How to Serve a Tenant Notice in Ontario by Mail (N4, N5, N12)

• The form has to match the reason. N4 for rent, N5 for conduct, N12 for own use. The wrong code sinks the application.
• Mail is a permitted method of service under the LTB's rules for serving documents.
• A mailed notice is deemed served five days after you mail it. Count from the mailing date, not from when the tenant actually opens it.
• The termination date is a calculation, not a guess. N4 gives 14 days (or 7 for a daily or weekly tenancy), N5 gives 20, N12 gives 60.
• A defective notice gets your application dismissed and you start over weeks later.
• Confirm your situation with the LTB. This walks through procedure, not your specific case.

This is where most landlords lose before they have started. The reason you want the tenant gone dictates the form, and you cannot mix and match.

Three forms cover the bulk of what comes through the Landlord and Tenant Board.

Form	Use it for	Notice period
N4	Non-payment of rent	14 days, or 7 for a daily or weekly tenancy
N5	Interfering with others, damage, or too many occupants	20 days (first notice)
N12	Landlord, a family member, or a purchaser wants the unit for their own residential use	60 days, ending on the last day of the rental period or term

There are others. N6, N7, N8, N1 for rent increases, and more, each tied to a narrow set of facts. If your reason does not fit cleanly into one of the three above, do not force it. Check the full list on the LTB forms page and confirm with the Board.

One more thing on the N12. It is not a free move. The landlord has to act in good faith and, by the termination date on the notice, has to compensate the tenant one month's rent or offer an acceptable alternative unit. The good-faith requirement and the compensation rule sit in section 48 of the Residential Tenancies Act. Read it before you serve.

The date is where notices die quietly. You write a date that is one day short, the tenant says nothing, and you only find out it was wrong when an adjudicator points it out at the hearing.

Each form carries its own minimum.

• N4: the termination date must be at least 14 days after the tenant gets the notice, or 7 days for a daily or weekly tenancy.
• N5: at least 20 days after the tenant gets the notice for a first notice.
• N12: at least 60 days, and it must fall on the last day of the rental period or the last day of a fixed term.

Notice the wording. "After the tenant gets the notice." When you mail it, the tenant is deemed to get it five days after mailing, which pushes your whole calculation back. More on that next.

The N12 has the extra trap that the date has to land on the right day of the month. A 60-day count that ends mid-period is not enough. It has to be the last day of the rental period. Count it twice.

The LTB lets you serve a tenant several ways. Mail is one of them.

The accepted methods, per the Board's guidance on serving documents, include handing it to the tenant in person, leaving it in the mailbox or where mail is ordinarily delivered, sliding it under the door, sending it by courier, by regular mail to the last known address, and by email or fax where the rules allow it. See the LTB brochure, How to Serve a Landlord or Tenant with Documents.

Here is the part that matters for mail. When you serve by regular mail, the notice is deemed served five days after you mail it. Not the day it lands. Five days after it goes out.

So a notice you mail on June 1 is deemed served on June 6. For an N4, your earliest valid termination date is then 14 days after that deemed-service date. The five days are added to the front of the clock, and the notice period runs on top. Skip those five days and your date is short, even if you counted the notice period perfectly.

The LTB also notes you do not count the day you serve the notice when you count the days. Confirm the exact count for your form on the Landlord and Tenant Board site if anything is unclear.

A defective notice is one the Board will not enforce. You can be completely in the right about the rent or the damage and still lose, because the paper was wrong.

The usual ways it falls apart:

• Wrong form. N5 conduct facts written onto an N4, or the reverse.
• Short termination date. One day under the minimum, or an N12 date that does not land on the last day of the period.
• Missing the mail days. A valid notice period but no five days added for mail service.
• Wrong amount or details. An N4 that overstates the rent owing, or vague conduct on an N5 that does not tell the tenant what they did.
• Wrong address or wrong tenant name. Serve the wrong person and you have served nobody.

When the notice is bad, the application built on it usually goes with it. Dismissed. You re-serve a corrected notice, wait out the notice period again, and re-file. Weeks gone. Get it right the first time and you save yourself the whole loop.

Mailing is the low-friction option. No trip to a post office, no standing at a counter. You type or upload the completed notice, it gets printed and put in an envelope, and it goes out to the tenant's last known address by Canada Post the next business day.

What you want to walk away with is two things.

• A dated copy of the exact notice you sent. Same form, same dates, same numbers. Keep it.
• A mailing confirmation showing the date and the recipient. That date is what the five-day deemed-service count runs from, so it is the date your case turns on.

With PostPal, you get an emailed mailing confirmation that records the date the letter went out and who it went to. Pair that with your dated copy and you can show, plainly, what you served and when you served it. That is the record that backs up your service date if the tenant later claims they never got the notice.

Keep both somewhere you will find them in two months. Hearings are slow.

Serving the notice does not end the tenancy. It starts the clock.

If the tenant pays the rent in full before the N4 termination date, the N4 is void and you cannot proceed on it. If they fix the conduct on a first N5 within seven days, that one voids too. If nothing changes and the termination date passes, you file an application with the LTB.

The application form depends on the notice:

• After an N4: file an L1 to evict for non-payment and collect the rent owing.
• After an N5 or N12: file an L2 to end the tenancy and evict.

That filing goes to the Board, and you will need the correct mailing address for it. We keep a directory page for exactly that: where to mail Ontario Landlord and Tenant Board forms. That address is for filing your application with the LTB, not for serving the tenant. Two different recipients. Do not confuse them.

Can I serve an N4 by regular mail?

Yes. Regular mail is one of the methods the LTB accepts for serving a tenant. Just remember the notice is deemed served five days after you mail it, so add those five days when you set the termination date.

When is a mailed notice considered served?

Five days after the date you mail it, under the LTB's rules for serving documents. A notice mailed June 1 is deemed served June 6, and the notice period runs from there.

What if I picked the wrong form?

The notice is defective and the application built on it can be dismissed. There is no fixing it at the hearing. You serve the correct form, wait out the notice period again, and re-file. Check the form against your reason before you send anything.

How many days notice does each form require?

N4 is 14 days, or 7 for a daily or weekly tenancy. N5 is 20 days for a first notice. N12 is 60 days, ending on the last day of the rental period or term. When you mail it, those periods run on top of the five-day deemed-service window.

What proof do I keep that I served the notice?

Keep a dated copy of the exact notice and a mailing confirmation showing the date and the recipient. The mailing date is what the five-day count runs from, so it is the key piece if the tenant disputes service.

Is the N12 address the same as the address I serve the tenant at?

No. You serve the tenant at the rental unit or their last known address. You file the L2 application with the Landlord and Tenant Board at the Board's filing address, which you can find on our LTB mailing directory page.

Where do I confirm the rules for my specific situation?

The Landlord and Tenant Board. This post covers procedure, not legal advice for your case. Tenancy facts vary, and the Board can tell you what applies to yours.

The mechanics are not hard once you know them. Match the form to the reason, calculate the termination date with the five mail days built in, serve it by an allowed method, and hold onto a dated copy plus your mailing confirmation. Do that and your notice stands up. Cut a corner and you are re-serving in a month.

Mailing it is the simplest method available, and you do not need a post office trip to do it.

Mail your tenant notice with PostPal →

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