On March 12, 2025, the Government of Yukon tabled the Residential Tenancies Act, Bill 46, in the Yukon Legislative Assembly. This Act will replace the former Residential Landlord Tenant Act.
This legislation introduces updates that seek to create a fair balance between tenants and landlords, ensuring protections for both renters and housing providers.
This Residential Tenancies Act aims to:
- balance the needs of tenants and landlords;
- provide fairness and stability in the rental market;
- maintain a viable rental market; and
- improve clarity and practices.
This Act will help protect people living in rental housing and provide security and clarity for Yukoners who take on the role of providing housing for others. The proposed changes fall into six categories: administrative changes, reasons for ending tenancy, rent control, deposits, mobile homes and roommate tenancies.
These changes were the result of public engagement, research, a review of best practices from other jurisdictions and stakeholder meetings.
The changes to Residential Tenancies Act strike a balance between tenants and landlords, offering protections for people living in the rental market and those providing housing for others. Each change to the legislation has been carefully weighed for the impact it will have on tenants and landlords. The input of over 1,600 Yukoners and a year of research and engagement is represented in this Act and we are pleased to introduce it in the Legislative Assembly.
We listened to Yukoners when they told us that the current Residential Tenancy Act wasn’t working for landlords or tenants. That’s why the Yukon NDP made reviewing it a condition of our agreement with the Liberals. The new act will be clearer for everyone and put in place important protections for tenants permanently, like tying rent increases to inflation and ending no-cause evictions.
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The 2023 Confidence and Supply Agreement committed the Government of Yukon to “initiate a review of the Residential Landlord and Tenant Act by June 2023” and to legislate the elimination of without cause evictions into the Act once the review is complete.
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The Residential Tenancies Act was reviewed over 19 months and included feedback from over 1,600 Yukoners, 18 organizations, and six other governments.
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Substantial changes to the Residential Tenancies Act include the following:
- Additional reasons for ending a tenancy:
- Tenants can give notice to their landlord if the tenant needs to move because they face a safety or security risk or they need to move into long-term care.
- In addition to ending a tenancy if the landlord wants to move into the unit, landlords can give notice to a tenant if the landlord or a purchaser will occupy the rental unit, for renovations or repairs, or for demolition or change to a non-residential use of the rental unit.
- Additional clarity provided to housing agencies on relocating tenants if the housing agency changes eligibility requirements for a unit or group of units and notice periods have been legislated if a tenancy is related to employment.
- A separate section that includes provisions that relate only to a mobile home site tenancy to help distinguish the unique requirements to that kind of rental agreement.
- Additional direction on roommate living situations whether they are a sublet arrangement or someone sharing a house with a homeowner.
- There are also numerous administrative changes that address issues that the RTO have had with administering the Act in the past, modernizing the Act to account for email communication and electronic funds transfer and strengthening the enforcement mechanisms including the administrative penalties sections of the Act.
- Additional reasons for ending a tenancy:
Laura Seeley
Cabinet Communications
867-332-7627
[email protected]
Taylor Harvey
Communications, Community Services
867-332-1237
[email protected]
Brontë Renwick-Shields
Chief of Staff
Yukon NDP Caucus
867-393-7573