Is a standard lease required in New Brunswick?
Yes. New Brunswick uses a standardized Residential Lease for all types of tenancies, signed in two copies by the landlord and tenant. The standard form keeps the essential terms consistent and ties the tenancy to the rules in the Residential Tenancies Act.
Deposits are held by the Rentalsman, not the landlord
This is the part that surprises people. A security deposit can be up to one month's rent, but it is not kept by the landlord. It must be paid to the Office of the Rentalsman, which holds it for the duration of the tenancy. At the end, the landlord has seven days to file a claim against the deposit; if none is filed, the Rentalsman returns it to the tenant directly. The money never sits in the landlord's account.
What the lease cannot do
The Residential Tenancies Act governs every tenancy, and a lease term that conflicts with it has no effect. The standard lease is written around the Act, so using it is the simplest way to avoid an unenforceable clause that creates a dispute later.
Once a lease is signed, keeping it, the rent record, and the key dates in one place is what turns a later question into a lookup. See how Habyn handles lease management and rent tracking.