The Real Difference Between an N4 and an N5 Notice

The core distinction: money vs. conduct

An N4 and an N5 are both notices of termination a landlord can serve on a tenant, both lead toward the same place — an eviction application at the Landlord and Tenant Board — and both get handed to confused tenants and landlords alike who assume they work more or less the same way. They don't. An N4 exists to address one specific problem: rent that is owed and unpaid. An N5 exists to address a completely different category of problem: conduct — damage to the unit, interference with the landlord or other tenants, or overcrowding beyond what the unit is meant to hold. Understanding that split is the fastest way to understand nearly everything else about how the two notices behave.

What an N4 does

An N4, Notice to End a Tenancy Early for Non-payment of Rent, is served when a tenant has not paid rent that is due. It sets out the amount owed and gives the tenant a minimum number of days — generally 14 days for most tenancies, or 7 days for a daily or weekly tenancy — to pay the full amount before the landlord can apply to the LTB to end the tenancy on that basis. The notice period is a floor, not a suggestion the landlord can shorten.

The defining feature of an N4 is that it is entirely curable by payment. If a tenant pays every dollar of rent actually owed — not a partial amount, and generally including rent that becomes due while the notice period is running — before the matter is resolved, the notice generally cannot be used as the basis to evict, because the underlying problem it was meant to address no longer exists. For a full breakdown of how the notice period, amounts owed, and payment timing work, see our detailed guide to the N4 notice for unpaid rent.

What an N5 does

An N5, Notice to End a Tenancy Early for Interfering with Others, Damage or Overcrowding, covers a cluster of conduct-based problems rather than a single one: substantially interfering with the reasonable enjoyment of the landlord or other tenants, willfully or negligently causing undue damage to the unit or property, or having more people living in the unit than the number permitted by law or municipal bylaw. Unlike an N4, there is no dollar figure attached — the notice describes the conduct and, in most cases, gives the tenant a chance to remedy it.

For a first occurrence of most N5 grounds, the notice generally gives the tenant 7 days to correct the problem — for example, stopping the interfering behaviour or repairing the damage — and if that happens within the window, the notice is generally void and cannot be used to evict. If the same type of problem happens again within six months of a first N5, a second N5 for that repeat conduct generally cannot be voided by correcting the behaviour, and the landlord can proceed more directly toward an application. Our guide to the N5 notice covers each ground in more depth, including how overcrowding and interference are each evaluated.

Why "voidable" means different things for each

This is where a lot of the confusion sets in. Both notices can, in a sense, be "cancelled" by the tenant's own action — but the mechanics differ in a way that matters. An N4 is void, full stop, once the entire rent owed is paid, no matter how many times rent has previously fallen behind. There is no "first offence" limitation built into the N4 itself, because it's aimed at a debt, not a pattern of behaviour, though a landlord's broader history with a tenant can still matter to an adjudicator weighing an application.

An N5, by contrast, builds the "second chance" logic directly into the form for most grounds, but only for a first occurrence of that particular type of conduct within a six-month window. This is a meaningful structural difference: paying rent is a one-time cure available every time; correcting conduct after a warning is generally a courtesy the RTA extends once per issue in a six-month period, not indefinitely.

Where people mix them up

A few patterns come up often. Tenants sometimes receive an N5 for property damage and try to respond by offering a partial rent payment, thinking any notice can be resolved with money — that isn't what an N5 is asking for, and paying an unrelated amount doesn't address the conduct at issue. On the other side, landlords occasionally try to fold both unpaid rent and a conduct complaint into a single notice or conflate the two timelines, which can create problems if the matter proceeds to a hearing and the notice doesn't cleanly match the ground being relied on. Because each notice has its own required form, information, and timeline under the RTA, using the correct one — and only for the problem it's designed to address — matters more than it might seem at first glance.

What happens after either notice expires

If the notice period passes without the rent being paid (N4) or the conduct being corrected where that option applies (N5), the landlord may file an application with the LTB to end the tenancy and evict the tenant. Filing the application does not end the tenancy by itself — a hearing is generally scheduled where both sides can present their case, and only a Board order can actually terminate the tenancy and authorize eviction. Even after an order is issued, physical eviction can only be carried out by the Sheriff's office, never by the landlord directly.

Figuring out which one applies to a situation

In practice, the fastest way to sort out which notice fits a situation is to ask what the underlying problem actually is. If it's a shortfall in rent, however it came about, that's the N4's territory, and the remedy is paying what's owed. If it's about something happening in or around the unit — noise, damage, too many occupants — that's N5 territory, and the remedy (where available) is stopping or fixing the behaviour. Tenants and landlords navigating either notice, or trying to understand how it fits into a broader eviction process, may also find our tenant guides and landlord guides useful for the practical steps involved on each side, and our glossary useful for quick definitions of the terms used throughout.

What to do in the first few days after receiving either notice

For a tenant who receives an N4, the first move is usually arithmetic: confirm exactly how much is actually owed against the landlord's own records, and work out whether it can be paid in full before the termination date. Partial payment generally doesn't void the notice, so if full payment isn't realistic in the time available, it's worth contacting the landlord directly to see whether a payment arrangement is possible, while also preparing for the possibility that an L1 application follows. Keeping receipts or e-transfer confirmations for every payment made, even partial ones, matters if the matter proceeds to a hearing.

For a tenant who receives an N5, the calculus is different because money isn't the fix. The first question is whether this is a first occurrence of that particular conduct within the past six months — if so, there's a real window to correct the behaviour and potentially void the notice entirely. That might mean addressing a noise complaint directly with the people involved, repairing minor damage promptly, or resolving an overcrowding issue before the seven-day window closes. Documenting what was done to fix the problem, with dates, is worth doing even if it feels unnecessary, since it becomes the evidence that the notice was properly voided if the issue is ever revisited.

Landlords serving either notice benefit from the same basic discipline: serve the correct notice for the correct problem, keep a copy of exactly what was served and when, and avoid the temptation to combine unrelated issues into a single notice. A notice that cleanly matches one ground, supported by consistent records, tends to hold up far better at a hearing than one that tries to do too much at once.

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Reviewed by Ryan J. Manilla, BA, JD

Legal Reviewer · Landlord Tenant Ontario