Tenant · Landlord
Security deposit rules by province.
"Damage deposit," "security deposit," "last month's rent" — landlords and tenants use these interchangeably, but each province's Residential Tenancies Act treats them very differently. Some provinces cap a genuine security deposit at a fraction of rent; Ontario doesn't allow one at all.
Ontario's Residential Tenancies Act, 2006 permits only a rent deposit (capped at one rent period, applied solely to the tenant's last period) — no separate damage deposit. BC caps a security deposit and a pet damage deposit at half a month's rent each; Alberta caps a single security deposit at one month's rent.
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Deposit rule
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Every jurisdiction
| Jurisdiction | Separate deposit allowed? | Maximum | Confirmed |
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Sources, read 29 September 2026: Ontario's rule was confirmed via the Landlord and Tenant Board's own "Guide to the Residential Tenancies Act" (tribunalsontario.ca) — e-Laws, like CanLII, is a JavaScript-rendered site that couldn't be fetched as static text this session, the same access gap already flagged elsewhere on this site. British Columbia (Residential Tenancy Act, s. 19(1)) and Alberta (Residential Tenancies Act, ss. 43, 45 & 46) were each read directly from their own consolidated statute text via bclaws.gov.bc.ca and the Alberta King's Printer. No figure is asserted for any other jurisdiction rather than guess one.
Frequently asked questions
Is a "security deposit" the same thing as "last month's rent"?
No, and mixing them up is the single most common deposit dispute. A rent deposit (Ontario's only permitted kind) can only ever be applied as rent for a specific rent period. A true security/damage deposit is separate money held against damage, and Ontario simply doesn't allow a landlord to collect one.
Can a BC landlord charge both a security deposit and a pet damage deposit?
Yes — they're two separate deposits under s. 19(1) of BC's Residential Tenancy Act, each capped independently at half a month's rent, so a landlord can require up to a full month's rent in deposits from a tenant with a pet.
Why doesn't this cover all 13 jurisdictions?
Every figure on this page was checked against the actual statute (or, for Ontario, the tribunal's own guide) before being shown. A primary source for the remaining provinces and territories wasn't independently loaded this session — rather than repeat a commonly-cited but unverified number, those jurisdictions are shown honestly as not yet confirmed.
Not legal advice
Deposit rules have exceptions and procedural requirements (how interest must be calculated and paid, what happens on assignment of the tenancy, deductions on move-out) not modelled here. Confirm against the Act itself, your written tenancy agreement, or with your provincial tenancy tribunal or a lawyer before relying on a specific figure.