✳Business & Property· Essential guide
The short answer is no — not on an occupied unit, not for unpaid rent, and not by asking a locksmith to do it. Here is what the Residential Tenancies Act actually says.
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The question of whether a landlord can change the locks in Ontario comes up most often at the worst possible moment, and the answer is narrower than most people expect. This is general information about how the law works, not legal advice about your situation.
The rule: when you may change the locks in Ontario
Under the Residential Tenancies Act, a landlord may not alter the locking system on a door giving entry to a rental unit, or to the residential complex, during a tenancy without giving the tenant replacement keys. The practical effect is that changing the locks and not handing over keys is prohibited while the tenancy exists — and the tenancy exists until it is properly ended, not until the landlord considers it over.
The same section restricts the tenant: they may not change the locking system on the unit door without the landlord's consent either.
Why arrears do not change it
This is the point that causes the most trouble. Unpaid rent is a serious problem with a defined route: an application to the Landlord and Tenant Board, a hearing, and an order. If the order is for eviction and the tenant does not leave, enforcement is carried out by the Court Enforcement Office — the Sheriff. Only that enforcement ends possession.
Changing the locks before then is an illegal lockout. It exposes the landlord to a Board application by the tenant, to orders for damages and for the tenant to be let back in, and potentially to an offence under the Act. It also tends to lose the underlying case, because a tribunal that has just seen a self-help eviction is not well disposed towards the person who carried it out. The Board publishes its own guidance at Tribunals Ontario.
When a lock change is straightforward
- The unit is genuinely vacant and the tenancy has ended — keys returned, notice expired, agreement to end signed, or an order enforced.
- The Sheriff has enforced an eviction order. This is the normal moment for a locksmith to attend, frequently on the same visit.
- Common areas and management-held systems, where no unit door is affected.
- The tenant has asked for it — after a lost key or a break-in — with the landlord's consent and keys provided.
What a locksmith will ask you for
Any locksmith paying attention will ask which of those situations applies, and will want something in writing for the ones that need it: the enforcement documentation, the signed agreement to end the tenancy, or the returned keys. This is not obstruction. A locksmith who performs an illegal lockout has participated in it, and the landlord who instructed them is not thereby insulated from the consequences either.
If the answer is "the tenant has not paid for three months and I want them out", the honest response is that this is not yet a locksmith job, and the route runs through the Board first.
Turnover, done properly
Once a unit is legitimately vacant, rekeying rather than replacing is normally the right call — the hardware is fine, and what needs to change is which key works. Where a building runs a master key system, the rekey has to respect the existing hierarchy, which is a design question rather than a per-door one; that is covered in planning a master key system.
(01)Objections
Frequently asked
- What if the tenant has stopped paying rent?
- Non-payment does not change the rule. Rent arrears are resolved through the Landlord and Tenant Board, and only a Board order enforced by the Sheriff ends the tenancy. Changing the locks in the meantime is an illegal lockout regardless of how much is owed.
- Can a tenant change the locks themselves?
- A tenant may not alter the locking system on a door giving entry to the unit without the landlord's consent — the restriction runs in both directions. In practice, agreement plus a key for the landlord is how it is normally handled.
- What about a unit the tenant has already vacated?
- Once the tenancy has genuinely ended and the unit is vacant, the landlord changes the locks like any other owner — and normally should. The difficulty is that 'genuinely ended' is a legal question, not an impression, which is why documentation gets asked for.
(02)Ask
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(03)Written by
LAK Locksmith Team
Locksmiths and key technicians
LAK Locksmith has been working across the Greater Toronto Area since 2021, from 470 N Rivermede Rd in Vaughan. These guides are written by the technicians who do the work — residential, commercial and automotive — and are kept to what can be demonstrated on a doorstep rather than what sells.
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