A landlord cannot arbitrarily increase the rent for a tenant during a lease term unless the lease agreement provides for it.

For tenants on week-to-week, month-to-month, year-to-year or fixed-term leases, a landlord cannot increase the rent for the first 12 months of the lease.

• After that, they must give the tenant a written notice stating the amount and effective date of the increase.

A landlord cannot increase rent more than once in a 12-month period, and the notice must be given before the anniversary date in each subsequent year.

The notice periods required for rent increases depend on the type of lease.

• For a year-to-year lease, the notice must be given four months prior to the anniversary date.

• For a month-to-month lease, the notice must be given four months prior to the anniversary date.

• For a week-to-week lease, the notice must be given eight weeks prior to the anniversary date.

If a lease is a fixed-term lease, the amount and effective dates of any rent increases must be indicated in the lease. A landlord cannot increase rent for a tenant more than once in a 12-month period.

If a landlord deletes or withdraws a service, this is deemed to constitute a rental increase.

If a landlord discontinues a service, privilege, accommodation, or thing that results in a reduction of the tenant’s use and enjoyment of the residential premises, the value of such discontinued service, privilege, accommodation, or thing is deemed to be a rent increase.

NS RTA s.11