Rent increase notice in Québec: deadlines, calculation and the tenant's answer

A rent increase happens in two steps: the notice you send, within a specific window, then the tenant's answer. Here are the rules for 2026, checked against the Tribunal administratif du logement.

Updated September 21, 2026

No cap, but a reference calculation

Contrary to a common belief, there is no maximum increase percentage in Québec. The Tribunal administratif du logement states that at lease renewal, the landlord is free to ask for the increase they consider fair and reasonable.

The rate the Tribunal publishes each January is therefore not a limit: it is one of the criteria of the calculation it will apply if the tenant refuses and you ask it to set the rent. Proposing an amount close to that calculation makes a refusal less likely, and a hearing less risky.

When to send the notice

The period counts back from the end of the lease and depends on its length. A notice outside the window cannot change the lease for that term: it renews on the same conditions, and the increase waits for the next term.

The last day matters. For a 12-month lease ending June 30, three months before the end leads to March 31: a notice received on April 1 is too late.

What the notice must contain

According to the Tribunal, the lease modification notice states:

• the proposed change or changes, to the rent or other conditions;
• the rent, in one of three forms: the new rent in dollars, the increase in dollars, or a percentage of the current rent;
• the tenant's deadline to refuse: one month from receiving the notice;
• the mandatory text set out in Schedule I of the Regulation;
• the landlord's date and signature.

The Tribunal offers notice templates that already contain these statements. They are optional: the Tribunal suggests them without requiring them. A notice drafted otherwise remains valid if it carries all these statements, including the Schedule I text, reproduced word for word.

How to send it

The Tribunal accepts three ways of giving the notice: by registered mail, by hand with an acknowledgment of receipt, or by any other means that provides valid proof of receipt.

Keep that proof. It shows the notice arrived within the window, and the date of receipt starts the tenant's one-month answer period.

How much: the Tribunal's 2026 calculation

For notices given since January 1, 2026, the Tribunal applies a simplified method. Energy, maintenance and management are no longer itemized: the base rate covers them. Four items remain.

The 3.1% base rate applies to leases renewed from April 2, 2026 to April 1, 2027. A lease renewed on July 1, 2027 will follow the rate the Tribunal publishes in January 2027.

An example, for a $985 unit in a triplex whose three rents total $2,955:

• base adjustment: $985 × 3.1% = $30.54 a month;
• municipal taxes up from $4,000 to $4,400 for the building: the unit bears a third, and only the increase above 3.1% counts, or $7.67 a month;
• $10,000 of major work in the unit: $41.67 a month.

Total: $79.88 a month, for a rent of $1,064.88 — which the Tribunal would round to $1,065, section 15.1 of the Regulation respecting the criteria for the fixing of rent rounding the rent it sets to the nearest dollar. The calculator redoes this calculation with your numbers.

The tenant's answer

The tenant has one month from receiving the notice to refuse the increase or announce they are leaving. If they don't answer within that month, the Tribunal treats the lease as renewed with every change the landlord asked for, including the increase.

If they refuse, they remain the tenant: this is the right to maintain occupancy. You may then, within one month of receiving the refusal, ask the Tribunal to set the rent. After that deadline, the lease renews at the same rent and on the same other conditions.

Before the Tribunal, you are no longer bound by the amount in the notice: the rent is set under the Regulation respecting the criteria for the fixing of rent, the calculation described above.

The exceptions

A refusal obliges the tenant to leave at the end of the lease when the lease section on restrictions to rent fixing (section F) states that the unit is located:

• in a housing cooperative;
• or in a building constructed, or converted, five years ago or less.

In the second case, if the lease was signed after February 20, 2024 and the building was ready for its intended use after that date, the landlord must also state in the lease the maximum rent they may charge in the following five years, to be able to invoke this restriction.

Frequently asked questions