Tenant Screening in Ontario: A Landlord’s Guide To Picking Tenants

In Ontario, placing a tenant in your rental property is one of the highest-stakes business decisions you will make. With processing times at the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) stretching across several months for dispute resolutions, thorough upfront tenant screening is the best thing you can do to ensure a good tenant/landlord relationship.

Not only are bad tenants becoming more sophisticated, but good agents, and educated landlords, are becoming more sophisticated at detecting fraudulent documents.

Today, we’re going to discuss how to screen a tenant, how to verify their income, and what not to do.

1. Basic Information To Request From Tenants

It’s important to keep a consistent record of communication with all tenants. While it’s uncommon, sometimes scorned would-be tenants make complaints against agents or landlords for refusing their application, and then it’s up to you (and your agent, hopefully us), to show a clear record of our communication with the tenant. We also need a documented reason for declining the tenant, although, the reason doesn’t need to be shared with the tenant.

At a minimum, all tenants should provide:

• Employment letter (Or Notice Of Assessment for self-employed individuals)
• Valid government ID
• Full credit score from Equifax or TransUnion
• 2 recent paystubs
• Phone numbers and names for last two landlords, two personal references, and the number for HR at their company
• A signed rental application from the tenant giving you permission to review their credit info, and contact their references and place of employment.

Secondly, it’s always to discuss move-in dates, rental terms, smoking rules, whether the tenant has pets, as well as the number of occupants. The same questions must be asked for every tenant, the same goes for the documentation. Treat each tenant equally.

2. Detecting Document Fraud & Fake References

In recent years, there’s been a rapid increase in fake documents. In 2021/2022, when the rental market hit its peak, many desperate tenants started making fake documents to trick landlords into accepting them. The growing use of AI has also given fraudsters more tools to manufacture fake documents.

Many landlords are also moving to tenant-screening software like singlekey.ca. This software requires the tenant to log into their online banking, and it then verifies their identity and income against deposits made into their bank account. It also has its own credit score verification.

3. Human Rights Code Compliance And Tenant Screening

Most of us understand that discrimination based on protected grounds (race, family status, income level, age, disability, etc.) is illegal under the Ontario Human Rights Code. However, sometimes landlords skip the line between legal and illegal when it comes to critiquing tenant applications.

4. Landlords Are Considered Commercial Entities, Who Must Protect Tenant Information

Landlords are operating a business, and are treated like commercial entities. That means you must adhere to federal regulations when collecting sensitive information. It is your legal responsibility to protect any sensitive information that you receive from prospective tenants. If you reject a tenant, it’s best practice to delete their sensitive documents off your email and computer.

Like we mentioned above, you need written consent from the tenant before you can call their references. If you want to pull a separate credit check on your tenant, you would also need written permission from them to do so.

 

5. Screen Every Tenant Thoroughly, Even Doctors, Lawyers, and Business Owners

Keep your due diligence consistent. Don’t get excited by a tenant who claims to be a doctor or a lawyer. Sometimes the worst tenants come with flashy jobs, drive nice cars, and have excellent communication skills.

1. Collect Complete Applications: Don’t accept partial applications. It’s simple, just refuse to review documents until all the required paperwork is in-hand.
2. Run Direct Background Checks: Review Equifax/TransUnion credit checks and always check past court cases (Openroom and CanLII).
3. Audit Documentation: Verify payroll math, verify employment contact via google search, and audit property ownership for landlord references.
4. Evaluate Holistically: Review credit history, rental references, stability of income, and past landlord references.
5. Secure or Purge Files: Securely store approved tenant files in an encrypted folder and permanently purge records for applicants you declined.

 

6. Best Practices When Reviewing Tenant Applications

We’ve mentioned keeping your review process consistent regardless of the tenant. A second very important step is to document your decision on why you refused applicants. You do not have to legally tell a tenant why you refused them. But, if there was a human rights complaint against you, you want a documented reason somewhere to prove in court that your decision was not based on a protected discrimination class.

 

7. Red Flags When Screening Tenants In Ontario

• The quickest red-flag is incomplete, missing, or fraudulent documents.
• Inconsistent Employment stories. Sometimes tenants will state they have worked for longer at a company than they truly have, to hide gaps in employment.
• Fake landlord references.
• Creating unnecessary urgency. If someone tells you they need to move in within 2-3 days, or that they need to get the paperwork complete now because they are going on a trip in a few days, it’s usually because they are hiding something they don’t want you to find during your due diligence.
• Gaps in rental history. It’s not uncommon for tenants to move in with partners, parents, family etc., but ask questions when you see gaps in rental history. You want to know if there was an eviction, or a bad relationship with a landlord, which they are hiding.

 

Summary: Your 5-Step Landlord Screening Checklist

Tenant screening is not about trusting your gut or being dazzled by an applicant’s job title; it is a systematic, objective business process. To protect your property, maintain compliance with Ontario’s Human Rights Code, and defend yourself against potential complaints, follow this standardized checklist for all tenant screenings:

1. Require Complete Packages Upfront: Refuse to evaluate partial submissions. Collect a signed Ontario rental application (with explicit credit check/reference permission), proof of income (paystubs or NOAs), two landlord references, and government-issued photo ID. Never demand a Social Insurance Number (SIN).
2. Conduct Direct, Third-Party Checks: Review Equifax or TransUnion report, or utilize secure verification platforms like SingleKey. Always search the tenant’s names on public eviction databases like Openroom.ca and CanLII.
3. Audit for Fraud: Check the payroll math on paystubs, review PDF metadata for editing software tags, and verify that employment numbers match independent corporate registers or LinkedIn listings. Verify property ownership for previous landlord references.
4. Evaluate Holistically: Review income, credit score, payment history, and references as a complete picture. Avoid illegal “rent-to-income” percentage cutoffs, and do not reject applicants solely because they receive public assistance or lack a Canadian credit history. The application should be reviewed completely, and income can be one part of a reason why someone is declined, but you cannot say “I personally require all tenants to only spend 1/3rd of their income on rent or less” when the tenant can clearly afford it because they don’t have any other debts, cars, dependants etc, because it can be lead to a legal complaint.
5. Document & Purge: Document the non-discriminatory business reason for rejecting an application and keep it in your private business records. Securely store your tenant’s documents somewhere safe (not in your gmail), and purge declined applicant’s sensitive information from your records.