Almost every expensive tenancy starts the same way: a screening step that got skipped. Maybe the unit had been empty a while. Maybe the applicant seemed nice. Maybe the reference “didn’t pick up” and it slid.

Screening is the single highest-value task in this entire business — and in Ontario it comes with legal rules of its own. Here’s how to do it properly.

This is general information, not legal advice.

What you CAN look at

Ontario landlords are entitled to assess an application on legitimate business grounds:

  • Credit history. A credit check (with the applicant’s consent) shows how they’ve handled obligations — patterns matter more than the score itself.
  • Employment and income. Confirm where they work and that the income is real. Call the employer; a pay stub plus a live confirmation beats either alone.
  • Rental history. Where have they lived, for how long, and how did those tenancies end?
  • References. Speak to the previous landlord, not just the current one. A current landlord eager to lose a bad tenant is not a neutral source; the previous one has nothing to gain by fudging.

What you CAN’T do

The Ontario Human Rights Code applies to housing, full stop. You cannot screen on protected grounds — including family status (kids), receipt of public assistance, ethnicity, religion, age, disability, and others. Practical implications:

  • Don’t write ads like “suits working professional” or “no kids” — both are discriminatory framing.
  • Don’t apply different standards to different applicants. The same checks, the same way, every time — consistency is both your legal protection and your best process.
  • Income can be verified, but be careful with rigid income-ratio cutoffs applied mechanically; they’ve been found discriminatory in some cases. Look at the whole picture.

A discrimination complaint is slower, costlier, and more stressful than any vacancy. Clean process protects you twice: better tenants in, no complaints behind.

The red flags experience teaches

After screening a lot of applicants, patterns emerge:

  • Pressure to skip steps. “I can pay six months up front, can we skip the credit check?” Prepaid rent is not a substitute for screening — it’s sometimes a way past it.
  • A story that shifts. Small inconsistencies between the application, the documents, and the conversation are worth pulling on.
  • Unreachable references that stay unreachable. One missed call is life; three is a pattern.
  • Urgency without a reason. Most genuine moves have timelines. “I need to move in this weekend” deserves a friendly question: why?

None of these is disqualifying alone — they’re prompts to verify harder, consistently and fairly.

Why this is central to everything else

A properly screened tenant makes every other part of ownership easier: rent arrives, the property is cared for, notices never need serving. A poorly screened one turns into our article on what to do when a tenant stops paying rent — a process you’d rather read about than live.

At Ben Brewer Homes, screening is built in: credit, employment and income, rental history, and references, applied consistently and in full compliance with the Human Rights Code — and finding you that tenant is included in the management fee, with no finder’s fee.

Rather never screen an applicant yourself again? Get a no-obligation quote or call 519-385-5494.