and consistent with the landlord’s ownership interest in the property’s condition |
Occupancy and Payment Clauses: Where Landlords Overreach Most
A clause naming exactly who may live in the unit, or dictating a single accepted payment method, feels like ordinary lease housekeeping — but both routinely go further than the RTA allows.
Signing a lease makes someone a tenant, but it doesn’t limit who they can bring into the household afterward. A tenant can add occupants, roommates, or guests without asking the landlord’s permission, whatever Schedule B says. The same overreach shows up in payment clauses: a landlord can state a preferred method and ask the tenant to use it, but can’t refuse a legitimate alternative just because it wasn’t the one written into the lease. Any fee tied to a payment failure — a bounced cheque, for instance — is also capped by regulation, so a landlord should confirm the current maximum rather than relying on a figure written into a template lease, which may be outdated or simply wrong.
Insurance, Deposits, and Fee Clauses That Don’t Survive a Challenge
Mandatory contents insurance, deposits priced above actual cost, and fees for services the RTA already makes the landlord’s job are the clause categories most likely to be struck down if a tenant pushes back — though a lease term requiring liability insurance is an exception the Standard Lease specifically allows.
The two kinds of tenant insurance are treated differently. A landlord can require a tenant to carry liability insurance where that’s agreed as a term of the lease — the Ontario Standard Lease has a place for exactly that agreement, and a tenant who won’t comply can face an LTB application. Contents coverage is different: it protects the tenant’s own belongings, so a landlord can ask for it and even ask the tenant to confirm in writing if they decline, but can’t force it. What a landlord can’t do either way is charge a deposit for anything beyond first and last month’s rent and the actual, documented replacement cost of an item like a key or fob.
Maintenance and Liability Clauses Landlords Can’t Shift to Tenants
Clauses that move a landlord’s maintenance duty — snow removal, lawn care, appliance and plumbing repairs — onto the tenant inside the lease itself are void, because the RTA assigns that responsibility to the landlord regardless of what the lease says.
The workaround isn’t to word the clause more carefully; it’s to move the task out of the lease entirely. A landlord who wants a tenant to genuinely take on snow removal or lawn care needs a separate, standalone agreement the tenant opts into voluntarily — not a lease term presented as a condition of tenancy. Even with that separate agreement, if the tenant stops doing the work, the underlying maintenance obligation falls back on the landlord; the city or a condo corporation doesn’t care what a private side agreement says. The same logic applies to a blanket liability waiver: a landlord can’t contract out of responsibility for a property that wasn’t properly maintained.
How to Write Additional Terms That Actually Hold Up
An additional term is more likely to survive if it clarifies an existing rule rather than trying to remove one — and every clause that touches money, insurance, or a shifted responsibility deserves review before it goes into a lease.
- Ask what the clause is actually trying to do. If the honest answer is “get out of an RTA obligation” or “add a fee the RTA doesn’t authorize,” it won’t hold up no matter how it’s phrased.
- Don’t copy a Schedule B template just because it’s common. A clause being widely used by other landlords or agents doesn’t make it enforceable — several of the most common ones aren’t.
- Put voluntary arrangements in a separate agreement, not the lease, if you want a tenant to take on a task that’s normally the landlord’s responsibility.
- Name the RTA and the Ontario Standard Lease, not a specific dollar figure, fee cap, or deadline, when drafting a clause that references a legal limit — those change, and a stale number in a template lease is worse than no number at all.
- Have a paralegal or lawyer experienced in Ontario landlord-tenant law review Schedule B before you use it, especially anything involving deposits, insurance, or liability.
What Happens If a Lease Contains a Void Clause?
A void Schedule B clause doesn’t cancel the whole tenancy agreement — it’s simply unenforceable, and the RTA’s default rules apply as if the clause were never there.
That’s a relief in one sense but not a reason to leave known-bad clauses in a lease: a tenant who’s charged under an illegal clause — an over-cap NSF fee or a deposit above replacement cost, for example — can raise it at the Landlord and Tenant Board, and a landlord who’s collected money under an unenforceable term can be ordered to return it. The safer approach is auditing Schedule B before it’s ever signed, not waiting to find out which clauses survive a hearing.
For clause drafting that goes beyond Schedule B — the rest of the lease body, deposit structure, and what to do about a tenant who passes away mid-term — see our broader guide to Ontario lease agreement clauses. For paperwork and process mistakes on the Ontario Standard Lease itself, see Ontario Standard Lease mistakes that cost landlords money.