Rent Increases

My landlord texted that rent goes up $200 next month. Is that legal?

Almost certainly not, on three simultaneous grounds in the capped provinces: notice period (90 days in Ontario, 3 months in BC — not "next month"), form (prescribed notices, not texts), and amount (2.1% / 2.3% for 2026 unless exempt or approved). A defective increase is void — reply in writing that the notice doesn't comply, keep paying your current lawful rent, and keep the text. If pressure follows, that's what the tribunal's tenant applications are for.

I'm in a newer Ontario building — is there really no cap?

Correct on the cap, not on the rest: units first occupied after 15 November 2018 are exempt from the guideline, so the increase's size is a market and negotiation question — but the 12-month spacing and 90-day N1 notice still bind, mid-lease increases still need the lease's support, and everything else about the tenancy (eviction protection included) applies normally. Practical counters: negotiate before the effective date (turnover is expensive for landlords), and price the alternatives honestly. The exemption surprises tenants every year; check your building's first-occupancy date rather than assuming.

What's an above-guideline increase and can I fight it?

An AGI is a landlord''s application to exceed the cap for defined extraordinary costs — major structural/capital work, security, extraordinary tax jumps in Ontario''s version. It is not automatic: tenants receive the application and evidence, can demand the documentation, and argue eligibility (routine maintenance and cosmetics don''t qualify), sizing, and whether work already earning the landlord money should cost you more. Tenants organising building-wide contest these far more effectively — and AGI orders in Ontario phase in with annual limits rather than landing at once.

How does refusing an increase work in Quebec?

By design, and calmly: within one month of receiving the notice, send written refusal (keep proof). You cannot be evicted for refusing — the lease renews, and the landlord's remedy is applying to the Tribunal administratif du logement, which sets the rent from published factors: the building's actual taxes, insurance, energy, maintenance and improvements. Many landlords never apply; many applications settle; tribunal outcomes often land below the asked increase. Silence, by contrast, is acceptance — the month matters.

I've been paying an illegal increase for a year. Can I get it back?

Generally yes, through your tribunal, inside limitation windows — in Ontario, tenant applications to recover unlawfully collected rent run on roughly a one-year clock, so move rather than muse. Gather the ledger: what lawful rent was, what you actually paid, the defective notice (or the absence of any). Recovery claims also reset the baseline going forward, since the lawful rent never legally rose. If you're mid-eviction over "arrears" that are really an unlawful increase you stopped paying, raise it in that proceeding — it's a defence, not just a grievance.