Almost Passive · Free weekly email
Most landlords find out about rule changes like this after it's already cost them something.
Once a week: what's actually happening in the London / St. Thomas rental market, what's changing at the LTB, and what I'm learning running Prospera — before it turns into a problem on your end.
Owning a rental property in London or southwestern Ontario from a distance is common. You might have relocated for work, inherited a property you didn't plan on, bought as an investment while living in another city, or simply moved to a new neighbourhood while keeping your old house as a rental.
Whatever the reason, the distance changes everything about how you manage it.
Ontario's Residential Tenancies Act doesn't treat out-of-town landlords any differently than local ones. The same rules apply: the same entry notice requirements, the same maintenance obligations, the same N4 timelines, the same LTB process if a dispute arises. The difference is that every task that's trivial when you live nearby becomes a logistics problem when you're 90 minutes or five provinces away.
This guide covers what out-of-town landlords in Ontario actually face, what tends to go wrong, and your realistic options.
Who This Applies To
Remote landlords aren't a rare edge case. In London and southwestern Ontario, it's a large and growing group:
- Relocated employees. You moved to Toronto, Calgary, or Vancouver for work. The London house went from your home to your rental. You expected to manage it yourself — it seemed straightforward.
- Out-of-province investors. You bought in London because the numbers worked (cap rates, lower entry prices), but you live in BC or Alberta.
- Inherited property owners. You inherited a tenanted home in St. Thomas or Strathroy from a family member. The tenancy transferred to you automatically under the RTA. You didn't choose to be a landlord, but here you are.
- Growing portfolio investors. You started with one property nearby, then added more. One of those is further away than you can comfortably manage.
- Snowbirds. You own a rental in London and spend five or six months outside Ontario each year.
In every case, the core problem is the same: Ontario's landlord obligations don't pause because you're not physically nearby.
The Entry Notice Problem
This is where many out-of-town landlords run into trouble first.
Under the RTA, you must give a tenant 24 hours' written notice before entering the unit for most purposes — inspections, maintenance checks, showing the unit to prospective tenants or buyers. The notice must state the reason and a time window between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.
When you live locally, this is easy. You call a plumber, text the tenant, and both show up the next day.
When you live out of town, coordinating a maintenance visit requires:
- Finding a reliable local contractor willing to deal with tenant scheduling
- Giving proper written notice (text or email, ideally with a paper trail)
- Having someone available if the tenant has a question or complaint about the timing
- Following up to confirm the work was done and done correctly
For a single emergency — a furnace issue in January, a roof leak in a heavy rain — this is manageable. For ongoing maintenance, it becomes a part-time coordination job you're doing from a distance, without being able to physically verify the result.
This is covered in more detail in our landlord entry rights guide.
The Maintenance Obligation Doesn't Travel With You
Under RTA Section 20, you're legally required to maintain your rental unit and property in a good state of repair, fit for habitation, and compliant with health, safety, housing, and maintenance standards. That obligation exists regardless of where you live.
The City of London adds a parallel layer: the Property Standards By-law and the Rental Housing Licensing program both operate independently of the RTA. If a London property falls out of compliance — a bylaw officer finds a structural issue, a pest problem, or inadequate heating — the landlord is responsible whether they live on the street or in Saskatchewan. Read more in our guide to landlord maintenance responsibilities in Ontario.
For a remote landlord, "maintenance" means:
- Knowing a reliable local plumber, electrician, and HVAC technician
- Having a process for tenants to report issues (and being reachable when they do)
- Responding within a reasonable time — no-heat calls in January can't wait a week while you arrange a flight
- Documenting every repair request and response in writing
Tenants who can't reach their landlord about maintenance issues have grounds for a T6 application to the LTB. The LTB can order rent abatements (typically 10–30%) and may impose fines up to $25,000 for serious violations. Distance is not a defence.
What Gets Missed Without Local Presence
Out-of-town landlords tend to miss compliance tasks that local landlords handle informally — tasks they remember because they drive past the property or chat with the tenant occasionally. Without that ongoing contact, these fall through:
| Task | Risk if Missed |
|---|---|
| Annual N1 rent increase notice | Lost income — you can't backdate a rent increase |
| Last month's rent deposit interest | Tenant T1 application, back-payment owing |
| London Rental Housing Licence renewal | Fine up to $25,000; no valid licence |
| Move-in/move-out inspection documentation | Can't claim for tenant damage without a signed inspection report |
| N4 served at correct address | Defective notice; LTB application fails |
| Lease renewal tracking | Tenancy converts month-to-month; easier to manage but requires monitoring |
| Insurance policy review | Policy may exclude rental use without proper declaration |
Every one of these tasks requires local awareness or a reliable local contact. See landlord record-keeping Ontario for the documentation system that keeps these from being missed.
London's Rental Licensing Requirement
This catches out-of-town landlords more than almost any other issue.
The City of London's Rental Housing Licensing (RHL) program requires most rental units in London to be licensed. If you own a rental property in London and you've moved away, your licence must still be renewed annually — and the city sends renewal notices to the address on file. If you've moved and haven't updated your contact information with the city, you may miss the renewal window entirely.
Operating a rental unit without a valid licence in London can result in fines up to $25,000 for individuals or $50,000 for corporations. The RHL office has also been known to notify the LTB of non-compliant landlords in the context of LTB proceedings.
If you're an out-of-town owner with a London rental, confirm:
- Your current address and contact info are updated on your RHL licence
- Your licence renewal is tracked on your calendar (not just by waiting for the city's letter)
- Someone local can receive correspondence on your behalf if needed
Properties in St. Thomas and Strathroy don't have equivalent licensing programs, but the RTA and municipal property standards bylaws still apply in full.
The LTB Hearing Problem
If you ever need to pursue an eviction or resolve a dispute, you'll need to deal with the Landlord and Tenant Board.
The good news: the LTB moved to video hearings as the default format after 2021, and remote attendance is now routine. You don't need to be in London in person for most L1 or L2 hearings.
The practical challenges:
- You need to file correctly (correct notice, correct service, correct deadline)
- You need your documentation package ready (rent ledger, notice copies, Certificate of Service)
- Hearings for London/Middlesex properties are handled by the London Regional LTB office — the wait times are 8–14 weeks for a standard L1 hearing after filing
If you've never filed at the LTB before, navigating the process from a distance without local knowledge is harder than it looks. A defective notice (wrong termination date, wrong service method, served to the wrong address) means starting over, with another 8–14 weeks added to the timeline.
See our LTB hearing preparation guide for what you need before your first hearing.
Emergency Response When You're Not Local
Tenant emergencies — a burst pipe at 2 a.m., a furnace failure in February, a gas leak — require an immediate local response. When you're out of town, your options are:
Option A: Maintain a local emergency contact. This works if you have a family member or trusted person nearby who can respond. The limit: they take on real liability if they make decisions incorrectly, and most people aren't willing to be on-call year-round.
Before you keep reading
This is exactly the kind of thing Almost Passive covers every week.
Local market shifts, RTA/LTB changes that actually affect your properties, and real lessons from managing rentals. One short email. No fluff.
Option B: Build a reliable contractor network. Having a plumber, HVAC tech, and electrician on speed dial who will respond to emergency calls is invaluable. The challenge is vetting them from a distance, and they'll charge emergency rates.
Option C: Delegate fully to a local property manager. A property manager handles emergencies as part of the service — they have established contractor relationships and clear authority to approve emergency repairs up to a pre-agreed limit without calling you first.
Most out-of-town landlords don't realize how often genuine emergencies happen until they're fielding calls from another time zone.
How Property Management Solves Each Problem
| Challenge | What you're doing now | What professional management does |
|---|---|---|
| Entry coordination | You arrange from a distance, hope it goes smoothly | Manager handles directly with tenant |
| Maintenance | You manage contractors remotely | Manager's vetted contractor network, local follow-up |
| Compliance tracking | Calendar reminders, hoping nothing slips | Systematic — rent increase dates, licence renewals, inspections |
| Emergency response | Emergency contractor from a distance | Local 24/7 response within agreed limits |
| Rent collection | Bank transfer + monitoring | Collected, tracked, disbursed to you monthly |
| LTB proceedings | File and prepare from a distance | Manager files and attends (or coordinates paralegal) |
| Rental licence (London) | Track and renew yourself | Manager handles renewal cycle |
| Move-in/move-out inspections | Hard to schedule when you're not nearby | Completed with documentation by manager |
For a local landlord with one stable property and a long-term tenant, self-managing is often viable. For an out-of-town landlord, the math changes quickly. See property manager vs. self-managing Ontario for the full cost comparison — including the time value and LTB-error risk calculations.
What Professional Management Costs vs. What Distance Costs
Property management fees in London and southwestern Ontario typically run 8–12% of monthly rent for full-service management. On a 2-bedroom at $2,100/month, that's $168–$252/month, or roughly $2,000–$3,000/year.
Now consider what managing from a distance actually costs:
- Your time. Even a well-behaved tenancy requires 5–10 hours per month when you add up calls, emails, contractor coordination, and compliance tracking. At any reasonable hourly rate, that's $200–$400/month of your time.
- Travel. If you fly or drive to London once a year for a vacancy or inspection, a single trip can cost $300–$800.
- LTB error risk. One defective notice in an eviction scenario adds 8–14 weeks to the timeline — at $2,100/month, that's $4,200–$4,900 in delayed enforcement. Managing multiple rental properties in Ontario covers this math in more detail.
- Missed rent increases. Out-of-town landlords miss N1 filings more often than local ones. One missed annual increase at $2,100/month = $105/month in permanently lost income (at 5% guideline).
Most out-of-town landlords spend more managing from a distance than a property manager would charge — without the professional knowledge and local presence.
See property management fees Ontario for what's typically included and how fees are structured.
Common Mistakes Out-of-Town Landlords Make
1. Relying on informal arrangements. A friend-of-a-friend who "keeps an eye on things" is not a property manager. They have no authority, no process, and no liability. When something goes wrong, you're still fully responsible.
2. Letting the tenant manage their own repairs. Some landlords tell tenants to call a contractor and deduct from rent. This is legal only in limited circumstances and requires a specific agreement. Without documentation, rent deductions are technically a T1 application issue.
3. Not updating address with the City of London's RHL program. The city sends renewal notices to the address on file. Moving without updating that address means missing the renewal window.
4. Assuming video hearings eliminate the LTB challenge. Video hearings are accessible, but filing and preparation still require local knowledge — correct addresses, correct service methods, the right documentation package. The LTB doesn't grade on a curve for out-of-town landlords.
5. Deferring maintenance calls. Tenants who report a maintenance issue and don't hear back within 24–48 hours are within their rights to escalate — either through the LTB or the City's property standards office. Distance doesn't extend the response window in the tenant's view.
6. Assuming a long-term tenant means a stable situation. Long-term tenants with no history of problems can still generate compliance exposure: unreported damage, unauthorized subletting, or lease violations. Without regular inspections, these accumulate.
7. Not having a written lease in place. Some out-of-town landlords inherit verbal tenancies or use informal agreements. Without a valid Ontario Standard Lease in place, both parties lose key protections.
When Professional Management Is the Right Call
For out-of-town Ontario landlords, the question isn't "should I eventually hire someone?" It's usually "when does the cost of not having someone exceed the management fee?"
Clear signals that professional management makes sense:
- You live more than 60 minutes from the property
- You've ever missed a compliance deadline because you weren't local
- You've had to arrange a maintenance call from a distance
- You're accumulating properties and one of them is a distance problem
- You've never attended a move-in or move-out inspection in person
- Your tenant has complained about response time
- You've spent time Googling Ontario landlord law instead of spending that time on your actual work
If most of these apply, the management fee is not a cost — it's what you're paying to have a local professional standing between you and those problems.
FAQ
Do I have to use a local property manager for an Ontario rental? No — there's no legal requirement. But for out-of-town landlords, a local manager handles entry coordination, maintenance, inspections, and compliance in ways you physically cannot. It's not about legal obligation; it's about what's practical.
Can I manage an Ontario rental from another province? Yes, legally. The RTA applies regardless of where you live. In practice, the coordination challenges (entry notices, maintenance, emergency response, LTB appearances) are much harder from outside Ontario. Video LTB hearings help, but they don't eliminate the need for local presence on maintenance and compliance tasks.
What happens if I miss the London Rental Housing Licence renewal? Operating without a valid licence is an offence under London's licensing by-law, with fines up to $25,000 for individuals. Missing a renewal can also complicate LTB proceedings and your insurance coverage. Update your contact information with the city and track the renewal date independently.
How much notice do I have to give a London tenant before entering? The same as any Ontario landlord: 24 hours' written notice for non-emergency entry, stating the reason and a time between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Distance doesn't reduce this — you still need to coordinate with the tenant and whoever is entering on your behalf.
What if my tenant stops paying rent and I'm out of province? Serve the N4 (14-day notice) by email or mail to the rental unit address. Then file the L1 application with the LTB online. The hearing will likely be a video hearing. Our what to do if your tenant stops paying rent guide covers the full process.
Can a property manager handle LTB proceedings on my behalf? Yes, if they're a licensed paralegal or work with one. Many property management firms in London work with paralegals to handle LTB filings and hearings. Confirm this when you're evaluating a management service.
What's the difference between a property manager and just having a contact person for emergencies? A contact person handles emergencies. A property manager handles everything — routine and emergency — with legal authority to act on your behalf, a systematic compliance process, established contractor relationships, and documented records. An informal arrangement works until it doesn't.
How do I know if my property is still properly insured if I'm renting it out from out of town? Contact your insurer and confirm the policy covers landlord liability, rental income loss, and any vacant period between tenancies. Policies designed for owner-occupants often exclude rental income scenarios. See rental property insurance Ontario for what coverage landlords typically need.
The Bottom Line
Ontario's landlord obligations are the same whether you live next door or in another province. Maintenance deadlines, entry notice requirements, rent increase timelines, and LTB procedures don't adjust for distance.
For out-of-town landlords in London, St. Thomas, and Strathroy, the honest question is whether the time, travel, and compliance exposure of self-managing from a distance actually costs less than professional management. In most cases, once you count everything, it doesn't.
Prospera Properties manages rental properties for landlords across London, St. Thomas, and Strathroy — including owners who live out of town or out of province. If you're managing from a distance and finding the coordination harder than expected, see what full-service management includes and what it costs.