Key takeaways
- The City's September 28, 2026 file scores 3,590 RentSafeTO buildings holding 327,548 units. On the whole-number scores that set the sign colour, 2,974 are green (85 or more), 581 yellow and 35 red (below 70).
- The City prints whole-number scores and colours its map on them. Before rounding, 46 of the green buildings score between 84.5 and 85, and 7 of the yellow ones between 69.5 and 70.
- Of the 102 buildings put up before 1920, 40 (39.2%) carry a yellow or red sign, and their median score before rounding is 86.9. For buildings from the 2020s, that median is 99.8.
- Parking areas draw the lowest rating most often, at 653 of the 3,195 buildings rated (20.4%), followed by hallway walls and ceilings (16.1%) and building exteriors (15.3%).
- In 2026 an owner pays $30.82 per unit a year to register and $370.99 for a re-evaluation, and social housing providers have the fees waived. Missing the 24-hour reply to an urgent tenant request carries a $600 set fine on conviction.
RentSafeTO is the City of Toronto's inspection program for rental apartment buildings with three or more storeys and ten or more units. A bylaw officer scores each building's common areas out of 100 every two years. Since June 15, 2026, the owner must also post a green, yellow or red sign near the entrance. We downloaded the City's evaluation file on September 28, 2026. It covers 3,590 buildings and 327,548 units. The City's own whole-number scores decide the sign. On them, 2,974 buildings (82.8%) are green at 85 or more, 581 (16.2%) are yellow and 35 (1.0%) are red, below 70. You can look up any building on the City's map, and asking the City to inspect costs you nothing.
How a RentSafeTO score is built
An officer walks the lobby, halls, stairwells, laundry and garbage rooms, parking and grounds, and checks the building's paperwork. The City's evaluation tool has 50 categories. Each gets a rating of 1, 2 or 3, where 3 means no violation. Items that don't apply, like a pool in a building without one, are left out. An item the officer can't inspect, because something blocks it or access is refused, scores 0.
The categories are weighted by risk. Seventeen high-risk items count 3% each, 23 moderate items count 2%, and 10 cosmetic items count 0.5%. So a dead intercom or a broken stair costs a building far more than scuffed hallway paint. The weighted total is called the proactive score.
Then come deductions. An Order to Comply or a Notice of Violation is a City notice telling the owner to fix a by-law breach by a deadline. Each open one takes 1% off for at least 30 days. Each Emergency Order, which is for an immediate danger to someone's health or safety, takes 2% off for at least four months. The City's own example: a building at 70 with two property standards orders shows 68 until it complies. That's how problems inside units, which the evaluation never walks into, reach the score.
The City prints the result as a whole number, and that number decides the sign. We rebuilt every score from the 50 ratings in the file with exact arithmetic. Rounded to two decimals and then to a whole number, as the City appears to round, our figure matches the City's in 6,775 of 6,789 evaluations. For the other 14, we used the City's figure.
How Toronto's apartment buildings score
Each building below is counted once, at its latest evaluation, with any deduction in force on September 28, 2026. The colours follow the City's whole-number score.
| City score | Buildings | Share of 3,590 | Sign colour |
|---|---|---|---|
| Below 50 | 5 | 0.1% | Red |
| 50 to 59 | 8 | 0.2% | Red |
| 60 to 69 | 22 | 0.6% | Red |
| 70 to 79 | 249 | 6.9% | Yellow |
| 80 to 84 | 332 | 9.2% | Yellow |
| 85 to 89 | 623 | 17.4% | Green |
| 90 to 100 | 2,351 | 65.5% | Green |
The middle building scores 92.1 before rounding. Right now 511 buildings carry at least one deduction, and 35 of them show a lower sign colour because of it.
Owner type barely moves the picture. The median is 92.2 for private landlords' 3,025 buildings, 92.5 for 239 other social housing buildings and 91.2 for Toronto Community Housing's 326. Of the 35 red buildings, private landlords own 32 and other social housing providers 3.
Rounding puts 53 buildings on the better side of a line
The City's colour bands are 85 to 100 for green, 70 to 84 for yellow and 0 to 69 for red. We checked the data behind the City's map on September 28, and it colours each building on its whole-number score.
Before rounding, 46 of the green buildings score between 84.5 and 85, and 7 of the yellow ones score between 69.5 and 70. Counted on the unrounded score, the split would be 2,928 green, 620 yellow and 42 red. For you, it means a sign or map score of 85 can be up to half a point short of the line, and 70 likewise.
Older buildings score lower
| Built | Buildings | Units | Median score before rounding | Yellow or red sign | Red sign |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Before 1920 | 102 | 2,257 | 86.9 | 39.2% | 7 |
| 1920s | 143 | 3,916 | 91.1 | 19.6% | 4 |
| 1930s | 106 | 2,940 | 90.8 | 19.8% | 0 |
| 1940s | 97 | 2,477 | 91.6 | 17.5% | 3 |
| 1950s | 922 | 33,651 | 91.9 | 17.1% | 7 |
| 1960s | 1,208 | 127,980 | 91.9 | 17.2% | 9 |
| 1970s | 518 | 89,913 | 92.1 | 16.2% | 0 |
| 1980s | 159 | 20,210 | 92.6 | 15.1% | 2 |
| 1990s | 147 | 12,331 | 93.4 | 12.9% | 1 |
| 2000s | 53 | 5,269 | 94.9 | 9.4% | 1 |
| 2010s | 70 | 13,894 | 97.6 | 5.7% | 0 |
| 2020s | 56 | 12,425 | 99.8 | 3.6% | 0 |
| Year not recorded | 9 | 285 | 79.9 | 66.7% | 1 |
The gap shows at both ends: 39.2% of buildings put up before 1920 carry a yellow or red sign, against 3.6% of those from the 2020s. The towers of the 1950s to 1970s sit near the city-wide middle. The pre-1920 figure rests on 102 buildings.
Results by ward
| Ward | Buildings | Median score before rounding | Yellow or red sign | Red sign |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Etobicoke North | 82 | 92.9 | 15.9% | 0 |
| 2 Etobicoke Centre | 130 | 94.8 | 6.2% | 0 |
| 3 Etobicoke-Lakeshore | 250 | 93.9 | 8.4% | 0 |
| 4 Parkdale-High Park | 206 | 91.9 | 12.6% | 1 |
| 5 York South-Weston | 238 | 89.3 | 30.7% | 4 |
| 6 York Centre | 235 | 92.6 | 15.3% | 3 |
| 7 Humber River-Black Creek | 103 | 91.9 | 18.4% | 0 |
| 8 Eglinton-Lawrence | 241 | 93.6 | 16.6% | 0 |
| 9 Davenport | 92 | 88.8 | 37.0% | 4 |
| 10 Spadina-Fort York | 61 | 92.7 | 21.3% | 2 |
| 11 University-Rosedale | 147 | 90.3 | 23.8% | 6 |
| 12 Toronto-St. Paul's | 338 | 92.4 | 15.4% | 1 |
| 13 Toronto Centre | 213 | 91.1 | 23.9% | 2 |
| 14 Toronto-Danforth | 147 | 91.4 | 21.1% | 6 |
| 15 Don Valley West | 170 | 93.8 | 5.3% | 0 |
| 16 Don Valley East | 159 | 93.3 | 10.7% | 1 |
| 17 Don Valley North | 74 | 92.0 | 14.9% | 0 |
| 18 Willowdale | 47 | 93.5 | 19.1% | 1 |
| 19 Beaches-East York | 202 | 92.6 | 11.9% | 2 |
| 20 Scarborough Southwest | 163 | 91.1 | 19.0% | 1 |
| 21 Scarborough Centre | 136 | 90.8 | 20.6% | 1 |
| 22 Scarborough-Agincourt | 42 | 93.0 | 9.5% | 0 |
| 23 Scarborough North | 9 | 93.9 | 11.1% | 0 |
| 24 Scarborough-Guildwood | 77 | 89.2 | 23.4% | 0 |
| 25 Scarborough-Rouge Park | 28 | 86.0 | 42.9% | 0 |
Ward medians before rounding sit close together, from 86.0 to 94.8. The share with a yellow or red sign is where wards pull apart. Scarborough-Rouge Park has both the lowest median and the highest share, 42.9%, but only 28 buildings. Among wards with 50 or more buildings, Davenport is highest at 37.0% of 92, then York South-Weston at 30.7% of 238. Scarborough North has only 9 buildings, so treat it as thin too.
Where buildings lose points
| Category | Risk weight | Buildings rated | Rated 1, the lowest | Share rated 1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Parking areas | Moderate | 3,195 | 653 | 20.4% |
| Hallway walls and ceilings | Cosmetic | 3,574 | 577 | 16.1% |
| Building exterior | High | 3,578 | 549 | 15.3% |
| Electrical safety plan | Moderate | 3,531 | 515 | 14.6% |
| Cleaning log | Cosmetic | 3,544 | 495 | 14.0% |
| Stairwell walls and ceilings | Moderate | 3,579 | 449 | 12.5% |
| Handrail and guard safety | High | 3,582 | 446 | 12.5% |
| Stairwell landings and steps | High | 3,586 | 384 | 10.7% |
| Hallway floors | Moderate | 3,573 | 363 | 10.2% |
| Windows | High | 3,587 | 320 | 8.9% |
Parking areas draw the lowest rating most often, at one building in five that has parking. Four high-risk items make the top ten: the building's exterior, handrail and guard safety, stairwell steps and windows. Two entries are paperwork. The electrical safety plan and the cleaning log each drew a 1 at about one building in seven. The by-law already requires both records.
What a low score sets off
Every building is evaluated every two years. The file shows 1,749 evaluations in the 2023 cycle, 1,805 in 2024 and 1,774 in 2025. The 2026 cycle had reached 1,460 by September 25, and evaluations usually run from June to November. The 12 months to September 27, 2026 span the end of one cycle and most of the next, and in them officers evaluated 2,283 buildings.
Audits. The lowest 2.5% of each year's evaluated buildings are prioritized for an audit, which usually happens the following spring. That's a full inspection of every common area, with officers going door to door to hear from tenants. The owner must post the audit date on the notice board at least 30 days ahead. In 2026 the owner pays $3,136.64, plus $165.19 an hour for each officer.
The audit line moves, because it's a share of buildings, not a score. On the City's scores before deductions, the lowest 2.5% of the 2024 cycle (45 of 1,805 buildings) scored 65 or less. In the 2025 cycle, the lowest 44 of 1,774 scored 75 or less, which is yellow. The City doesn't publish the cut-off, so treat those two as our reading of its data. The City's 55 audits in 2025, based on 2024 scores, were more than the 45 at that line. Its current wording is that the lowest 2.5% "will be prioritized for audit". Since June 15, 2026, deductions count toward the line. The City plans that from late 2027, every red building will also be audited if that means more audits.
Targeted engagement. If orders and notices push a score down 5% or more for two months in a row, City staff visit the building. A red sign held for two months in a row brings the same visit. The owner pays $3,136.64 for each one.
Re-evaluation. An owner can ask for a new evaluation at any time for $370.99, and the fee isn't refunded. The new score can be lower, and it can't be switched back.
A red sign doesn't mean a building is unsafe or closed, the City says. It means the building meets few of the City's maintenance standards.
What the City plans for 2027. From the second quarter of 2027, the 50 categories will be regrouped into 19 high-risk, 19 moderate and 12 cosmetic. High-risk items will rise to 4.5% each and moderate items will fall to 1.5%. Each order or notice will take 2% off and each emergency order 3%, plus 0.25% for every 30 days an order or notice stays open. Applied to 2024 and 2025 data, the City's March 2026 report projects about 2,714 green buildings (76%), 749 yellow (21%) and 115 red (3%). It expects lower scores overall.
What your landlord must post and do
Chapter 354 of the Municipal Code sets the owner's duties. By-law 1176-2025 added the sign rules. These are the ones a tenant can check:
- Registration. The owner registers every 12 months, renews by July 31 and pays a fee for each unit.
- A notification board in a central spot. It must show the latest evaluation result, RentSafeTO and 311 information, and service disruptions. It also carries major repair projects, the cleaning and waste plans, pest treatments, and City orders on common areas. It must name the nearest cool place to go in hot weather and give any audit date at least 30 days ahead.
- The sign. It goes near the main entrance and must be replaced within 14 calendar days of the City's notice that the colour has changed. You must be told the colour before you sign a lease, when you sign and once a year. Anyone who asks gets a copy of the latest evaluation.
- Pests. Common areas are inspected at least once every 30 days, and any area within 72 hours of a report. Extermination must be done by a pest control operator licensed by the province. A unit can't be rented to a new tenant while the owner knows it has pests.
- Repair requests. The owner needs a tracking system and must respond within 24 hours to an urgent request and within 7 days otherwise. Urgent means heat, water, power, gas or fuel going off, or a breach of building security, suite security or the building envelope (the outer walls, roof and windows).
- Plans. A vital service disruption plan on the City's form, and a voluntary list of tenants who need help in an outage. The owner also needs an electrical maintenance plan made with a licensed electrical contractor, and a five-year repair plan. You can ask for a copy of the repair plan, and it's due within 60 days.
| Item | Low | High | Unit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Registration and annual renewal | $30.82 | $30.82 | per residential unit, a year |
| Re-evaluation on request | $370.99 | $370.99 | per registered building |
| Audit administrative fee | $3,136.64 | $3,136.64 | per audit |
| Audit inspection fee | $165.19 | $165.19 | per hour, per officer |
| Targeted engagement | $3,136.64 | $3,136.64 | per engagement |
| Replacement colour-coded sign | $42.73 | $46.81 | total for one sign to three signs, plus HST |
The 2026 registration fee is up from $26.75 per unit in the City's July 2025 fee schedule. The 2026 budget raised it to pay for 11 more RentSafeTO staff, on top of a 4% inflation increase across the division's fees. The fees are waived for Toronto Community Housing and other social housing providers.
A set fine is the fixed amount for a ticketed offence, owed on conviction.
| Item | Low | High | Unit |
|---|---|---|---|
| No notification board | $600 | $600 | set fine |
| Fail to post information on the board | $400 | $400 | set fine |
| Fail to respond to an urgent request within 24 hours | $600 | $600 | set fine |
| Fail to respond to a non-urgent request within 7 days | $500 | $500 | set fine |
| Fail to inspect for pests every 30 days | $500 | $500 | set fine |
| Rent a unit with pests | $600 | $600 | set fine |
| No vital service disruption plan | $600 | $600 | set fine |
If the City lays charges by summons instead of a ticket and wins a conviction, the fine can reach $100,000, or $10,000 for each day the problem continues. There can also be a fine equal to any money the owner gained from the breach.
How to check your building
Search the address on the City's Interactive Building Score Map. It shows the score and colour, and it lists open violations recorded since January 1, 2024. The City refreshes the scores daily. Before you sign a lease, the landlord has to tell you the rating.
RentSafeTO.com, a site that ranks high when you search for the program, isn't run by the City. It calls itself "an independent resource" that republishes the City's open data. It also says the City inspects "every two to three years". The City's own pages say every two years.
How to get the City to inspect
Ask your landlord first, in writing, and keep a copy. If nothing happens, contact 311 by phone, the 311 app or 311@toronto.ca. A bylaw officer then contacts you. That happens within 24 hours for a vital service like heat or water, and the City aims for five to 10 days for anything else. The officer may ask for photos and a copy of what you sent the landlord. If no officer contacts you within those times, call 311 again to escalate, and you'll get the supervisor's name and number. If you don't answer the officer within a reasonable time, the City closes the file.
The City says you won't be charged for a complaint or an inspection. An order usually gives the owner anywhere from immediate compliance to 30 days, and an officer re-inspects when it runs out. 311 also takes reports of a missing or wrong-coloured sign. If the landlord still hasn't made the repairs, the City says you may also file a T6, the tenant application about maintenance, with the Landlord and Tenant Board.
Frequently asked questions
What is the RentSafeTO portal?
It's the owners' login, not a tenant tool. Owners and managers use the RentSafeTO Online Portal, with a login number and PIN the City issues, to register, renew, pay and get their evaluation report. Tenants look up scores on the City's Interactive Building Score Map instead.
What is a good RentSafeTO score?
Green starts at 85, and in the September 28, 2026 file the middle building scores 92.1 before rounding. A map score of 90 or more puts a building among the 2,351 (65.5%) at the top.
How often does a RentSafeTO building evaluation happen?
Every two years, and it covers common areas, not your unit. The file holds 355 buildings whose last evaluation was in 2024, so they're due in the 2026 cycle.
How do I make a RentSafeTO complaint?
Write to your landlord first, then contact 311 if the problem isn't fixed. It costs nothing. In 2025, 311 requests led RentSafeTO officers to issue 1,788 orders and 262 notices (City staff report, March 2026).
What does the RentSafeTO annual report show?
The City posts them on its RentSafeTO Annual Reports page. The latest, the 2025 Year in Review, counts 1,772 building evaluations and 55 audits, with an average evaluation score of 90.6%. Officers made first contact on emergency requests within 24 hours 98% of the time.
What is the RentSafeTO signage program?
It's the green, yellow or red sign that every RentSafeTO building has had to post near its entrance since June 15, 2026. The sign carries the colour and what it means, how to reach the City, and a QR code to the map.
Does RentSafeTO cover condos?
No. It covers purpose-built rental buildings with three or more storeys and ten or more rental units. Condo buildings, townhomes and units in a private home are not part of it. Neither are long-term care homes, licensed retirement homes or housing co-operatives.
Sources (27)
- Apartment Building Evaluation (open data): dataset record · City of Toronto (retrieved )
- Apartment Building Evaluations 2023 - current (CSV) · City of Toronto (retrieved )
- RentSafeTO Interactive Building Score Map: map data layer · City of Toronto (retrieved )
- RentSafeTO Interactive Building Score Map · City of Toronto (retrieved )
- RentSafeTO: Apartment Building Standards · City of Toronto (retrieved )
- RentSafeTO for Tenants · City of Toronto (retrieved )
- RentSafeTO: Evaluations and Audits · City of Toronto (retrieved )
- RentSafeTO Colour-Coded Signs · City of Toronto (retrieved )
- RentSafeTO for Tenants: Service Requests, Complaints and Investigations · City of Toronto (retrieved )
- RentSafeTO: Building Owner Requirements · City of Toronto (retrieved )
- RentSafeTO Fees and Fines · City of Toronto (retrieved )
- RentSafeTO Registration and Renewal · City of Toronto (retrieved )
- City of Toronto: Property Standards · City of Toronto (retrieved )
- City of Toronto: Housing Property Standards · City of Toronto (retrieved )
- RentSafeTO: Annual Reports, Templates and Forms · City of Toronto (retrieved )
- Rental Standards Services Year in Review 2025 · City of Toronto (retrieved )
- Toronto Municipal Code, Chapter 354, Apartment Buildings · City of Toronto (retrieved )
- City of Toronto By-law 1176-2025 (colour-coded rating signage) · City of Toronto (retrieved )
- Introducing Colour-Coded Signage for RentSafeTO (staff report, October 1, 2025) · City of Toronto (retrieved )
- RentSafeTO Update Report (staff report, March 27, 2026) · City of Toronto (retrieved )
- Toronto Municipal Code, Chapter 441, Fees and Charges, Appendix C · City of Toronto (retrieved )
- 2026 Budget Notes: Municipal Licensing and Standards · City of Toronto (retrieved )
- About RentSafeTO.com · RentSafeTO.com (retrieved )
- RentSafeTO (13 Division Community Police Liaison Committee) · 13 Division CPLC (retrieved )
- RentSafeTO (Toronto Community Housing) · Toronto Community Housing (retrieved )
- Apartment Building Registration (open data): dataset record · City of Toronto (retrieved )
- City Council decision 2026.PH29.4, RentSafeTO Update (April 22 and 23, 2026) · City of Toronto (retrieved )
How this guide was made
Computed on September 28, 2026 from the City of Toronto's 'Apartment Building Evaluations 2023 - current' open data file, refreshed that morning. It holds 6,789 evaluations of 3,590 buildings, and each building is counted once, at its latest evaluation. Sign colours follow the City's whole-number score, as the data layer behind its Interactive Building Score Map does. We also rebuilt every score from its 50 category ratings with exact arithmetic and the weights the City publishes. Rounded to two decimals and then to a whole number, that matches the City's printed score in 6,775 of the 6,789 evaluations. Rules, fees and fines come from Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 354 (consolidation stamped June 1, 2024) and By-law 1176-2025, which added the signs. We also read the City's RentSafeTO pages, Chapter 441 Appendix C, the 2026 budget notes and the Rental Standards Services Year in Review 2025. Two City staff reports, from October 2025 and March 2026, complete the set.
