British Columbia Residential Tenancy Agreement (Form RTB-1)

The official British Columbia form

The document is the Residential Tenancy Agreement, form RTB-1, made under the Residential Tenancy Act and administered by the Residential Tenancy Branch. You can open the official form the government publishes and compare it against what ProperLease produces.

Disputes about the tenancy go to the Residential Tenancy Branch, and its questions turn on dates and documents. That is the practical reason to keep the signed lease, the rent ledger and anything you served in one place rather than across a drawer and an inbox.

Security deposits in British Columbia

What you may hold as a deposit in British Columbia, how it has to be held, and when it comes back are set by the Residential Tenancy Act and enforced by the Residential Tenancy Branch.

We are not going to paraphrase those limits here. A deposit cap or a return deadline stated slightly wrong on a page like this is worse than not stating it at all, and our wording for British Columbia has not been through legal review yet. Read it at the source, or ask a lawyer, before you decide what to collect.

Whatever you are entitled to hold, ProperLease tracks it separately from rent, as money you owe back rather than as rental income, so the balance at move-out is a figure on the record rather than a reconstruction. See security deposits: hold and return for how to run one properly, and the help centre for how deposits work in the app.

What a lease in British Columbia must cover

Every residential tenancy agreement, wherever it is, has to settle the same short list of questions. Leave one out and it becomes the thing you argue about later.

• The full legal names of every landlord and every tenant, and an address at which the landlord can be served with notices.
• The address of the rental unit, including the unit number, and what comes with it: parking, storage, appliances, yard.
• The rent: how much, what period it covers, the day it is due, and how it is to be paid.
• The term: whether the tenancy is fixed or periodic, when it starts, when it ends, and what happens when it does.
• Which utilities and services the landlord pays for and which the tenant pays for, written down rather than assumed.
• The deposit: how much is held, what it may lawfully be used for, and the deadline for returning it.
• The rules that cause arguments later: pets, smoking, guests, subletting, alterations, and who handles which repairs.
• Signatures and dates from every tenant on the tenancy, and a copy given to the tenant.

On top of that, British Columbia specifically expects:

• The landlord's name and an address for service, which the Act requires the tenant be given.
• Which services and facilities are included in the rent, listed on the form rather than agreed verbally.
• Whether the tenancy is fixed term, and what the parties have agreed happens when the term ends.
• The condition inspection at move-in and at move-out, which the Act treats as part of the tenancy record rather than as an optional courtesy.

How to generate a British Columbia lease in ProperLease

1. Add the property with its British Columbia address. The address is what selects the document, so a portfolio spread across jurisdictions gets the right form for each door.
2. Add the tenant or tenants going on the tenancy, with the email address you will use to send documents.
3. Open Leases and start a new lease. ProperLease picks the RTB-1 automatically from the property location.
4. Set the terms: monthly rent, term start and end, the deposit you are collecting, and which services are included.
5. Generate and download the PDF, sign it, and send a copy to the tenant. The signed copy goes back onto the lease record so the paperwork and the data stay together.

When the term is ending, renew the existing lease rather than starting over. The tenant, unit and history carry forward, and you set new dates and any rent change on top. See generate a province or state lease for the full walkthrough.