A Plain-Language Guide to Ontario's July 1, 2026 Cooling Rules
Credit: Homeowner.ca
If you have ever sweated through a July night in a rental, staring at a window and wondering whether you were even allowed to put an air conditioner in it, this summer feels different. As of July 1, 2026, the answer for most Ontario tenants is finally a clear yes. A set of long-awaited changes to the province's rental laws now spells out your right to cool your own home, along with the rules landlords have to follow in return.
Here is the part that trips people up. This is not a new rule forcing your landlord to buy you an air conditioner. It is a rule that stops most landlords from standing in your way when you want to install one yourself. That is a meaningful shift, and it comes with a few conditions worth understanding before you head to the hardware store or, if you are a landlord, before you reply to that email from your tenant.
Whether you rent your home or rent one out, this guide walks you through exactly what changed, what stayed the same, and the practical steps that keep everyone on the right side of the rules. We will also clear up the municipal cooling standards, like Toronto's well-known 26°C rule, that get tangled together with the new provincial law every single summer.
The short version is that a promise made in 2023 finally arrived. The changes come from Bill 97, formally the Helping Homebuyers, Protecting Tenants Act, 2023, which received Royal Assent back in June of that year. The air conditioning pieces of that law sat quietly on the books for nearly three years, waiting for the province to switch them on. That day came on July 1, 2026.
What flipped on is a new section of the Residential Tenancies Act, the law that governs most rentals in Ontario. In plain terms, it does three things. It gives tenants an explicit right to install and use a window or portable air conditioner when the landlord does not already supply cooling. It sets out the conditions a tenant has to meet. And it creates a specific, limited way for some landlords to recover the electricity that cooling uses.
There is one important boundary. These rights do not apply to units in a mobile home park or a land lease community, which run under their own part of the Act. And because the province built in room to add more detail later through regulations, a few finer points may be filled in over time. For the vast majority of apartment and house rentals, though, the new right is now in effect and ready to use.
Let's start with the good news for tenants, because it is genuinely good. Under Ontario's Residential Tenancies Act, you now have a protected right to install and use a window unit or a portable air conditioner in your rental, as long as your landlord does not already provide air conditioning. Your landlord's personal preference is no longer a reason to say no.
That right does come with responsibilities, and they are the common-sense kind. Where your landlord pays for the electricity in your unit, you need to meet all of the following before you set up your air conditioner.
A little planning here goes a long way. A window air conditioner needs a snug, secure fit and a window that can actually support and seal around it, while a portable unit vents through a hose to the outside and gives you more flexibility in rooms with awkward windows. If you are weighing your options or trying to keep running costs down, it helps to understand how cooling equipment is sized and priced, and our overview of what central and room air conditioning costs in Canada is a useful starting point. Look for the energy efficiency label when you buy, because that same number is what a landlord would use to estimate any electricity charge.
Send your written notice by email so you have a simple, dated record. Include the make and model, the energy efficiency rating, and the rooms you plan to cool. It takes five minutes and prevents almost every disagreement later.
This is the question that worries tenants most, so let's be precise about it. A landlord can only raise your rent for an air conditioner when two things are both true: the landlord pays for your unit's electricity, and you installed the unit on or after July 1, 2026. If you pay your own hydro bill, there is no separate air conditioning increase, because you are already covering the cost every time the compressor kicks on.
Even when a charge is allowed, it is not a free-for-all fee. According to the Landlord and Tenant Board's guidance for air conditioners, the increase is capped at the actual cost of running the unit, or a reasonable estimate of that cost when the exact figure is hard to pin down. Those energy efficiency and usage details you provided are what the estimate is built on. Think of it as a pass-through for electricity, not a premium for the privilege of being cool.
What makes this increase unusual is how it behaves compared with a normal rent increase. It can move up and down more than once in a year, tracking the seasons: it can apply while you are running the unit in summer and must come off when you stop using it in winter or take it out entirely. It does not require the usual 90 days of written notice, it does not need advance approval from the Landlord and Tenant Board, and it sits on top of the annual guideline increase rather than eating into it. For a fuller walk-through of how this cost recovery works in practice, our report on how Ontario landlords can now recover AC electricity costs breaks down the mechanics.
Because the details depend entirely on your situation, here is a simple table you can match yourself against before any money changes hands.
Plenty of tenants already have a trusty window unit humming away from summers past, and the law treats those units gently. If you installed a window or portable air conditioner before July 1, 2026, and your landlord pays the electricity, a lighter set of conditions applies. You still need to keep the unit safe, secure, undamaging, and compliant with local bylaws, but you do not have to send written notice after the fact, and you do not have to hand over efficiency or usage details.
The most important point here is about your wallet. A landlord cannot use the new cost recovery rule to start charging you for an air conditioner that was already in place before the law took effect. Those pre-existing units are effectively grandfathered, so a unit you have run for three summers cannot suddenly become a line item on your rent this year.
For landlords, this change is less about losing control and more about understanding the narrow lane the law now defines. You cannot refuse a compliant installation simply because you would rather not have window units in the building. The law does allow a landlord to prohibit installation in certain prescribed circumstances, but those circumstances have not yet been defined in regulation, which means there is currently no general right to say no to a tenant who follows the rules. If you want the bigger provincial picture, our province-by-province guide to landlord and tenant responsibilities puts Ontario's approach in context.
What you can do is verify that the installation is safe and lawful. A landlord may inspect the unit after giving proper written notice of entry, which the Act requires to be at least 24 hours in advance, to confirm the air conditioner is installed securely, is not causing damage, and complies with the bylaws that apply. There is also a useful nuance around leases worth knowing. As the landlord lawyers at Gobin & Leyenson LLP point out, if a lease already promises that installing an air conditioner will not raise the rent, that promise holds even for a unit installed after July 1, 2026. The contract you signed still matters.
A landlord who pays for electricity can only recover cooling costs for units installed on or after July 1, 2026, and only up to the real cost of the power used. There is no allowance for a flat "AC fee" or a charge on a grandfathered unit.
Here is where a lot of well-meaning confusion creeps in, so let's untangle it. The July 1 change is about your right to install your own cooling. It is separate from the municipal rules that govern buildings where heating or cooling is already provided, and it does not force any landlord to install air conditioning that was never there.
Heat and cooling are treated quite differently in Ontario. Heat is a mandatory vital service. Under Ontario's general regulation for residential tenancies, landlords must provide heat from September 1 to June 15 so a unit reaches at least 20°C, and many municipalities go further. Cooling has no equivalent province-wide mandate, which is exactly why the new right to install your own unit matters so much.
Where cooling already exists, some cities set a maximum temperature. The City of Toronto requires that when a landlord provides air conditioning, it must be operated from June 1 to September 30 to keep the unit at no more than 26°C, and as of June 1, 2026 the city folded this into a renamed Indoor Temperature Standards Bylaw. Toronto also added a newer protection: many buildings in the RentSafeTO program that lack in-unit cooling but have a shared indoor amenity space now have to keep at least one such space at or below 26°C over the summer, with some exemptions. Rules like these vary by municipality, so it is always worth checking your own city's standards.
The stakes here keep rising. During the heat waves that have become a regular feature of Ontario summers, our coverage of extreme heat warnings across the province is a reminder of why access to cooling has become such a pressing issue.
If you are a tenant ready to enjoy a cooler home, keep this simple sequence in mind. Confirm whether your landlord pays your electricity, since that determines your notice obligations. Send a short written note with your unit's make, model, energy efficiency rating, and expected usage. Choose a unit that fits your window or vents properly, and install it so it is secure and cannot fall or leak. Double-check that no local bylaw or condo rule stands in the way. Then keep it clean and maintained through the season, which also keeps your running costs down. If you are thinking longer term, a modern cooling setup like the one described in our guide to switching to a heat pump instead of an air conditioner can cool in summer and heat in the shoulder seasons too.
About the Author
Angela Nightingale is the Senior Editor at Homeowner.ca with two decades of experience in digital publishing and content strategy. She has owned two homes, taken on her share of DIY projects, and learned what most guides fail to mention. She writes from the belief that the best home guidance comes from people who have lived through the decisions — and her goal is always to leave readers feeling confident, not overwhelmed.
Generally, no. As of July 1, 2026, you have a right to install one where your landlord does not already provide cooling, as long as you meet the safety and bylaw conditions. The law reserves a narrow power for landlords to prohibit installation in certain prescribed circumstances, but those circumstances have not yet been defined, so there is currently no general right to refuse a compliant installation.
Only in a specific case: your landlord pays for your unit's electricity and you installed the unit on or after July 1, 2026. Even then, the increase is limited to the actual cost of the power the unit uses, or a reasonable estimate of it. If you pay your own hydro, there is no separate AC charge.
No more than what the air conditioner costs to run in electricity. The estimate is based on the unit's energy efficiency and how much you use it, which is why you share those details up front. It is a pass-through of cost, not an added premium.
No. A landlord cannot use the new cost recovery rule to charge you for a unit that was already installed before the law took effect. You also do not have to send written notice or provide usage details for that existing unit.
No. Ontario still does not require landlords to install or provide cooling. The change protects your right to install your own unit; it does not create a duty for landlords to supply one.
In Toronto, when a landlord provides air conditioning, it must be operated from June 1 to September 30 to keep the unit at or below 26°C. It applies only where cooling is already provided, so it does not force a landlord to add air conditioning.
No. The new air conditioning right does not extend to units in a mobile home park or a land lease community, which fall under a different part of the Residential Tenancies Act.
If cooling is provided and is not working, or heat rules are being broken, contact your municipality's property standards or bylaw office. In Toronto, RentSafeTO buildings must post information about cooled spaces and the nearest public cool location on the tenant notification board. For a dispute about your rights or rent, the Landlord and Tenant Board is the place to go.
This article provides general legal information for Ontario and is current as of July 2026. It is not legal advice, and the rules are new and may be supplemented by future regulations. Tenants or landlords dealing with a specific dispute should seek legal help, such as a community legal clinic, a licensed paralegal or lawyer, or the Landlord and Tenant Board.
