Quick answer
The lease decides. In Ontario the landlord pays the water heater rental unless the tenancy agreement says the tenant does, because the rental contract belongs to the property owner and hot water is a vital service under the Residential Tenancies Act. In practice the charge can land on whoever holds the gas account, so tenants who pay their own Enbridge bill often pay it by default.
Who pays the water heater rental, landlord or tenant, is decided by the tenancy agreement, not by whose name is on the gas bill. The rental contract for the tank is between the property owner and Reliance or Enercare, so the default is that the landlord pays. A tenant pays only where the lease says so. This is general information, not legal advice, and the Landlord and Tenant Board is where disputes get settled.
What the Residential Tenancies Act says about hot water
Hot water is a vital service under Ontario's Residential Tenancies Act: the definition lists hot or cold water, fuel, electricity, gas and, during the prescribed part of the year, heat. Section 21 says a landlord shall not withhold the reasonable supply of a vital service that the landlord is obliged to supply under the tenancy agreement, or deliberately interfere with that supply. The Act also makes the landlord responsible for keeping the unit in a good state of repair. So whoever pays the monthly rental line, a failed tank is the landlord's to get fixed.
The charge itself follows the lease. On the Ontario standard lease, the services and utilities section records who pays for what, and anything beyond that belongs in the additional terms. Where the lease is silent on the water heater rental, a landlord generally cannot add the charge part-way through a tenancy without the tenant agreeing to it.
How tenants end up paying the rental by default
In a common Ontario setup, the tenant of a whole house opens the Enbridge Gas account in their own name. Where the rental company bills through the gas bill, the water heater charge arrives on that account with it, and the tenant pays it without anyone having decided they should. Where the rental company bills separately, the statement keeps going to the landlord. Neither billing route changes what the lease says.
- Read the utilities section of the lease and any additional terms for the words water heater, hot water tank or rental equipment.
- Look at the gas bill for a charge from a company other than Enbridge.
- If the lease does not assign the charge to you, raise it with the landlord in writing, and keep paying the gas itself while it is sorted out.
- Do not arrange a removal or a buyout yourself. Only the account holder can get a return authorisation, and the tank belongs to the rental company.
- With no hot water, call the landlord first; whether a tenant can call their own HVAC company covers what happens if there is no response.
Houses with more than one unit
A converted pre-war house in Hamilton, or a 1960s bungalow with a basement apartment in Burlington or Mississauga, may have one shared tank on the landlord's gas meter or a tank per unit on separate meters. With a shared tank, the rental sits on the landlord's account and is part of the rent. With separate meters, each account holder may see a rental line, and the lease for each unit should say who carries it. Sorting that out before a new tenancy starts is far easier than after the first bill arrives.
The landlord's arithmetic: years of rental against one owned tank
For a landlord the question is less who pays this month and more what the tank costs over the years the property is held. The published figures:
- Rental: $25–$45 a month, roughly $4,500–$8,000 over 15 years, with the rate rising under the agreement's increase clause.
- Owned tank-for-tank replacement: $1,200–$2,500 installed, once.
- Repairs on an owned tank: $150–$800 when needed, after a $90–$150 diagnostic visit that is credited to the repair.
What the rental buys is service: the rental company repairs or replaces its own tank, and the landlord makes one phone call. An owned tank shifts that to the landlord, who needs a contractor to call when a tenant reports no hot water. A landlord who passes the charge to tenants in the lease has less reason to switch, but an owned tank also removes a line tenants question and a contract that follows the house at sale. Who pays for repairs on rented equipment and a landlord's HVAC responsibilities in Ontario go further.
ZK Mechanical replaces rental tanks with owned ones for landlords and owner-occupiers across Burlington, Oakville, Hamilton, Mississauga and Brampton. Tell us whether the unit is tenanted, so the visit can be booked around the 24 hours' written notice a landlord has to give before entering. Start with water heater rental buyout and replacement, or send us the address and the name on the tank's sticker for a written price.