How to Serve a Rent Increase Notice in New Brunswick

The Three Permitted Service Methods

New Brunswick's Residential Tenancies Act provides for personal delivery, ordinary mail to the tenant at the premises, or electronic transmission to the electronic address given in the lease. If personal delivery cannot be made because the tenant is absent or evading service, Section 25(7) allows additional methods, including placing the notice under the door or delivering it to an adult who apparently resides with the tenant.

Personal Delivery

Hand the document directly to the tenant. This is the cleanest method — effective immediately on the day of hand-off, no deemed receipt delays. If personal delivery cannot be made because the tenant is absent or evading service, Section 25(7) permits delivery to an adult who apparently resides with the tenant.

For joint tenancies, serving one primary named tenant on the lease constitutes service on all tenants in the unit.

Ordinary Mail

Send the notice by ordinary mail to the tenant at the address of the premises. Under Section 25(5), it is deemed served on the third day after mailing.

The timing matters for your six-month notice period. If you mail the notice on January 25, it is deemed served on January 28, before the February 1 start of the first month in the notice period.

Email

Electronic transmission to the tenant's electronic address given in the lease is a permitted service method under Section 25(1)(c)(ii).

An electronic transmission is deemed served on the date it is sent under Section 25(6).

Why Proof of Service Matters

When a tenant files an Application for Assistance with the Tenant and Landlord Relations Office, the officer's first question is whether the notice was properly served. If you can't prove service, the rest of the notice is irrelevant — the increase fails.

The burden of proof sits with the landlord. "I gave it to them" isn't enough without documentation.

Building a Proof-of-Service File

For each rent increase notice, keep a dedicated file with:

Personal delivery:

• Date and time of delivery
• Name of the person who received the document
• A witness statement if someone else was present
• The tenant's signed acknowledgement of receipt (if you can get one — it's not required, but it's bulletproof)

Ordinary mail:

• A mailing receipt, if available
• The mailing date (to calculate deemed service)

Electronic transmission:

• A copy of the sent message with the recipient address and date
• The electronic address given in the lease
• A read receipt or delivery confirmation, if available

Common Service Mistakes

Failing to record the mailing date. Ordinary mail is an approved service method and is deemed served on the third day after mailing. Record the mailing date so you can calculate the deemed service date.

Texting a photo of the notice. Text messages are not an approved service method under the Act unless the tenant has consented to electronic service, and even then, the legal standing of SMS versus email is untested.

Serving only the property manager, not the tenant. If you use a property management agent to deliver the notice, the agent's authority to act on your behalf must be documented. The notice itself can be signed by the agent.

Not recording the date. Service on January 31 versus February 1 can shift your effective date by an entire month due to the full-calendar-month counting rule.

Joint Tenancies and Corporate Agents

For units with multiple named tenants, serving one primary tenant is sufficient — you don't need to deliver separate copies to each person on the lease.

If a property management company delivers the notice on your behalf, their signature satisfies the statutory requirement as long as their authority is documented (typically through the management agreement).

For the full notice procedure — including content requirements, the separate document rule, timeline calculations, and what to do when a tenant files a review — see our Rent Increases in New Brunswick guide.

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