Ontario: Renewing condo lease agreement after 1 year.

Are you in Ontario? After the 1st year the lease is month to month. You need to provide 60 days notice. Landlord should be notifying you 3 months in advance of a rent increase and should provide you with a notice of rent increase form.

As for a new lease, it's in your best interest to reject it and go month to month...as it's the law (in Ontario anyways...)

You don't have to sign anything. You automatically switch to a month-to-month lease with the same terms you originally signed to.

The landlord is allowed to increase your rent by the guideline amount (1.8% 2019, 2.2% 2020) as long as at least 12 months have passed since the last increase. To do so, the landlord must send you a "Notice of Rent Increase" (Form N1) at least 90 days before the commencement date of the increase. An updated lease agreement is not required to accomplish this.

You would have already paid a last month rent deposit. By law, the landlord must pay annual interest on the deposit equal to the year's guideline rent increase rate (see above). Hence, you DO NOT need to pay any more rent deposit (unless the rent increase is greater than the guideline).

For example, if your original rent was $1000/mo, you would have already paid a $1000 deposit. After 12 months, the landlord is required to pay you 1.8% (2019 guideline rate) interest on that $1000 ($18). He can also increase your rent by 1.8%. So your new rent would be $1018, and your rent deposit would have to be $1018 to cover last month rent. The landlord can then apply the $18 interest to the last month rent deposit you have already paid to automatically increase it to $1018. You don't have to pay any more out of pocket.

JayLove06 wrote: ↑
As for a new lease, it's in your best interest to reject it and go month to month...as it's the law (in Ontario anyways...)

Isn't it always in the best interest of the tenant to have a fixed lease? This would prevent anyone being able to evict the tenant during this time.

And we all know it's much easier for a tenant to break a lease mid-term vs a landlord trying it, so even if OP wanted to move out earlier they can probably come to some agreement with landlord.