Ontario landlords use the N8 to end a tenancy when a rental period or fixed term runs out, on any of five grounds. Far and away the most common is persistent late payment of rent, which since September 21, 2026 has a regulatory definition: on three or more occasions within six months, rent not paid within 7 days of falling due. The N8 demands a long lead time, typically 60 days, and a termination date that lands on the last day of a rental period, yet the L2 application can be filed the moment the notice is served.
At a glance
| Given by | A landlord facing persistent late payment, or relying on one of four other end-of-term grounds (loss of social housing eligibility, end of employment, a terminated condo purchase agreement, or the end of a care-home therapy period) |
| Timing | Whenever the ground arises, but the tenancy can only end at the close of a rental period or term |
| Minimum notice | 60 days for monthly, yearly or fixed-term tenancies; 28 days for daily or weekly ones. The date must be the final day of a rental period or the term, with mail or courier days added |
| Delivery | To each tenant by an approved method; never taped to the door |
| Cost | The notice is free. An L2 is $186 on the Tribunals Ontario Portal or $201 otherwise |
| Next step | An L2, which can be filed right away and must be filed within 30 days after the termination date |
The five grounds
The Residential Tenancies Act, 2006 (RTA) sets out four end-of-period grounds in s. 58, while a fifth, specific to care homes, comes from s. 144. The form's five reasons follow them.
Reason 1: persistent late payment (s. 58(1), para. 1). The tenant keeps failing to pay rent on the day it becomes due. O. Reg. 516/06, s. 8.1(1) says this includes missing the 7-day mark after the due date three or more times in any six-month period, so long as no late payment was caused solely by your applying the money to something else owed, such as old arrears. The list is not closed: under s. 8.1(2), the LTB can find persistence on other facts.
Reason 2: no longer qualified for social housing (s. 58(1), para. 2). The tenant has stopped meeting the qualifications to occupy a social housing unit of a kind listed in s. 7(1), paragraphs 1 to 4.
Reason 3: end of employment (s. 58(1), para. 3). The unit came with the tenant's job, and that job is over.
Reason 4: condominium agreement terminated (s. 58(1), para. 4). The tenancy grew in good faith out of an agreement of purchase and sale for a proposed condominium unit, and that agreement has since been terminated.
Reason 5: care-home therapy period over (s. 144). The tenant was in a care-home unit only to receive agreed rehabilitative or therapeutic services, the agreed time has run out, and no other tenant getting those services may stay beyond the prescribed period (4 years, per the form).
Unlike an N4, an N8 cannot be voided. On-time payment after the notice arrives does not cancel it, though the tenant remains free to contest it at the hearing.
Choosing the N8
Reason 1 is for a pattern of lateness, not for rent that is simply unpaid. Where rent is outstanding as well, an N4 can be served alongside. Both the LTB and the Divisional Court accept running the two grounds together, because unpaid rent counts as both late and in arrears (Shearer v. Oz, 2026 ONSC 3753, as cited in Guideline 10).
Three situations call for something other than the N8:
- RGI assistance has stopped. Under s. 58(3), Reason 2 does not extend to a tenant who has become ineligible for rent-geared-to-income assistance or has failed to take steps to keep it. If the new lawful rent then goes unpaid, the tool is an N4.
- A superintendent's job has ended. The N8 instructions say not to use the N8 here. Where the superintendent is still in the unit seven days after the employment ended, you may file an L2 straight away, with no termination notice.
- You want the unit back to live in or to renovate. Those situations belong to the N12 and N13, each with its own rules.
Getting the date right
Minimum periods (RTA ss. 44 and 58(2))
| Tenancy type | Rule |
|---|---|
| Month to month | 60 days or more, ending on the final day of a rental period (the last day of a month where rent is due on the 1st) |
| Year to year | 60 days or more, ending on the final day of a yearly period |
| Fixed term | Given 60 or more days before the term ends, effective on its last day; per the checklist, the date cannot come before the last day of the lease term |
| Day to day or week to week | 28 days or more, ending on the final day of a rental period (a Sunday where rent is due each Monday) |
How to count
The day of giving is excluded and the termination date included (Rule 1.13). Mailing adds 5 days (s. 191(3)). A couriered notice counts as given on the day after it went to the courier (or, when that day is a weekend or holiday, the next business day; Rule 1.1 treats Saturdays and Sundays as holidays) (Rule 3.9), and the instructions tell you to add one business day.
A worked example
Consider a monthly tenancy with rent due on the 1st, and an N8 served on Friday, February 26, 2027:
- By hand: 60 days later is April 27, so the earliest valid termination date is April 30, 2027, the end of that month's rental period.
- By mail: deemed given March 3; 60 days from there is May 2, which pushes the earliest valid date to May 31, 2027.
Five days of mailing time cost a full month here, which is why the choice of service method matters.
The L2 window
Section 71 and the N8 instructions allow the L2 immediately after the notice is given. The outer limit is 30 days after the termination date (s. 69(2)). The N8 instructions are silent on that limit, but the RTA imposes it on every notice other than non-payment of rent, and an N8 with no application filed in time becomes void (s. 46(1)). Using the hand-delivery example, the last day to file would be May 30, 2027.
Completing the N8
Get a current copy from the LTB forms page, work through the official instructions, and take the checklist off before you serve.
Parties and address
- To (Tenant's name): each tenant in possession, including any assignee or subtenant.
- From (Landlord's name): yourself, or every landlord.
- Address of Rental Unit: street number and name, unit, apartment or suite, municipality and postal code.
Termination date
Enter an exact date (dd/mm/yyyy) that passes two tests at once: it gives enough time (60 or 28 days plus service days) and it falls on the final day of a rental period or of the fixed term.
My Reason(s) for Ending your Tenancy
Tick every reason, 1 through 5, that applies.
Details About the Reasons for this Notice
Supply dates and specifics. According to the instructions, each reason calls for the following:
- Reason 1: the rent due date, the dates the tenant actually paid, the amounts paid late, and the periods those payments covered.
- Reason 2: when the tenant ceased to qualify, and why.
- Reason 3: what the employment was, when it ended and any other significant details.
- Reason 4: when the agreement of purchase and sale was made, when and why it was terminated.
- Reason 5: the services provided, the terms of the agreement and the date the agreed period ended.
For Reason 1, set out a line for each month showing the due date, the date payment arrived and the amount, and leave out any payment that was late only because you credited it to older arrears.
Signature and representative block
Tick Landlord or Representative, add the name and phone number, then sign and date. Representatives also give their name, company, contact details and, where applicable, LSO number.
Delivering the N8
Under the N8 instructions, you can hand it to the tenant or to an adult in the unit, put it in the mailbox or wherever mail arrives, push it through a mail slot or under the door, or send it by fax, courier, mail or Xpresspost. Email works only with the tenant's written consent (Rule 3.1). Door-posting is forbidden.
Every tenant must be served. Keep a copy and fill in a Certificate of Service, then upload both with the L2 or within 5 calendar days after filing (Rules 4.4 and 4.5).
Errors that defeat an N8
After service, a flawed N8 cannot be amended (Guideline 10). RTA s. 212 can rescue minor errors that do not significantly prejudice the tenant, but an incorrect termination date is rarely one of them.
- A date that is not the end of a rental period. With rent due on the 1st, it must be a month-end. Counting 60 days and stopping there, without checking where the period ends, is the error seen most often.
- Not enough notice. Fewer than 60 days (28 for daily or weekly tenancies), or overlooking the 5 mail days or the courier day. The LTB has no power to lengthen a notice period (Guideline 10).
- Cutting a fixed term short. In a fixed-term tenancy, the termination date can never precede the last day of the term.
- Reason 1 without a payment record. The tenant is entitled to see the due dates, payment dates and amounts that make up the case. A bare claim that they are "always late" does not do it.
- Counting payments that were late only because you applied them to arrears. O. Reg. 516/06, s. 8.1 excludes them from the three-in-six-months count. Below three qualifying payments, you are asking the LTB to find persistence on other facts, which is discretionary.
- Relying on Reason 2 because RGI assistance ended. Section 58(3) rules this out. If the new rent is not paid, serve an N4.
- Serving an N8 on a superintendent. Per the instructions, if the superintendent remains seven days after the job ended, go straight to an L2.
- Reason 5 where other therapy tenants can stay past the limit. The ground only works if no such tenant is allowed to remain beyond the prescribed period.
- Filing the L2 too late. An application filed more than 30 days after the termination date must be dismissed (s. 69(2)). With the termination date two months away when you serve, this deadline slips easily.
- Basic defects. Every tenant in possession named and served, the complete unit address, an approved service method and a signature are all required.
- An outdated version. A revised N8 reflecting the new persistent-late test came out on September 21, 2026, and earlier versions stop being accepted on November 30, 2026.
From notice to order
Filing
Your L2 goes in through the Portal with the N8 and Certificate of Service attached, any time between service and the 30-day cut-off. The Portal fee is $186; other methods cost $201.
The hearing
The burden is on you to prove the ground. For Reason 1, that means a clean payment ledger and the tenancy agreement establishing the due date. According to the form's section "What if the landlord applies to the LTB?", no eviction order will make the tenant leave earlier than your N8 termination date.
Under RTA s. 83, the Board has to weigh whether to refuse or delay the eviction. Without your consent, a delay now needs compelling grounds as well as a finding that it would not be unfair to you or to other tenants (O. Reg. 516/06, s. 8.4).
After the order
For an order issued on or after July 1, 2026, a review must be requested within 15 days. Because both sides face that short window, read the order as soon as it arrives.
What changed in 2026
September 21, 2026
- The RTA now allows a regulation to define persistent late payment (s. 58(1.1)), and O. Reg. 516/06, s. 8.1 supplies the definition: three payments more than 7 days late in six months, leaving out any payment that was late merely because the landlord credited it elsewhere. Other fact patterns can still qualify.
- A revised N8 was issued, and earlier versions stop being accepted on November 30, 2026.
- The test for delaying an eviction without the landlord's consent became stricter.
July 1, 2026
- For orders issued from this date, the time to request a review fell from 30 days to 15.
Frequently asked questions
What counts as "persistent" late payment in Ontario?
Since September 21, 2026, the regulation says it includes rent paid more than seven days after the due date on at least three occasions in any six-month span, provided none of those late payments resulted solely from your putting the money toward other amounts owed. The LTB may also find persistence on other facts.
If the tenant starts paying on time, is the N8 cancelled?
No; an N8 cannot be voided. The tenant can, however, point to on-time payment since the notice when the LTB decides under s. 83 whether to refuse or delay the eviction.
Is it possible to serve both an N4 and an N8?
Yes. Because the Divisional Court has held that unpaid rent is both in arrears and late, you can pursue the two grounds together or one after the other (Guideline 10).
Which termination date applies to a one-year lease?
The final day of the fixed term, with the N8 given 60 or more days ahead of it. If the tenancy has already become month to month, choose the last day of a monthly period that is at least 60 days away.
Official sources
- N8 form (PDF)
- N8 Instructions
- Residential Tenancies Act, 2006, ss. 43, 44, 46, 58, 69, 71, 83, 144, 191, 212
- O. Reg. 516/06, ss. 8.1, 8.4
- Interpretation Guideline 10: Procedural Issues Regarding Eviction Applications
- LTB Rules of Procedure
- LTB Operational Update, September 21, 2026
- Certificate of Service (PDF)
- LTB Forms, filing and fees