Residential Tenancies Act New Brunswick: Rent Increase Rules for Landlords

What the Residential Tenancies Act Covers

The Residential Tenancies Act (R.S.N.B. 1975, c. R-10.2) is the single statute governing every residential tenancy in New Brunswick. It applies to apartments, houses, rented rooms, and mobile home sites — regardless of whether the lease is written or oral, fixed-term or periodic. Municipal governments in Moncton, Saint John, and Fredericton have no authority to set their own rent rules. Everything flows from this one provincial law.

For landlords, the Act controls three things about rent increases: how much you can raise rent, how far in advance you must notify the tenant, and what format that notice must take. Get any of those wrong, and a Residential Tenancies Officer can set aside the increase entirely.

The 2024 Amendments That Changed Everything

Bill 3 (S.N.B. 2024, c. 29) came into force on February 1, 2025, and introduced the statutory 3% annual rent cap under Section 11.12. The government announced that the rate will remain 3% for calendar year 2027; the current Act does not state a December 31, 2027 sunset.

Before this, New Brunswick went through two earlier phases. A temporary 3.8% emergency cap ran through 2022. Then the 2023 amendments (S.N.B. 2023, c. 27) removed the percentage cap but set structural rules — the default 12-month frequency limit, the 6-month notice period, and the separate document mandate under Section 11.1.

The 2024 amendments layered the 3% cap on top of those structural rules and added two new mechanisms: the "deemed 3%" provision (an over-cap notice gets automatically scaled back instead of voided) and the above-cap application path for capital expenditures, capped at 9%.

Section 11.1: The Rules That Trip Landlords Up

Section 11.1 contains the notice requirements that cause the most invalidations:

• Separate document rule — the notice must be a standalone document. Combining it with a lease renewal, receipt, or any other notice makes it invalid under s. 11.1(2)(b). If a tenant challenges and the landlord can't prove separation, the officer must set aside the notice.
• 6-month notice period — six full calendar months before the increase takes effect. Notice served mid-month doesn't count that month.
• Default 12-month frequency limit — unless the landlord and tenant agree otherwise in writing, no increase in the first consecutive 12-month period of the tenancy agreement and no more than one increase in any other consecutive 12-month period. A property sale does not reset the tenancy's rent history.

The Three Bodies You Need to Know

The Act's administration splits across three institutions:

New Brunswick Housing Corporation (NBHC) conducts the annual review of the rent cap rate using CPI data, CMHC surveys, and vacancy rates. Results are published by June 1 each year.

Tenant and Landlord Relations Office (TLRO), under Service New Brunswick, is where applications go — both landlord applications for above-cap increases and tenant applications for review.

Residential Tenancies Officers are the decision-makers. Appointed under Section 26, they investigate disputes, approve or deny above-cap applications, and issue binding orders. Their decisions can only be appealed to the Court of King's Bench on questions of law or jurisdiction, within seven days.

Who's Exempt

The Act is broad, but a few narrow categories sit outside it:

• Member-occupied units in housing co-operatives incorporated under the Cooperatives Act (s. 29.1(3))
• Premises developed and financed under the National Housing Act (Canada) and administered by or for a government or its agency (s. 29.1(2))
• Commercial, industrial, and agricultural leases (governed by the Landlord and Tenant Act instead)

The Crown in right of the Province is exempt only from sections 8.2, 8.3, and 8.4 under section 8.5; that provision does not exempt Crown tenancies from the entire Act. Everything else — including oral agreements and week-to-week tenancies — falls under the RTA unless another statutory exclusion applies.

What This Means in Practice

The practical effect of these layered amendments is that, for tenancies governed by Section 11.1, the default frequency limit must be satisfied unless the landlord and tenant agreed otherwise in writing, the increase must be 3% or less (unless you've obtained prior officer approval for up to 9%), and the notice must be a standalone document with specific content fields and six months' notice. Mobile home site increases follow the separate requirements in Section 25.4.

A single missed requirement doesn't just delay the increase — it can void it entirely, forcing you to restart the six-month clock.

For the full step-by-step process, including the notice content requirements, service methods, and what to do if a tenant files a review, see our Rent Increases in New Brunswick guide.

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