PEI Landlord Personal Use Eviction: Moving Yourself or Family Into Your Rental

Who Qualifies as "Personal Use"

Section 62 of the Residential Tenancy Act lets an individual landlord terminate a tenancy when, in good faith, the landlord requires the unit for at least one year of residential occupation by:

• The landlord
• The landlord's spouse
• A child, parent, or dependent of the landlord or the landlord's spouse
• A person who provides or will provide care services to one of those people, if the person receiving care resides or will reside in the property or mobile home park

The key word is "genuinely." You must intend, in good faith, to actually have one of these people move in and live there. Using personal use as a pretext to get a higher-paying tenant or to renovate without going through the Form 6 approval process is bad faith — and the penalties are severe.

The Process

Step 1: Complete the approved Form 4B with the tenant's name, rental-unit address, effective date, and landlord details; select the landlord personal-use ground and sign the form. Keep evidence showing who will occupy the unit and the good-faith intention to do so.

Step 2: Serve Form 4B with at least 4 months' notice. The effective date must align with the day before rent is payable — if rent is due the 1st, the notice must expire on the last day of a month.

Step 3: Provide compensation or another rental unit acceptable to the tenant. Compensation is one month's rent plus reasonable moving expenses, due on or before the effective vacate date. For this purpose, reasonable moving expenses are capped at the lesser of actual moving costs or one month's rent.

Step 4: If the tenant files Form 2A within 1 month of receiving the notice, the dispute is handled by the Rental Office. If a hearing is scheduled, you'll need to demonstrate your good-faith intention to occupy.

Step 5: If the tenant doesn't leave or dispute, file Form 2B with the Rental Office. If the tenant has already filed Form 2A, respond in that case instead. After a possession order and the appeal period, you may send the order directly to Sheriff Services; filing it in court is another route.

Compensation or an Acceptable Unit

For personal-use terminations, you must provide either:

• Compensation: one month's rent at the current rate plus reasonable moving expenses, generally capped at the lesser of actual moving costs or one month's rent; or
• Another rental unit that the tenant accepts

Compensation must be provided on or before the vacate date. If it is not, the tenant may apply to the Director; the Act does not say that late payment automatically invalidates the notice.

Bad-Faith Consequences

Section 65 applies to personal-use terminations. If the Rental Office later finds that you didn't actually move in — or moved in briefly and then re-let the unit — the former tenant can apply for:

• Increased rent for a one-year period after vacating, plus reasonable out-of-pocket moving, storage, and similar expenses
• A rent abatement
• An administrative monetary penalty of up to $10,000, or another order the Director considers appropriate

The former tenant must apply within one year after vacating. Section 106 separately provides for a fine of up to $25,000 on summary conviction for a contravention of the Act.

How to Protect Yourself

Document your intention from the start. Keep records showing who is moving in, when, and that the unit is being used as described. The guide's good-faith log is designed for exactly this — tracking occupancy evidence after the termination so that if a former tenant files under Section 65, you have a contemporaneous record.

The Ending a Tenancy in PEI guide walks through the full Section 62 process with a compensation tracker, deemed-service worksheet, and a good-faith documentation template.

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