When you buy a home with tenants in Ontario, the tenancy transfers with the property. The lease does not end because the home sold. As the new owner you inherit the tenant, the rent they currently pay, their deposit, and every obligation the previous landlord had under the Residential Tenancies Act.
This surprises many first-time buyers browsing Toronto listings, where condos are frequently offered with a tenant already in place. Ontario law treats a tenancy as attached to the property rather than to the person who owned it. A month-to-month tenant simply continues under you at the same rent. A tenant on a fixed-term lease is entitled to stay until that term ends. You cannot raise the rent beyond Ontario's annual guideline for most units, and you cannot ask the tenant to leave just because title changed hands.
What if you want to live in the home yourself?
There is a path, and it has strict rules. If the property has three residential units or fewer and you honestly intend to move in, the seller serves the tenant an N12 notice on your behalf for purchaser's own use. That notice is only valid once a signed agreement of purchase and sale exists. The tenant must get at least 60 days' notice ending on the last day of a rental period, plus compensation equal to one month's rent. That compensation rule changes on September 21, 2026, when notices giving 120 days or more will no longer require it. A fixed-term lease overrides all of this timing. The tenant cannot be made to leave before the lease expires, and if they stay past the termination date, only the Landlord and Tenant Board can order an eviction. Board hearings take months, not weeks.
Some buyers keep the tenant deliberately. A unit with a paying tenant produces income from day one, though lenders treat it differently than a home you occupy, which affects how much down payment you need for a rental property.
The practical advice is simple. Decide before you make an offer whether you want the tenant or vacant possession, and build that into the agreement. Sellers face their own obligations here too, covered in our guide to selling a condo with tenants in Ontario.
Related reading: Can You Sell a Condo With Tenants in Ontario?, How Much of a Down Payment Do You Need for a Rental Property in Canada?, and What Happens on Closing Day When Buying a Home in Ontario?.
