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What temperature must a Brampton landlord maintain, and when?

Verified against the linked bylaws on 25 August 2026

The short answer

Brampton's Vital Services By-law 68-2018 defines adequate and suitable heat as a minimum air temperature of 20 degrees Celsius, measured 1.5 metres above floor level and one metre from exterior walls, in all habitable space and any area intended for normal use. Section 6(1) requires it between September 15 and June 1 of the following year — or, unusually, "as ordered by the Director of Enforcement and By-law Services" under section 15 and posted on the City of Brampton website. The season is a default, not a fixed boundary.

Minimum heat
20 °C, September 15 to June 1
Measured
1.5 m above floor level and 1 m from exterior walls, in all habitable space
Season can be varied
The Director of Enforcement may order a different period under s. 15, posted on the City website
Instrument
Vital Services By-law 68-2018 (office consolidation), ss. 5, 6 and 15
Scope
Vital services generally, not heat alone

A season with an override

Section 6(1) requires every landlord to ensure each rental unit "is provided with Adequate and Suitable Heat between the 15th day of September in each year and the first day of June of the following year, or as ordered by the Director of Enforcement and By-law Services pursuant to Section 15 of this By-law and posted on the City of Brampton website".

That override is rare and it matters operationally. In every other municipality on this site the season is fixed in the text; in Brampton a cold spell outside the default window can be brought inside it by an order, and the notice of that order lives on the City's website rather than arriving in your post.

The practical consequence is that a Brampton landlord cannot set the boiler schedule once and forget it. If you operate here, the City's enforcement page is a thing to check in early June and early September rather than a thing to read once.

The measurement is specified precisely

The definition fixes both the number and the method: a minimum air temperature "of twenty (20) degrees Celsius at one and one-half (1.5) metres from above floor level and one (1) metre from exterior walls in all habitable space and in any area intended for normal use".

"Any area intended for normal use" reaches past habitable rooms — a reading taken only in the living room is not the test the bylaw sets.

Section 5 frames the whole instrument: every landlord shall provide vital services for rental units as provided for in the by-law. Heat is one of several obligations in it rather than a standalone rule.

Tyler knows which calls cannot wait

No heat in Brampton in January is a repair obligation, a vital service and a municipal offence at the same time. Tyler files it as an emergency the moment a resident reports it, pages your team, and timestamps every step so the response time is a record rather than a memory.