- What is Form N9?
- The notice a tenant gives to end their own tenancy. It is the one N-form in the series a landlord does not serve — a landlord who sends an N9 has sent the tenant a form for the tenant to fill in, which is a common and confusing mistake.
- How much notice must a tenant give?
- At least 60 days for a monthly tenancy, ending at the end of a monthly rental period. At least 28 days for a daily or weekly tenancy, ending at the end of a weekly rental period. For a fixed-term lease, at least 60 days, and no earlier than the last day of the lease.
- Can a tenant take back an N9?
- Not unilaterally. Once given, an N9 can generally only be undone if the landlord agrees. A tenant who signs one under pressure has done something difficult to reverse, which is why a landlord pressing for one is on dangerous ground.
It is the tenant's form, and a landlord cannot serve it
Every other form in the N-series runs from landlord to tenant. N9 runs the other way: it is how a tenant gives notice that they are leaving. A landlord who wants to end a tenancy needs N4, N5, N8, N12 or N13 depending on the reason — never N9.
The confusion is understandable and worth naming, because it produces two distinct errors. One is a landlord sending an N9 expecting it to do something, which it does not. The other is more serious: pressing a tenant to sign one instead of serving the notice the situation actually calls for. That is not a shortcut around the N12 compensation rules, and the Board is alert to it.
The notice periods
- Monthly tenancy — at least 60 days, terminating at the end of a monthly rental period.
- Daily or weekly tenancy — at least 28 days, terminating at the end of a weekly rental period.
- Fixed-term lease — at least 60 days, and the termination date can be no earlier than the last day of the lease.
What a landlord should do on receiving one
Check the date before you rely on it. A tenant's N9 with a termination date that does not satisfy the notice period or does not fall at the end of a rental period is defective, and a landlord who has already re-let the unit from that date has a problem the tenant created and the landlord now owns.
If the tenant does not move out on the date in their own N9, the notice does not evict them either. The landlord's route is an L3 application to the Board — the tenancy still ends by order, not by the tenant's letter.
Direct PMS records the notice date and the termination date against the tenancy, so a unit coming vacant in sixty days appears on the calendar rather than in someone's inbox.
Tenancies in Direct PMS →BC moved short-term rental regulation from the municipality to the province: a principal-residence requirement in most communities, a provincial registry, and a duty on the platforms to enforce both.
Alberta is the loosest short-term rental regime of the four big provinces — no provincial licence, no principal-residence test — which puts the whole of the compliance burden on the city and the tax.
Quebec put the enforcement duty on the platforms: a listing without a valid registration number is one the platform is not allowed to publish, and the fines for publishing it anyway are aimed at the platform as much as the host.
La France superpose trois régimes : la déclaration, qui est nationale ; le plafond de nuitées, qui dépend de la commune ; et le changement d'usage, qui ne concerne que les logements qui ne sont pas votre résidence principale.