You can rent out your condo unit. The corporation gets a say in how, and the clock starts the day you sign the lease: section 83 of Ontario’s Condominium Act, 1998 gives you 10 days to notify the corporation in writing that the unit is leased.
That notice is the step new condo landlords miss. They study the Residential Tenancies Act and sign a standard lease, and then a letter from the condominium corporation lands in the mailbox asking why the building has no record of their tenant. A rented condo unit answers to two rulebooks. This guide covers the second one.
The lease is only half the paperwork you owe on a rented condo unit. The corporation holds the other half.
Within 10 days of signing the lease, and again within 10 days of a renewal, section 83 requires you to do three things:
The duty runs at the end of the tenancy too. When a lease ends and is not renewed, you notify the corporation in writing within 10 days of the termination. The corporation keeps a record of every notice it receives under section 83, so your file at the building office should match your own records.
Do this before the tenant moves in if you can. Property managers at the building need the tenant’s name for the front desk and for the intercom list, and a move booked without that record turns into a problem at the loading dock.
A tenant in a condo unit is bound by the declaration and by the by-laws and rules of the corporation. That is why section 83 makes you hand over copies. A tenant who never saw the rules will break them in the first month, on the balcony or in the parking garage, and the corporation will write to you about it.
Expect that letter. The corporation’s contract is with the owner. Its enforcement runs through you. Put a clause in your lease file notes (the standard lease has room for added terms that fit the Act) and walk the tenant through the rules that touch daily life:
Ten minutes on this list at key handover saves the complaint letters later.
The declaration for your building is a document you already own. Read it before you advertise the unit, because it can narrow what your lease is allowed to promise.
Minimum lease terms. Some declarations ban leases shorter than a set term, often a year. A six-month lease signed against that rule puts you in breach with the corporation, and the RTA does not rescue the lease from the declaration.
Short-term rentals. Many Ottawa corporations ban rentals under 30 days outright, and the City of Ottawa has its own short-term rental rules on top of that. A unit rented by the night can breach both sets of rules at once.
Moves and the elevator. Buildings book an elevator for moves and set the hours for it. Some charge a move fee or hold a refundable deposit against the booking. Your tenant’s moving day has to be booked through the building, not picked from the calendar in your kitchen.
Parking and lockers. A parking spot and a storage locker are often separate units or exclusive-use common elements with their own assignment rules. The lease has to say which spot and which locker come with the unit, in the words the declaration uses, or the tenant parks where the plan says someone else parks.
Pets. A no-pet clause in your lease is void under the Residential Tenancies Act. A pet rule in the declaration is a different legal animal: it binds the unit itself, and corporations enforce pet size limits and pet bans found in their own documents. Check the declaration before you tell an applicant that a dog is fine.
Three policies touch one rented condo unit, and each covers a different slice of the risk. The declaration defines a standard unit for your building, and that definition draws the line between the corporation’s policy and yours.
| Policy | Who buys it | What it is there for |
|---|---|---|
| Corporation policy | The condominium corporation, paid from condo fees | Common elements and the standard unit as the declaration defines it |
| Unit-owner landlord policy | You | Your improvements to the unit and your liability as owner, plus rental income coverage if you buy it |
| Tenant policy | Your tenant | The tenant’s contents and the tenant’s own liability |
Gaps open up at the borders. Upgrades inside the unit (the new kitchen and the hardwood) are improvements past the standard unit definition, and they sit on your policy, not the corporation’s. A water leak that starts in your unit and damages the unit below runs through your liability cover. Talk to your insurance broker before the tenancy starts and say the words “rented condo unit” out loud, because a policy sold to an owner-occupier is priced for a different risk.
Tenant insurance sits in the third row of that table. Some corporations write a tenant insurance requirement into their rules. Check the rules for your building, and read our guide to requiring tenant insurance in Ontario before you put the requirement in an ad or a lease.
Renting the unit does not move your condo fees to the tenant. The corporation bills you, and your obligation to pay survives a late tenant, an empty month, and a dispute at the Landlord and Tenant Board. Owners fold the fees into the rent they ask. The duty itself never transfers.
Special assessments land the same way. When a corporation levies one for a roof or a garage rebuild, the bill is the owner’s, and it can arrive mid-tenancy with a payment schedule that runs past your lease end date. Price that risk before you buy a condo unit as a rental: an older building with a thin reserve fund is a fee increase waiting for a date.
The document that warns you is the status certificate. Under the Condominium Act, anyone can request one from the corporation, the fee is capped at $100 with tax, and the corporation has 10 days to provide it after payment. The package states the fees for the unit and shows arrears on the unit; it also discloses fee increases and special assessments levied in the current budget year, the reserve fund position, lawsuits against the corporation, and the certificate of insurance, and it comes with a copy of the declaration itself. Read it before you buy the unit. Read it again before you set rent on a renewal, because the fee line in it is the one that eats your margin.
Your repair duty as a landlord covers the unit itself. Appliances you supplied and fixtures inside the unit and the plumbing runs that serve only your unit: that work is yours, and the Residential Tenancies Act puts it on the landlord no matter what a lease says.
The corporation looks after the common elements. Hallways and the roof and the building envelope sit on its list, and central systems do too. Windows are the surprise item: in many Ontario condos the windows are common elements, so a failed seal on a bedroom window goes to the corporation rather than to your repair budget. The declaration for your building draws this line, and it does not always fall where owners expect.
In practice the tenant calls you first for everything. Keep the call. Triage it, send the in-unit work to your contractor, and put the common-element work into the building office in writing the same day. Owners who let a tenant chase the corporation on their own end up with two repair files and no record of either.
None of the condo paperwork replaces tenancy law. The Ontario standard form of lease is the lease. Deposits stay capped at a rent deposit plus a refundable key deposit, entry needs written notice at least 24 hours ahead between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., and rent increases follow the guideline unless the unit is exempt (a unit first occupied for residential purposes after November 15, 2018 sits outside the guideline, per ontario.ca).
Disputes with your tenant go to the Landlord and Tenant Board. The corporation is not a shortcut around the Board, and a rule breach by your tenant is handled by you first. Our guide to Ontario landlord rights and responsibilities sets out the tenancy half in full, and our Ontario rent increase guide covers the guideline and the Form N1 notice in detail.
Screening works the same inside a condo as it does in a house, with one addition: screen against the declaration as well as the lease. An applicant who needs a two-year lease in a building with a one-year minimum is a fit. An applicant who plans to rent the unit out by the night is not, whatever their credit report says. Our tenant screening guide covers the legal side under the Ontario Human Rights Code.
One condo unit is the most self-manageable rental in Ottawa, and we say that as a management company. The corporation already handles the grounds and the snow and the major systems. If you live in Ottawa, and your tenant is settled, and the building office knows your name, the monthly workload is small: collect rent and answer the odd repair call and file the odd form.
The case weakens under a few conditions:
Downtown condo rentals run on corporation paperwork more than on rent collection, and owners near the core use our Sandy Hill property management page as the local reference for that stock. Wherever the unit sits, RentSetGo Property Management can take the tenancy on through our full property management service, or place the tenant only through tenant placement if you plan to run the unit yourself after move-in.
Rent the unit, and file the section 83 notice inside 10 days, and hand your tenant the declaration on day one. Read the declaration before you set the lease term or promise a parking spot, keep your own insurance pointed at the gaps past the standard unit, and treat condo fees as your fixed cost when you price the rent. Do those things and the corporation stays a record-keeper in your rental. Skip them and it becomes a second landlord you did not screen for, with its own forms and its own deadlines.
Yes. Section 83 of the Condominium Act, 1998 requires an owner who leases a unit to notify the corporation within 10 days of signing the lease, and again on renewal. You also notify the corporation in writing within 10 days after a lease ends without renewal.
You give the corporation your tenant’s name and your own address, plus a copy of the lease or a summary of it in the prescribed form. The tenant gets a copy of the declaration and a copy of the by-laws and rules from you.
You do. Condo fees and special assessments stay the owner’s obligation to the corporation for the whole tenancy, and most owners recover the fee cost inside the rent they charge.
A declaration can set conditions on leasing, and many set a minimum lease term or ban short-term rentals. Read your declaration before you advertise, and get legal advice if the documents restrict leasing in a way that affects your plans.
Your tenant’s contents and liability are covered only by a tenant policy, and no other policy at the table covers them. Some corporations also require tenant insurance in their rules, so check the rules for your building and build the requirement into the lease when the rules call for it.
It depends on your declaration. In many Ontario condos the windows are common elements, which puts the repair with the corporation; in-unit fixtures and appliances you supplied stay with you as landlord. Check the declaration and the standard unit definition for your building.
Renting out your Ottawa condo unit?
We handle the corporation side for you: the written notice to the condo corporation within 10 days of the lease, a copy of the lease or its summary, and the declaration, by-laws and rules in your tenant’s hands before move-in. When the corporation comes calling about fees, repairs or rules, it reaches us first.
Tell us which building your unit is in and we will outline exactly what your corporation needs from you before your tenant gets the keys.
613-800-2523 · info@rentsetgo.ca
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Managing condo units and homes across Ottawa for local and out-of-town owners.
Source checked October 18, 2026: Condominium Act, 1998, section 83 on ontario.ca (e-Laws). Every condominium corporation has its own declaration and its own by-laws and rules, and those documents decide the lease conditions and the repair split for your unit. This guide is general information about renting out a condominium unit in Ottawa. It is not legal advice. It is not insurance advice either. Talk to a condominium lawyer about your declaration, and talk to an insurance broker about your unit before a tenancy starts.
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