How to Send a Lease Modification Notice in Quebec (2027)

Step 1: Check the notice window

Example: a 12-month lease from July 1 to June 30. Your tenant must receive the notice between January 1 and March 31. What counts is the date the tenant receives it, not the date you send it.

A notice received outside the window may cost you the change for this renewal. The window depends on the length of the lease (article 1942 of the Civil Code of Québec):

• 12 months or more: between 3 and 6 months before the lease ends.
• Less than 12 months: between 1 and 2 months before the lease ends.
• Indeterminate term: between 1 and 2 months before the change takes effect.
• Room: between 10 and 20 days before the lease ends (or before the change, if the term is indeterminate).

Step 2: Write the notice with the mandatory content

Example: rent goes from $1,000 to $1,045 a month. In the notice, you can state the new rent ($1,045), the increase in dollars ($45) or the increase as a percentage (4.5%).

A letter that only asks whether the tenant is staying another year is not a notice of modification.

Since December 26, 2024, the notice must also reproduce the text set by the Quebec regulation on its mandatory content (Règlement sur le contenu obligatoire de l'avis de modification du bail d'un logement). An older template without that text does not comply. The notice must:

• Be in writing, in the language of the lease.
• Be dated and signed by the landlord or by their mandatary (authorized representative).
• State the change: the new rent, the increase in dollars or the increase as a percentage, plus any other lease condition you want to change.
• Reproduce the mandatory text: the tenant's 3 options, the reply deadlines, the cases where refusing means the tenant must move out, and the application to the Tribunal administratif du logement (TAL).

Step 3: One notice for each tenant who signed the lease

Example: an apartment rented to Julie and Marc, who both signed the lease. Each of them must receive the notice, even though they live together. Their child, or a partner who is not on the lease, does not get one.

If only Julie receives it, the one-month reply period runs only for her. For Marc, you have no proof of receipt, so deliver the notice to him another way before the window closes.

Step 4: Pick a delivery method that leaves proof

Example: in April, a tenant says they never got your notice. If you have no proof, that works against you, because the burden of proving receipt is on the landlord.

Accepted methods:

• Registered mail, with the Canada Post delivery confirmation. Allow a few days for delivery.
• Hand delivery, with an acknowledgment of receipt dated and signed by the tenant.
• Any other method that gives valid proof of receipt, such as an email with a confirmation of receipt. An email with no confirmation at all is weak proof.

Step 5: If you send the notice by email

Example: on January 5, you send the notice to 2 tenants. With ProprioSign, each one gets their own email and must click to confirm receipt before the notice is shown. That dated click is your proof.

The click also avoids a common trap: some email antivirus tools scan links automatically, which records an open even when nobody has read anything.

If a tenant does not confirm, you can send the email again. With enhanced proof, reminders go out automatically. If they still have not confirmed, deliver the notice another way before the window closes.

Step 6: Track the tenant's reply

Example: notice received January 15. If the tenant refuses or is leaving, they must reply in writing by February 15. If they do not reply, they are deemed to have accepted the new conditions.

The tenant has 3 options:

• Accept the renewal with the changes.
• Refuse the changes and stay. You then have one month from receiving the refusal to apply to the TAL. If you do not, the lease renews at the same rent and conditions.
• Not renew, and move out when the lease ends.