What must a renovation contract include in Ontario?

Under CPA guidance: the contractor's legal name and address, detailed scope and materials, warranty terms, total price and payment schedule, start and completion dates, cleanup responsibility, and subcontractor arrangements. Best practice adds named allowances, a change-order clause, permit responsibility, and insurance/WSIB certificates as schedules.

Is a verbal renovation agreement enforceable in Ontario?

Renovation agreements over $50 are required to be in writing under Ontario's consumer protection framework, so a handshake deal both weakens your enforcement position and likely violates the Act. Never let work start before the written contract exists.

Ontario Renovation Contract Checklist: Every Clause

The 12 clauses

Parties: the contractor's full legal/business name and address (matching the WSIB and insurance documents you verified)
Scope of work: detailed description of the work, room by room; vague scope is the seed of every change-order fight
Materials and allowances: what's specified, what's an allowance, and the allowance dollar amounts named
Total price and HST treatment
Payment schedule: deposit (~10%), milestone draws, and the 10% Construction Act holdback
Start and substantial-completion dates: the CPA ties cancellation rights to 30-day slippage on both
Permits: who applies (the contractor), in whose name, before which work
Change orders: no extra work or price without a signed written change order
Subcontractors: who they are and who pays them, with statutory declarations available at holdback release
Cleanup and site conduct: daily tidy, dust containment, disposal included
Warranty: what's covered, for how long, in writing (there is no Tarion for renos, as the protection-gap article explains)
Insurance and WSIB: certificates attached as schedules to the contract itself

"The clause that predicts a dispute is the one that isn't there. Every ugly job I've been called to rescue had the same contract: one paragraph, one price, no dates, no allowances. Twelve clauses feels like overkill right up until the day it's the only thing standing between you and a $30,000 argument."
Mitch Fraser, owner, Ontario Contracting Co.

What the law adds on top

Beyond the document itself, the Consumer Protection Act, 2002 (the operative statute; the 2023 Act has never been proclaimed into force) layers on the 10-day cooling-off period for in-home direct agreements under s. 43(1), the 10%-over-estimate cap under s. 10(1), refund timelines, and one-year cancellation for misrepresentation, all covered in the parent rights hub. The CHBA's Homeowner's Guide to Renovation Contracts uses substantially this same structure; ours tracks it deliberately.

A contractor who resists any clause on this list is telling you which failure he's planning. Ours is the first document you see after the quote, unprompted.

The Ontario renovation contract, clause by clause

The 12 clauses

What the law adds on top

Want it done the way this guide describes?