On July 1, 2026, section 36.1 of Ontario's Residential Tenancies Act came into force. It gives most tenants the right to install and use a window or portable air conditioner in a unit where the landlord does not supply air conditioning. The right holds even where the lease says no air conditioners, and even where you object.
What you get back is a charge you did not have before: a way to recover the electricity that air conditioner burns, with no N1 form and without spending your annual guideline increase.
What the tenant has to do
The right is conditional. Those conditions are the only part of this you still control, so know them. A tenant relying on section 36.1 must meet all of them:
- Tell you in writing before installing the unit.
- If you supply electricity under the tenancy agreement, include whatever they know about the unit's energy efficiency and how much they expect to run it.
- Install it safely and securely.
- Keep it from damaging the rental unit or the building.
- Comply with municipal property standards bylaws and any other applicable law, at installation and afterward.
You are entitled to inspect for the safety, damage and bylaw conditions. That runs through the ordinary entry rules, so give at least 24 hours written notice and go look. An unsecured window unit three storeys up is a real problem and it is one the Act still lets you act on.
A no-AC clause in your lease does nothing
The Landlord and Tenant Board's brochure on the new rules states it plainly: a tenant who meets the conditions may install even if the tenancy agreement says air conditioners are not allowed, and even if the landlord objects. A tenant who is blocked anyway can file a T2, the application about tenant rights.
The Act does let the province prescribe circumstances in which a landlord may prohibit installation. None have been published so far, so there is currently no listed ground to refuse on. Plan on the assumption that you cannot refuse, and put the effort into the conditions, because those are enforceable and they are where an unsafe installation gets stopped.
What you can charge, and what caps it
Three things have to be true before a dollar changes hands:
- You are obligated under the tenancy agreement to supply electricity to that unit.
- The air conditioner was installed on or after July 1, 2026.
- The tenancy agreement does not expressly say the tenant may install one without a rent increase.
If the unit is separately metered and the tenant pays hydro directly, there is nothing to charge. They already pay for it. This rule matters to bulk-metered buildings and to rent-inclusive suites, which is where it will land hardest.
The ceiling is the actual cost to you of the electricity supplied to run the air conditioner. Where actual cost cannot be established, you may use a reasonable estimate built on the efficiency and usage information the tenant gave you. That is the entire basis for the number. A round figure chosen because it feels fair is not a reasonable estimate, and a T1 application is how a tenant claws back the difference.
The charge sits outside the guideline
This is the part most operators will miss. Section 36.1 switches off the usual rent increase machinery for this charge. The 90 day notice in the approved form does not apply. The rule that 12 months must pass since the last increase does not apply. The annual guideline, 2.1 per cent in 2026 and 1.9 per cent in 2027, does not cap it.
Two consequences follow. An air conditioner charge does not consume the annual increase you were already planning to serve. And you can start it in July and end it in October within the same year, which the 12 month rule would otherwise forbid. Tell the tenant in writing what the amount is and when it starts. No LTB form is required, and nothing defends an amount you cannot show your work on.
You have to take it off again
The obligation runs both ways. If the tenant removes the air conditioner, you must decrease the rent by the amount of the increase. If the tenant seasonally stops using it, same result. When they resume, you can apply it again.
So treat this as a seasonal line with a start date and an end date, not a permanent bump to the rent. Most rent rolls have no field for that. Whatever you use to track it, the end date is the part that gets forgotten, and a charge still running in February is money owed back.
Air conditioners that were already in the window
Units installed before July 1, 2026 are treated differently in one direction only. The safety, damage and bylaw conditions apply to them. The written notice and energy information conditions do not, because the tenant had no way to meet them at the time. The rent increase is limited to air conditioners installed on or after July 1, 2026, so a unit that was already sitting in the window is not chargeable.
Section 36.1 does not apply at all to rental units in a mobile home park or a land lease community.
Two things to do this month
Cooling season is not over, and notices are arriving now.
Build one intake for air conditioner notices. A named inbox, and a record per unit capturing the date received, the make and model, the nameplate wattage, and the hours the tenant expects to run it. Without the wattage you have no defensible estimate, and the tenant's notice is the one moment they are required to hand it to you.
Work out your cost per kilowatt hour before you need it. Pull it off a recent bill for the building, including delivery and regulatory charges, not the headline energy rate. Wattage times hours times your real blended rate is a number you can put in front of an adjudicator. Anything else is a guess, and guesses come back as rebates.