Periodic - Tenancy Types - Moving In - Laws for Tenants in Alberta

Periodic Tenancy

A periodic tenancy occurs when:

you agree to rent premises without a definite expiry date;
until either the landlord or tenant gives notice that the tenancy is ended; and
rent is paid on a periodic basis.

An example of a periodic tenancy would be an agreement to rent property from month to month, paying a monthly rent. There would be no fixed date for when the rental would end. For example, you rent from the 15th of one month, to the 14th of the next month.

The Residential Tenancies Act identifies weekly, monthly and yearly tenancies:

weekly periodic tenancy - you have agreed to pay rent weekly, e.g. every Friday.
monthly periodic tenancy - you have agreed to pay rent monthly, e.g. on the 15th of every month.
yearly periodic tenancy - you pay rent yearly, e.g. on the 1st of January each year.

The time interval between rent payments is called the rental period. The rental period does not have to relate to a calendar week, month, or year.

For example, a weekly rental period can go from a Tuesday to a Monday, a monthly rental from the 15th to the 14th of a month.

It is important to know what your rental period is in order to work out how much notice you should be given to end a tenancy or, for the rent to be increased.

For example, a monthly rental generally requires at least three months notice by a landlord.

The rental period will begin on the day that rent is payable unless you and the landlord have agreed to something different in the residential tenancy agreement. Depending on the time period in which you make your rent payments, the rental period is called the tenancy week, tenancy month or tenancy year.

May 2005