Periodic - Tenancy Types - Before - Laws for Landlords in Alberta

Periodic Tenancies

A periodic tenancy occurs when:

a tenant agrees to rent premises without a definite expiry date, and
rent is paid on a periodic basis.

A periodic tenancy occurs until either the landlord or tenant gives notice that the tenancy is ended.

An example of a periodic tenancy would be an agreement to rent property from month-to-month, paying a monthly rent. For example, from the 15th of one month, to the 14th of the next month. There would be no fixed date for when the rental would end.

The Residential Tenancies Act identifies weekly, monthly and yearly tenancies:

weekly periodic tenancy - rent is paid weekly, for example, every Friday.
monthly periodic tenancy - rent is paid monthly, for example, on the 15th of every month.
yearly periodic tenancy - rent is paid yearly, for example, on the 1st of January each year.

The time interval between rent payments is called the rental period. The rental period does not have to relate to a calendar week, month, or year.

For example, a weekly rental period can go from a Tuesday to a Monday, or a monthly rental from the 15th to the 14th of a month.

It is important to know what your rental period will be in order to work out how much notice tenants should be given to end a tenancy or for the rent to be increased.

For example, a monthly rental generally requires at least three months notice by a landlord.

The rental period will begin on the day that rent is payable unless you and the tenant have agreed to something different in the residential tenancy agreement. Depending on the time period in which rent payments are made, the rental period is called the tenancy week, tenancy month or tenancy year.

January 2006