Can a Landlord in Ontario Require the Tenant to Cut the Lawn?

Sometimes, but not with a single line in the lease. In Ontario the landlord carries the legal duty to maintain a rental property, and a lease term that simply hands that duty to the tenant can be void. A tenant can take on lawn care where the yard is theirs alone and the arrangement is written properly, or where it is a separate, paid service agreement that stands apart from the tenancy.

The law here is built from snow removal cases, because that is where slip-and-fall lawsuits have forced the courts to decide who is responsible. Lawn care sits right beside snow in every one of those decisions, so the same reasoning is the best guide an owner has. Here is how it works, and how to set it up so the arrangement holds.

The short version.

• The Residential Tenancies Act, 2006 makes the landlord responsible for maintenance, and a lease term inconsistent with the Act is void.
• A clause that pushes the landlord's duty onto the tenant for a shared area is the shape the Court of Appeal struck down in 2009.
• A clause covering an area the tenant uses exclusively was upheld by the Court of Appeal in 2024, in a snow case.
• A separate, written, paid service agreement is the most defensible route when a tenant is going to cut the grass.
• Whatever the lease says, a property standards order is served on the owner, so the owner needs a backup plan for long grass.

Can a lease make the tenant mow the grass?

It can try, and whether it works depends on two things: whose lawn it is, and how the obligation is written. A tenant renting a whole detached house with its own fenced yard is in a different position from a tenant in one half of a duplex who shares a front lawn with the neighbour upstairs.

Ontario's standard form of lease does not settle it. Section 13 of the standard lease, on maintenance and repairs, cannot be changed, and any extra terms go in Section 15. The province's guide to the standard lease says an additional term that tries to take away a right or responsibility under the Act is void and cannot be enforced. So the question is not whether you can write "tenant cuts the grass" into Section 15. You can. The question is whether that term survives if someone challenges it.

What does the Residential Tenancies Act say about yard work?

Nothing about grass by name. Three provisions do the work.

Section 20 (1) of the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006 reads: "A landlord is responsible for providing and maintaining a residential complex, including the rental units in it, in a good state of repair and fit for habitation and for complying with health, safety, housing and maintenance standards." Subsection 20 (2) adds that this applies even if the tenant knew about the problem before signing.

Section 33 reads: "The tenant is responsible for ordinary cleanliness of the rental unit, except to the extent that the tenancy agreement requires the landlord to clean it." Some landlords have argued that yard work falls under "ordinary cleanliness". As you will see below, the Court of Appeal rejected that argument for snow in 2024.

Section 4 (1) reads: "Subject to subsection 12.1 (11) and section 194, a provision in a tenancy agreement that is inconsistent with this Act or the regulations is void." That is the section that kills a lawn clause if a tribunal or court finds it conflicts with the landlord's duties.

The provincial maintenance standards in O. Reg. 517/06 add one more layer. Section 26 (1) requires exterior common areas to be kept suitable for their intended use and free of hazards, and lists what must be removed, including noxious weeds and unsafe accumulations of ice and snow. Grass length is not on that list. Section 4 of the regulation also switches off the provincial exterior standards wherever a municipal property standards by-law covers the exterior of rental properties. We read both instruments on e-Laws on 2026-11-09.

What did the Court of Appeal decide in Montgomery v. Van?

In Montgomery v. Van, 2009 ONCA 808, a basement tenant slipped on ice on the walkway to her apartment and sued her landlord. The landlord relied on a lease clause making tenants responsible for keeping their walkway and stairway clean, including snow removal.

The Court of Appeal held the clause void as inconsistent with the legislation then in force, and struck the parts of the landlord's defence that relied on it. The court also said that for a term like this to be effective, it had to be a contractual obligation severable from the tenancy agreement. In plain terms: a separate deal for a separate service, not a chore folded into the lease.

For owners, Montgomery is the reason a one-line lawn clause is risky. If the clause looks like the landlord passing its own statutory job to the tenant for free, it is exposed.

How did Crete v. Ottawa Community Housing change the picture?

Fifteen years later the Court of Appeal looked at the question again in Crete v. Ottawa Community Housing Corporation, 2024 ONCA 459. The lease there made the tenant responsible for snow removal from the front and back doors of the rented premises to the main walkways. A tenant fell, and the question was whether that clause was valid.

The court upheld it. Its reasoning, as reported in published summaries of the decision, turned on the word "common". The landlord's snow duty under section 26 (1) of the maintenance standards applies to exterior common areas, and an area used only by one tenant is not a common area. Montgomery involved a shared walkway; Crete involved the tenant's own doorways.

The court also rejected the idea that section 33 makes snow removal part of a tenant's ordinary cleanliness. So the clause stood because the landlord had no conflicting duty over that space, not because tenants have a built-in duty to shovel.

We have read both decisions through published summaries and headnotes rather than the full reasons, so treat this as our reading of the two cases together.

Does the same reasoning apply to a lawn?

No appellate court has ruled on a lawn clause directly, so what follows is our own reading rather than settled law.

The Crete logic carries over reasonably well. If a yard is used exclusively by one tenant, such as the backyard of a detached house rented as a whole, a lease term asking that tenant to cut the grass does not obviously collide with a landlord duty over a common area. If the lawn is shared, such as the front yard of a triplex, it is a common area and the landlord's maintenance duty sits squarely on it.

There is a wrinkle that cuts the other way. Section 20 (1) is broader than the snow provision: it requires the whole residential complex, including the rental units, to be kept in a good state of repair and in line with maintenance standards. A tenant could argue that an overgrown yard is a maintenance-standards problem under a municipal by-law, and that the landlord cannot contract out of that. Published Landlord and Tenant Board decisions on lawn and snow clauses have gone both ways over the years. We have read those in third-party summaries rather than at source, which is another reason to set up the arrangement so it does not depend on winning that argument.

Can a shared lawn ever be the tenant's job?

Only through a separate service agreement. In a duplex, triplex or small multi-family building, the grounds that every tenant uses are common areas. The landlord is responsible for them, and a lease term that assigns them to one tenant for nothing is exactly what Montgomery struck down.

What a landlord can do is hire one of the tenants to do the work, the same way it would hire a landscaping company. That works when it is genuinely a separate contract: its own document, its own payment, a defined scope and a way for either side to end it without touching the tenancy.

Can you evict a tenant who will not cut the grass?

Unmowed grass is not one of the termination grounds the Act lists. If lawn care is a separate service agreement, a tenant who stops doing it has breached that agreement, not the tenancy. Board decisions reported in summary have treated it that way, as a contract issue rather than a ground to end the tenancy.

The practical remedy is the cheaper one: end the service agreement, stop paying for the service, and bring in a contractor. If the agreement says what happens to the payment when work is not done, you are in a much stronger position than if it is silent. Do not deduct the cost from rent or treat it as rent owing, because it is not rent.

Who gets the by-law order if the grass grows too long?

The owner. Where a city deals with long grass through its property standards by-law, the order is made under section 15.2 of the Building Code Act, 1992, and subsection 15.2 (3) says it "shall be served on the owner of the property and such other persons affected by it as the officer determines ...". The same section lets the order warn that the municipality may do the work at the owner's expense. Some cities handle grass under a separate yard maintenance by-law with its own process, but the owner is still the person the city looks to. A lease term or a service agreement with the tenant does not change that.

Grass and weed heights, notice periods and the city's right to cut and bill the owner differ by municipality. Our guide on how to find the property standards by-law for your Ontario rental walks through where to look. The point for this question: even when the tenant has agreed to cut the grass, the owner needs a way to get it cut quickly if the tenant does not.

What is the safest way to set up lawn care with a tenant?

There are three workable structures. Pick one in writing before the lease is signed.

1. The landlord handles it. Lawn care is included in the rent and the landlord arranges a contractor. This is the cleanest legally. If the yard is part of what the tenant rents, give at least 24 hours' written notice of entry under section 27 (1) of the Act before a crew comes in, which allows entry "to carry out a repair or replacement or do work in the rental unit".
2. A separate, paid service agreement. A short standalone document, signed alongside the lease but not part of it. It names the scope (mowing, edging, leaf cleanup), the standard, the payment to the tenant, and what happens if the work is not done. Either side can end it on notice, and ending it does not affect the tenancy or the rent. This is the route Montgomery points to.
3. A Section 15 term for an exclusive-use yard. For a single-family home rented as a whole, a plainly worded additional term that the tenant maintains the lawn in the yard they alone use. After Crete, this is on firmer ground than it was, but it has not been tested on a lawn at the appellate level. Keep it specific to the exclusive-use area and keep the shared parts with the landlord.

Whichever route you take, two habits help. Supply the mower or say clearly that the tenant uses their own, because equipment is where disputes start. And keep the contractor's number handy, because the by-law officer will call you, not the tenant.

How does a property manager handle lawn care on a rental?

The job is to decide the structure before move-in, put it in writing, and then make sure the grass is actually cut. At KEILTY Realty Management we look at the property first: whether the yard is exclusive or shared, what the local by-law requires, and whether the owner would rather include the service in the rent or set up a separate agreement. Then the lease, the move-in inspection and the maintenance schedule all say the same thing.

On homes in Kingston and across Eastern Ontario, that means the owner is not finding out about a lawn dispute from a by-law notice in the mailbox.

What do owners ask about tenants and lawn care?

Can a landlord in Ontario make a tenant cut the lawn?
Only in limited ways. A lease term covering a yard the tenant uses exclusively has the best support after the Court of Appeal's 2024 decision in Crete, and a separate, paid service agreement is the most defensible route for any lawn. A clause that shifts the landlord's duty over a shared lawn to a tenant for nothing risks being void under section 4 of the Residential Tenancies Act.

Is lawn care part of a tenant's ordinary cleanliness duty?
The Court of Appeal held in 2024 that snow removal is not part of a tenant's ordinary cleanliness duty under section 33, and lawn care is a close parallel. Owners should not rely on section 33 to make a tenant cut the grass.

Can a landlord evict a tenant for not mowing the grass?
Unmowed grass is not a termination ground listed in the Act. Where lawn care is a separate service agreement, the remedy is to end that agreement and hire a contractor, not to end the tenancy.

Who is responsible if the city issues a long-grass order?
The owner. A property standards order under the Building Code Act is served on the owner, whatever the lease or a service agreement says, so the owner needs a way to get the grass cut if the tenant does not.

Not sure how lawn care, snow and the rest of the exterior work should be split on your rental? Sort it out in writing before the tenant moves in, and talk to us if you would rather not do it alone.

Own a rental in Kingston or Eastern Ontario? KEILTY Realty Management manages it for a flat monthly rate. Get a free rental evaluation or book a 30-minute discovery call with A.J. Keilty.

This post is general information about Ontario residential tenancy law as of 2026-11-09, not legal advice. Legislation, regulations and tribunal practice change. For advice on a specific property or situation, speak with a lawyer or licensed paralegal.