Rent determination lawsuit

A rent determination lawsuit enables the court to set the rent of residential and roofed workplace leases. It is filed where the parties cannot agree on the new period's rent or where the rent has drifted markedly below or above comparable market levels over time.

In actions brought after the statutory lease duration has elapsed, the judge sets the rent without being bound by the index cap, based on comparable rents, the property's condition and equity. Settled practice applies an equitable reduction in favour of the sitting tenant. For the judgment to take effect from the start of the new period, the action must be filed within the statutory time or preceded by a formal notice.

The action does not result in eviction; it only fixes the rent. In practice it rests on court-commissioned comparable-rent studies and is the principal legal avenue for updating long-term tenants' rents in inflationary periods.