Almost every repair argument in a Nova Scotia tenancy is the same argument: whose problem is this. The Act answers it in two short paragraphs that sit next to each other, and the answer is more one-sided than most landlords expect.
The two conditions that decide it
Statutory Condition 1, Condition of Premises:
The landlord shall keep the premises in a good state of repair and fit for habitation during the tenancy and shall comply with any statutory enactment or law respecting standards of health, safety or housing.
Statutory Condition 4, Obligation of the Tenant:
The tenant is responsible for the ordinary cleanliness of the interior of the premises and for the repair of damage caused by wilful or negligent act of the tenant or of any person whom the tenant permits on the premises.
Both live in section 9(1) of the Residential Tenancies Act (consolidated to 3 October 2025), which applies them "notwithstanding any lease, agreement, waiver, declaration or other statement to the contrary".
Read them together and the structure is clear. The landlord's duty is general; the tenant's is specific and narrow. SC1 covers the premises. SC4 carves out exactly two things: ordinary cleanliness, and damage from a wilful or negligent act.
The word that decides most disputes
Wilful or negligent. Not "caused by". Not "occurred during the tenancy". Not "the tenant was the last person to touch it".
That distinction does most of the work, because the largest category of rental repair is neither wilful nor negligent. It is ordinary wear. Hinges loosen, seals perish, taps drip, paint chalks, carpet flattens in a traffic lane. None of that is a wilful or negligent act, so none of it reaches SC4, and it falls back to SC1 by default.
The practical test to apply before you send a bill:
- Is there an act you can point to? Not a condition, an act.
- Was that act wilful or negligent? Careless, reckless or deliberate, as opposed to normal use.
- Was it the tenant, or someone they permitted on the premises? SC4 reaches guests and invitees, which is often the answer with door and wall damage.
If you cannot answer all three, the repair is yours.
Who pays, worked through
| The situation | Who pays | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Tap washer perishes, tap drips | Landlord | Ordinary wear, no act |
| Tenant's guest puts an elbow through the drywall | Tenant | Wilful or negligent act of a person the tenant permitted on the premises (SC4) |
| Carpet worn flat in the hallway after four years | Landlord | Ordinary wear |
| Carpet burned by a dropped cigarette | Tenant | Negligent act |
| Furnace fails in January | Landlord | SC1, plus M-200 s.16 |
| Tenant never cleaned the unit, grease damage in the kitchen | Tenant | Fails the ordinary-cleanliness limb of SC4 |
| Window seals fail, condensation between panes | Landlord | Ordinary wear; s.12(1) requires windows to be maintained in good repair |
| Toilet blocked by something that should not have been flushed | Tenant | Negligent act |
| Mould from a roof leak | Landlord | SC1 (good repair, fit for habitation); s.11(3) separately requires maintenance to prevent damp damage to surfaces |
| Nail holes from hanging pictures | Landlord, in most cases | Arguably ordinary wear, and SC4 reaches only wilful or negligent damage |
That last row is the one landlords push back on hardest. A lease may set reasonable rules about how a unit is used, so a rule about fixings is not automatically void. But charging for the holes is a separate question, and SC4 is where that has to land. Ordinary picture hanging is a stretch to call wilful or negligent damage.
The bridge into Halifax: M-200
Here is the part most owners miss, and it is the most useful thing on this page.
Statutory Condition 1 has a third limb. Beyond "good state of repair" and "fit for habitation", it requires the landlord to "comply with any statutory enactment or law respecting standards of health, safety or housing."
In Halifax, there is such a law: By-law M-200, Standards for Residential Occupancies. So M-200's minimum standards are not merely a municipal matter you might hear from an inspector.
The chain is worth setting out, because it is what makes the point more than rhetorical. Section 9(1) deems the statutory conditions to be an agreement between landlord and tenant. SC1 requires compliance with any law respecting standards of health, safety or housing. M-200 is such a law. And section 13(1)(b) of the Act lets a person apply to the Director "alleging a breach of a lease or a contravention of this Act", with the Director as "the exclusive authority, at first instance". So a failure to meet an M-200 standard is not only an HRM matter: it is capable of being run as a breach of the tenancy agreement.
M-200 is explicit that it sets a floor, not a target: "The standards of this By-law are minimum standards." Section 4 puts the duty on the owner, and section 5 adds that, notwithstanding section 4, the owner must maintain the building to at least the standard to which it was required to be built, unless the by-law specifies otherwise.
The numbers owners ask about most:
| What | The standard | Section |
|---|---|---|
| Heat | Heating facilities capable of maintaining 21°C, obtainable throughout all occupied areas | s.16 |
| Hot water | Not less than 43°C, not more than 60°C, at bathroom, kitchen and laundry fixtures | s.17(2)(b) |
| Pests | Buildings kept free of rodents and insects at all times | s.11(1) |
| Damp | Maintenance to prevent significant visual damage to surfaces from dampness | s.11(3) |
| Water supply | Potable running water from an approved source | s.17(1) |
| Bathroom fixtures | Water flows and drains free from obstruction | s.23A |
| Kitchen | Sink with hot and cold running water, surfaces impervious to grease and water, storage of at least 0.23 m³ | s.24(1) |
| Smoke alarms | Every dwelling unit equipped. On each storey including basements, in each sleeping room, and between the sleeping rooms and the rest of the unit; interconnected where more than one is required | s.24A(1), (3), (4) |
| CO alarms | All residential occupancies equipped, conforming to the section, with placement rules where a fuel-burning appliance or attached garage is present | s.24A(8) to (11) |
| Sleeping rooms | Egress window meeting Building Code requirements, or an exterior exit. One of five tests in s.25, which also sets floor area, ceiling height and ventilation | s.25(bb) |
Two notes on the heating standard, because it is the most misread line in the by-law. It speaks to facilities capable of maintaining 21°C, and it says throughout all occupied areas, which is what catches a converted space heated by a system that was never sized for it.
The sleeping-room row is the one that most often costs an owner a bedroom, and it has its own guide: egress windows and what M-200 requires of a Halifax bedroom works through all five tests in s.25 and the exterior-exit alternative most owners never hear about.
Section 23 is repealed. The live bathroom provision is section 23A. Guidance still citing section 23 for bathrooms is out of date.
There is also a scheduled-maintenance regime in section 28D, which requires a system of regular maintenance and inspection "as required in the Nova Scotia Fire Code or as listed below, whichever is more stringent": dryer ducts and smoke alarms at least every 12 months, chimneys and flues at least every 12 months and after any chimney fire, fire extinguishers and emergency lighting monthly, and an annual check of every suite to confirm alarms are installed and correctly located. Our registration walkthrough covers that alongside the R-400 maintenance plan and links HRM's own plan template, and the HRM rental registry guide covers the by-law duties that sit behind it.
Ignoring it has a price, and the fine is the smaller half of it.
Section 40(1a) makes it an offence to violate a provision of the by-law, to fail to do anything it requires, to permit a violation, or to obstruct an inspector. Note the first of those: the offence is breaching the by-law itself, not merely disobeying an Order. Under section 40(2) the penalty on summary conviction is not less than $150 and not more than $10,000 for a first offence, not less than $250 for a second, and higher minimums after that, with imprisonment of up to two months in default of payment.
The part owners underrate sits in sections 37 and 38. Where HRM causes work to be done under the by-law, the owner is fully responsible for the cost with interest, and that cost becomes a first lien on the property. A fine is an expense; a lien is an encumbrance on title.
The clauses that cannot move the line
Because SC1 and SC4 are statutory conditions, a lease term that reallocates repair does not operate. The common ones:
- "The tenant is responsible for any repair under $100." Contradicts SC1 and SC4 both.
- "The tenant accepts the premises in their current condition." Nova Scotia's SC1 runs during the tenancy, so an acceptance clause does not discharge it going forward.
- "The tenant shall maintain the heating system." SC1 plus M-200 s.16.
- "The tenant is responsible for pest treatment." M-200 s.11(1) requires buildings to be kept free of rodents and insects at all times, and s.4 puts that duty on the owner.
We cover the general rule, and the four-part test a landlord's rule has to pass, in lease clauses that don't mean anything in Nova Scotia.
One caution in the other direction, because this cluster exists to be accurate rather than to take a side: none of this makes the tenant blameless. SC4 is real. Damage from a wilful or negligent act is chargeable, the tenant's guests count, and a failure of ordinary cleanliness is a breach the tenant owns. The point is that you have to be able to name the act.
What this means operationally
The owners who lose these arguments are rarely the ones who did not know the rule. They are the ones who could not show what happened.
- Record condition at the start and end. The province publishes a Rental Unit Condition Report for exactly this. Use theirs.
- Log every report and every response, with dates. SC1 is a continuing duty, so "how long did it take you" is a question you should be able to answer with a record instead of a memory.
- Deal with the M-200 items on a schedule, not on complaint. Section 28D is written as a maintenance system for a reason, and an owner who runs one has a defence that an owner who reacts does not.
- Do not bill without naming the act. If your notice to the tenant cannot complete the sentence "this was caused by your wilful or negligent act of ...", it will not survive.
If you want the paperwork rather than the reasoning, we publish a free Repair Responsibility pack: the three-part test with the worked allocations, the M-200 standards with their section numbers, the s.28D schedule, a dated repair log, and a chargeback worksheet that makes you name the act before you bill.
That is how we run maintenance on the units we manage: scheduled M-200 items, a dated log of every request and response, and repairs charged back only where SC4 actually reaches. We also do not mark up maintenance, so the invoice you see is the invoice the trade issued, which removes the other argument owners have with managers about repairs.
If you would rather not run that yourself, talk to us about managing the property, or read how we handle maintenance coordination.
Sources: Residential Tenancies Act, R.S.N.S. 1989, c. 401, sections 9(1) (Statutory Conditions 1 and 4) and 13(1)(b), consolidated to 3 October 2025. Halifax Regional Municipality By-law M-200, Standards for Residential Occupancies, effective 23 July 2016 and amended to By-law M-202, effective 15 April 2023: sections 4, 5, 11, 12, 16, 17, 23A, 24, 24A, 25, 28D, 37, 38 and 40. Every provision cited here was read from the Act and the by-law themselves rather than from a summary. General information for Halifax and HRM landlords, not legal advice. Where a repair is in dispute, read the section itself and get advice.
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Frequently asked questions
Who pays for repairs in a Nova Scotia rental?
The landlord, unless the damage was caused by the tenant's wilful or negligent act. Statutory Condition 1 requires the landlord to keep the premises in a good state of repair and fit for habitation during the tenancy. Statutory Condition 4 limits the tenant's responsibility to the ordinary cleanliness of the interior and to the repair of damage caused by the wilful or negligent act of the tenant or of any person the tenant permits on the premises. Ordinary wear and tear is neither wilful nor negligent, so it sits with the landlord by default.
What temperature does a landlord have to heat a Halifax apartment to?
By-law M-200, section 16, requires every building to be equipped with suitable heating facilities for maintaining an indoor ambient temperature of 21 degrees Celsius, obtainable throughout all occupied areas. Note what it addresses: the building must be capable of reaching 21 degrees everywhere occupied. Halifax also sets hot water at not less than 43 degrees Celsius and not more than 60 degrees under section 17(2)(b).
Can a lease make the tenant pay for repairs under a set amount?
Not in a way that binds them. A clause charging the tenant for any repair under $100 regardless of fault contradicts Statutory Condition 1, which puts repair on the landlord, and Statutory Condition 4, which reaches the tenant only for wilful or negligent damage. Section 9(1) applies the statutory conditions notwithstanding any lease, agreement, waiver, declaration or other statement to the contrary, so the tenant's signature does not save the clause. The tenant still pays for damage they actually cause.
Is a landlord responsible for pests in Halifax?
By-law M-200, section 11(1), says buildings shall be kept free of rodents and insects at all times, and section 11(2) requires removal methods to comply with the Pest Control Products Act. That duty sits on the owner under section 4 and is not conditional on how the infestation started. Where a tenant's wilful or negligent act caused it, Statutory Condition 4 can put the cost of resulting damage on the tenant, but the obligation to deal with the infestation itself remains the owner's.
Does By-law M-200 apply to older Halifax buildings?
Yes. Section 4 requires the owner to maintain the building to the standards in the by-law, and section 5 adds that, notwithstanding section 4, the owner must maintain it to at least the standard to which it was required to be built, unless the by-law specifies otherwise. The by-law also states plainly that its standards are minimum standards. Where a section sets a specific standard, as section 25 does for sleeping rooms, how it applies to a pre-existing feature is a judgment for an HRM Building Official, and that call is free through 311.
What happens if a Halifax landlord ignores M-200?
It is an offence. A person who commits an offence under By-law M-200 is liable on summary conviction to a penalty of not less than $150 and not more than $10,000 for a first offence, not less than $250 and not more than $10,000 for a second, and higher minimums after that, with imprisonment of up to two months in default of payment. Separately, section 13(1)(b) of the Residential Tenancies Act lets a person apply to the Director alleging a breach of a lease or a contravention of the Act, and because section 9(1) deems Statutory Condition 1 to be a term of the agreement, a failure to meet an M-200 standard can be run that way too.