What you can ask on a rental application in Canada

A rental application should help you answer two questions about a household: will they pay the rent, and will they look after the home? You can ask about anything that helps with those, such as who will live there, where they’ve lived, their income and references. You can’t ask about things human rights laws protect, such as where someone was born, their religion, their family plans or their health.

This guide is for landlords and property managers renting homes in Canada, where these limits come from provincial human rights and privacy laws. If your homes are in the US, the same ideas apply, but fair housing law sets a different list of protected groups.

Most application forms weren’t written with those limits in mind. They were copied from somewhere else, added to over the years and never looked at again. So the most useful thing to do is take out the form you use today and go through it line by line. Here’s what to keep, what to cut and what to change.

The details differ by province. Ontario and British Columbia have the clearest guidance, and the same habits hold up well across the country.

Keep the questions that help you decide

These all help you judge whether a household can pay and has rented responsibly before:

• The name and contact details of each adult who’ll live in the home
• How many people will live there, including children, so you know the home suits the household
• Where they’ve lived for the last two years or so
• A previous landlord you can contact
• Their work and income, as one part of the picture
• One or two personal or professional references
• Consent to a credit check, if you run one
• Pets and smoking, where they affect the home or the building’s rules
• When they’d like to move in

Cut the questions that cross the line

Older forms often have a few questions that shouldn’t be there. Human rights laws in every province protect people from discrimination in housing. The exact lists vary, but they commonly include race, ancestry, place of origin, citizenship, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, marital status, family status and disability. Ontario also protects people receiving public assistance, and BC protects a lawful source of income.

So if your form asks any of these, take them out:

• Where someone was born, or their citizenship or immigration status
• Their age or date of birth for any purpose other than the credit check
• Whether they’re married, pregnant or planning a family
• About a disability, a medical condition or their health
• Their religion
• Whether their income comes from social assistance, a pension or disability support, unless you’re confirming it for a subsidized unit

The line is often about why you’re asking. “How many people will live here” is fine. “Do you have kids?” asked so you can steer families away from an upstairs unit is not.

Change how you use income

Income is the question most forms get wrong, not because they ask it but because of what happens next. Ontario’s regulations let a landlord ask for income information, a credit check, credit references and rental history. Income should be weighed together with the rest, and only used on its own when the applicant has nothing else to offer.

In practice, a strong history of paying $2,000 a month in rent says more than a ratio on paper. Turning someone down because rent would be 35 percent of their income, when they’ve paid that share on time for five years, is the kind of decision the Human Rights Commission says crosses the line. If your form or your process has a fixed rent to income cut off, that’s the thing to change.

Ask for less, and keep it safe

Once the questions are right, look at what the form asks people to hand over. Privacy laws across Canada say to collect only the personal information you need, for a reason the applicant would expect.

• Leave off the Social Insurance Number. Renting a home doesn’t require it, and a credit check works without it.
• Look at a piece of photo ID to confirm who you’re dealing with. You don’t need to keep a copy.
• Ask for proof of income, such as a recent pay stub or an employment letter, rather than months of bank statements.
• Decide how long you keep applications from people you didn’t rent to, and delete them when that time is up.

Use the new form the same way every time

A fair form only helps if every applicant gets it. Use the same form and the same checks for everyone, and write down why you chose who you chose. If anyone ever asks, you can show that you made the decision the same way for everyone.

An online application makes this easier, because everyone answers the same questions in the same order. With Nodus by Tuze, for example, each adult in the household fills out their own part from their own link, and credit and background reports can be ordered from the same screen.

If you start renting in another province or state, go through the form again there, since the protected groups and privacy rules change from place to place.