Yes, Ottawa has a by-law that tells landlords how to run the paperwork of a tenancy, and it has been in force since August 31, 2021. The Rental Housing Property Management By-law (No. 2020-255) sets five duties for Ottawa landlords: a procedure for tenant service requests with set response clocks, an information document every tenant must receive, a tenant support registry, an integrated pest management plan, and, for larger apartment buildings, a capital maintenance plan.
Most Ottawa landlords meet parts of this by-law by habit and miss other parts entirely: a service request answered on day nine instead of day seven, an information document nobody updated when the manager changed, a pest treatment with no plan behind it. RentSetGo Property Management runs these systems for Ottawa owners. This guide sets out what the by-law requires, duty by duty, in the City’s own numbers.
Who does the by-law apply to?
It applies to rental housing across the city. Its definitions come from the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006: a landlord is the owner or operator of a rental unit, and a rental unit is living accommodation used or intended as rented residential premises; it can be a single room. Private, non-profit and social housing landlords are all inside the scheme.
Tenancies where the tenant shares a kitchen or bathroom with the owner sit outside the Act, and the by-law is built on the same definitions. Unusual arrangements, care homes, student residences, co-operatives, deserve a check against the by-law text itself.
The five duties at a glance
Four duties bind every landlord: the service request procedure, the information document, the tenant support registry and the integrated pest management plan. The fifth, the capital maintenance plan, binds owners of apartment buildings with 3 or more storeys or 10 or more rental units.
Tenant service requests: the 24-hour and 7-day clocks
Your procedure has to accept requests three ways, verbally, in writing, and by electronic text, and it has to sort each request into urgent or not, because the clock depends on the sort.
An urgent request involves a loss or interruption of vital services, a security concern about the unit, the building or the property, a problem with accessibility features or equipment, or anything that can reasonably be expected to make the unit uninhabitable. Urgent requests get a response within 24 hours. Everything else is non-urgent and gets a response within 7 days. Note what the clock measures: a response, not a finished repair. The repair still has to happen on a reasonable timeline under the property standards rules and the Residential Tenancies Act, but the by-law’s breach happens when day one or day seven passes with no answer.
What the record of each request must show
Keep a record of every request, with the date and time it came in, the address or unit, the tenant’s contact information, a description of the issue, the action and outcome, and the date and method used to tell the tenant the resolution. If a tenant asks for a copy when making the request, provide it within 30 days. The log has to be available to a City of Ottawa by-law officer on request, in writing if asked. The City’s guide sets no fixed retention period for the log itself, a gap flagged again below. Before responding, check the tenant support registry for the household: a tenant registered for help during a vital service outage is owed that help as part of the response.
The information for tenants document
At lease signing, every tenant gets an “information for tenants” document, in two copies provided with the lease agreement: one for the tenant, and one the tenant signs as an acknowledgement of receipt, which you retain with the lease. If a tenant will not sign, the document can instead be served by registered mail, courier, personal service with a signed receipt or affidavit, or email with proof of delivery and receipt.
The document must carry your up-to-date contact information (mailing address, telephone number, at least one electronic text method), how tenants submit a service request, how they complain to the City if a request stays unresolved, and site-specific information: fire safety equipment, property maintenance, waste management, legal parking on-site or nearby, and how the tenant support registry works. Three deadlines keep it current. Contents change: issue a revised copy within 30 days and replace the copy on file. A tenant asks for a replacement: provide one within 15 days. Your contact information changes: tenants get the new information within 24 hours. Keep a copy for 6 months after a tenancy ends.
The tenant support registry
Every landlord must maintain a tenant support registry. Joining is voluntary, and a tenant can be removed at any time on request. Tenants register for help with evacuation, support during a vital service disruption, preparing a unit for pest treatment, understanding rental documents, and other accommodation required under the Ontario Human Rights Code, the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 or the Residential Tenancies Act. Each entry records the tenant’s name and unit, the assistance requested, and the assistance you agreed to provide. Keep it current, remove tenants who move out, and be ready to present it to a by-law officer on request. Treat the contents as confidential.
Integrated pest management: a plan, not a reaction
Every rental property needs an integrated pest management plan. The plan has four working parts: a preventative inspection schedule, educational information for tenants on preventing pests, a way for tenants to report an infestation, and specific treatment plans for the common pests. Standing treatment plans are required for bed bugs, cockroaches, ants, rats and mice, plus any species known to cause recurring infestations at the property. When a unit is treated, the tenant gets a copy of the treatment plan before the treatment starts. When a tenant-accessible area of the building other than a unit is treated, the treatment plan is posted in the lobby. After a treatment, the treated area is re-inspected between 15 and 30 days later, and treated again if the infestation continues. Our guide to Ottawa’s integrated pest management rules for landlords works through this chapter in full.
Apartment buildings: the capital maintenance plan
If your rental building has 3 or more storeys or 10 or more rental units, the owner must have and maintain a capital maintenance plan. One wording warning: the by-law imposes no separate “property management plan,” a document owners arriving from Toronto materials sometimes build by mistake. The Ottawa plan covers the mandatory capital elements: accessibility features, building-wide electrical distribution systems, plumbing, elevators, fire escapes, mechanical systems, roofs, balconies and railings, and parking structures.
For each element, the plan records the date of the most recent inspection, the condition found and any deficiencies, and the time period planned for refurbishment or replacement. Routine repairs do not have to be logged unless an inspection of the element triggered them. A new owner has 3 months from the transfer of ownership to develop a plan. Keep it current and available for an officer.
Three rulebooks, three different jobs
Landlords routinely blame this by-law for rules that live somewhere else, and the split matters: each rulebook has its own inspector, process and remedies.
The management by-law (2020-255) covers how you manage: requests, records, documents, plans. It expressly does not change any obligation under the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006.
The Property Standards By-law (2013-416) covers the physical condition of the property itself: owners must repair and maintain to its standards and deal with unsafe conditions, and officers enforce it with notices of violation and orders, with an appeal route for orders.
Heat has its own instrument. The City of Ottawa Heat By-law (2010-210) defines adequate and suitable heat as at least 20 degrees Celsius between 6:00 a.m. and 11:00 p.m. and at least 16.67 degrees Celsius overnight, where the landlord normally supplies the heat. Ontario Regulation 516/06 makes heat a vital service from September 1 to June 15, at 20 degrees Celsius minimum. The September 15 to May 31 heating season quoted for some other cities is not Ottawa’s rule.
The Residential Tenancies Act sits above all of it. The landlord’s duty to maintain and repair, and the ban on withholding or deliberately interfering with a vital service (heat in season, fuel, electricity, gas, water and hot water), are provincial. So are the remedies: a tenant’s maintenance application goes to the Landlord and Tenant Board, not to the City. Our overview of Ontario landlord rights and responsibilities covers that layer.
Is there a RentSafe score for an Ottawa building?
No. Ottawa does not evaluate or score rental buildings. RentSafeTO, with its building evaluations and posted scores, is a City of Toronto program. Ottawa chose a different model in 2020: management duties on every landlord, enforced when a complaint brings an officer to the file. There is no score to protect, and no scheduled evaluation to warn you. The first City contact most landlords get is the complaint itself, and your records are the whole answer to it.
What happens when the City gets involved
The usual path starts with the tenant: your information document must tell tenants how to complain to the City when a request stays unresolved, and Ottawa takes those complaints through 3-1-1. A by-law officer can then require the paper: the service request records, the support registry, the capital plan, the pest plan. Produce them promptly, and in writing if asked. Physical defects run on the property standards track, where an officer can inspect, issue a notice of violation or an order setting out what must be fixed, with an appeal route for the order.
Failing a by-law duty is an offence. The City’s landlord guide and by-law summary page publish no fine table for By-law 2020-255, so no dollar figure is printed here, and figures quoted for other by-laws or for Toronto’s regime are not this by-law’s penalties. A complaint that finds no records, no plans and no document is a longer and more expensive file than one that finds all three.
A compliance checklist you can work through
Run this list once per property, and keep the results officer-ready. It pairs with our rental property inspection checklist for Ottawa landlords.
| Item | What done looks like |
|---|---|
| Urgency sort and clocks | Each request marked urgent or not on arrival. Urgent answered within 24 hours, the rest within 7 days. |
| Request log | Date and time, unit, tenant contact, issue, action, outcome, and how and when the tenant was told the result. |
| Information document | Signed current version kept with the lease. Changes reissued within 30 days, replacements within 15 days, contact changes within 24 hours. |
| Support registry | Entries current, departures removed, registry checked before any urgent response. |
| Pest plan | Inspection schedule, tenant education, reporting route and standing treatment plans on file for the five named pests. |
| Treatment follow-through | Treatment plan to the tenant before a unit treatment, lobby posting for common areas, re-inspection booked 15 to 30 days out. |
| Capital maintenance plan | Buildings of 3 or more storeys or 10 or more units: every element carries a last inspection date, a condition note and a replacement window. |
| Heat readiness | Plant serviced before September 1, able to hold 20 degrees Celsius in every habitable room. |
What this guide can’t tell you
Two honest limits remain. Retention: the guide fixes 6 months for the signed information document copy after a tenancy ends, but states no retention period for the service request log; keep the log longer than feels necessary. Edges: rooming houses also carry a licence under the City’s Licensing By-law, short-term rentals sit under their own by-law, and condominiums add a corporation layer.
Running it yourself, and when that stops working
A landlord with one Ottawa rental, a spreadsheet and a Sunday routine can run every duty in this article: a log, a document, a registry, a pest plan, a calendar reminder before September 1. The strain shows with doors and distance: a ten-unit building adds the capital plan, and a 24-hour clock does not wait for an out-of-province owner to fly home. When the file moves to a manager, our page on full-service property management in Ottawa sets out the handover.
The Bottom Line
By-law 2020-255 is not a licensing regime and it does not grade your building. It is a records regime. Landlords who can show the log, the current document, the registry, the pest plan and, in a larger building, the capital plan will answer a City complaint in one letter. Landlords who cannot will answer it over months. Build the five files once and keep them current.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the by-law apply to a house or duplex I rent out, or only to apartment buildings?
It applies to rental housing across Ottawa, not only to apartment buildings. Four of the five duties bind every landlord. Only the capital maintenance plan is limited, to apartment buildings with 3 or more storeys or 10 or more rental units.
How quickly do I have to respond to a tenant service request?
Within 24 hours if the request is urgent, and within 7 days if it is not. Urgent means a loss or interruption of vital services, a security concern, a problem with accessibility features or equipment, or anything reasonably expected to make the unit uninhabitable. The clock measures your response, not a finished repair.
What has to be in the information for tenants document?
Your current contact information (mailing address, telephone number, at least one electronic text method), how to submit a service request, how to complain to the City when a request stays unresolved, site-specific fire safety, maintenance, waste and parking information, and how the tenant support registry works. Two copies go with the lease: one for the tenant, one signed and kept with the lease.
Does my building need a capital maintenance plan?
Yes, if it is an apartment building with 3 or more storeys or 10 or more rental units. The plan covers the mandatory capital elements, roofs, plumbing, electrical distribution, elevators, fire escapes, mechanical systems, balconies and railings, parking structures and accessibility features, each with its last inspection date, condition and planned timing for refurbishment or replacement. A new owner has 3 months from the transfer of ownership to put one in place.
What temperature does an Ottawa rental have to be kept at?
Under the City of Ottawa Heat By-law, at least 20 degrees Celsius between 6:00 a.m. and 11:00 p.m. and at least 16.67 degrees Celsius overnight, where the landlord supplies the heat. Provincially, heat is a vital service from September 1 to June 15 and must be provided to at least 20 degrees Celsius. Ottawa’s own heat by-law sets no season at all.
Does Ottawa rate or score rental buildings the way Toronto does?
No. Ottawa has no building evaluation or score program in its published landlord rules. RentSafeTO, with its evaluations and posted scores, is a Toronto program. In Ottawa, enforcement starts with a complaint, and a by-law officer can require you to produce your service request records, your support registry and your plans.
Own an Ottawa Rental and Keep Your Compliance in a Shoebox?
RentSetGo Property Management runs the by-law file as part of the management: service requests logged and answered inside the response clocks, the information document issued and kept current, the support registry maintained, the pest plan in place before there is a pest, and the capital plan tracked for larger buildings.
Request a free management quote. You get the fee in writing, plus a written map of your property against the five duties, showing which files exist and which are missing.
613-800-2523 · info@rentsetgo.ca
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Related Reading
- Adhering to Ottawa’s Integrated Pest Control By-Law
- Rental Property Inspection Checklist for Ottawa Landlords
- Legal Compliance for Ottawa Landlords
- Ontario Landlord Rights and Responsibilities
- Winterizing Your Ottawa Rental: A Landlord’s Checklist
- City of Ottawa: Landlord requirements under the by-law (official source)
This article is general information about Ottawa’s Rental Housing Property Management By-law (No. 2020-255), the Property Standards By-law (No. 2013-416), the Heat By-law (No. 2010-210) and the related Ontario rules, drawn from the City of Ottawa’s landlord guide and Ontario Regulations 516/06 and 517/06, checked in October 2026. Two points could not be confirmed from the City’s published materials and are flagged in the text: the fine amounts, and a fixed retention period for service request records. It is not legal advice for your property. By-laws are amended; confirm the current rules with the City or a licensed paralegal before acting.