An entry notice is a short written document that lets you into an occupied rental unit without the tenant's agreement at the door. There are two ways to get it wrong: leave out a required element, or deliver it too late to count. The second is more common, because the clock does not start when you write the notice.
What the notice has to contain
Four provinces, four short lists. None of them tolerates a missing item.
Ontario. Section 27(3) of the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006 requires three things: the reason for entry, the day of entry, and a time of entry between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. That last item asks for a time, not a window. "Sometime between 9 and 5 on Thursday" is not a time of entry, and a tenant who receives that has been handed a notice the Act does not describe.
Alberta. Section 23(5) of the Residential Tenancies Act requires the notice to be in writing, to be signed by the landlord or the landlord's agent, to state the reason for entry, and to name a date and time. Alberta is the one province that lets you use a window: section 23(6) allows a period of reasonable duration, as long as it begins and ends at specified times. The signature is the element people leave off.
British Columbia. Section 29(1)(b) of the Residential Tenancy Act requires written notice stating the purpose for entering, which must be reasonable, and the date and time of entry, which must fall between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. unless the tenant agrees otherwise. BC also caps how early you can serve: at least 24 hours and not more than 30 days before the entry.
Quebec. Article 1931 of the Civil Code requires 24 hours prior notice of your intention to check the condition of the dwelling, carry out work in it, or show it to a prospective buyer. The Code does not prescribe what the notice says. Use the same three items anyway.
A notice you can copy
It carries every required element from all four provinces.
NOTICE OF ENTRY. To: [tenant names]. Rental unit: [full address with unit number]. Date of entry: [weekday, month, day, year]. Time of entry: [a clock time, or in Alberta a period with a stated start and end]. Reason for entry: [one plain sentence, for example, to replace the kitchen faucet]. Given by: [your name], [landlord or agent]. Signature: [sign it]. Date this notice was given: [date]. Method: [how you delivered it].
The last two lines are not required anywhere. They are what turns a notice into a record.
The clock starts when the notice is received
This is where most bad entries come from. You wrote 24 hours on the notice, you delivered it more than 24 hours ahead, and it still was not 24 hours.
British Columbia is the clearest case. Section 90 of the Residential Tenancy Act deems a record received on the fifth day after mailing, and on the third day after it is attached to a door or left in a mailbox or mail slot. Tape an entry notice to the door on Monday for a Wednesday entry and you have not given 24 hours notice in BC. You have given notice deemed received on Thursday, a day after you were already in the unit.
Ontario splits its methods. Under section 191(1), a notice is sufficiently given when you hand it to the tenant, hand it to an apparently adult person in the unit, or leave it in the mail box where mail is ordinarily delivered. Those count the moment you do them. Mail is the exception: section 191(3) deems a mailed notice given on the fifth day after mailing. Email is not on the list, and the catch-all clause points to the Board's Rules rather than to your own habit.
The operating rule: hand delivery or a mailbox drop in Ontario, hand delivery in British Columbia, and everywhere, write the delivery date and method on your own copy. If the notice went by mail, add five days before you count the 24 hours.
Two hour rules that catch people out
Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia set their windows in the sections above. Two provinces add something on top of them.
- Alberta bars entry on a holiday. Section 23(4)(b) also blocks the tenant's day of religious worship where that day is not a Sunday and the tenant has given you written notice of it, and it permits a Sunday entry only in that same situation.
- Quebec runs two windows, split by purpose. Article 1932 lets the tenant refuse a visit by a prospective tenant or buyer, or a check on the condition of the dwelling, before 9 a.m. or after 9 p.m., and refuse a visit in all cases if you are unable to be present. Article 1933 lets the tenant deny access for work before 7 a.m. and after 7 p.m. unless the work is urgent.
The entries that need no notice
Every province keeps a short exempt list, and none is as wide as landlords assume.
Emergency appears on all four. Consent given at the time of entry appears on all four as well, and British Columbia stretches it: under section 29(1)(a), permission counts if the tenant gave it at the time of entry or not more than 30 days before. Abandonment excuses notice in Alberta and in BC.
Showings are the exemption worth knowing precisely. Ontario section 26(3) lets you show a unit to prospective tenants with no written notice, but only once a notice of termination has been given or both sides have agreed to end the tenancy, only between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., and only if you inform the tenant or make a reasonable effort to before you go in. A prospective purchaser is not covered: that showing needs 24 hours written notice under section 27(2). In Quebec, article 1930 puts that obligation on the tenant from the moment they give notice of non-renewal.
The part worth keeping
Ontario gives a tenant one year to apply to the Landlord and Tenant Board for an order that the landlord illegally entered the unit, under paragraph 6 of section 29(1) and the limit in section 29(2). That is the number your entry file has to beat.
Keep three fields per entry: the notice itself, the date and method of delivery, and one line on the outcome. Entered, tenant present, work completed. Or: no entry, no answer. A shared document per unit will hold it, and it answers the question a year later in one look.