The various means available to the landlord
When a dwelling becomes available, either at the end of the lease or following a tenant's early departure, the majority of landlords make every effort to re-let the dwelling as soon as possible to avoid financial losses, which is understandable. On the other hand, their eagerness shouldn't cause them to sign a lease blindly with a prospective tenant without first taking precautions to look into the potential tenant's past history. Skipping this stage is very risky and ill-advised in Quebec in 2011.
Indeed, within the context of this selection process, you should remember that it is imperative to obtain as much information as possible on the candidate in order to know who they are, and to decide if he is a good candidate.
For this reason its important to first carry out checks on the candidate to know their payment history. If the report doesn't meet with your standards you can reject the candidate. In addition, to respect the laws governing of access to personal information, you must first obtain the candidate's written consent to proceed with a credit investigation. The Quebec Landlords Association suggests that landlords use its most recent consent form in order to avoid any problems regarding the candidate's consent. The bare minimum of information required to perform the investigation is the candidate's name, address and date of birth. You can obtain this by asking the person to show you a piece of identification with their photograph the first time you meet with them. You aren't required to keep any information from their identification.
Also, enquire about how the tenant behaved as a tenant in the past by asking for references from past landlords.. The references should be looked at as a whole along with other information, and not as a single source of information.
You can also verify their legal history to check if the candidate has had any judgement rendered against him for debt-related issues. This alone would justify the rejection of the candidate's application.
Failing to investigate one or more of these aspects could cause you to miss important details helpful in making an informed decision whether the candidate would make a good tenant.
Finally, if the candidate seems suitable to you, we suggest that you then ask them to pay the first month's rent well in advance of the start of the lease. If you do this you'll have a clear idea of his payment habits and his attitude towards paying the rent. It's is your right, so insist on it. Take time to write in the lease that advance payment the first month's rent is required. This clause will then become a condition of validity of the contract. If the tenant doesn't pay the first month in advance before the beginning of the lease, you can refuse them access to the dwelling and find another candidate.
Indeed, if the payment of the first month's rent is a condition for the lease to be valid, failure to respect this clause allows the owner to claim that the lease is not valid and deny the future tenant access.
In all the cases, it is essential not to sign the lease or to hand over the keys before investigating because you can't back-track.
There are several tools at your disposal to check the candidate's history, and using them will enable you to avoid numerous problems.
Certain situations may not be as clear as the one here, so we encourage you to consult a lawyer who can advise you how to make the best decision.
The APQ's investigation packages – Efficiency and peace of mind
The APQ's new in-depth investigation services allows Quebec Landlords Association members to access the most complete investigation reports on the market today. Our team checks the following points regarding your potential tenant:
- credit history
- employment history
- certification of past landlords used as references
- banking history
- civil and criminal court records
- Québec Rental Board records
All points are checked together and investigation of selected points is not available.
You can contact the APQ Investigation Service by telephone at 1-888-382-9670, or by fax at 1-866-382-9676, and through the following secure link: https://fichiers.apq.com/, from Monday to Friday from 8h30AM to midnight and on Saturday and Sunday from 9A.M. to 5 P.M.
The APQ Investigation Service is reliable, quick, secure and confidential.
The APQ saves back-up copies of the investigation documents for no additional charge, but it is your responsibility to keep the originals.