As with most things, how to rent a house in Canada comes with its quirks.
When we moved to Canada from the UK in 2019, top of our priority list was obviously finding somewhere to live.
Channelling what we were confused about on how to rent a house when we first moved to Canada, and everything we’ve subsequently learned, this article will cover everything you need to know about how to rent a house in Canada for the first time.
How to find a house to rent in Canada
Obviously before you can rent a home in Canada you need to actually find the house you want to rent.
For us, the easiest way to do this was through home rental websites like realtor.ca. Websites like that combine home rental listings from across various rental agencies so you can search in one place. You can draw areas on the map where you want to focus your search and add filters to narrow your search.
We had tried going into realtor offices and having them help find properties for us to rent, but we actually didn’t find them much help. Most of the time they’d just search the same database as you can search yourself at home on one of the many big property search websites.
If you’re moving to Canada and don’t know the area you’re moving to well, I would recommend holding off on agreeing a long term lease for a home until after you’ve arrived in your new home town.
When we moved to Canada we rented a place for six weeks when we first arrived so that we could figure out the areas we liked before committing to a long term lease. We just used Airbnb to find the place for the first six weeks.
Our Experience: how to rent a house in Canada step by step process
Once we’d found a few properties we were interested in on property search websites (as above), we reached out to the selling agents through the details on the website.
Every property we contacted was being marketed through a real estate brokerage, so all our interactions were with real estate agents or brokers (rather than interacting directly with the home owner/landlord).
The agents or brokers then arranged a time for us to see the properties.
Some of the more helpful agents also recommend other similar properties that we might like to see at the same time.
We saw about five properties before we found a property we liked.
Once we had found the place we liked, we told the agent verbally we were keen to rent it. There was then a couple of back and forth emails with the real estate agent to agree some outstanding questions from our side (nothing major).
Once our questions had been addressed, we then offered to rent the house for the stated rent (we didn’t have any bartering on the rental price or anything like that).
The next step in the house rental process, and the first formal step in the process, was the agent sent us through a “Rental Application” form to complete. This was a standard form from the Ontario Real Estate Association.
There was a whole bunch of information we needed to provide on the form as outlined below.
What is needed to rent a house in Canada?
To rent a house in Canada we had to provide the following information:
- Names and dates of birth
- Occupations and employer details
- Driver’s license number
- Previous places of residence and landlord details
- Financial obligations
- Two personal references. Just their contact details, we didn’t need to have letters from them.
Beyond the information in the “Rental Application” form, we also had to provide letters from our employers stating our salaries.
I didn’t have a job yet at this point in Canada so I provided a letter from my previous employer in the UK.
This is the information that the landlord used to decide whether to rent to us or not.
Happily he did and so the process continued…
From the information we’d provided, the agents then sent us through a form to sign called an “Agreement to Lease”. Again this was a standard form from the Ontario Real Estate Association.
It outlined the particulars of the agreement including things like, rent, deposit (which I’ll cover shortly) and what utilities were included in the rent (for us, no utilities were).
Our experience: house rental deposit
In terms of the home rental deposit, we had to pay the first and last month’s rent up front (plus a few extra days to bring us into step with paying rent on the first of every month).
What that means is that you pay the first month’s rent and the last month’s rent in advance. So we didn’t pay anything additional the first month we lived in the house and we won’t pay anything for the last month we live here. So the deposit is more a pre-payment in my eyes rather than a deposit. This is different to what I’d been used to in the UK.
We had to pay this deposit by cheque to the home brokerage company who’d listed the house, and they hold the deposit in trust. We did not pay the deposit to the landlord.
We had to pay the deposit before the agent would move on to the final stage of the process which is where you actually sign the final lease for the property.
The deposit had to be paid within 24 hour of us signing the “Rental Agreement” form.
If for whatever reason the rental agreement was not accepted then the deposit would be returned to us.
Once we’d paid the deposit we were sent though the final “Residential Tenancy Agreement” (the “Standard Form of Lease”). This was a standard Ontario provincial form and basically just said all the same stuff as the previous forms but in the format of the standard form.
Once we’d signed the lease, the agent put us in contact with the landlord through email. This was the first time we’d had any contact with the landlord – everything else had been through the rental agent.
We then arranged with the landlord how we would get the keys and other such logistics.
As a side point when I’ve mentioned signing forms etc. in the process above, it was all done electronically through an electronic-signing website/tool.
And that was it, we had then rented a house in Canada for the first time.
How do rental deposits work in Canada?
How much of a deposit you can be required to pay to secure your rental house varies by province and territory.
I’ve outlined our experience of the home rental deposit process above. But generally speaking you can’t be required to pay more than one month’s rent as a deposit.
But what this deposit is classed as, once again, varies by province. So for example in Ontario the deposit is the last month of the tenancy agreement rent. So as a tenant you won’t need to pay rent for the last month you live in the property.
But, in practice landlords can ask for the first month’s rent as a prepayment. So while technically that’s not defined as a deposit, it’s ultimately money coming out your account that is needed to secure the property and before you are actually living in the property.
How to pay rent in Canada
We pay our rent on the 1st of every month electronically using Interac e-Transfer.
But some people do pay rent by cheque every month.
Your lease should stipulate how and when the rent has to be paid.
Rent control in Canada
Some provinces/territories in Canada have rent control policies in place. By rent control I mean rules around how much a landlord can increase rent by and how often.
Rent control policies vary by province and territory but in general, the following regions of Canada have some sort of tangible rent control policies in place:
- British Columbia
- Manitoba
- Ontario
- Quebec
- Prince Edward Island
- Yukon
Generally speaking, most of these regions have a board which sets a percentage limit by how much a landlord can raise rents every year. The landlord can then only raise the rent by up to that percentage amount and generally only once a year.
If the landlord wants to raise the rent by more than the limit set, they need to apply to the board for an exception. Exceptions may be given for things like if the landlord has made significant upgrades to the property.
But to reiterate, rent control policies do vary by region. For example in Ontario rent control only applies to older properties (so rent control does not apply to homes that have been occupied for the first time after November 15, 2018).
So you should check the specifics of the region of Canada you are going to be renting in to find out exactly what rent control policies are in place.
How much is house rent in Canada?
How much house rent costs in Canada varies massively depending on where you will be living.
You can check out this article which gives you average home rental costs in various Canadian cities and towns.
So that’s our experience of renting a house in Canada. I hope you found it useful.
Please drop me a comment below on anything else you’d like me to include.