Tenant screening is the highest-leverage half hour in residential leasing. It is also the point at which an informal process creates real legal exposure. The way to get both right is the same: decide your criteria in advance, apply them identically to everyone, and write down what you did.
Set written criteria before you advertise
Decide, in writing, what you require: income relative to rent, acceptable references, rental history, and what you will do about applicants without a credit file. Publish the criteria with the listing.
Criteria set in advance are objective. Criteria invented while looking at an applicant are not, and they are very difficult to defend.
What you may consider
Ability to pay the rent, verified through employment or income documentation. Rental history and landlord references. Credit history, with the applicant’s consent. Whether the number of occupants is reasonable for the unit. Whether the applicant meets the criteria you published.
What you may not consider
The Alberta Human Rights Act prohibits discrimination in tenancy on protected grounds, which include race, religious beliefs, colour, gender, gender identity and expression, physical and mental disability, age, ancestry, place of origin, marital status, source of income, family status and sexual orientation.
Two of those catch landlords out regularly. Source of income means you cannot refuse an applicant because their income comes from assistance, a pension or disability benefits rather than employment — you can assess the amount and its reliability, not its origin. Family status means you cannot refuse or restrict an applicant because they have children.
Keep your questions to the criteria. If a question does not go to the applicant’s ability to pay rent and care for the property, it does not belong in the conversation.
Verify properly
Call the references rather than reading the letters. Ask the previous landlord specific questions: dates of tenancy, rent amount, whether rent was paid on time, whether proper notice was given, whether they would rent to the person again. Confirm you are speaking to an actual landlord and not a friend — the land title and the tenancy agreement will usually tell you.
Handle consent and data carefully
Get written consent before pulling credit. Collect only what you need. Store applications securely and dispose of unsuccessful ones rather than keeping them indefinitely. The information on a rental application is exactly the material that causes harm if it is mishandled.
Document the decision
Record which criteria each applicant met and which they did not, and the date. If a decision is ever questioned, a contemporaneous note applying published criteria is the strongest thing you can have.
Then do the move-in inspection properly
An inspection report signed by both parties, with dated photographs, at move-in and move-out, is required practice under the Residential Tenancies Act and is the single best protection for the security deposit at the end.
This article is general information, not legal advice.
Talk it through with Rimrock
Rimrock Sales & Leasing works with owners, investors and tenants across Calgary, Edmonton and Lethbridge. Get in touch or call 403-910-4611.