If, for example, a tenant rents a unit on a weekly basis, the rent deposit can be no more than one week's rent. If the landlord fails to pay interest on the rent deposit, tenants shall be permitted to deduct the amount of the interest from a subsequent rent payment. However, a tenant may, at his option, choose to deliver post-dated rent cheques. The policy governing increases in rent has changed substantially from previous legislation. The regime was unit based.
Lawful rent is the rent negotiated between the landlord and tenant.
The regime is tenant based rather than unit based. Under the previous legislation, upon renting out a unit for the first time, landlords were required to register the rent negotiated between the landlord and the tenant with the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing. Unless landlords applied for and were granted above the guideline increases, landlords were permitted only to charge rent in an amount equal to or less than the maximum rent. Every year, the maximum rent for every unit was increased by a percentage prescribed by the province. In areas of the province where market conditions moved upward faster than the maximum rents, landlords were forced to charge less rent than what the market would have borne.