Garage Doors in Rental Properties: Who Pays for the Repair in Ontario?

Introduction

A garage door breaks in a rented house and the first phone call is almost never about the door. It is about who is paying for it. The tenant thinks the landlord owns the building so the landlord owns the problem. The landlord remembers the tenant reversing out in a hurry last winter. Meanwhile the door is sitting half a foot off the floor with a snapped spring and nobody has phoned anybody who can fix it.

We get both sides of that call in London every week, from small landlords with one rented semi to property managers looking after student houses near Western and Fanshawe. The good news is that Ontario law is clearer on this than most people expect, and in the large majority of cases the answer is the same one. The less good news is that the exceptions are real, and a lease clause that appears to hand the whole garage to the tenant does not do what most landlords think it does.

This guide sets out what the Residential Tenancies Act actually puts on each side, where the line between normal wear and tenant damage falls on a garage door specifically, the safety duties a landlord cannot sign away, the rules about getting a technician into an occupied unit, and what the repairs cost in London, Ontario in 2026. Every price here is all in before HST. We are a garage door company and not a law firm, so treat the legal parts as a plain-language map rather than advice on your particular tenancy, and read the official pages linked below for the wording itself.

The Short Answer

In Ontario, if the garage is part of what the tenant rents, the landlord pays for the garage door and the opener to be kept in working order. Springs, cables, rollers, bearings, tracks, hinges, the opener motor and its safety sensors are all the landlord's responsibility when they wear out, break or simply reach the end of their life. That is true whether or not the lease mentions the garage, and it is true even if the tenant knew the door was rough when they moved in.

The tenant pays in one situation: when the damage was caused by their own wilful or careless conduct, or by a guest or another occupant. A backed-into bottom section is the classic example. A spring that broke after eleven winters is not.

What the Law Actually Says

The landlord's duty to repair

The Residential Tenancies Act, 2006 requires a landlord to keep the rental property in a good state of repair, fit for habitation, and in compliance with health, safety, housing and maintenance standards. Anything the landlord provides with the unit has to be kept in working order. If it stops working through ordinary wear and tear, or because it has worn out, the landlord repairs it or replaces it.

Two details of that obligation surprise people. First, it applies even if the tenant knew about the problem before signing, so "they saw the state of it and took the place anyway" is not a defence. Second, it is not limited to the four walls of the living space. A garage supplied as part of the tenancy, and a garage door supplied with it, sit squarely inside the duty. Ontario's Landlord and Tenant Board sets this out plainly in its own brochure on maintenance and repairs, and the province summarises the wider picture on its renting in Ontario page.

The tenant's duty

The tenant is responsible for ordinary cleanliness, and for repairing or paying to repair undue damage caused by their own negligence or deliberate act, or by somebody they let into the property. The operative word is undue. A door that is stiff after five years of use is not undue damage. A door with a dent the exact shape of a trailer hitch is.

A lease clause cannot move the safety duty

Plenty of Ontario leases contain something along the lines of "the tenant is responsible for maintenance of the garage". A clause that tries to contract out of the landlord's statutory repair obligation is not enforceable, and the Board treats the duty as the landlord's regardless. Asking a tenant to keep the garage tidy, put the bins away and report faults promptly is reasonable and useful. Asking them to own a torsion spring failure is not, and a torsion spring is not something any tenant should be near in the first place.

Is the Garage Even Part of the Tenancy?

Before the who-pays question there is a narrower one that settles a surprising number of arguments: was the garage rented at all?

• A whole house or semi rented to one household. The garage is almost always included, and so is its door. This is the simple case.
• A duplex or a house split into units. Sometimes the garage goes with one unit, sometimes it is shared, sometimes the owner keeps it for storage and it is not part of anybody's tenancy. Where the owner has genuinely retained it, the tenant has no right of access to it, and also no responsibility for it.
• A garage or parking space rented separately. If the garage is rented under the same tenancy agreement, or as a service or facility of the tenancy, it comes under the same repair duty.
• A condominium townhouse that is being rented out. This is the one case where the owner may not be the right person to call. In many London townhouse corporations the door is a common element and the corporation arranges the work. Our guide to garage doors in townhouse and condo communities explains how to find out in about ten minutes which it is.

The lease and, in a condo, the declaration and rules are where this gets settled. If the tenancy agreement is silent and the tenant has always used the garage, the practical answer is that it is part of the tenancy.

Wear and Tear or Tenant Damage? Where the Line Falls on a Garage Door

Almost always the landlord's cost

These are the failures that come from use and time, not from anything the tenant did:

• Broken torsion or extension springs. Springs are rated in cycles and they are consumable. A standard spring is good for roughly seven to ten years of average use and then it breaks, on whoever happens to be standing there. Our guide to garage door springs explains why this is a wear item and strictly a professional repair.
• Frayed or snapped lift cables, worn rollers, dry or seized bearings, loose hinges. All of these are ordinary wear.
• An opener that has died of old age. Typical opener lifespan is 15 to 20 years. A failed logic board, a stripped drive gear or a burnt out motor on a twenty year old unit is the landlord's replacement to make.
• Misaligned or failed safety sensors, and worn weather seals. Both are maintenance items.
• Rust, sun fade and paint failure on the outside of the door. That is the weather doing its job on the owner's asset.
• A door that has come off its track with no obvious cause. Nine times out of ten the underlying reason is a broken cable, a bad roller or an out of adjustment opener, all of which are wear.

Usually the tenant's cost

• A vehicle hit the door. Dented sections, bent track, a door knocked off its rollers. This is the single most common tenant-caused garage door claim, and it is rarely in dispute because the damage is unmistakable.
• Forcing a door that was stuck or frozen down. Hitting the button repeatedly on a door frozen to the slab is how bottom sections tear and opener brackets pull out of steel.
• Hanging, storing or fastening things to the door or the springs. Bikes on the track, a shelf screwed through a section, a rope tied to the torsion tube.
• A padlock left on while the opener was used. That combination bends track and rips out brackets in a single press.
• Deliberately disabling the safety sensors by taping, twisting or aiming them at each other on a bracket. Beyond the repair cost, this is the one item on the list that can hurt somebody.
• Losing every remote and the keypad code. The reprogramming charge is small, and who pays is usually settled with common sense. If the remotes were provided with the unit and have gone missing, it generally lands with the tenant. Our guide on what to do about a lost or stolen garage door remote covers why clearing the old codes matters more than the cost of a new remote.

The genuinely arguable middle

Some cases are not clean. A cable that came off its drum because the door was run while off balance. A bottom section swollen from water that pooled because nobody cleared the drain. A door that was never lubricated in four years and is now noisy and stiff. Our honest read after years of these visits is that where the failure needed a maintenance step the landlord never arranged, it lands with the landlord, and where it needed a tenant to stop doing something obviously harmful, it lands with the tenant. What settles it in practice is not argument but evidence: a move-in condition report with photographs, and a service record. More on both below.

The Safety Obligations a Landlord Cannot Delegate

A garage door is the heaviest moving object in most homes, between 130 and 400 pounds on a residential opening. On a rented property the person who lives with it did not choose it, may not know how it behaves, and may have small children. Three things are worth a landlord's specific attention:

• The door must reverse. Every opener made since 1993 has to have both a contact reversal on the door and a non-contact system, in practice the pair of photo eye sensors near the floor. If the property still has an opener old enough to have neither, replacing it is not an upgrade, it is a safety correction.
• Old extension springs need containment cables. On older London houses with extension springs along the horizontal tracks, a safety cable through the middle of each spring stops a broken one becoming a projectile. It is an inexpensive part and the absence of it is a defect.
• The tenant should know where the manual release is and how to use it. A thirty second walkthrough at move-in prevents a call at ten at night, and it matters in a power cut.

Ask the tenant to run the monthly reverse and balance test and to report anything that fails it. That is the one garage door duty it is fair and sensible to put on a tenant, because they are the only person there to do it.

What These Repairs Cost in London in 2026

Every figure below is the all in price before HST, including the parts, the labour, the service call and a balance check afterwards, for a typical residential door in the London area.

• Single spring on a single door: $229 to $320
• Pair of springs on a double door: $300 to $550
• Lift cables, replaced as a pair: $130 to $350
• Rollers, full set on a single door: $120 to $320
• Off track, simple re-rail: $150 to $280
• Opener safety sensors: $125 to $250
• Opener drive gear kit: $150 to $250
• Opener logic board: $250 to $350
• Remote or keypad reprogrammed: $80 to $120
• New opener supplied and installed: $525 to $1,200 depending on the drive type
• Single damaged panel supplied and fitted: $350 to $850
• Yearly multi-point tune-up: $120 to $220
• Service call: $85 flat, absorbed into the repair if we do the work

For a fuller breakdown by job, including the bigger combined repairs, see our 2026 Ontario garage door repair cost guide.

Two numbers are worth putting side by side if you own rentals. A yearly tune-up at $120 to $220 per door covers the lubrication, the hardware tightening, the balance check and the sensor alignment that prevent most of the calls above. A single spring visit on its own costs more than the tune-up, and a spring failure usually arrives on the coldest morning of the year with a car trapped behind it.

Who Should Call, and How to Make the Visit Go Smoothly

The commonest cause of a repair taking a week instead of a day is not parts. It is that the person who phoned cannot approve the cost, and the person who can approve it is not the person who can let us in.

Get these four things straight in the first phone call:

1. The address, and that it is a rental. Saying so up front changes nothing about the price and everything about how we schedule it.
2. Who will be on site. A tenant at home, a lockbox, or a landlord meeting us there.
3. Who approves the work and any cost above the quote. Almost always the owner or the property manager. A tenant cannot commit the owner's money.
4. Who is being invoiced. Usually the owner directly, even where the eventual cost is going to be recovered from the tenant, because it keeps the repair moving.

On entry: a landlord needs to give the tenant 24 hours written notice to enter for a repair, stating the reason and a time between 8 in the morning and 8 in the evening, unless the tenant agrees to let us in sooner or it is a genuine emergency. In practice, most tenants are glad to see us and will agree to an earlier slot over the phone. A door that will not close at all on an attached garage in January is one of those situations that everybody should treat as urgent without arguing about the definition.

If the Landlord Will Not Arrange the Repair

Occasionally a tenant reports a fault and nothing happens. The steps that actually work, in order:

1. Put the request in writing and keep a copy, even if you already phoned. Text or email is fine. Date it, describe the fault plainly, and say if it is a safety issue.
2. Follow up once, in writing, with a reasonable deadline. Keep the tone flat and factual.
3. Contact the City of London's property standards and bylaw enforcement if the fault breaches minimum maintenance standards, for example an exterior door that no longer secures the building. Municipal standards apply alongside the provincial ones.
4. Apply to the Landlord and Tenant Board for an order about a maintenance breach. The Board can order the repair, order a rent abatement, or order the landlord to pay costs.

What does not work, and creates a second problem on top of the first: withholding rent, or paying for the repair yourself and deducting it from the rent. Neither is lawful in Ontario without an order, and both can end up as an arrears case against the tenant. If you are a tenant paying for something urgent out of pocket, get the landlord's written agreement first, then send the receipt.

If the Tenant Caused the Damage

Landlords have a proper route here too, and it is not the last month's rent deposit. In Ontario that deposit can only be applied to the last month's rent, never to damage.

Do this instead:

• Photograph the damage the day you learn about it, from far enough back to show the whole door and close enough to show the impact point.
• Get the repair quoted in writing, itemised, so the figure is not your estimate.
• Ask the tenant to pay, in writing, with the quote attached. Most of the time this is where it ends, particularly when a vehicle was clearly involved.
• If it is refused, apply to the Landlord and Tenant Board for the cost of repairing undue damage, while the tenancy is ongoing or shortly after it ends.
• Check the insurance position. A vehicle strike on a building may well be covered by the tenant's auto policy, and a tenant's contents policy often includes liability for damage to the landlord's property. Ask before assuming.

And repair it either way. A dented door that still runs is one thing, but a door that is out of balance or off its track is a hazard, and the duty to keep it safe does not pause while the bill is being argued about.

What the Landlords With the Fewest Garage Door Calls Do

After years of rental call-outs, the owners we almost never hear from in an emergency have the same four habits:

• A written condition report at move-in, with photographs of the garage door, the opener and the sensors. It takes five minutes and it resolves every wear-versus-damage argument later. Our garage door checklist for a new home is a ready-made walkthrough for exactly this.
• One tune-up a year, booked in the autumn. Balance, lubrication, hardware, sensors and cables, before the cold arrives. Our tune-up service guide lists what a real one covers. DASMA, the North American door and opener trade association, publishes its own homeowner maintenance guide if you want the independent version.
• Nylon rollers and a decent bottom seal, fitted once. On a rental this is the highest return upgrade there is. Quieter door, fewer complaints, less rodent and water intrusion, longer opener life.
• A one page note in the welcome pack: here is the manual release, here is what the sensors do, please do not fasten anything to the door, and please tell us straight away if it starts making a new noise. Most rental garage door disasters begin as a small noise that nobody mentioned.

If you own several properties in and around London, it is worth having one company hold the service history for all of them. When a tenant calls at 8 in the morning, knowing the age of that opener and when the springs were last done is the difference between a diagnosis and a guess.

Student Rentals and Multi-Unit Houses in London

London has a large student rental market, and garage doors in it take a particular kind of wear. Several drivers who are not used to the opening, a lot of reversing, more bikes and gear stored against the door, and a turnover of occupants every spring. Three adjustments help:

• Book the tune-up for the end of August, not the middle of winter, so the door starts the year in balance and the sensors are aligned before a new group arrives.
• Do the condition report and the sixty second walkthrough with every new group, not just the first.
• Consider a keypad on the outside so a lost remote does not become a security problem and a locksmith call. Note that the tenant still needs to be told not to share the code casually.

Where a house has been converted into units and the garage is shared, write down in each agreement who has access and who does not. Shared use with no written arrangement is where responsibility gets muddiest and where doors get treated worst.

Frequently Asked Questions

My landlord says the lease makes the garage my responsibility. Is that right?

Not for repairs. A lease can ask you to keep the garage clean and to report faults, but it cannot move the landlord's statutory duty to keep what they provided in a good state of repair. You are still responsible for damage you or your guests cause.

The garage door will not close and I cannot lock the house. Is that an emergency?

Treat it as urgent and say so clearly in writing. A garage door that will not close leaves the building unsecured, and on an attached garage it is also an open route into the house. Most landlords act immediately when it is put that way. If the garage is attached and the door is stuck open in winter, add the freezing pipe risk to your message.

Can I get the door fixed myself and take it off the rent?

No, not without the landlord's written agreement or a Board order. Withholding or deducting rent in Ontario can put you in arrears even where the underlying complaint is valid. Ask in writing, keep the record, and escalate through the proper route.

I backed into the door. How much trouble am I in?

Financially, probably less than you fear. Tell the landlord the same day, before they discover it, and do not use the door again if it is grinding, crooked or dragging. A panel replacement runs $350 to $850 and a simple re-rail $150 to $280. Your auto insurer may cover it. Continuing to run a damaged door is what turns a panel into a panel plus a track, a set of rollers and a bent opener arm.

The opener is twenty years old and dying every second week. Does the landlord have to replace it rather than keep patching it?

The duty is to keep it in working order, and the landlord can meet that by repairing. But when a unit is old enough that parts are no longer made, or repeated repairs are not holding, replacement is the only way to actually meet the duty. An opener from before 1993 without photo eye sensors should be replaced regardless of whether it still runs.

Who pays for the yearly tune-up?

The landlord, as part of maintaining the property. It is not a tenant expense and it is not something a lease should be pushing onto a tenant.

Does the tenant have to be home for the repair?

Not necessarily, as long as the landlord has given proper written notice to enter or the tenant has agreed to the visit. Many of our rental calls are done with the landlord present or with agreed access. It is faster when somebody who uses the door daily is there to describe what it has been doing.

Conclusion

Strip away the arguing and rental garage doors come down to a simple split. Time and use are the owner's cost. Impact and misuse are the occupant's. Everything else is decided by two pieces of paper: a condition report with photographs from the day the tenant moved in, and a service record showing the door has been looked after since. Landlords who have both almost never end up at the Landlord and Tenant Board over a garage door, and tenants who report faults in writing almost never end up living with one that does not work.

If you own or manage rental property in London, St. Thomas, Ilderton, Komoka or the surrounding area, we are used to working on occupied units: we coordinate access with the tenant, quote to the owner, and invoice whoever you tell us to. Nothing about the price changes because a property is rented.