The rule as it stands
Section 48.1: "A landlord shall compensate a tenant in an amount equal to one month's rent or offer the tenant another rental unit acceptable to the tenant if the landlord gives the tenant a notice of termination of the tenancy under section 48."
Section 48 is the landlord's own-use notice — the unit is required for residential occupation by the landlord, a specified family member, or a person providing care services. The compensation is not a penalty and not a negotiation; it is a condition of the notice being effective.
One month's rent, or a different unit the tenant actually finds acceptable. You do not get to choose the substitute unilaterally.
The 120-day exemption arriving 21 September 2026
e-Laws records that on 21 September 2026, section 48.1 is amended to begin "Subject to subsection (2)", and a new subsection (2) is added by Schedule 12 of the Fighting Delays, Building Faster Act, 2025.
The new subsection removes the compensation requirement where the notice meets three criteria, quoted from the Act: the notice is given on or after the day that provision comes into force; "the date for termination specified in the notice is at least 120 days after the notice is given"; and "the date for termination specified in the notice is the day a period of the tenancy ends or, where the tenancy is for a fixed term, the end of the term".
All three, not any one of them. A 120-day notice that lands mid-period does not qualify, and neither does a notice given before the provision is in force however long the runway.
The practical effect is a choice a landlord did not previously have: pay one month's rent and move on the shorter timeline, or plan four months ahead and keep the month. For anyone who knows well in advance that they need the unit, the second is simply cheaper.
Where these applications go wrong
Good faith is the whole case. Section 48 requires the person named to genuinely require the unit for residential occupation, and the Board tests it. A unit relisted at a higher rent shortly afterwards is the fact pattern that produces the worst outcomes for landlords.
The compensation has to actually be paid, and on time. An unpaid compensation obligation is the kind of defect that ends an application without reaching the merits.
Name the right person and be specific. A notice naming a category rather than an individual invites a dismissal.
This is one of the few areas where the cost of getting it wrong is measured in years rather than months, so it is the clearest case in this whole set for talking to a paralegal or a lawyer before serving anything.