Selling a House With Tenants in Saskatchewan and Manitoba

Owning a rental house and wanting out of it are two different problems, and they collide badly when there is a tenant living in the property. Sellers call us assuming they can hand the tenant a notice, get the place empty, and then list it. In Saskatchewan and Manitoba that is not how it works, and getting it wrong can cost you the sale.

Here is what the rules actually say.

You cannot evict a tenant just because you want to sell

Start here, because it is the single most common misunderstanding. Listing a property for sale is not a legal ground for ending a tenancy in either province. Deciding you want to sell is not a ground either. Neither is having a realtor tell you the house shows better empty.

What both provinces allow, under fairly specific conditions, is ending a tenancy because a buyer who has actually committed to the purchase intends to move in. That is a narrower thing than most sellers expect, and the order of operations matters. You need the deal first, then the notice. Not the other way around.

Saskatchewan: what section 60 requires

Under The Residential Tenancies Act, 2006, a landlord can end a periodic tenancy because of a sale only if three things are all true at once.

First, the landlord has entered into an agreement in good faith to sell the rental unit. Second, all the conditions on which the sale depends have been satisfied. Third, the purchaser has asked the landlord, in writing, to give notice to end the tenancy because the purchaser or a close family member or friend of the purchaser intends in good faith to occupy the unit.

All three. A conditional offer does not get you there. A buyer who verbally mentions they might move in does not get you there. You need a firm deal with the conditions waived, and you need the buyer’s written request in hand.

The Act also defines purchaser narrowly. It means a purchaser who has agreed to buy at least a one-half interest in the rental unit.

How much notice

For a purchaser-occupancy termination, the notice is effective on a date not earlier than one month after the tenant receives it. That is shorter than most other section 60 grounds. If you were ending the tenancy because you wanted to move in yourself, or to renovate, the standard is two months rather than one.

The effective date also has to land on the day before the day rent is payable. You cannot pick an arbitrary date in the middle of a rental period. If you state a date that does not comply, the Act automatically deems it changed to the earliest date that does, which usually means the tenant stays longer than you planned.

What the tenant can do back

The tenant has 15 days from receiving the notice to dispute it in writing. If they do not dispute within that window, they are deemed to have accepted that the tenancy ends on the effective date and they must vacate.

The tenant can also leave early. After receiving a section 60 notice, they can give you at least 10 days’ written notice and end the tenancy sooner, paying only the proportion of rent up to their own effective date.

And there is a compensation provision. A tenant can apply for an order for compensation from the landlord, or from the purchaser, for losses resulting from a section 60 notice. If the stated reason turns out not to have been genuine, that becomes a real exposure for whoever made the claim.

Fixed-term leases are a different story

Everything above applies to periodic tenancies, meaning week to week or month to month. If your tenant is on a fixed-term lease, you cannot end it early on sale grounds. The lease runs to its end date.

Separately, Saskatchewan requires that at least two months before a fixed-term tenancy ends, the landlord notify the tenant of their intentions about renewal, on the approved form. The tenant then has one month from that notice to confirm in writing that they accept the renewed terms. Miss that two month notice and you have created a problem for yourself that has nothing to do with the sale.

Showings

You can show the unit to a prospective purchaser, but you need to give the tenant 24 hours’ notice or get their consent. A tenant who feels ambushed by showings is a tenant who becomes difficult about everything else.

Manitoba: the vacancy rate rule nobody expects

Manitoba gets to a similar place by a different road, and it has one wrinkle that catches almost every out-of-province seller.

The basic conditions look familiar. The purchaser has to ask the landlord in writing to give the tenant notice, because the purchaser plans to occupy the unit or plans to have a spouse, adult child or stepchild, parent, mother-in-law or father-in-law move in. And all the conditions for sale have to be finalized, meaning the purchaser has their financing.

Here is the wrinkle. For a month-to-month tenancy with no school-age children in the unit, the notice period depends on the vacancy rate in the area where the property sits. If the vacancy rate is 3 percent or higher, one month’s notice. If it is below 3 percent, three months’ notice.

The vacancy rate comes from the most recent fall issue of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation Rental Market Report, using the average private apartment vacancy rate across all bedroom types for your area. Winnipeg, Brandon, Portage la Prairie, Steinbach, Thompson and rural Manitoba are each measured separately. So the same notice can be legal at one month in one part of the province and require three months in another, in the same year.

If the tenancy agreement specifies an end date, it is three months regardless of vacancy rate. For a fixed-term agreement, the landlord has to give notice that they will not renew at least three months before the agreement ends. And if you are renting a mobile home site rather than a dwelling, the notice is at least six months.

School-age children change the timeline

If there are school-age children living in the unit, meaning kindergarten through Grade 12, the tenant can stay until the end of the school year, as long as the children attend a school that is conveniently accessible to the rental unit and there are no violations of the tenancy agreement. This applies to both month-to-month and fixed-term agreements.

Practically, a December sale of a house with school-age kids in it can mean the tenant is there until the end of June. Plan the closing date around that, not around what you hoped.

You pay the moving costs

When a Manitoba landlord ends a tenancy because the property or unit has been sold, the landlord is responsible for paying the tenant’s reasonable moving expenses up to a maximum of $500. Budget for it.

Manitoba also requires the prescribed form. A notice written on your own letterhead is not valid, no matter how clearly worded it is. There is more for landlords and sellers in our resources.

The option most sellers skip

All of the above assumes you need the house empty. Often you do not.

A tenanted property with a paying tenant, a signed lease and a clean payment history is an asset to an investor, not a problem. You are not discounting for vacancy, you are not covering carrying costs through an empty period, and you are not managing a notice process that a tenant might dispute.

The catch is that selling tenanted narrows your buyer pool. Most owner-occupiers will not touch it. That is where a direct buyer is usually the cleanest route, because we buy properties with tenants in place and we do not need you to deliver a vacant house on closing day.

If you have a tenant and a house you want out of, you can get a cash offer today and we will look at the property as it actually is, lease and all. You can also read how we buy houses if you want the process laid out first, and our company page tells you who you would be dealing with.

We buy across Saskatchewan and Manitoba. If you want the common questions answered first, start with our FAQ, or contact us and we will get back to you. Call us at (431) 340-9623.

This post is general information, not legal advice. Residential tenancy rules change and every tenancy is different, so check with the Office of Residential Tenancies in Saskatchewan, the Residential Tenancies Branch in Manitoba, or a lawyer before you serve anything.

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