How to Legally Run a Credit Check on Tenants in Ontario
Renting out a property in London, Ontario — or anywhere in the province — means making one of the most consequential decisions of your year: choosing who lives there. A credit check is one of the most reliable tools you have. But Ontario landlords who get this step wrong face real legal exposure, from Human Rights Code complaints to privacy violations under PIPEDA.
This guide walks you through how to run a credit check properly, what you're allowed to ask for, what you're not, and how to interpret what you find.
Why Credit Checks Matter (But Aren't the Whole Picture)
A credit check gives you a snapshot of how an applicant has historically managed their financial obligations — credit cards, car loans, lines of credit, prior utilities in their name. It won't tell you whether someone will be a respectful neighbour or return the unit in good condition, but it's one of the clearest signals of whether rent is likely to arrive on time.
That said, a credit report is one data point among several. Used well, it supplements — it doesn't replace — income verification, references, and your gut read from a showing. If you're newer to this process, our first-time landlord tips for London Ontario covers the full screening workflow in context.
Step 1: Get Written Consent Before You Pull Anything
This is the non-negotiable starting point. Under Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), you must have the applicant's informed, written consent before you collect or access their credit information.
In practice, this means including a consent clause on your rental application form. Something like:
"By signing this application, I authorize [Landlord Name] to obtain a credit report from a credit bureau as part of the tenancy application process."
The applicant signs and dates it. You keep a copy. Do not pull a credit check on anyone who hasn't signed that consent — even if they've verbally agreed. Verbal consent is not sufficient under PIPEDA, and it won't protect you if a complaint is filed.
Most landlord-friendly application forms in Ontario already include this language. If yours doesn't, add it before your next showing.
Step 2: What Information You Can Request
Your application form can ask for:
- Full legal name
- Date of birth (for identity matching purposes)
- Current and previous addresses (last 2–3 years)
- Current employer and contact information
- References (personal and previous landlords)
What You Cannot Demand: The SIN Question
Here's where many landlords get tripped up. You cannot require an applicant to provide their Social Insurance Number (SIN) as a condition of the application.
Credit bureaus use date of birth and address history to locate a person's file — a SIN is not required to pull a report through consumer-landlord platforms like Equifax's MyMarket or Landlord Credit Bureau. Demanding a SIN creates privacy risk for the applicant and has no legal basis in the tenancy application context. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada has been clear that SIN collection should be limited strictly to situations where it is legally required (payroll, tax filing, etc.).
If an applicant offers their SIN voluntarily, you can note it, but do not make it a requirement.
Step 3: Which Credit Bureau or Service to Use
Ontario landlords have a few practical options:
Equifax MyMarket / Equifax Connect Equifax offers a landlord-facing product that lets you request consent-based reports directly from applicants. The applicant receives a link, completes the pull themselves, and shares the report with you. This is increasingly the cleanest approach because the applicant initiates the pull — no "hard inquiry" hit to their score, and the consent trail is built in.
TransUnion SmartMove / Rental Check Similar flow to Equifax's landlord product. The applicant gets an invite link, pulls their own report, and shares it. TransUnion's product packages the credit report with an eviction history check and an income estimate, which some landlords find useful.
Landlord Credit Bureau (LCB) A Canadian service that lets landlords report tenant payment history and pull reports on applicants who have an existing LCB file. Coverage is thinner than Equifax or TransUnion but growing, and it's specifically built for the landlord-tenant context.
Applicant-Pulled Reports You can also simply ask applicants to pull their own free annual credit report (available from both Equifax and TransUnion) and provide you a copy. This is the lowest-friction option and avoids any inquiry issues entirely. The trade-off is that you're relying on the applicant to provide the genuine document — though fabricating a credit report is not something most people attempt.
For most smaller landlords managing properties in London, St. Thomas, or Strathroy, the applicant-initiated pull through Equifax or TransUnion's landlord platform is the cleanest and most defensible approach.
Step 4: Reading the Report — What to Look For
Credit scores in Canada typically range from 300 to 900. General benchmarks:
- 760+ — Excellent. Low-risk indicator.
- 700–759 — Good. Standard approval range.
- 650–699 — Fair. Worth a closer look at the details.
- Below 650 — Higher risk. Look hard at the specifics.
But the number alone is less important than what's driving it. A 640 score from a young applicant with two years of credit history is very different from a 640 on someone with a decade of missed payments and a prior collection.
Key items to examine:
Collections and charge-offs — Outstanding debts that went to collections are a meaningful red flag, especially if recent. One medical collection from five years ago is different from three accounts in collections from the past two years.
Rental-specific collections — If a prior landlord submitted an unpaid rent balance to collections, that will appear here. This is significant.
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Payment history — Look for patterns, not isolated incidents. One missed payment in a stretch of on-time payments may be an anomaly. Consistent "30-60 days late" markings across multiple accounts suggest a habit.
Credit utilization — Applicants maxed out on every card and line of credit may be under financial stress, even if they haven't missed payments yet.
Bankruptcies or consumer proposals — These appear on a credit file for 6–7 years post-discharge. A discharged bankruptcy from five years ago, with clean history since, is less concerning than an active consumer proposal.
Thin-File Applicants and Your Human Rights Code Obligations
This is the section that surprises many landlords. Ontario's Human Rights Code prohibits discrimination in housing based on protected grounds — and some of those grounds intersect directly with credit history.
A thin-file applicant is someone with little or no credit history. This is common among:
- Recent immigrants or newcomers to Canada
- Young adults with limited credit history
- People who've previously operated on a cash-only basis
Under the Human Rights Code, you cannot automatically reject an applicant solely because they have no credit file if that absence of credit history is connected to a protected characteristic (such as place of origin or receipt of social assistance). In practice, this means you need to look at the full picture when a credit report comes back thin.
Alternative documentation a thin-file applicant might offer: proof of income (employment letter, recent pay stubs, T4s), bank statements showing savings and consistent deposits, or a co-signor with established credit. Refusing to consider any of this and simply rejecting on "no credit score" is a defensible position only if you apply the same standard consistently to all applicants — and even then, you may face a Human Rights Tribunal inquiry if a protected-class applicant files a complaint.
The safest approach: document your criteria in advance, apply them consistently, and consider alternative evidence when credit history is absent.
Our tenant screening red flags guide covers the broader set of warning signs to watch for across the whole application, including income ratios, reference checks, and application inconsistencies.
Step 5: Store and Delete Credit Information Responsibly
PIPEDA doesn't just govern collection — it governs what you do with personal information afterward.
Store securely. Credit reports contain sensitive personal data. Don't leave printed reports in a filing cabinet anyone can access. If you're storing digitally, use password protection at minimum.
Use it only for the purpose stated. You collected the report to evaluate a tenancy application. You cannot use that information for other purposes or share it with third parties.
Delete it when the purpose is complete. Once you've made your decision — whether you approve or decline the applicant — retain the report only as long as reasonably necessary. For declined applicants, most privacy practitioners suggest deleting or securely destroying the report within 30–90 days of the decision. For approved tenants, retain it through the tenancy as part of your rental file, then destroy it after the tenancy ends.
Putting It Into a Decision
A credit check informs your decision — it doesn't make it for you. Think of it as one pillar of a three-part screen: financial (credit + income verification), character (references + landlord calls), and practical (employment stability, reason for moving).
When everything aligns — clean credit, income at 35–40x the monthly rent, solid references — you move forward with confidence. When something's off in one area, look harder at the others before deciding. At Prospera Properties, our tenant screening process combines all three of these pillars, which is one reason our managed portfolios see very low arrears rates.
Pair the credit check step with a proper move-in inspection and a solid lease, and you've built a foundation that protects your investment from day one.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I charge an applicant for the cost of a credit check? No. Under Ontario's Residential Tenancies Act, landlords cannot charge any fees in connection with a rental application, including credit check fees. The cost of running any applicant screening is yours to absorb.
Can I reject a tenant based solely on a low credit score? You can decline an applicant for legitimate, non-discriminatory reasons — including a credit history that doesn't meet your published criteria. However, blanket rejection of anyone below a specific score, without considering context, can become problematic if it disproportionately impacts protected groups. Document your criteria and apply them consistently.
What if the applicant refuses to consent to a credit check? You can decline to proceed with the application. Consent is required for you to pull the report, and an applicant is within their rights to refuse — just as you're within your rights to require it as a condition of consideration. You cannot force the check, but you don't have to approve an applicant who won't participate in your screening process.
Does pulling a credit check hurt the applicant's score? Landlord credit checks are typically "soft inquiries" when run through landlord-facing platforms or when the applicant pulls their own report. Soft inquiries do not affect credit scores. Only "hard inquiries" (usually tied to credit applications like mortgages or car loans) affect the score, and most tenant screening tools are specifically structured to avoid hard pulls.
How long does a bankruptcy stay on a credit report in Ontario? A first bankruptcy stays on a Canadian credit report for 6 years from the date of discharge. A second bankruptcy remains for 14 years. A consumer proposal stays for 3 years from the date it's fully paid, or 6 years from the date it was filed — whichever comes first.
Ready to Hand Off Tenant Screening Entirely?
Running thorough credit checks, verifying income, calling references, and doing it all consistently across multiple applicants takes time — especially if you're managing more than one property. Prospera Properties handles the full tenant screening process for landlords across London, St. Thomas, and Strathroy, using a documented, legally sound process designed to find reliable tenants while keeping you on the right side of the Human Rights Code and PIPEDA.
If you'd rather spend your time on what matters and leave the screening to professionals who do it every day, get in touch with us here or visit our landlord services page to see how we can help.