Changes to Rent Cap, Residential Tenancies Act

The Province is making changes to the Interim Residential Rental Increase Cap Act and the Residential Tenancies Act to help tenants and landlords address the challenges in today’s housing market.

The rent cap will be extended to December 31, 2027; it would otherwise expire on December 31, 2025.

“Given the challenges we’re facing in our rental market, we need to consider the increased costs that landlords face managing their properties. We need to balance this and extend the cap to help renters who are facing rising costs due to inflation,” said Colton LeBlanc, Minister of Service Nova Scotia. “We’re also making changes to address rental arrears eviction timelines, problem tenants and sublets, and we’ll continue to keep a close eye on the rental market and on the needs of tenants and landlords in Nova Scotia.”

Changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will shorten rental arrears eviction timelines to align Nova Scotia with other Canadian provinces, allowing landlords to begin the eviction process after three full days of lapsed rental payment. Tenants would then have 10 calendar days to pay their rent or dispute the eviction notice.

Nova Scotia currently has the longest eviction timelines in the country, with landlords required to wait 15 days after rent is late to file an eviction notice and tenants given another 15 days to pay their rent in full or dispute the eviction notice.

Other amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act include:

• new, clearer conditions for when landlords can end a tenancy, such as criminal behaviour, disturbing another tenant or the landlord, repeated late rent payments, or extraordinary damage to the unit
• prohibiting tenants from subletting their unit for more rent than they are currently paying for it
• permitting the Province to publish all or part of the residential tenancies director’s orders issued after a hearing
• new requirements for landlords to provide email addresses if their tenants also provide them
• establishing a common anniversary date for land-lease communities for changing or implementing rules, and posting rules in an area that is accessible by all community tenants.

Quick Facts:

• the rent cap is set at five per cent per year
• a land-lease community is one in which residents own their own home but lease the lot it is placed on, such as a mobile home park

Additional Resources:

Residential Tenancies Program: https://beta.novascotia.ca/programs-and-services/residential-tenancies-program

Changes to Interim Residential Rental Increase Cap Act and Residential Tenancies Act: https://beta.novascotia.ca/residential-tenancies-program-legislative-changes

Dalhousie Legal Aid tenant rights guides: https://www.dal.ca/faculty/law/dlas.html