How the figures are sourced, checked and kept current
Updated · Sources
Every figure on this site is read in an official source's own text and shown with the day it was last checked. Below: which sources count, what that date means, when each province's figures change, how amounts are rounded, and how to report a mistake.
Which sources count
In order of weight, when two of them say different things:
- The statute and its regulations, as consolidated on the province's official legislation site.
- The province's own pages and news releases, such as Residential rent increases, Rent increases (Residential Tenancies; page last updated August 27, 2026) and Temporary Rent Cap and Rent Increases (2026).
- The forms, form instructions, rules of procedure and policy guidelines of the body that decides disputes: the Landlord and Tenant Board in Ontario, the Residential Tenancy Branch in British Columbia, the Residential Tenancies Program in Nova Scotia.
- For rents, Statistics Canada's tables, and the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation for its own survey.
Where official sources disagree, the page says which one it follows. One case: the program file behind British Columbia's own online calculator lists different percentages for 2015 and 2021 than the government's published table of limits. This site uses the table.
What never counts as a source: news stories, articles by law firms or property managers, commercial rent reports, other calculators, and anyone's memory. A rule read only through a summary is not used. One exception, named where it applies: Nova Scotia's legislature site couldn't be reached when this site was checked, so its two statutes were read in archived copies of their official consolidations, and the Nova Scotia page lists them under exactly that description. They will be read again on the official site when it answers.
Help services such as tenant advice lines and legal clinics are named as places to ask once their own sites confirm what they offer. They are never the source of a figure.
What "checked on" means
It is the day the official source was opened and the figure was found in its text, word for word, and compared with what the site shows. It is not the day the source was written or last changed: a page updated in June and read on September 30 is "checked September 30".
Each figure carries its source and that date where you read it, and each page ends with one list of the sources it uses. The site is not published with any figure whose last check is more than 14 days old.
When each province's figures change
| Figure | How it is set | When it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Ontario guideline | Ontario's Consumer Price Index, using data from June to May, rounded to the first decimal point, capped at 2.5% | One figure per calendar year, published by August 31 of the preceding year |
| British Columbia limit | the 12-month average percentage change in the all-items Consumer Price Index for B.C. ending in July | Announced in late August in each of the last two years (Annual rent increase falls for second straight year capped at inflation (news release, August 26, 2025); Annual rent increase lowers as Province again caps it at inflation (news release, August 27, 2026)); the 2027 limit starts January 1, 2027 |
| Nova Scotia cap | A fixed percentage in law: 2% until the end of 2023, 5% for each year since | Only when the province changes it; the cap runs until December 31, 2027 |
| Rents by city | Statistics Canada's quarterly rent table | Each quarter; the latest release was September 9, 2026 |
Statistics Canada hasn't announced the date of its next rent release, so none is given here. Rules and forms change outside these dates too. In Ontario, amendments came into force on July 1, 2026 and again on September 21, 2026; each was read against the rent rules this site covers.
Rounding
Percentages are used exactly as published, never recalculated from inflation data. Dollar amounts follow each province's own practice:
- Ontario. The guideline itself is rounded to the first decimal point. Results are in dollars and cents, and the official examples ($1000.00 x 1.6% = $16.00; $1,000 + 1.9% ($19.00) = $1,019.00) come out in whole cents. No official source read for this site sets a rule for a fraction of a cent, so where one appears the Ontario tools show the exact product and the nearest cent, and say so.
- British Columbia. The branch says landlords can't round up the allowable increase, and its own calculator shows the dollar increase rounded down to the cent. The B.C. tool does the same: $1,845.00 × 2.3% = $42.435, so the allowable increase is $42.43, not $42.44.
- Nova Scotia. No rounding rule is published, and the province's own example works out exactly, to $1,575.00. The Nova Scotia tool shows the exact product and the nearest cent, and says the province sets no rule.
Dates are counted on the calendar, the way each province's rules count them, and every tool shows the dates and the arithmetic it used so you can redo it by hand.
What the tools do with what you type
Nothing leaves your device. The tools run in your browser; your rent, your dates and your answers are not sent anywhere and not stored, and closing the page clears them. The site sets no cookies and runs no analytics.
Reporting an error
Write to hello@rentguideline.com with the page address, the figure or sentence, and a link to the official source that shows the right one. If a tool gave a result you think is wrong, include what you typed. A correction that changes a figure, a rule or a tool result is dated on What's new, and the page's checked date moves with it. Typing slips are fixed without an entry.
Sources
- Residential rent increasesGovernment of Ontario
- Rent increases (Residential Tenancies; page last updated August 27, 2026)Government of British Columbia
- Temporary Rent Cap and Rent Increases (2026)Government of Nova Scotia
- Residential Tenancies Act, 2006, S.O. 2006, c. 17 (consolidation from September 21, 2026; currency date September 28, 2026)Government of Ontario
- Annual rent increase lowers as Province again caps it at inflation (news release, August 27, 2026)Government of British Columbia
- Annual rent increase falls for second straight year capped at inflation (news release, August 26, 2025)Government of British Columbia
- Rent Cap Extended (March 22, 2023)Government of Nova Scotia
- Interim Residential Rental Increase Cap Regulations, N.S. Reg. 79/2023Province of Nova Scotia
- Table 46-10-0092-01 Asking rent and paid rent prices, by rental unit type and number of bedrooms, experimental estimatesStatistics Canada
- LTB Operational Update: Legislative Changes at the Landlord and Tenant Board (June 30, 2026)Tribunals Ontario
- LTB Operational Update: Legislative Changes at the Landlord and Tenant Board, Effective September 21, 2026Tribunals Ontario
- Form N1 Notice of Rent Increase: Instructions (November 30, 2015)Tribunals Ontario
- Rent Increase Calculator, program code (rentIncrease.js, last modified December 2025)Residential Tenancy Branch
Every source listed here was consulted on .