No obligation to accept it, and if you do, it doesn't undo the N4 — only full payment of everything owed does that.
Short answer
No, a landlord isn't required to accept a partial rent payment. But if you do accept one, it does not automatically void an N4 or stop the eviction process: under the Board's own guideline, only paying "the rent that is in arrears and any additional rent that is due" in full, before the L1 application is filed, voids the notice. A partial payment just reduces what's still owing.
Interpretation Guideline 11 quotes the rule precisely: "The Form N4 is void if, before the landlord files an L1 Application with the LTB, the tenant pays the rent that is in arrears and any additional rent that is due as at the date of payment," under section 59(3) of the RTA. That's a full-payment test. A tenant who sends half the amount owing hasn't met it, and the notice stays live — the landlord can still proceed to file an L1 for whatever remains outstanding.
This surprises a lot of landlords who worry that touching a late partial payment "resets the clock" or signals they've forgiven the debt. It doesn't. Nothing in the guideline treats a partial payment as an acceptance of the tenancy on new terms; it simply reduces the arrears figure. What matters for the N4 to stay void is the all-or-nothing test above — partial performance isn't performance under section 59(3).
Rent is $1,800, due the 1st. The tenant misses it entirely; the landlord serves an N4 on the 3rd for the full $1,800. On the 10th the tenant sends $900 — half of what's owed. That $900 doesn't come close to satisfying section 59(3)'s "pays the rent that is in arrears" test, so the N4 stays valid and the landlord can still file an L1 once the notice period runs out, seeking whatever remains outstanding by that point rather than the original $1,800. The tenant would need to send the remaining balance in full, before the L1 is filed, to void the notice — a second partial payment doesn't get any closer on its own unless together they add up to everything owed.
Two mirror-image mistakes show up constantly. Landlords sometimes refuse a partial payment outright, worried that taking it weakens their case — unnecessary, since the guideline doesn't treat acceptance as a waiver. Tenants, meanwhile, sometimes believe that sending something, anything, before the hearing stops the eviction — it doesn't, unless it's everything owed. If arrears are the issue, the practical path is the same one covered in the full arrears-to-order timeline: the notice period, the L1 filing, and how long the whole process actually runs.
A 30-minute call is enough to tell you whether AI pays for itself here.
